Libertarian and conservative media darling Allan Bartlett is getting an appointment to the Irvine City Finance Commission courtesy of council member-elect Christina Shea, according to sources inside Irvine City Hall. Bartlett runs an investment practice in the city and always seems to show up when the OC press needs a conservative quote for a story.
Bartlett’s appointment can be viewed as a victory for the Tea Party which is struggling to maintain relevant in the wake of the November elections.
Shea’s last appointment to the Finance Commission was Council member Jeff Lalloway, whom Shea fired late into the 2010 campaign. The two have since made peace in order to secure a 3-2 majority on the city council. The conventional thinking is Bartlett is being groomed for a run for city council in 2014.
I’ll note Allan has excellent taste in movies. He sat next to me at last Friday’s screening of “Lincoln” at a theater in Irvine.
Dan, the Allan Bartlett appointment to the Finance Commission and Greg Smith to the Planning Commisssion can be viewed as a victory not just for the Tea Party, but for the citizens of Irvine. With the new Sheriff in town, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Irvine City Budget smaller and balanced in 2013 – 2014. Who knows what the forthcoming forensic audit of the Great Park will reveal about where and to whom the Agranistas gave 200 million dollars of taxpayer money. What are the Vegas odds on indictments there?
The new City Council majority has their work cut out for them in cleaning up much of the below the surface mess left by your friends. With appointments like these and an one or two by Steven Choi, I am confident the City will be up and running in a new direction in short order.
Nice that you and Allan saw the same movie. Did you talk politics and share popcorn before the show started? You might consider getting off the sinking Agranista ship and joining the conservatives in reinventing Irvine? Sorry, I must have been having a senior moment but then reality caught up with me? I understand sharing popcorn is one thing, but changing your political philosophy is another. “Happy Trails.”
Pat — just remember Ms. Shea voted with the council majority on every Great Park contract vote except for the one for PR.
Sorry Pat, smaller budget usually means cuts in services. Irvine residents won’t like that. Enjoy your majority for the next 2 years.
The conventional wisdom is sometimes wrong. I’m not planning on running for anything. Congrats on the scoop, I think.
Bullshit Allan; you are being groomed.
Mmm hmmm. Not planning on running, ok. The only relevant question, if you will indeed be serving, is: are you a good Tea Partyer, or an evil Tea Partyer?
Hegetarian, one might ask you the same question. Are you a liberal Democrat or a left wing Democrat?
Pat — I love how you guys are already backtracking and complaining about Measure BB after mailer after mailer touting support for it. Now you’re talking about cutting budget which means cutting services. While the City relied on the reserves during the economic downturn, that is what reserves are for and no services were cut. But please do cut city services as that is the fastest way for you to return majority control back to the Democrats.
Dan, as I have said before and will say again, my comments and opinions are my own and have never represented the views and positions of the political candidates I support. I do not know what is in their minds, what their agend may be or how they will go about achieving it. I can also say that I have never heard any of them remotely suggest eliminating or reducing any critical service that the City provides.
I am also not backtracking on anything. I have always been a fiscal conservative and support smaller and less costly government. I know the City of Irvine budget and where the waste, overstaffing and unneeded programs are. I support streamlining the budget, eliminating waste, like the big time gift of tax dollars each year to the Barcly Theater and the riderless Larry Agran shuttle to everywhere. I do not support cutting critical programs and in fact would probably add to them, if money was available from the savings. It is true that I parted company with my candidate friends (Choi, Shea & Shott) who supported and continue to support Measure BB and the schools. While favoring schools and the partnership programs the City of Irvine has with them, I do not support outright gifts of City General Fund money. Schools have their own funding mechanism and with the big Prop 30 tax increase they should be in better shape than the City, assuming of course the money goes where it is supposed to. Botom line is that for the near future the City has to come up with 3 million dollars extra per year for the schools as a result of Measure BB. That should be no problem if the Council goes to work on the waste and makes the cuts needed. If not, they will have to follow the Larry Agran/Beth Krom Budget Model of balancing it with Reserve Funds. If the country hits the financial wall in January as it appears we might do, all betss are off for the country and Irvine will need every dollar in the Reserve Fund and then some.
Bottom line Dan is that I am merely expressing my opinions as a citizen and taxpayer. None of the new Council members have asked for my opinion, nor have I offered it. As far as the new Council’s agenda goes, you will have to take that up with them.
Pat — you are a former police officer; your pay and your pension are entirely due to the benefit of taxpayers. You continue to be a vocal mouthpiece in support of Irvine’s elected Republicans until they tell you to shut up.
Sorry Pat. You vocalize what they believe.
Dan, you clearly to don’t follow my writings anywhere but this rag. No one tells me to shut up and I write on whatever topic interests me. I am just as critical of the Republican Party in Orange County as I am of the Democrats. They wanted the Irvine candidates to fire me from my volunteer position as sign coordinator during the recent campaign, but friendship proved to be thicker than political B/S. You were right on one count however, I do draw a retirement check for my thirty five years of service to the people of Costa Mesa and Irvine. It didn’t come for free and I earned every dime of it. By the way, I was forced to retire against my will due to a heart attack, or I would probably still be working at Irvine P.D. today. I liked my job and was good at it. The good news is if I were still on the payroll, I couldn’t criticize one of my five bosses, Larry Agran, so there is an upside to this story. Happy trails.
Pat. All I know is I have documented that Ms. Daigle was not an Agran plant while you continue to insist this is fact. Then you doubled down to suggest Evan Chemers was an Agran plant for taking votes away from Schott. Republicans like you can be shown documented proof that you are wrong and you still insist you are right. If this is the wat you conducted yourself as a police officer, you should have been fired long before you got to retire on the taxpayers dime. Facts matter Pat.
Well Dan, since I lasted thrity five years on the job, one could conclude that I must have been doing something right. Actually, I started as a Charter member of the Irvine Police Department in 1975 and was part of the Team that developed the Community Policing Concept that made Irvine America’s Safest City. In case you have a short memory, that is the achievement that Larry Agran, Beth Krom and Sukhee Kang like to take credit for, when in fact they had very little to do with it, except being on the City Council along the way. It was the citizens of the community and the Cops who developed a long term partnership to problem solving and cooperation that made Irvine what it is today. There were also a number of different City Councils in power over the years who provided funding and stayed out of our way and let us get the job done. Those are the facts and yes they matter.
On another subject, I caught this headline today and wondered if your BFF and King Irvine puppeteer,Larry Agran was in Rome?
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI greeted thousands of clowns, acrobats, puppeteers and even a pair of lion cubs on Saturday as the circus came to town for an unusual papal performance.