Irvine Mayor Steven Choi denied Gafcon the ability to address the Irvine city council with their side of the story on HSNO’s reports in regards to Great Park taxpayer-funded political witchhunt designed to do nothing but general mailers paid for by IEs. Gafcon asked to air a 9 minute video in increments and Choi denied the speakers their First Amendment rights to address the Council.
Most telling is the Video of Council member Christina Shea speaking from both sides of her mouth (I especially enjoyed her comparison of Michelangelo being asked to build the Sistine Chapel when most everyone knows he only painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel– note to Ms. Shea, pick up a copy of “The Agony and The Ecstasy” or if you don’t have the attention span, see the movie of the same title starring Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison).
Choi wouldn’t let you see it, so we will. View it here.
Gafcon also offered this statement for us:
“We are disappointed by the way we were treated by the Irvine City Council. Mayor Choi’s and Councilmembers Lalloway and Shea’s refusal to let us show our 9-minute rebuttal video or cede speaking time is representative of the treatment we have received throughout this audit process. Since beginning work on the Great Park project in 2005, Gafcon has cooperated with all requests from the City of Irvine, including prior audits commissioned by the City. We continually offered to cooperate with the City on this audit and followed up on the offer to cooperate several times through email and telephone calls. However, we were not allowed to participate until June 2014, well after the release of the preliminary report, which was filled with factual inaccuracies and speculative preliminary conclusions with absolutely no evidence to back up the allegations. Now that we have taken the time to respond to the false allegations with a rebuttal video, members of the Council have not only refused to watch our video but also claim that we have not been cooperative throughout the audit process. The evidence clearly shows that is false. The manner in which this audit has ignored our cooperation and the treatment we have received from the City Council majority are disgraceful and do not instill confidence that the truth is what is being sought in this audit.”
“The Great Park audit presentation to City Council demonstrated again that the auditors continue to desperately reach for any allegation to justify their efforts, no matter how preposterous, unsubstantiated or insignificant. Many of the items they have chosen to review were already covered by previous audits, and many of the areas of inquiry highlighted by the review thus far have been unrelated to a forensic audit, which is meant to cover a project’s finances and accounting systems. We remain concerned that this audit has lost direction and has violated the scope and purpose with which it was initially charged. Additionally, we are frustrated that there has been no indication that the auditors plan to follow up on the allegations from the preliminary report released in January 2014, which were proven false by words of the Great Park Board and Irvine City Council as shown in our video rebuttal, nor have they made any indication that they plan to officially clear the names of those harmed by their false accusations. It seems only appropriate that if they do not plan to follow up on these charges, they should at least publicly apologize for the unjust treatment of those wrongly accused by the report. Despite these shortcomings, Gafcon will continue to cooperate and provide helpful information for any areas of inquiry in which we can be of assistance, just as we have done since beginning work on this project.”
To see the full truth about the Great Park investigation, please visit http://www.greatparktruth.com
I am a certified progressive, an Obama supporting, Sanchez supporting liberal, and it’s obvious that corruption from either the right or the left is corruption and should be investigated and if found, prosecuted. The Gafcon video had no business in the counsel meeting and Mayor Choi was correct in keeping it out. The Gafcon supporters had ample opportunity to have their voices heard, and they chose instead to simply whine because they were not allowed to play a video prepared by a professional political publicist. The results of the Great Park Audit will speak for themselves and I’m sure be heard by the people, as well as the District Attorney (and attorney general, as well).
@John Adams while I agree with the first part of your message, that corruption no matter whether from the right or left should be investigated, the second half of your message misses the mark.
1. What proof do you have that the video was prepared by a political strategist?;
2. I was in attendance and the entire audience (save 3 people) wanted the video played;
3. Why are you choosing to ignore the previous audits (that revealed no significant findings (conducted by Onisko and Diehl White) as well as the over the shoulder review by Bovis that went on while the Design Studio was operating.
At what point does the search for corruption become a witch-hunt and the wasting of taxpayer dollars? At this point the audit has past the threshold of being the “definition of crazy.” The city council keeps doing the same thing over and over and hoping for different results.
You’re not a progressive John. You’re a douchebag
Before you vote please read this recent article from ( today’s issue of the OC weekly
You will be embarrassed to be an Irvine democrat.
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2014/10/larry_agran_irvine_great_park_moxley_confidential.php
While “John Adams” and I may be on opposite ends of the political spectrum, his short and concise analysis of the Gafcon video are the same as my own. Gafcon hired a San Diego public relations firm to prepare the video rationalizing and justifying their collusion at the Great Park. They used edited and slanted clips of various people to justify their position. Since Gafcon has been caught with not just their fingers, but entire hand in the cookie jar, one cannot blame them for trying to cover their butts. What they had better be more worried about is, if the District Attorney or United States Attorney (FBI) take the Great Park Audit and turn it into a Criminal Investigation. Mayor Choi was correct in limiting the video to three minutes in the Council meeting.