After three-year search, Nixon library finally has new director: ex-Great Park CEO Michael Ellzey

A three-year search for a new leader of the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum has finally ended, just miles from the president’s birthplace.

Michael Ellzey, an assistant city manager for Irvine who oversees the development of the Great Park, will take over as director of the library, the National Archives has announced.

“I’m really looking forward to getting up there, to be honest with you,” said Ellzey, 62, who lives in Ladera Ranch. “I enjoy the area and I am so pleased to be able to join the library and work toward integrating the library and its programs into the Yorba Linda community.”

His new job comes as the Irvine City Council pumps $240,000 more into an ongoing audit of how $200 million was spent on the Orange County Great Park. The audit’s price tag is now at $1.32 million.

In sworn depositions as part of that audit, Ellzey, who started working on the Great Park in 2008, and others testified that consultants protected by then-Councilman Larry Agran often overcharged for work that had to be redone. The audit has been criticized by supporters of Agran as a political witch hunt and misuse of public funds for campaign purposes....