Tuesday’s Irvine City Council meeting demonstrated once again that the Great Park investigation and audit was indeed a political witch hunt; a huge mound of a report was provided the city council members at 6PM Monday and — some of them anyway — had less than 24 hours to digest before acting on the final report from HSNO and Aleshire & Wynder.
Please go to this link of Tuesday’s meeting and advance it to the 4:48 mark and listen to Beth Krom respond — in painstaking detail — about the Great Park’s history and evolution. She reminds us what Lennar (now FivePoints) wanted, what Lennar (now FivePoints) didn’t do in 2007 (break up the runways). Krom was on the council when the threat of a new airport was real. She has relevant knowledge about many details. And she did an amazing job defending the Park’s development.
And her statement begs the question to HSNO and Aleshire & Wynder — why wasn’t she deposed? Its another example of a cherry picked investigation that’s all about politics.
For Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Lalloway and Council member Christina Shea, the city’s council’s Star Chamber, we ask you — why wasn’t she interviewed? Why wasn’t she deposed? What errors by the auditors and lawyers would she have pointed out?
For that matter, why weren’t Christina Shea or Steven Choi also deposed? They were on the Great Park board and city council for much of the time the audit and investigation covers. Would they have to reveal how they voted on some of the contracts?
Question….do the audit reports state in writing the standards used to conduct the audits? For example, most public sector audits adhere to either the U.S. Government Accountability Offices “Generally Accepted Audit Standards” , while many private sector businesses use the Institute of Internal Auditors’ standards. The reason I ask is that either standard sets a minimum threshold for the quality and relevance of evidence used to produce the audit findings. If they didn’t cite and standards, I’d be suspect of the veracity of anything stated in the report.