Irvine City Council Establishes a Permanent Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee
At the January 11th Irvine City Council meeting, the Council voted to make the temporary...
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All American Asphalt Plant in North Irvine Receives Sixth Notice of Violation
In January, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) issued two new Notice of Violations (NOV) to the All American Asphalt (AAA) plant in north Irvine, for causing odors that impacted the public.
There have now been six NOVs issued to the AAA plant in the past two years.
Since 2019, there have been more than 1,200 complaints filed against the AAA plant, and hundreds of north Irvine families continue to express concerns regarding the health risks associated with living so close to a plant that emits known human carcinogens.
Two community groups — Non-Toxic Neighborhoods and the Stop Toxic Asphalt Pollutants in Irvine — have been leading the charge advocating on behalf of the affected residents.
On the City side, former Irvine Mayor and current Councilmember Larry Agran has repeatedly called for the City of Irvine to take bold legal action to shut the asphalt plant down in Irvine and relocate it to a safer, remote location.
Irvine Resident Melody Chang Designs First Public Health Patch Program for Girl Scouts
Irvine resident, Melody Change — a high school senior at the Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana and Girl Scout Ambassador — has been recognized for creating the first public health patch program for Girl Scouts through her work designing a Girl Scout Gold Award project: Let’s Learn About Public Health.
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Orange County Power Authority Board Votes to Set Residential Electricity Rates and Approves Expensive Benefits Plan for CEO
Once the OC Power Authority (OCPA) launches later this year, Irvine businesses and residents will be transferred from their current provider of electricity, Southern California Edison, and automatically enrolled in the new OCPA plan.
When that happens, residential customers will pay between $4.25 and $6.38 per month more than they currently pay for energy provided by SCE.
The cities of Irvine, Huntington Beach, Fullerton and Buena Park are part of the OCPA, but only Irvine has agreed to fund the agency through 2022. In fact, $7.7 million of Irvine taxpayer money has already been advanced to the OCPA.
This week, the OCPA board approved an executive employee benefits program that provides 10 weeks of paid leave and a $500/month auto stipend to the agency’s CEO Brian Probolsky — a longtime political operative in County government with no energy sector experience, who was hired to run the Power Authority at an annual salary of $239,000.
Another Horrible Week in Irvine as COVID-19 Cases Continue to Surge
During the second week in January, the Orange County Health Care Agency reported 55,815 new cases of COVID-19 among our County’s residents.
The number of hospitalizations also sharply increased, with 1,154 hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients across the County. That is an increase of 379 since this time a week ago. And, we lost another 15 Orange County residents in the past week.
Here in Irvine, there have been 5,555 new cases of COVID-19 reported among our Irvine neighbors this past week.
State Senator Dave Min Sends Strong Letter to Irvine’s Mayor and City Council Regarding the All American Asphalt Plant
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.
On November 8th, the City sent a letter to California State Senator and former UCI Law Professor Dave Min requesting legislative help from Sacramento.
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.”
Irvine City Councilmember Larry Agran Holds Press Event on His Proposed Veterans Memorial Park on the ARDA Site
The Great Park ARDA site makes up about 10% of the land that was transferred to the City of Irvine from the U.S. Government when the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station was decommissioned after nearly 60 years of operations.
The ARDA site is also a very valuable piece of land that developer FivePoint has long coveted for massive office, industrial, and commercial projects.
Councilmember Larry Agran has a plan for how the City can preserve the ARDA site forever … and add a beautiful new amenity to the Great Park. Agran is proposing that the City begin building a Veterans Memorial Park on the ARDA site — a vast park filled with trees, trails, and memorial gardens that honor our City’s rich military history and our veterans.
Meet Irvine Teen Author Isabela Lugo
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 has grown up here in Irvine, attending Woodbury Elementary School and Jeffrey Trail Middle School. Since the start of the pandemic, Isabela has been enrolled at Irvine Virtual Academy where she is now in tenth grade.
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.
More Problems for Irvine at the Orange County Power Authority
The Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) was established last year — by the previous City Council — promising to deliver to residents and businesses in Irvine and other Orange County cities cleaner, less expensive electricity than what they currently purchase from Southern California Edison (SCE).
Irvine is funding the Power Authority through 2022. So far, the City has advanced more than $7.5 million of Irvine taxpayer money to the OCPA, with no oversight by the current City Council.
When the Power Authority officially launches — scheduled for about a year from now —Irvine residents will automatically be transferred from their current provider of electricity (SCE) and enrolled in OCPA. On December 14th, the City Council will be asked to vote on what energy tier Irvine residents will be enrolled in, even though OCPA has not provided the public with the associated costs for each energy tier.
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Citizen Activism Wins!
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.
If the ordinance is rescinded, residents would have just 3 days to review Council agendas, which is the bare minimum notice allowed, according to the laws of the State of California.
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.
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