Irvine Councilmember Tammy Kim
Longtime Irvine resident and City Council watcher Alan Meyerson confirmed this week that he filed formal complaints with the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding two matters involving Councilmember Tammy Kim.
Kim, who is running for Mayor, has three campaign committees under her direct control, along with a fourth independent committee supporting her, Friends of Tammy Kim, which lists an address in Imperial Beach and has a treasurer linked to several extreme right-wing candidates in recent years.
The City of Irvine has limited individual donations to Council and Mayoral campaigns at $620 per person per election cycle. Although Kim is not a candidate for City Council, her Mayoral campaign’s website urges donors who have already given $620 to also donate to Kim’s Council campaign.
As community members became angry with Kim’s efforts to stifle public comments she disagrees with, they began circulating recall petitions.
Even though the recall is not on the November ballot (and Kim’s Council term ends this year), Kim set up an anti-recall fundraising committee under her direct control, making herself treasurer of that committee.
In addition to a $600 donation to her Mayoral committee, the union for the County’s firefighters — who Kim is supposed to be overseeing as Irvine’s paid representative on the OC Fire Authority — endorsed her Mayoral campaign and then turned on the firehose, pouring $150,000 into Kim’s anti-recall committee’s coffers. (That’s nearly 250 times the City’s individual political contribution limit.) The firefighters’ donation has already paid for at least four citywide mailers, which do not actually mention the recall, but instead tout Kim as “the firefighters’ choice.”
At last month’s Council meeting, Kim backed the union’s position by strongly opposing any discussion of the City establishing its own Irvine Fire Department, even though Irvine taxpayers are paying the OC Fire Authority $140 million annually, but only receiving $60 million in services.
At the September 10th Council meeting, Meyerson confronted Kim during public comments. “You’re trying to get around the rules and the law that everybody else is following but you’re not, “ Meyerson said. “It looks to me like you’ve learned very well how to raise money, that’s for sure. Whether it’s proper the way you’re raising money, that’s another issue. … I will be filing a complaint with the FPPC.” (This week, Meyerson confirmed that he had indeed sent a complaint to the FPPC.)
At that same September 10th Council meeting, Meyerson also highlighted Kim’s role in going around the City’s official bid procedures to steer a multi-million-dollar contract for electric vehicle (EV) chargers in the Great Park to a contractor (Casco Construction) and a subcontracting supplier, Noodoe. Kim pushed the Council to support Casco’s bid despite the City staff’s recommendation of two other top firms. She claimed the Casco/Noodoe proposal would make $2 million a year for the City and that Noodoe was Irvine-based and would make the chargers here, which would boost Irvine jobs.
Kim’s statements were false. Noodoe moved its headquarters to Houston at the same time Kim was steering the contract in their direction, and all of Noodoe’s manufacturing operations are in Taiwan. Also, the $2 million promise proved to be baseless. Revenue to the City from the chargers in the first half of 2024 was about $6,000, according to City officials.
Last month, Irvine Community News & Views reported that Noodoe CEO Jennifer Chang hosted an October 2023 fundraiser for Kim’s Mayoral campaign, shortly after the EV chargers had been installed in the Great Park.
Meyerson said he’s sent the information about the Noodoe deal and the subsequent fundraising ties to the FBI, requesting an investigation. We will keep readers updated as this story develops.
