Author: Franklin J. Lunding

Through my decades of work as an attorney specializing in election law, I have unfortunately witnessed a few politicians who will say one thing to voters during a campaign and then do another thing once they are in office.

Call me old-fashioned, but I expect elected officials to follow-through on promises they make.

Last year, in the midst of his City Council election campaign, Councilman Mike Carroll violated Irvine City policy when he transferred tens of thousands of dollars — originally allocated for his Council staff — to instead cover the cost of promotional mailers he sent to Irvine residents.

This year, Mayor Farrah Khan — with the help of Councilmembers Anthony Kuo and Tammy Kim — made Carroll’s violation “go away” by changing the City policy Carroll had violated. Now, Khan, Kim and Carroll have doubled the office budget of each individual Councilmember while removing key restrictions and oversight on how they spend that money.

Last year, Farrah Khan campaigned for Mayor of Irvine, promising to bring transparency, ethics, and democratic values to City Hall.  In just the first few months in office, she’s broken those promises.

Every election cycle, candidates for City Council talk about how much they support our local veterans. Yet seven long years after the City agreed to donate the ARDA site for a beautiful State-built and State-operated Veterans Memorial Park & Cemetery, construction still has not begun.