Irvine volunteers have been fanning out across the City — to City parks, school sites, college campuses, libraries, shopping centers and sporting events — gathering signatures on initiative and recall petitions.
The signature-gathering effort has been strong at UCI, where Shea and Carroll are especially unpopular — not just because of their anti-Veterans Cemetery records, but because of their anti-immigrant statements, and their stance on civil rights, human rights and environmental issues, as well.
For weeks, scores of Irvine volunteers have been circulating three official voter petitions: the “Build the Great Park Veterans Cemetery” initiative petition and two recall petitions. The recall petitions are aimed at Mayor Christina Shea and Councilman Michael Carroll.
Months ago, the Shea-Carroll duo, backed by developer FivePoint, managed to ignite a citywide Irvine voter revolt with their unpopular efforts to replace the long-planned Veterans Cemetery at the Great Park with office, commercial and industrial development.
An Open Letter
In an open letter to Irvine residents, Ed Pope, chair of the Build the Great Park Veterans Cemetery committee, put it this way: “After enduring five years of Christina Shea’s deliberate delays and her self-described ‘diversion’ schemes to defeat our long-planned Veterans Cemetery, Irvine citizens are finally gaining the upper hand in the fight to establish a beautiful Veterans Memorial Park & Cemetery as part of our Great Park.”
Initiative
Pope cited the Veterans Cemetery initiative, authored by Larry Agran, former Mayor and public interest attorney. If the initiative is adopted by Irvine voters, it will override any Council scheme to give control of the City-owned, 125-acre “ARDA” site at edge of the Great Park to developer FivePoint for commercial and industrial development. The initiative will further guarantee that the property can only be used for a State-built, State-operated Veterans Memorial Park and Cemetery.
Two Recalls
In his open letter, Pope further declared: “To ensure that the Veterans Cemetery actually gets built right away — with no more political games to sabotage the project — our committee to Build the Great Park Veterans Cemetery is endorsing and supporting the citywide effort to recall (unelected) Mayor Christina Shea and her hand-picked (unelected) Councilman Michael Carroll.”
To qualify the two recalls and the Veterans Cemetery initiative for the ballot later this year, petition circulators must gather nearly 15,000 Irvine voter signatures on each of the two recalls and the Veterans Cemetery initiative.
DO-IT-YOURSELF DEMOCRACY
Use your VOTER POWER, NOW!
Here are three things you can do, using the tools of Direct Democracy:
1. Sign all 3 petitions — the Veterans Cemetery initiative and the Shea and Carroll recall petitions. Where? At the University Park Library (4512 Sandburg Way) or Heritage Park Regional Library (14361 Yale Avenue), any Saturday or Sunday from 11am to 3pm.
2. You can download the recall petitions and instructions, and instantly become a signer and a circulator: RecallSheaAndCarroll.com
3. You can volunteer and donate at: BuildTheVeteransCemetery.org
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