(Left to Right): Mayor-elect Farrah Khan, Council-elect Larry Agran and Tammy Kim.
On Tuesday (November 3rd), Irvine voters elected Councilwoman Farrah Khan to replace Christina Shea as Irvine’s Mayor. Khan received 47% of the vote while Shea received 36%.
Although there are still ballots to be counted, Irvine voters appear to have returned former Mayor Larry Agran to the City Council, and elected a new Councilmember — Tammy Kim. Kim currently serves as an Irvine City Finance Commissioner.
Irvine Community News & Views endorsed Khan for Mayor and Agran and Kim for City Council, along with Lauren Johnson-Norris. A major factor in that endorsement was the fact that all four candidates ran “clean money” campaigns, refusing to accept financial help from big developers and corporate special interest groups. (Lauren Johnson-Norris is currently in fourth place.)
For more than a decade, big developers have poured millions of dollars into Irvine City Council races, hand-picking candidates who will rubber-stamp massive development projects.
This election was no different. Big developers funneled more than $600,000 in “dark money” to support appointed Mayor Shea and appointed Councilman Mike Carroll, and to fund vicious attack ads against Agran and Kim. Although the developer-funded attack ads against Agran and Kim didn’t pay off, it appears that developers were able to get Carroll elected to the Council. (Carroll raised only $21,000 from individual contributors but received more than $300,000 in “dark money” support from big developers and special interests in Irvine and Los Angeles.)
As promised in his campaign, Agran intends to introduce two priority action Resolutions at the very first business meeting of the new Council, scheduled for January 12, 2021. The first Resolution outlines steps for establishing a comprehensive, science-based plan to get COVID-19 under control in Irvine. The second Resolution includes a plan for immediately moving forward with construction of our long-promised Veterans Memorial Park & Cemetery on the ARDA site at the Great Park.
To read the Resolutions, click here.
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