Irvine Chamber of Commerce Candidate’s Forum breakfast tomorrow morning

If you’d like to hear the candidate’s for Mayor and Irvine City Council yourself personally, plan to attend the Irvine Chamber of Commerce breakfast forum tomorrow morning.  Details are here.

The Candidates Forum is taking place at Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. The cost to attend is $30 for Irvine Chamber members and $40 for non-members. In addition, table sponsorship opportunities at $350 for members and $450 for non-members. For more information about this event or to make a reservation, please contact Michellee Phelps at (949) 660-9112 or visit www.irvinechamber.com. More after the jump.

During the 2006 Chamber forum, operatives from Christina Shea and John Duong’s rtickets were seen collecting candidate ballots from empty tables and chairs to stuff the ballot box to make it appear as thought there was strong business support for that ticket.  Shea won her race but Duong was crushed.

The Candidates Forum is taking place at Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. The cost to attend is $30 for Irvine Chamber members and $40 for non-members. In addition, table sponsorship opportunities at $350 for members and $450 for non-members. For more information about this event or to make a reservation, please contact Michellee Phelps at (949) 660-9112 or visit www.irvinechamber.com.

The Lincoln Club released it’s list of endorsements yesterday and found it odd that Margie Wakeham, a Democrat, was endorsed for the City Council race.  In published reports, Wakeham is making the claim to be politically independent and is aiming to be a swing vote on the council.  But you really can’t govern effectively when you vote by sticking your finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.  The Lincoln Club endorsements, interviews that Walkeham has done with Mickadeit and the Tattler tell me Wakeham is a DINO (Democrat in Name Only) and will cast her lot with the Republican minority that still clings to Irvine’s past.

Don’t forget to ask Steven Choi why he’s running for a 4-year seat on thed council when he has already set up a committee to run for Chuck DeVore’s assembly seat in 2010 when DeVore is finally termed out?  Shouldn’t we be electing a council member who wantrs to serve Irvine First? (Pardon the pun…).  But with Choi, it’s Choi first.  We get a lot of mail from the Korean-American community that Choi’s fundraising consists of using contributors lists from Suhkee Kang’s fundraising list to shake down contributions from the same Korean-Americans in Southern California.  Weak.

Lastly, Dr. Pat Rodgers, a retired Irvine PD Liutenent, has some nice photos on his website and in camapign literature pictured in his Irvine PD uniform.  In spite of the fact he still draws a paycheck from the city in retirement, Rodgers is no longer an employee so the photo was deemed OK by an Irvine PD spokesman.  But according to California Government Code 3206:  No officer or employee of a local agency shall participate in political activities of any kind while in uniform.  So it appears that Dr. Rodgers, by being retired, has found a loophole in the California Code.

According to an official at the Center for Government Studies at Northern Illinois University, photos of Rodgers appearing his his police uniform might be legal but its likely unethical.

“From a good government perspective, it (using photos in uniform) would seem to be a conflict.  Its a violation of the spirit of the order in the California code,” said the official.

Rodgers is also behind an unnecessary and politically motivated lawsuit against the city along with former Council Member Greg Smith (another hypocrite behind the Irvine Chronicle).  Christina Shea and Steven Choi are still trying to collect legal fees associated with their lawsuit against the Great Park Board (of which they are a part of) and have appealed a judge’s ruling that they aren’t entitled to collecting anything which makes me wonder how they will pay for this little boondoggle without violating contributions/gifts.  So much for good government when all these people can do is sue and demand that the taxpayers pick up the tab.

So if you go to this breakfast tomorrow, watch out for more balloit box stuffing.  The TeamIrvine ticket has had pathetic fundraising in comparison to the KeepIrvineGreat ticket (Kang, Krom, Agran and Gallinger).  So if there’s an unusual voting swing to TeamIrvine, you’ll know that there were probably more votes than attendees.