A Letter from Beth Krom to Irvine Voters

Councilmember Beth Krom welcomes Pelosi.
Councilmember Beth Krom welcomes Pelosi.
Councilmember Beth Krom welcomes Pelosi.

I’ve known Beth Krom long before I ever got involved in political blogging; it all started when she came to speak to my cub scout pack about the plans for the Great Park just after she and Larry Agran led the fight to stop the airport.  If you’ve been a homeowner in Irvine prior to 2000, your home increased in value significantly because of the work done by Agran, Krom, Kang and yes, that expensive PR firm known as Forde & Mollrich.  Because without them, Irvine would have been left to toothless Republicans who did little to stop the Airport.  That bears remembering.

We’ve received this letter from Krom to Irvine voters and we’re please to publish it.

NOTE: THIS IS LONG, BUT IF YOU CARE ABOUT IRVINE’S FUTURE…PLEASE READ AND FORWARD TO FRIENDS WHO SUPPORT A POSITIVE VISION FOR IRVINE’S FUTURE. 

AND PLEASE…VOTE MARY ANN GAIDO for MAYOR and LARRY AGRAN and MELISSA FOX for IRVINE CITY COUNCIL. 

Dear Friends,

Like you, I just received another political mailer smearing Larry Agran. This toxic campaign of lies and distortion has been two years in the making. Our opponents have done this time and again. Create a phony issue. Generate headlines. Run a campaign on lies and misrepresentations.

Mayor Choi, Councilmember Lalloway and Councilmember Shea have devoted all their time since gaining the majority to dismantling the positive initiatives we worked so hard to advance. They abandoned the commitment to create a great public park at the Great Park so private developers can downsize, privatize and commercialize the vision.

I have been on the City Council for fourteen years and have a front-row seat on the political games they have played time and again. I too have been a target. Choi, Shea and Lalloway have never allowed the truth to interfere with their narrative. They care only about their power, and they believe they were elected to serve profiteers and partisan political agendas — not the people of Irvine.

Larry Agran and I have been shuttled to the sidelines while unprecedented power has been given to local developers. It is just not about whether Irvine will grow, it’s about who controls that growth and how development is phased to minimize the impacts of growth on the local community.

Planning matters, and nobody knows that better than Larry Agran. He’s been a thorn in the side of developers since he first got elected. When Larry fights, he’s doing it for the community.

Everywhere you look, his impact is felt. From parks and open space to funding for transit, Larry knows what it takes to protect the quality of life Irvine residents moved here for.

Glad there’s no airport at El Toro? Thank Larry Agran. Appreciate the millions in direct support for local schools from the city? Then thank Larry Agran. Wish more elected officials would stand up to special interests and fight for the public interest? Just look at Larry Agran’s record.

Here’s a perfect example:  Despite clear evidence that the site for the planned fifth High School carries significant health and safety risks, developer FivePoint communities refused to consider alternative locations.

Larry Agran pointed out that the site is adjacent to a capped toxic landfill and just 1000 yards from the ever expanding Musick Jail. He and I fought to get the City Council to put pressure on the developer to move the location. Choi, Shea and Lalloway said it wasn’t their problem and that if it was good enough for IUSD and the developer, it was good enough for them.

Had Larry and I had a third vote on the City Council we could have used our leverage to get a better High School site for the residents in Woodbury, Stonegate, Portola Springs and other villages who will be sending their kids to the new High School.

That’s what Mayors and City Councils are supposed to do. They are supposed to fight for the PUBLIC INTEREST, not SPECIAL INTERESTS.

So let me set the record straight. $200 million was spent to plan, design, construct and activate nearly 250 acres of public land at the Great Park during the worst economic downturn in recent history. That good news story had to be turned into a bad news story. That has been the agenda of this City Council majority since they were sworn in in January 2013.

Here are some of the actions they took to set their agenda in motion:

  •  Removed the four public directors from the Great Park Corporation and vested all power in the City Council. Since they control the Council, they now controlled the Great Park
  • Fired Forde and Mollrich, who were responsible for the strategy that stopped the El Toro Airport, who implemented the international design competition that yielded Ken Smith’s award-winning design, grew attendance at the Great Park to over 750,000 in 2012 — the last year the park was fully “activated” — lead the effort to secure the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon and served a critical strategic and advisory role to ensure that the vision for a great PUBLIC park moved forward.
  • De-activated the park, stopping arts and culture programs, agricultural operations, summer concerts, other major public events and free access to the Great Park Balloon and Carousel
  • Gave private developer FivePoint Communities the right to plan, design and construct a down-sized, privatized and commercialized park on 688 acres of PUBLIC land. Gone is the beautiful canyon, now replaced with a commercial golf-course. Gone are the dozens of planned public sports fields, now replaced with a plan for “tournament” sports venues to serve out-of-town teams who will have to stay in FivePoint’s hotels, eat in FivePoint’s restaurants and shop at FivePoint’s stores. Instead of a park for the people, it will be a park for profiteers — with Choi, Shea and Lalloway cheering the new concept.

Who do you think is funding the “Anti-Agran” mailers? The “Greater Irvine Education Guide” is a front for private developer money along with money funneled in from the pro-airport Lincoln Club and other long-time opponents of Irvine’s positive, progressive vision.

Because the “Greater Irvine Education Guide” is organized as a 501C4, they can keep their donors secret.

It’s the same kind of political organization that funded Steven Choi’s 2012 Mayoral race with $200,000 funneled through a Virginia Tea Party organization. 

That’s right. Secret Orange County donors laundered money through a Virginia Tea Party organization — also a 501C4 — so they could dump hundreds of thousands of dollars into our local Irvine race to make Irvine more “developer-friendly.”

Sadly they were successful. Steven Choi became Mayor and it’s been down hill ever since.

All the headlines that are supposed to lend credibility to their baseless allegations relate to an “audit” (in truth, it is a taxpayer funded political witch hunt) that has yet to yield any legitimate data that would suggest wrong-doing, illegality or fiscal mismanagement.

Sadly, the Orange County Register has no problem substituting opinion for fact and prints headlines without any substantive information to back them up. It’s sad to see such an educated community so poorly served by what little local media we have.

Please don’t be fooled by these misrepresentations.

Larry Agran and I supported the audit because we knew that every penny could be accounted for and every action taken was taken publicly consistent with the law. In the nearly two years since it was launched, Choi, Shea and Lalloway have produced nothing beyond a petty narrative that suggests Larry Agran rubbed some people the wrong way because of how invested he was in the progress of the park and preserving the public vision.

Eleanor Roosevelt said “Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events and small minds talk about people.” The smears are targeted at small minds. They are designed to distract and distort, not to inspire or engage.

As they say, a lie can travel half way around the world before the truth gets it’s pants on. But sadly, lies in politics can work…especially when greedy developers are fueling the anti-Agran campaign with unlimited resources.

They don’t want to play by the rules. They want to re-write the rules.

That’s why I’m writing. You need to hear the truth. This is a well orchestrated campaign of lies and distortions to keep Choi, Lalloway and Shea in power.

If they can get Irvine residents to vote against their interests it’s good for them, but bad for Irvine residents. I’m tired of seeing this city gamed for profit.

The only thing that can stop this hostile take-ver is your vote — and the votes of your family, friends and neighbors.

Mayor Choi wants you to forget the hard work and tenacity it took to stop the El Toro Airport and move the Great Park plan forward. He’d like you to ignore the awards the park planning won. He hopes you’ll distract yourselves from the “give-away” of 688 acres of public land that is now under FivePoint’s control.

The audit is a calculated political tool, and Choi, Shea and Lalloway don’t care who they smear. 

That’s why Gafcon, the project management firm that were part of the Ken Smith Team — and who, along with every contractor who embraced the public vision and worked to move it forward have been routinely maligned by the Council majority — put together a rebuttal to the false and misleading narrative the audit was launched to create.

Watch it here: http://www.greatparktruth.com/

Larry Agran isn’t being attacked because he’s been BAD for Irvine, he’s being attacked because he’s been A STRONG ADVOCATE FOR THE PUBLIC INTEREST ON THE CITY COUNCIL.

Developers and special interests want a City Council that will do their bidding. Larry Agran doesn’t qualify. That’s why these manipulative, false and politically motivated smears are being delivered to mailboxes throughout Irvine.

I’ve served with Larry Agran for 14 years. He has used his power to stop airports and protect open space. He authored Measure BB to give greater support to our schools. He fought to secure 125 acres for a Veteran’s Cemetery at the Great Park. Don’t let the smears win. Get everyone you know out to vote.

If you want to remember what the PUBLIC vision for the Great Park looked like, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbxUbrrnQEg&feature=youtu.be

Please stand up for a better vision of Irvine. Support Mary Ann Gaido for Mayor and Larry Agran and Melissa Fox for City Council. If Choi, Lalloway and Schott win, we lose. It’s that simple.

Feel free to share this.

Beth Krom

13 Comments

  1. Beth, your whining commentary is too long to point out the many inaccuracies, so I will just say this. Remember all those hit pieces that the Agranistas have used over the years, I sure do. As they say, “Paybacks are a bitch,” and none deserves it more than Larry Agran.

    You should probably save your rationalization and excuses until the Great Park Audit goes public? Unless I mis my guess you will need to be working full time to justify your own actions, or lack thereof. The Law of Karma at work.

    Hope you enjoy your final two years on the Council in a 4-1 minority.

    • Lynn Schott’s raised what, $7K…wow sure she’ll win. Not. I don’t think the general public cares as much about the audit as you think Pat. I don’t see any smoking gun for criminal activity.

  2. Pat Rogers’ comments always bring to mind Joe Biden’s withering and accurate assessment of Rudy Giuliani: “There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence — a noun, a verb, and 9/11” In Pat Rogers’ case, it’s a noun, a verb, and Larry Agran. Now Pat, that’s what I call whiny. And there’s almost always an oddly misplaced dangling comma at the end of a sentence. One would think that someone like Pat Rogers, who spends so much time scribbling his whiny comments, would learn the basics of English grammar.

    • John, since you are such a grammar freak, I will make you a deal. I will work on my dangling commas when you learn to spell my name right. Actually, I could have used a lot of adjectives to describe your BFF Larry Agran, but chose not to do so. Bottom line is in three weeks or so, Larry Agran will just be another former Irvine city council member and Beth Krom will be on the end of a 4-1 minority. After twelve years of mismanagement and corruption, justice will finally be served.

  3. I don’t know what is more hilarious – the fact that Beth Krom is defending a $100,000 month no bid public relations contract with Forde and Mollrich (which is excessive on its face) or that in so doing Ms. Krom confirms that Forde and Mollrich acted well beyond the scope of what they were hired to do. Her defense is devastating and only confirms the allegation that Forde and Mollrich (and Agran and Krom) acted improperly. They wasted $200,000,000 – much of that to Agran and Krom’s political cronies and freinds and there is very little to show for that money. That is a fact – Krom’s efforts to deflect don’t work.

    • Are you familiar with the concept of ROI? F&m was paid about $8 million for several years of work. Their staff became a de facto marketing team for the Great Park. F&M’s pitch to bring the Solar Decathalon brought in $11 million in economic benefit to the city. As much as $20-$30 million if the current city council didn’t kill the marketing budget. So spend $8 million and get $11 million in return. Good ROI.

      • I am familiar with the concept of ROI. What is the ROI on the $200 million wasted during the time Field Marshall Larry Agran was in charge of the park?

        More substantively, your citing ROI is irrelevant. Even if I accept your argument that there was positive ROI (which I do not)I, that does not justify MASSIVELY OVERPAYING for the services. What would the ROI have been if a reasonable and customary contract would have been signed with Forde and Mollrich (or a different company). The cost would have been 50-75% less and the resulting ROI much greater of course.

        Of course, to calculate the true ROI, we need to take into account the expense of all of the waste, nepotism, and graft emanating from Forde and Mollrich and Agran/Krom. The missing $200 million and sorry state of the park pretty much shows that the ROI to the public (as opposed to Agran and his favored consultants) was 0.

        Dan – its ok to admit when people who share your political goals and philosophy do bad things. It means those are bad people – not necessarily that your views/goals are “wrong.” There are plenty of examples of Republicans who’ve committed crimes and misused political power for their personal gain – and those people deserve to be called out. You’d be better off finding and supporting an honest broker for your views who has integrity and credibility instead of continuing to rationalize what happened at the park.

        • well, the money you cite was wasted the moment the Republicans abandoned the original plan for the park and sold out to Emile Haddad.

          Not sure how often you get to the Park, quite a lot of progress was made before the Republicans took over in 2012. Additionally, F&M’s staff did function as part of the marketing team at the Great Park at a time there was a hiring freeze in Irvine due to the Great Recession.

          There’s a phrase in Irvine: “Everyone knows someone who can do the job cheaper.” I’m comfortable that the city more than got its money’s worth from Forde & Mollrich; without their work, we’d have jets flying in and out the El Toro International Airport.

          • I go to the “park” (aka sports fields and parking lot) now and then. It is not a $200M park. And that money was spent before 2012, so whatever you claim the republicans have done is irrelevant to the issue of how the $200M was spent before 2012.

            You seem confused – or perhaps are just trying to confuse others. The F&M contract in question was signed AFTER the airport idea had been voted down and the park was owned by the City. So whatever F&M did in the past to oppose the park is totally irrelevant to the contract that is at issue (and they had already been paid for that airport related work). Are you suggesting that the excessive no bid F&M Great Park contract was a bonus payoff to F&M for work they had already done? Of course, that would be illegal, so I doubt you’re suggesting that.

            Keep digging.

  4. Projection is a defense mechanism that involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people.

    Look in the mirror Beth.

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