Council Passes 2025-2027 City Budget
On June 10th, the Irvine City Council passed a balanced two-year operations budget to guide some...
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Author: Roger Bloom
The City’s Lowest Wage Earners Get a Pay Raise
The Irvine City Council approved a “living wage” ordinance, setting wages for the lowest paid City employees and contract workers well above the state minimum wage.
The measure, approved during the Council’s June 3rd meeting, sets a minimum wage for the City’s part-time and seasonal workers at $20 per hour. Full-time employees will be paid a minimum hourly wage of $25.
These City minimums will also apply to employees of City contractors doing more than $200,000 annually in business with the City. The state’s minimum wage is currently $16.50 per hour.
“The basic question is what kind of workplace do we want to have?” said Mayor Larry Agran, who introduced the ordinance.
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A Conversation with Irvine’s City Librarian
Setting up a new library system is no walk in the park — or browse in the stacks. Just ask Julie Zeoli. As Irvine’s first City Librarian, Zeoli has been charged with managing the changeover of the City’s libraries from County to City control.
Zeoli has been doing everything from hiring staff to building a new computer and database system to planning new facilities in North Irvine and the Great Park — not forgetting to order some new books as well.
“Pretty much just movin’ and shakin’,” she says. How many librarians use that job description? Currently, she says, the focus is on August 4th. That’s when the Heritage Park and University Park libraries, now closed for renovation, will reopen as City libraries, no longer part of the Orange County Public Library system.
“We’re doing an interior refresh of both,” Zeoli says. “New furniture, new computers, new carpeting and paint, so there will be a physical transformation of those two buildings.”
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Betty Martinez Franco Joins the Irvine City Council
Betty Martinez Franco was sworn in as the Irvine City Council’s newest member on May 13th, and got a good taste of what she’s gotten herself into during the meeting that followed.
Martinez Franco addressed her new colleagues and the audience in the full Council Chamber, saying that she is very proud to be the first Latina and Mexican immigrant to be elected to the Council, but added, “I am not here to only represent one group or demographic. I am here for everyone.
She closed by saying, “I am ready to get to work, to collaborate with our Mayor and my fellow Councilmembers to build an Irvine where diversity is not just tolerated but celebrated, where equity is not just a promise but a practice, and where inclusion is not just a buzzword, it’s how we govern.”
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City Considering Plan to Convert Oak Creek Golf Course into New Residential Village
The Irvine City Council has given City staff the green light to continue talks with the Irvine Company and begin detailed studies of a plan to convert the Oak Creek Golf Course and adjacent properties into a 3,100-unit residential village that would include a new elementary school.
In addition to building a new school, the Irvine Company would provide an array of other public benefits — notably a unique and ambitious effort to create “instant affordability” in 200 existing apartment units throughout the City.
The action came on a 7-0 vote at the Council’s May 13th meeting, following three hours of staff reports, public comment, and Council discussion.
To read the full article, click here.
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