• Categories

        • Our Authors

        • Recent Posts

        • Resources

    • Archived Posts

    • Archived Newspapers

  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • DONATE

Select Page

Tammy Kim Accused of Lying About Her Irvine Residency

by

Tammy Kim’s Facebook post dated 12/24/2024 signing District 5 election papers

Former Irvine City Councilmember Tammy Kim has been accused of lying about being a resident of Irvine’s Council District 5 in order to run in the April 15th special election to fill that district’s Council seat. The Orange County Superior Court is now being asked to keep her name off the ballot.

On January 22nd, an attorney for Ron Scolesdang — who, like Kim, ran for Mayor of Irvine in last year’s municipal election, losing to Mayor Larry Agran — filed a formal objection to Kim’s candidacy with the City Clerk’s Office. The special election was called when Agran vacated the Council seat to become Mayor in December 2024. (Scolesdang is a resident of District 5 but is not running in the special election.)

“We write to formally demand that the City of Irvine decline to accept (and reject) any nomination papers filed by Tammy Kim,” wrote attorney Brian Hildreth of Bell McAndrews & Hiltachk LLP, a Sacramento firm specializing in election and campaign law. “Her fake residence in District 5 fails to establish her candidacy in that District and she is therefore barred from running for this special election.”

The letter noted that registering to vote at a false address is a crime, and voting while registered at a false address, which it alleges Kim did in November, is a separate crime. The letter was cc’d to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Santa Ana.

On January 28th, Scolesdang petitioned the Orange County Superior Court to order the Irvine City Clerk and the Orange County Registrar of Voters to remove Kim’s name from the ballot for the upcoming election. He noted that the court needs to act quickly because the ballot is scheduled to go to the printer on February 7th. Scolesdang’s petition also asked the court to order the Orange County Registrar to cancel Kim’s voter registration.

Kim registered to vote at an address in District 5 in May 2024. Curiously, Kim told the Orange County Register this month that she ran for Mayor because there was no Council election in District 5 last year. However, Kim announced her candidacy for Mayor in January 2023, more than a year before she claimed to have moved to District 5. She obtained paperwork from the City Clerk to run for Council in District 5 in December, using the address at which she had registered to vote in May. She then posted a photo of herself on Facebook filling out the paperwork.

Scolesdang’s attorney’s letter to the City Clerk and his petition to the Superior Court both cited the report of a private investigator, Matthew Dokter & Associates, who surveilled Kim’s condo in District 3 and her voting address in District 5 on five separate dates. The investigator observed Kim coming and going from the District 3 condo, but did not observe her at the District 5 address, which was occupied by a family of four. The report says that on January 9th, an investigator spoke briefly with the mother in that family who said they had lived there for eight (8) years and had not rented a room to anyone during that time. Based on these observations as well as other documentary and photographic evidence, the investigator concluded that Kim actually still resided in District 3.

On January 13th, Kim obtained a second set of candidacy papers from the City Clerk, using a different address in District 5. The last-minute change, attorney Hildreth wrote, is an “admission of guilt to both Voter Fraud in the November 2024 election as well as the attempt to defraud the voters of Irvine in the Special Election of 2025.”

This past week, Councilmember William Go removed Kim as his appointee to the City’s Finance Commission, and Kim emailed her supporters canceling a planned fundraiser.

On January 29th, Kim was served with a subpoena to appear in front of a judge on Monday, February 3rd at 8:30am. Ironically, it has been reported the process server found Kim at the District 3 condo that she owns but says she doesn’t live at.

Roger Bloom

LATEST WEATHER

Irvine, CA
48°
Clear
2 am3 am4 am5 am6 am
48°F
48°F
50°F
48°F
48°F

Follow Us

advertisement

Skip to content