The IVC Arts Village is Now Open
There is a renaissance underway at Irvine Valley College (IVC) with the recent opening of the new...
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Councilmembers Kim & Treseder Shut Down City Council Meeting … Again
Yet another Irvine City Council meeting was cut short by the walkout of two Councilmembers opposed to hearing public comments regarding the violence in the Mideast.
This time, however, Councilmembers Tammy Kim and Kathleen Tresder bizarrely walked out to stymie discussion of two measures placed on the Council agenda by Treseder herself.
As has happened twice in the past two months, with Councilmmember Mike Carroll out sick, Mayor Farrah Khan had to adjourn the official Council meeting for lack of a quorum after Councilmembers Kim and Treseder abruptly left the meeting.
Mayor Khan and Vice Mayor Larry Agran, as they have done in the past, stayed on the dais for nearly 90 minutes listening to commenters who had waited all evening to speak, in an informal continuation of the meeting.
To read more, click here.
The Match-Up for Irvine Mayor
In addition to the new Council district races, which have yet to come into focus in the wake of the primary election, Irvine voters will weigh in on the one remaining citywide election in November, for Mayor. (Irvine’s current Mayor, Farrah Khan is terming out this year.)
The 2024 Mayoral race has been quietly underway for some time with two main candidates so far: Vice Mayor Larry Agran and Councilmember Tammy Kim.
Other candidates could enter the race — the filing deadline isn’t until August, more than four months from now. But Agran and Kim are likely to remain the leading contenders.
The two Mayoral candidates present a clear choice to the voters on many important City issues.
To review their voting records, click here.
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Irvine City Council Moves Forward with Great Park Amphitheater
The City Council has brought in a pair of heavy hitters to create the next generation of live...
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Irvine Celebrates the City’s 100th CERT Training Class
On March 20th, the latest crop of volunteer trainees graduated from the City’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program, capping 28 hours of instruction and hands-on work spanning eight sessions.
The ceremony is more than a turning point in the trainees’ lives. As the culmination of Irvine’s 100th CERT class, it marks a milestone in the City’s 25-year disaster preparedness effort.
“CERT is dedicated to engaging the whole community in disaster preparedness by educating and training its members to be self-sufficient during a disaster and to effectively assist others and their families,” said Christine Tully, emergency management program specialist in the Irvine Police Department (IPD) and the City’s point person for CERT. “Our vision is to make Irvine a resilient city, effectively prepared to recover following a disaster, through preparedness training, education, and community outreach.”
To read more, click here.
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Sacramento Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Repeal New Utility Tax
As we previously reported, a proposed new utility tax was snuck through the California State Legislature in just three days at the close of last year’s session with no public testimony.
If the Public Utilities Commission approves the tax as it currently stands, the monthly bills for millions of users who consume small amounts of electricity and solarized homeowners will go up while the bills of large consumers of electricity will go down.
After public backlash, a group of lawmakers in Sacramento has now introduced a bill to severely limit the new so-called “utility tax.”
To read more, click here.
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March 5th State Primary Election (Irvine Results)
Now that the results of the March 5th state primary election have come into focus, Irvine will be expanding the City Council to seven members and transitioning to district elections come November; State Senator Dave Min (D-Irvine) survived an onslaught of negative mailers and ads to become his party’s nominee for Congress; and current Representative Katie Porter (D-Irvine) will soon be out of a job.
As of March 14th, the Orange County Registrar of Voters has counted 670,614 ballots countywide, with an estimated 18,795 still to be counted.
Measure D on the Irvine ballot has been approved by voters, 60% to 40%. That means the Irvine City Council will be expanded from five to seven seats, with six Councilmembers elected from geographic districts across Irvine plus the Mayor, who will be elected citywide as the seventh member of the Council.
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Irvine City Council Explores Expanding the City’s Partnership with IUSD for School Bus Service
The Irvine City Council will reach out to the Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) to talk about...
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Vice Mayor Agran Hosts Information Session Regarding the State’s Proposed Utility Tax
Dozens of Irvine residents attended an information session organized by the office of Vice Mayor Larry Agran regarding a proposed change in how electricity is billed. The change would upend California’s decades-old commitment to encouraging clean energy and energy efficiency.
When implemented by the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC), the monthly bills of those who use little electricity — like apartment renters and residents in solarized homes — will go up while the bills of those who use large amounts of electricity will go down.
“A utility tax of $30 will increase bills for anyone who lives in an apartment, condo or small home, which is a problem,” said Cailey Underhill of the Solar Rights Alliance. Underhill pointed out that the new utility tax is not capped and could be raised at any time. Utility companies originally submitted a plan for a tax of up to $70 — about seven times the national average for a utility tax — and that $70 per month remains a target figure.
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Councilmember Tammy Kim & the Korean American Chamber of Commerce: Pay-to-Play Politics?
Last month, Councilmember Tammy Kim directed $5,000 of City funds to the Korean American Chamber of Commerce of Orange County (KACCOC) and sought another $50,000 in City funds for the organization, all after she received a maximum campaign donation from the Chamber’s president, who also hosted a fundraiser for Kim’s mayoral campaign.
The donation from KACCOC President Shang Il “Sean” Roh was received by Kim’s mayoral campaign in February, according to an official campaign financial report filed in July and signed by Councilmember Kim. In June, Roh hosted a fundraiser for Kim’s campaign that was attended by several current and former Korean American Chamber officials.
Three months later, Kim placed two items on the City Council agenda involving the Chamber. The first was a donation of $5,000 in Community Partnership Fund money to the KACCOC Foundation.
The second item Kim proposed was for the City to give $50,000 from federal COVID relief funds to the Chamber for a sponsorship at the World Korean Business Convention to be held in Anaheim and co-sponsored by the Chamber.
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