Big Check Mike Carroll’s COVID19 Town Halls are Real Taxpayer-Funded Campaign Mailers

Irvine Vice Mayor Mike Carroll sent me a letter last week.  Really, he did. And it was an invitation to on online update regarding the City of Irvine’s response to COVID19 – the very same sort of update we’re getting at the county level, the state level and from the occasional federal news conferences hosted by President Trump.

There’s nothing new.  The city has guidelines to follow the governor’s mandate, wear a mask, wash your hands, stay socially distant, no large gatherings, blah, blah, blah.  There’s nothing new here.

Except……

This isn’t about public safety and the City’s response to COVID19 at all; it’s a taxpayer-funded campaign piece for Mike Carroll; he’s named twice in the letter when, technically, Mayor Christina Shea is the city’s spokesperson to the public on the pandemic. Carroll’s name is the masthead and the headline.

Any council member can send a note like this to the public, but only to 200 people at a time. The city can send out mail and name council members but this letter is from the desk of Mike Carroll. It’s basically an illegal campaign mailer that Irvine taxpayers paid for.

Carroll violated section 89001 of the Political Reform Act which says “No Newsletter or Other Mass Mailing shall be sent at Public Expense.” Carroll’s “hook” was hosting a meeting more than 60 days in advance of election day, but his letter doesn’t qualify as an exception here because of the two mentions of his name (not the Mayor’s).

Carroll’s letter is an event announcement – a COVID19 update.  The FPPC says an announcement of any official agency event or events for which the agency is providing the use of facilities or staff or other financial support; the item cannot contain the elected official’s photo or signature and may include only a single mention of the elected officer.

Now Carroll could argue he wasn’t elected, only appointed, but then he’d have to shed the “appointed incumbent” label on his filings.

Is Carroll having trouble raising money?  It’s bad enough he did last weekend’s candidate’s forum from the front seat of his car, but to use taxpayer dollars for something the city has significant content on its website is plain unethical at best, illegal at worst.