Author: ICNV Staff

Since taking office last December, Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan and her Council majority — Vice Mayor Tammy Kim and Councilmembers Anthony Kuo and Mike Carroll —  have downplayed the more than 1,000 complaints lodged by north Irvine residents regarding toxic and noxious emissions from the nearby All American Asphalt (AAA) plant.

Senator Min responded to the City in a remarkable letter — which was almost a legal brief — disputing claims by the Mayor and her Council majority that there was nothing the City of Irvine could do to help residents impacted by the asphalt plant. Min explained that “the City of Irvine possesses broad and sweeping authority to act immediately and decisively in addressing the problems created by the AAA plant.”

Isabela Lugo is just 15 years old and is already a self-published author, having recently released her first book: Illusions of the Desert.

Isabela says her love of writing (and reading) was sparked when she was 9 years old after reading her first Harry Potter book. Within a couple of chapters, she was totally immersed in the fantasy world … which led to her desire to create her own adventure book.

Irvine City Councilmember Larry Agran submitted a Memo to his Council colleagues, requesting that his resolution on clean energy be added to the next Council meeting. No one agreed to sign on to Agran’s request. Because of the Mayor’s “Rule of Two,” Agran’s resolution was not added to the agenda.

Earlier this year, the Council adopted an aspirational resolution, supporting the City’s commitment to reaching carbon neutrality by 2030. It’s unclear why the same Councilmembers now refuse to even discuss Agran’s resolution to help meet the City’s goal.

Just before midnight during the October 26th City Council meeting, Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan and her Council majority — Tammy Kim, Mike Carroll and Anthony Kuo — voted to rescind the City’s “Sunshine Ordinance,” which requires City Council meeting agendas to be made available to the public 12 days prior to Council meetings.

Rescinding a City ordinance requires two readings, so the item was supposed to receive its final vote at the November 9th City Council meeting. In a surprising turn of events, Irvine residents were apparently able to stop Khan, Kim, Kuo and Carroll from taking that second vote.