Irvine Elections Telephone Poll: The Republicans are Already Lying

I just finished washing the last dish last night when the phone rang asking if I would participate in a survey about local elections.  I said sure and asked who the client was.  The caller didn’t understand my question and I asked again, “who’s paying for the survey.”  “We can’t tell you sir” was the response and I’m OK with that because the way the questions are phrased will reveal who commissioned the survey.  And so we began.

The general response was a roster of all the candidates running for mayor and city council with a gamut of “very favorable, mostly favorable, somewhat favorable, neutral, somewhat unfavorable, mostly unfavorable and very unfavorable” response.  No opinion was another option.  Then the questioner asked if I was “aware of issues in the city,” and here’s where the big reveal occurred.

“Did you know that the Orange County District Attorney’s office is investigating charges of corruption at the Great Park?”  “Did you know the DA’s office has launched a criminal investigation about the Great Park.”  I told the interviewer both of those questions were completely inaccurate but that the DA’s office had simply asked for copies of the city’s audit and investigation.  “Did you know that Great Park contractors were hiding records from investigators in the Great Park investigation?”  Now I’m paraphrasing the exact language, but my first thought was “those lying Republicans.”  “Not true either Mr. Questioner,” but thanks for making in clear who is paying your salary to spread misinformation.  Try pronouncing Lynn Schott’s last name correctly next time (he pronounced it “Schitt” which made me laugh).

Here’s the truth.  The DA has asked for copies of documents associated with the Great Park taxpayer-funded political hit job operation which in normal circumstances would have taken 3 to 6 months to complete instead of nearly 18 months to time the release of the investigation to coincide with an election (and we predicted this last year); I want to know who’s going to approve a forensic audit of the forensic auditor for failure to adhere to the original contract with the city on 30 day reporting cycles and not even contacting the largest subcontractors until the two weeks before the report was due.  It’s completely unrealistic for the DA to launch a criminal investigation this close to the election especially if there’s no evidence of criminal activity which any Republican in Irvine is certain there is….

There is no criminal investigation by the DA’s office of the Great Park.  As more depositions come forward, the things that really strikes me is the incompetence of Great Park CEO Mike Ellzey.  He is supposed to manage the contractors and he always had two Republicans on the Great Park board who would have loved nothing better than attack the Democratic Council majority on anything inappropriate.  Instead, Ellzey sat back and collected his big checks and pointed fingers.

This is how this whole thing is going to end.  The single sourced contracts were done according to the city’s policy on single sourced contracts.  Services that were contracted for were delivered.  If the development plans weren’t workable, staff should have said something and didn’t.  But then I question their experience to say if the pan was developable or not.  I’m still waiting for something illegal to be revealed other than Christina Shea suggesting there’s “troubling stuff in those boxes from Forde & Mollrich.”  This from a woman who lied about being a campaign consultant to Katherine Daigle in 2012 until presented with a copy of a check for payment of services and served Daigle with a “cease and desist” letter for sharing emails with the media (us) whiel claiming confidentiality.

The downside of this is simple; why would any subcontractor ever want to do business with the city of Irvine if the city could/would sue to have you open the books to your entire operation including stuff that has nothing to do with the contract you engaged the city for any project?  Hell, let’s ask Mayor Choi to open the books on his school — how much does he pay the teachers versus how much he collects in tuition?  Must be profitable to have that big house in Woodbury.  Hey Christina Shea, open the book son your real estate business or your governmental affairs business?  And I’d like to know what Jeff Lalloway charges an hour to handle a divorce.  Shea and Choi accept taxpayer money for their work on the city council; don’t taxpayers have a right to see their entire financial picture?

The survey also asked for one word descriptions of each candidate for mayor and council.  What one word would you use to describe each one?