TeamKids is a wonderful non-profit in Irvine and the organization is celebrating it’s 20th birthday this year. It’s one of those organizations that makes Irvine a great place to live and raise a family – it truly is. And the organization has support from Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan and the majority of the City Council — which granted the organization $20,000 after a short presentation by Team Kids at the April 13, 2021 Council meeting making the City of Irvine a “Founding Partner” with TeamKids.
What’s not to like?
A couple of things actually.
A quick sidetrack: each council member has a $10,000 budget allocation for Community Partnership Grants which are used to provide donations to the non-profit charity of his or her choice. Council member Mike Carroll gave enormous checks to organizations he supported. See Big Check Mike Carroll’s Covid-19 Town Halls are Real Taxpayer Funded Campaign Mailers. Then Mayor Steven Choi used to provide significant funding to the Korean Cultural Festival. But in granting $20,000 to Team Kids, it’s unclear where this money will be coming from.
The motion to grant $20,000 by Mayor Khan was seconded by Vice Mayor Tammy Kim. But this might have inadvertently violated the city’s governing procedures. You can see this in the video replay of the meeting from Councilmember Anthony Kuo, who has some institutional knowledge of process, at the 43:40 mark of the meeting. https://irvine.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=68&clip_id=5336
“Historically, for projects like this, this is what the Council uses our Community Partnership Grants for… to give contributions to non-profit organizations,” said Kuo, who was the lone “no” vote for the measure. “I appreciate the work that they’ve done, I’ll be opposing this.”
It isn’t because Kuo doesn’t like their work. Nope. Process wasn’t followed. You can’t bring forth a motion for an expenditure of public funds without putting it on the agenda and notifying the public first. Khan’s motion was brought after a Presentation. It should have only been that, a presentation. Not an allocation of public funds.
Contributions to non-profits should be allocated through our Community Partnership Grants, not other city funds. Khan and Kim have a choice. They can use their Grants to give to Team Kids, or revisit this and put it out there for the public to weigh in on, which opens several new cans of worms for other worthwhile non-profits in the city who need funds post-pandemic economy.
Here’s why this is a bigger deal than it appears. Imagine the developers at FivePoint or the Irvine Company demanding a city expenditure – and getting it – without public notice or debate.
Process matters.
It should have been caught immediately by Interim City Manager Marianna Marysheva and City Attorney Jeffrey Melching to ask the Mayor and Vice Mayor if this allocation of funds was coming from their combined Community Partnership Grants or somewhere else. If somewhere else, table this until its placed on the agenda for a future city council meeting. Both failed miserably in doing the jobs the taxpayers pay them so handsomely to do.
Now I hope TeamKids gets every dime Mayor Khan and Vice Mayor Kim promised them for their upcoming conference. I really do. But let’s clarify where the funds are coming from first and follow the law.
Amateur hour with a city attorney who lets it all slide. Got rid of John Russo. Time to get rid of Jeff Melching.
After running on a campaign of transparency, I hope the council has interest in disclosure as to how funding is processed for such orgs.
Imagine caring about $10,000 as the federal reserve prints away the value of the dollar by the trillions. Bitcoin is a public ledger. Instead of having a lawyer be in charge of this, just record it on the blockchain. Then everyone will know where the money went. Or Doge.