Beth Krom Reminds Irvine Voters ….

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

The developers funding IEs against Mary Ann Gaido for Mayor need to make up their minds — either gaido voted for every development that ever was approved by the city or she missed tons of meetings.  Neither is true, but it does show a shocking measure of Panic on the part of Irvine Republicans and their cozy developer pals.

Beth Krom, arguably one of the most popular elected officials to ever serve in City Hall, has this reminder for Irvine voters; she’s all in for Gaido:

“I’m voting for Mary Ann Gaido for Mayor of Irvine and urge you to do the same! Developers are funding a disgusting campaign of lies and smears against Mary Ann. They know she’s consistently fought overdevelopment and stands up FOR the Irvine residents and our quality of life. If the developers WIN, we all LOSE, so let’s elect Mary Ann Gaido for Mayor, and demand that the City Council put the interests of Irvine residents first.

Mary Ann Gaido is under attack by developers who want to “buy” the Mayor and Council who will do their bidding. The last thing they want is a Mayor who will hold their feet to the fire.  They know Mary Ann and they know she has CONSISTENTLY FOUGHT BAD PLANNING AND OVERDEVELOPMENT. That’s why they’ve funded a MILLION DOLLAR CAMPAIGN OF LIES AND SMEARS. We don’t have a MILLION DOLLARS, but we have something better…WE HAVE YOU! You have the power at your fingertips to reach voters with your personal message of support.”

The anti-Gadio crowd placed flyers on all the cars at the Gwen Stefani concert at the Verizon Ampitheater over the weekend saying Gaido killed the venue.  Nope.  Not even close.  Irvine Republicans Anthony Kuo and Greg Smith did.  Christina Shea’s plan for an amphitheater at the Great Park is just another idea to require a ticket into what is supposed to be a public park.  Don Wagner, Shea or Kuo win, the developers proxy will be running the city with the best local government that can be bought.

Krom has also endorsed Melissa Fox and Shiva Farivar for city council.  Krom’s endorsement is coveted in Irvine.  With three Republicans running for Mayor, and Hillary at the top of the ballot for president, women voters and Democrats can turn our council blue again.

15 Comments

  1. “Beth Krom, arguably one of the most popular elected officials to ever serve in City Hall…”

    Yikes.

    Just remember that you’re not “the other side of the coin” to Fox News and their ilk who are repeatedly distorting truth to back anyone with an “R” behind their name when you are doing the same to anyone with a “D” behind their name. You’re part of the problem.
    How did that Great Park work out?
    What happened to all that money?
    How did you like Larry running fake opponents to siphon votes? How would you like it if someone with an “R” behind their name did it?
    Being unwilling to stand up for what’s right makes you part of the problem. Being “D” or “R” until you die isn’t the answer.
    Being truthful and letting the information take you wherever it goes is the hallmark of a just mind. Having two sets of rules based on the political party of the person in the story makes you just another puppet.

    • How’d the Great Park work out? It’s become a pay for play site and profit center for the developer. Too bad RDAs were eliminated and it took the Marines so long to clean the soil. Still, a park over an airport significantly added to the value of homeowner equity. And every dollar was accounted for.

      Larry has been accused of running fake opponents by his enemies. Little actual evidence. Happy to stand up to anything you want to throw my way.

      • Me: “How’d the Great Park work out?”
        You: “It’s become a pay for play site and profit center for the developer.”
        So it became something? Please feel free to let me know everything Larry built with the money given to him.
        You: “Too bad RDAs were eliminated…”
        By Jerry Brown. You sound like Dwight Manley who quite honestly sounded like Buffalo Bill while demanding his free parking structure in Brea after buying the council:
        “SHUT UP! IT PUTS THE MONEY IN THE BASKET!”
        You: “And every dollar was accounted for.”
        Well sure it was. It just went to lining the pockets of political donors and allies and even using city resources to build absolutely nothing that was promised.
        You: “Larry has been accused of running fake opponents by his enemies. Little actual evidence…”
        Earl Zucht. Katherine Daigle.
        Fellow readers, please be sure to dig for evidence on your own about these two false candidates to help Larry remain in power.
        Dan – On a personal note, I enjoy the heck out of your site. I find the reporting here the antidote to what is lacking on other county sites including our local paper. I just disagree with making the case for someone or their votes or their projects based on what letter is at the end of their name. Nothing wrong with leaning left or voting left the majority of the time as I do, but you need to be able to call out the ones who tarnish our party and our message. Perhaps you’re not allowed to do that due to your obligations with the party, but truly it sends the wrong message.
        Bias, perceived or real, allows the message to be diluted and doubted based on where it comes from.

        • Earl Zucht denied being a fake candidate and insisted he ran a sincere campaign.

          Katherine Daigle was added to an IE; she was not an Agran plant and had never met Agran prior to that race. Heck, she’ll come over here and state that herself.

          Sorry, I don’t subscribe to the “every dollar was wasted” camp. People point to the PR contract and that agency brought in the solar decathlon twice that generated three times the revenue for the city as their retainer was.

          I miss Larry in this election cycle; he was always able to raise money for mail. And since the developers are spending $1.1 million for the best council they can buy, I wish he was still in the game

        • Jake, take a look at my columns at: http://politichicks.com/author/katherinedaigle/

          Never met Larry Agran except at the debates- very nice as a matter of fact, so was his family very gracious.

          I have been a conservative for 25 years, however, I am running as an Independent.

          AND most importantly, I am 100& in for Trump, voted for him.

          Katherine Daigle

      • Thanks, Dan. I know who Kuo and Smith are; I attend almost every Planning meeting. But saying that they “killed” Irvine Meadows greatly exaggerates what the Planning Commission actually does, unless you think it was their idea to build the apartments and they put the Irvine Company up to it.

        Unless there’s some piece of information I’m missing, the city doesn’t own the land under Irvine Meadows (the Irvine Company does). The city wouldn’t have a leg to stand on to prevent the closure of the amphitheater once the Irvine Company decided not to renew the lease, as the public can’t force them to rent out their land. The Planning Commission could slow the speed of development, reduce the density, or the city could refuse to rezone the land to residential, but I don’t believe it could entirely prevent development under current laws. It seems illogical that both parties claim that the other party’s PC members “voted for development” in their attack ads. What are they supposed to do, reject the Irvine Company’s property rights? The Planning Commission simply checks whether new projects meet our codes and are compatible with neighboring uses. Closures because the land owner is “done” with that particular use don’t have to be approved.

        We all love Irvine Meadows; I saw several shows there this summer and dozens more over the years. But one of the tradeoffs of living in a capitalist society is that we have little control over what private entities do with their own land. We can influence their behavior through consumption or boycott of the goods and services they provide, but we can’t dictate to them that they keep providing a service that they’ve chosen to discontinue–even if, sometimes, we wish they’d make the opposite choice.

  2. No politician should be allowed to stay in their seat for more than two terms. Krom has reached her expiry date. We need fresh vision not an outdated style.

    With that said, Shea needs to go as well.

  3. To know reality on the engineering/design/management side of what happened with the Great Park, read Patrick Fuscoe’s deposition. He was the GP’s civil engineer of record for about 9 years. It’s about 250 pages of not much on a page, so it’s a fast read. It’s clear that a major bad guy in the project was FivePoint Communities that became obstructionist. There were also some on the City staff that were obviously beholden to them, for whatever reason, too.

    And they also, obviously, had a big misinformation campaign going on, just as for the recent election. The world class Great Park as originally envisioned, would clearly not serve the interests of FPC. However, a world-class sports complex to potentially serve surrounding hotel and retail interests would.

    Finally, $37 million was spent on design plans and detailed drawings for the entire 1,347 acres of GP, most of which was trashed by the current City Council, probably because it was not in the interest of FPC to see such a plan implemented that would serve the population of OC that voted for a park with Measure W. A great, secluded arboreal canyon, a major part of the original plan, would certainly not be of much commercial interest, except maybe to sell binoculars to bird watchers. Construction costs totaled $96 million for the built 200 acres, with estimated total cost to completion of $1.4 billion. Programming and operating costs from 2007 to 2012 were $35 million, and $32 million remained unspent.

    There is a long list of wonderful features that had been built at the Great Park before the current developer-dominated City Council took over in 2012. Everyone should visit it.

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