Author: Roger Bloom

In December 2021, three members of the Irvine City Council — Tammy Kim, Mike Carroll and Anthony Kuo — made an unusual push to award Casco Construction a multi-million-dollar contract to install, maintain and operate 288 EV charging stations in five large parking lots at the Great Park, despite the fact that two other firms had been recommended to the Council by City staff following a formal bid process.

The City was promised $2 million in annual revenue from those charging stations. But, the charging stations were not included in the recent budget because the annual revenue to the City is actually “near zero,” according to Irvine City Manager Oliver Chi. Usage has also been negligible, Chi said.

The neighbors have received a letter letting them know of a plan to replace nine office buildings within the Von Karman Corporate Center — on the northeast corner of Von Karman and Alton Parkway close to their homes — with a 541,000-square-foot warehouse complex. (That’s about the size of four Costco stores under one roof.)

One of the affected residents who received the letter, Valer Cupsa, told KABC-TV News that the mega-warehouse would drastically change the aesthetics of the neighborhood.

Those programs include: additional school resource officers and school nurses; an expansion of the successful school bus program that was launched last year for University High students living in Quail Hill; support for child care and after-school programs; and a raise for City workers making less than $20 per hour.

After praising Agran’s proposal in June and voting to support it, at the July 9th meeting Councilmember Tammy Kim reversed her support, characterized Agran’s proposal in apocalyptic terms as irresponsible, and insisted that the Council vote to keep the Contingency Fund unchanged.