Our friends at Irvine Watchdog report that Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim will host a by-invitation only discussion for Great Park Neighborhood residents only to discuss the proposed Veteran’s Cemetery after last week’s CalVet report was issued by the state. The Friday night event will be held at the Great Park Soccer Stadium which can accommodate a large number of people. The place was supposed to be secret but that was easy to expose.
But there are some serious issues surrounding this meeting.
- The venue and the meeting was arranged through Vice Mayor Kim’s office and sources tell us that the city is paying for the venue yet Kim wants a by-invitation-only event that would restrict access to Irvine taxpayers/voters/residents who don’t live near the Great Park. That’s illegal.
- Click on the invite people sent to select residents. The description reads as such:
Vice Mayor Kim Listening Session for Great Park Residents RSVPDate/Time: June 18th @ 6:30pm
Venue will be Emailed to Great Park Residents after RSVPs
This Meeting is for Great Park Residents Only to discuss your thoughts on the CalVet study.
Contact us at tammykim@cityofirvine.org - Now scroll to the bottom of the invitation. See this text: This form was created inside of Korean American Center (KAC). What’s the Korean American Center? It’s a non-profit organization that Vice Mayor Kim is the executive director. Why is KAC using its resources to capture private information for a city-paid for event with an elected official?
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We’ll note Mike Carroll extracted personal data from those attending his COVID19 Virtual Town Halls and he got away with it too.
- Kim is the executive director of KAC, but you won’t find that employment record anywhere on her Form 700 that elected officials are expected to disclose employment, compensation, investments and gifts/contributions from organizations; so there’s no way to note how much she’s paid for her position with KAC and if she’s mining data from Great Park residents on behalf of her business interests.
Irvine Watchdog contributor Robin Gurien left an interesting comment on the blog’s Facebook page. She writes:
Nowadays there is no such thing as an unstaged event in the world of politics, and I’m confident this “townhall” in the OC Great Park Soccer Stadium will be no exception. If the elected official is taking “random” questions from the audience, keep track of how those questions are gathered. If residents write them on a card and added to a stack for random selection, make sure the questions aren’t being “vetted” back stage. This would mean that there are volunteers reading the questions and sorting them so that the ones the elected official isn’t prepared to answer never make it to the drum/hat/wheel for potential selection.
If there are people standing up and asking the questions, find out who the people are. Generally they were previous donors or volunteers for the elected official, or they are on the elected official’s campaign mailing list. They’ve been selected to ask the specific question, not because they have an interest, but because they can be trusted not to change the question at the last minute.
The “by invitation” only pitch is designed to extract a pre-determined outcome which Kim can then use to take a position favored by certain developers. At some point, hopefully soon, Vice Mayor Kim should remember she was elected to serve the entire city. Her governing style is anything but that. Additionally, city law would have to be changed for the Golf Course site to be selected; delay only favors FivePoint.
I’ll note, we’ve gone after after Christina Shea for issuing a letter on City Letterhead with FivePoint CEO Emile Haddad, referenced Mike Carroll’s “Big Check” contributions and taxpayer-sponosred COVID19 campaign events (that ended after election day when the virus was at its deadliest), Melissa Fox for her efforts against Measure B and then joining pro-ARDA forces when Irvine voters rejected her efforts, and Steven Choi’s “Nancy Pelosi is Stalin” signs at the DPOC’s Truman dinner. This stunt by Kim doesn’t pass the smell test; The meeting isn’t open, isn’t transparent, and is ethically questionable.
One must wonder if the city manager and city attorney gave her permission to use her employer to invite select residents, data mine their info and secure the public venue. If they did, Kim got terrible advice.
So some simple advice on this meeting.
- The city is paying for the stadium use.
- A city official is hosting this as a “public” event.
- It is illegal to prevent any city resident from attending or surrendering email addresses, physical addresses or phone numbers.
- This is a public event and by definition *anyone* from the public can attend.
- And as its a discussion about a state veteran’s cemetery, you can argue anyone who is a state resident can attend.
So if you don’t live in the Great Park Neighborhoods and you want to attend — go. If there is a private security detail there, and they won’t let you in, call the police. Whip out those cell phone cameras and capture video. Can someone live stream this please?
It’s too late, you-all blew it. The Veterans Cemetery is coming to Anaheim Hills.
Vern. Go back to taking advantage of people’s grief. First Donna, now you are cozying up to Bethany, who tragically lost her sister.
You are filthy disgusting grief pimp.
Get some help Vern.
Does bethany offer free lodging and financial support? Hopefully there are no canned goods in her kitchen that might fall and give her a black eye
I can see that something is really upsetting you people. I hope you all get through this rough patch!
how is your job hunt coming along Vern; I’m thinking people are going to have a tough time shaking hands with you especially after using the restroom.
Vern, go back to the bathroom and gaze at Twitter photos of someone you think is a woman who is t your wife…like your wife said you did. CalVet hasn’t looked at Anaheim Hills and there’s no infrastructure there.
Seriously Vern. Do you beat your wife? Mysterious facial bruising. Her asking people to block vulgar comments from you on Twitter. A background male voice coaching her through a voice mail….do you beat her? It’s a yes or no?
But seriously. The world is waiting to see how you and Matt justify or excuse Jordan’s texts about Denise Barnes. That should be one of the best parts of the show.
So far, only the Orange Juice Blog has weighed in on that.
and seriously, I’m awaiting the outcome of Donna finding out your motivating for publishing Ivette’s op-ed is that she’s about 30 years younger than you and absolutely stunning? Will you be using Ivette’s photos for your bathroom meditation?
The Great Park Homeowners, have reached out to many city council members, current and previous, and have not been able to get our voices or views heard. We sent emails to Vice Mayor Kim asking her to support the advisory committee, which she ignored. And to say that they, the city is reaching out to Great Park homeowners is a misrepresentation of the nature of this selective invite. Many of the homeowners did not receive the invitation to attend and for some reason my daughter did while I was excluded. The last time I checked we both have the same address. So I guess it is an invitation to a select group of homeowners who the city perceives as less critical or vocal about the city council. This is simply a PR move with no true intentions to amplify or listen to all the voices in the Great Park. If Vice Mayor Kim and the other city council members want to hear from us they should give us a voice.