
Irvine’s Republican Council majority likes to talk about transparency in government but that only applies when looking into policies enacted by the former Democratic Council majority. When it comes to transparency on their own actions for how the Great Park investigation was conducted, they’ve done everything possible to prevent the same sort of scrutiny.
So when the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC) considered a third time to audit the Republican “audit” of the Great Park investigation, the votes were there. The request came against from State Rep. Lorena Gonzalez and the JLAC approved an audit of the Irvine City Council Audit Subcommittee; Four votes from Assembly members and Four Votes from Senate Members were required. Four Assembly members voted yes, with three not voting. Four Senate members voted yes with one not voting, one not present to vote and only one No vote.
This vote comes on the heels on a letter sent by the OC GOP state assembly and state senate delegation urging the committee not to review the actions of Mayor Steven Choi and Council members Christina Shea and Jeff Lalloway. The Register chimed in yesterday with this editorial urging the JLAC to stay away from this too.
The audit or investigation was completely political in nature. It was designed to release shocking details later unfounded but used to launch IEs that told outright falsehoods. The audit of the audit will get to the bottom of the investigation and ask important questions about what the real goal was — politics.
I’m hopeful that the investigation will call the city’s legal counsel Anthony Taylor of Aleshire and Wynder on the carpet to back up claims he made last Spring when he told the committee about the high percentage of Irvine residents who agreed with the way the investigation was conducted and why certain people — with extensive knowledge of the Park’s operations — were never questioned for the audit/investigation.
This is will fun.