Publisher’s Perspective: Tammy Kim Puts Her Own Financial Interests Ahead of Irvine Residents

Irvine Councilmember Tammy Kim

Since being elected to the Irvine City Council in 2020, Tammy Kim has made it her priority to advocate for those who will benefit her personally and politically.

Below are just four examples from the past year when Councilmember Kim worked to help herself financially rather than help Irvine residents.

Orange County Fire Authority
Tammy Kim is Irvine’s paid representative on the OC Fire Authority board, where she is supposed to be looking out for the interests of Irvine taxpayers. In June, Kim took a $150,000 political campaign contribution from the firefighters, which is nearly 250 times the legal contribution limit in Irvine … and clearly a conflict of interest. That campaign contribution appeared to pay off for the firefighters during the August 13th Council meeting when it was reported that Irvine taxpayers are being charged $140 million annually for the City’s membership in the OC Fire Authority but only receiving about $60 million in services. Tammy Kim forcefully opposed any discussion of the City ending its membership in the OC Fire Authority and establishing its own Irvine Fire Department, just as we established our own Irvine Police Department decades ago.

Massive Warehouse Projects
Tammy Kim has taken a number of political contributions from business executives, including the head of Business Affairs for Amazon. These businesses would financially benefit from massive warehouses being built in Irvine. (One of those warehouses is the size of five Costco stores!)  Last year, when Irvine’s Planning Commission requested that the Council place strict controls on building these mega-warehouses near Irvine neighborhoods, Tammy Kim voted NO! In fact, she said that massive warehouses add to the “vibrancy” of our community.

Orange County Power Authority
Tammy Kim is Irvine’s paid representative on the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) board, where she is supposed to be advocating on behalf of Irvine electricity customers. Instead, Kim voted to have Irvine customers pay the highest electricity rates in Orange County. She then gave herself (and her fellow board members) a 40% pay raise for serving on the OCPA board.

Tens of Thousands of Apartments & Housing Units
About 60% of Tammy Kim’s political contributions have come from out-of-town interests, including those connected to land developers and real estate firms. Earlier this month, when the Council discussed building tens of thousands of additional apartment units and houses — resulting in 200,000 more people and 100,000 more cars added to our Irvine streets every day — Tammy Kim voted YES.  Kim has made it clear that she wants to transform Irvine into a smaller-scaled downtown LA, which she sees as an urban model for us. What Kim doesn’t seem to understand is that most families who settle here in Irvine want to escape the gridlocked traffic, overcrowded schools, noise, and pollution that intense urbanization brings.

One final example. Candidates who run for local office set up a campaign committee to raise and spend money on their race.

In Irvine, candidates running for Mayor are prohibited from accepting more than $620. But, Tammy Kim doesn’t like to follow rules, so she has established four separate fundraising committees! Who does that? And, she’s brazenly urging donors who have “maxed out” to her Mayoral campaign to donate to her Council campaign — even though she is not running for Council.

As an elections attorney — who served as chair of an independent state agency in Illinois responsible for administering and enforcing campaign finance and election laws — I have seen a lot of schemes by corrupt politicians who want to get around campaign contribution limits. But this one takes the cake!

There are many good candidates running to become Irvine’s next Mayor. Tammy Kim is not one of them.