The often-heated discussion came just one week after Huntington Beach voted to withdraw from the beleaguered agency, and the other two remaining member cities, Buena Park and Fullerton, announced plans to consider a vote to also withdraw from OCPA.

Since rejoining the City Council in late 2020, Councilmember Larry Agran has called out OCPA for its corruption, broken promises, and price-gouging of Irvine electricity ratepayers. Councilmember Carroll, who served as Chair of OCPA until this year, agreed with Agran that it’s time for Irvine to pull the plug on OCPA.

The City of Irvine, like hundreds of cities and school districts across California, is pursuing a shift in how voters elect members of the City Council.

Currently, Irvine voters elect the Mayor and four City Councilmembers. Under the proposed district election system, the Council would be expanded to seven members — a Mayor elected at-large and six Councilmembers, each elected from a separate voting district.

If approved by Irvine voters in March 2024, the new district election system would go into effect in time for the November 2024 election.

To help protect nearby residents, Councilmember Larry Agran brought forward an ordinance that would amend the City’s zoning code to limit warehouse hours of operation and the amount of noise or truck traffic it generates.

Mayor Khan and Councilmembers Kim and Carroll voted against Agran’s proposed ordinance, while Councilmember Treseder supported it.

The Huntington Beach representative on the OCPA board supported the move, calling the agency “a total disaster and doomed for failure.”

Meanwhile, Irvine City Councilmembers Larry Agran and Mike Carroll have placed an item on the May 23rd City Council agenda to discuss Irvine’s continued involvement with OCPA.

Since rejoining the City Council in late 2020, Agran has called out OCPA for its corruption, broken promises, and price-gouging of Irvine electricity ratepayers.

Many residents were shocked when Mayor Farrah Khan and Councilmembers Tammy Kim and Mike Carroll recently voted against a proposed zoning ordinance to rein-in a surge of warehouse construction projects in the Irvine Business Complex (IBC) and Spectrum areas.

Councilmember Larry Agran proposed an ordinance, recommended by the Planning Commission, that would protect residents by amending the City’s zoning code to limit warehouse hours of operation and the amount of noise or truck traffic it generates.

This marks a hard-won victory for Irvine Councilmember Larry Agran, veterans and their families, and the wider Irvine community that has endured a decade-long fight that has had more ups and downs than the Great Park Balloon.

Back in 2014, he won unanimous Council support for a State-funded Veterans Memorial Park to be built on the so-called “ARDA” site at the northern edge of the Great Park.

Soon after that vote, the project was turned into a political football when mega-developer FivePoint decided they wanted the valuable City-owned ARDA site for their own lucrative office, industrial, and residential development projects.