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Political news & views for independent-minded voters

Political news & views for independent-minded voters

Category Archives: Steven Choi

Updated: Eliminate the Board and call it the IRVINE Great Park

Posted on by Posted in Beth Krom, Bill Campbell, Christina Shea, Great Park, Irvine, Jeff Lalloway, Larry Agran, Steven Choi Leave a comment
Photo credit: Orange County Register

Photo credit: Orange County Register

Both the OC Register and LA Times/Daily Pile have stories today about tomorrow’s sure-to-be-exciting Irvine City Council meeting.  We can’t wait — watching Larry Agran and Beth Krom finally take in the shorts is as fun as local politics ever gets.

The new Council majority, Lalloway, Shea and Choi, will surely vote to audit the Great Park’s finances, cancel $1.1 million in sole-sourced Forde & Mollrich and Townsend PR contracts and, best of all, eliminate the four outside crony Board members — leaving just the five member Council as all that’s left of it.  Once might ask, since the papers didn’t, why there’s any longer any need at all for the Board if it’s effectively absorbed into the Council. Continue reading→

Irvine Council majority quickly taking back control of the Great Park

Posted on by Posted in Beth Krom, Christina Shea, Great Park, Irvine, Jeff Lalloway, Larry Agran, Steven Choi Leave a comment

New Irvine Council majority

The new Irvine City Council majority is quickly moving to take control of the disaster that has been the Orange County Great Park, as related by the O.C. Register.  To wit:

  • Councilman Jeff Lalloway on Monday called for an end to public relations and lobbying contracts worth up to $1.1 million annually.
  • Councilwoman Christina Shea asked for a forensic audit of what’s been spent on the park so far and what money is remaining.
  • Mayor Steven Choi suggested that only elected Irvine Council members should be members of the Great Park board of directors, doing away with the seats for four independent members. Continue reading→

The new Irvine Council majority is dumping the Great Park’s PR firms!

Posted on by Posted in Christina Shea, Irvine, Jeff Lalloway, Larry Agran, Lynn Schott, Steven Choi 2 Comments

Burning money at the great park

No more wasting money on overblown PR at the Great Park!

Well that didn’t take long!  The new Republican City Council majority in Irvine is acting quickly to dump the public relations firms that have ripped off the people of Irvine to the tune of millions of dollars, according to O.C. Register columnist Frank Mickadeit.  Here are a few excerpts from his latest column:

  • When the Great Park balloon starts to drop at tonight’s grand New Year’s Eve party in Irvine, somebody had better make sure the principals from Forde & Mollrich haven’t thrown themselves under it. Continue reading→

Irvine Mayor Choi to host a school safety town hall meeting on 12/19

Posted on by Posted in Education, Irvine, Police, Public Safety, Steven Choi, Tustin Leave a comment

Mayor Steven Choi

City of Irvine, Public Information Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PRESS RELEASE: 12/17/2012

Contact : Public Information Office 949-724-6077,  pio@cityofirvine.org

Subject : Irvine to Host School Safety Town Hall

IRVINE, CA (December 17, 2012): Irvine Mayor Steven S. Choi, Ph.D., has invited the Superintendents of Irvine Unified and Tustin Unified School Districts and the community to a special meeting this week following the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Irvine Town Hall Meeting for School Safety will begin at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 19 at the Irvine High School Theater, located at 4321 Walnut Ave. Continue reading→

Quirk-Silva beats Norby – but Agran loses to Choi!

Posted on by Posted in 2012 Elections, Anaheim, Ballot Measures, Barack Obama, Beth Krom, Bob Huff, Bond Measures, Brea, Cecilia Iglesias, Chris Norby, Christina Shea, Costa Mesa, David Benavides, Gary Monahan, Gary Pritchard, Irvine, Jon Dumitru, Jordan Brandman, Labor, Lucille Kring, Lynn Schott, OCEA, Orange, Orange County, Republican Party, Rob Richardson, Santa Ana, Sharon Quirk-Silva, Steven Choi, Sukhee Kang, Teresa Tita Smith, Travis Allen, Travis Kiger, Troy Edgar, Vince Sarmiento 1 Comment

Stop the presses!  Fullerton Mayor Sharon Quirk-Silva was losing when I went to bed last night but this morning the voting results say she won, barely, beating  Chris Norby, in the 65th Assembly District.  Amazing!

It will be awhile before we can parse the numbers but you have to figure that more voters showed up in the general than in the primary election – and could it be that the Latino voters in the 65th actually voted?  It sure looks like it.

Other key results for liberal O.C. Democrats:

  • John Leos ended up in a distant third place in Anaheim’s Council races – another blow to the OCEA, which blew a load on this race.  The winners were Republican Lucille Kring and corporate Democrat Jordan Brandman.  The latter was the recipient of thousands of PAC dollars courtesy of Disney and the SOAR PAC.
  • In Irvine Beth Krom got the most votes in the Council race, but the Republicans Christina Shea and Lynn Schott also won.  And mayoral candidate Larry Agran lost to Steven Choi!  And more bad news for the Irvine Democrats – Sukhee Kang lost very badly to U.S. Rep. John Campbell.  The Republicans now run Irvine. I can’t imagine that is sitting well with the guys at my former blog… Continue reading→

Did Agran blow it by adding Daigle to this year’s Irvine Mayor’s race?

Posted on by Posted in 2012 Elections, Christina Shea, Corruption, Irvine, Katherine Daigle, Lynn Schott, P.K. Wong, Steven Choi Leave a comment

Update: I must be a prophet.  Agran did lose and it is clear now that Daigle took votes from him, not from Choi – an epic backfire for Agran!

The conventional wisdom has it that Irvine Mayoral candidate Larry Agran won by convincing Katherine Daigle to run for Mayor this year, instead of running for the City Council.  The premise is that Daigle will split the GOP vote and allow Agran to defeat the top Mayoral candidate, Steven Choi.

But is that true?  Or could it be that Daigle is going to end up taking votes away from Agran?

Let’s examine the historical record: Continue reading→