Irvine City Council approves Treseder’s Ethics Reforms; and Is Turnabout Fair Play? Updated

With minor changes, the Irvine City Council has approved many of the reforms to the city’s already strong ethics ordinance at last night’s meeting; but just before the meeting, an Irvine resident served up some dirt where Treseder might already be afowl of her own ideas.

A letter from Irvine resident Alex Wang was sent to the city council and city manager’s office that suggests Treseder may be guilty of violations of the existing ethics ordinance.

I’m not aware of any restriction of a city council member having to disclose a contribution they have made to a non-profit, and I’ve asked Mr. Wang to address specific questions I have so I will update this post once I get some answers.

The text of the email sent to the city is first followed by the letter. Both are below in italics, and we are redacting Mr. Wang’s email address.  I have also redacted salaries offered in the memo:

Councilwoman Treseder has an item on the City Council agenda this evening under Item 6.5 and the attached correspondence is certainly on point on that issue.  However, the attached document also represents complaints submitted by concerned Irvine residents regarding existing violations of the existing Irvine Ethical Public Service Ordinance.  To that end, this is being submitted to the FPPC and the DA’s office simultaneously under separate cover.

Councilwoman Treseder is the worst kind of elected public official, no knowledge but lots of self-serving performances.  The more I read about her, the more worried I am about her ability to ever act appropriately.

I have a full time job and do not wish to spend my work day time on this matter.  To that end, please route responses to this complaint to me at this email address, however, you WILL be hearing from our attorney if sufficient remedies are not enacted.

# # #

September 12, 2023

Great Park Chair Michael Carroll

Great Park Board

Mayor Farrah Khan

Irvine City Council

Re: Violations of the Irvine Ethical Public Service Ordinance by Kathleen Treseder and Several Appointed Commissioners

Dear Chair Carroll & Mayor Khan,

We are writing on behalf of concerned Irvine residents who have had enough of Kathleen Treseder’s hypocrisy. We have reached out to a law firm and you will be hearing from our lawyer next.

As a result of the Special Election held on June 3, 2008, the Irvine City Council Ethical Public Service Ordinance (Initiative Ordinance 08-03), or Measure H , was passed by Irvine voters.

Measure H is codified in Irvine Municipal Code Sections 1-9-101 through 1-9-104 and is an extension of the City’s Code of Ethics.

Measure H prohibits elected officials, their Executive Assistants and appointed Commissioners from engaging in compensated employment or service for the purpose of lobbying for any private individual or organization before any local public agency in Orange County. In addition, the measure prevents the same individuals from having a personal investment or monetary interest in City contracts. Measure H also requires the Mayor and City Councilmembers, their Executive Assistants and appointed Commissioners to execute a form acknowledging they have received a copy of the measure and agree to abide by its provisions. The forms are then filed with the CityClerk.

Kathleen Treseder regularly makes derogatory comments about lobbyists and has even submited a “copy and paste” proposed Ordinance from a report in the City of Anaheim. Yet, as is usual for Treseder, a Councilwoman who passes laws for the City of Irvine, but does not abide by them as a UCI resident, here again, she wants people to believe she is the voice of truth while explicitly violating the existng Irvine Ordinance.

Claim 1:

Ayn Craciun, Irvine Green Ribbon Advisory Commitee and now Irvine Sustainability Commitee appointee of Kathleen Treseder, is a lobbyist for Climate Action Campaign, yet also serves as an appointed Irvine Official. She is violating Municipal Code Section 1-9-103 (A).

Craciun has also lobbied the Orange County Power Authority for several years, constantly calling for “best practices” while lobbying for Climate Action Campaign’s desired outcome on issues.

Since the OCPA is a “local public agency” in Orange County. This also violates the Municipal Code. Furthermore, by being a regular donor to Climate Action Campaign, Kathleen Treseder has an unavoidable conflict of interest and financial interest in the outcome of the issues that Climate Action Campaign has lobbied for including the creation of Irvine’s Climate Action Plan and the creation of Sustainability Commitee itself. These conflicts of Interest extend to the OCPA Board where Treseder serves while having a vested financial interest in seeing Climate Action Campaign’s priorities adopted by the Board.

Never one to miss the chance to be a hypocrite, Kathleen Treseder has now introduced a proposed new lobbying Ordinance for the City of Irvine, but has not disclosed during any previous votes her financial ties to the Climate Action Campaign or Ayn Craciun. Basically, Treseder has “laundered” money through The Treseder Randerson Fund (an improperly named entity since it does not appear on the California Secretary of State’s website or the Atorney General’s Registry of Charitable Trusts, nor has it filed any tax returns with the IRS as a charity nor any disclosure documents with any public agency) to the Climate Action Campaign, which Ayn Craciun lists on her Form 700 as an employer, and then Craciun speaks at Irvine City Council Meetings in favor of Treseder’s positions. This is clearly violative of the Ordinance as well as the intent of Irvine’s Ethical Public Service Ordinance and Conflict of Interest requirements in the Fair Political Practices Act.

It is no different than a Councilmember paying people to speak in favor of their issues at Council meetings. We have reviewed the City Council meetings since her election and Treseder has made votes on multiple issues which Climate Action Campaign has lobbied for and has never disclosed her role as a financial donor, nor Crayciun’s role as a lobbyist.

In addition to the existing violations of the ethical public service Ordinance, if Treseder’s proposed Lobbyist Ordinance is approved Tuesday September 12, Ayn Craciun would be guilty of a misdemeanor for lobbying without registering as an Irvine lobbyist.

Per Craciun’s Form 700, she makes between $10,000 and $100,000 from Climate Action Campaign as a Policy Advocate (Advocate is a Lobbyist). This means that she makes over $10,000 a quarter.

A review of the City of Irvine Lobbyist Reports shows that Ayn Craciun and Climate Action Campaign have not filed registraions yet Ayn Craciun regularly speaks at Irvine City C ouncil meetings advocating for or against municipal questions. Kathleen Treseder is aware of this, but would rather make performative shows regarding changing the Ordinance than enforce the current one with the lobbyist for an Organization she financially supports and a woman she appointed to not one, but two Commitees, giving her the imprimatur of the City of Irvine as she lobbies other Cities.

Finally, Craciun and her Husband, Joe have both contributed to in excess of $250 to Treseder’s campaign which would trigger recusal requirements under SB 1439.

Claim 2:

Senait Forthal, Sustainability Commitee appointee, not only regularly lobbies the City of Irvine, but has recently received a $100,000 grant from the City to advise residents on solar issues.

Kathleen Treseder voted for this grant and heaped praise on Forthal, but never disclosed to the public that Forthal was a campaign contributor to Treseder. The Irvine Watchdog and Branda Lin, Treseder’s appointee to the Planning Commission, have routinely called upon Council Members to recuse themselves from votes where a campaign contributor benefits from a City contract yet Lin and Treseder failed to mention this issue when Treseder voted to enrich Forthal with $150,000 of public funds.

In fact as shown in the atached minutes to the May 9, 2023 City Council meeting, (item 5.5, page 18) that the agenda item for Solarize Irvine with the awarding of $150,000 to her campaign contributor, Senait Forthal was agendized by Kathleen Treseder.

OC Goes Solar is listed as a 501 (c) 3 on its website and states that it is working “in partnership” with the City of Irvine on “Solarize Irvine.”

Forthal has violated the Municipal Code by failing to register as a Lobbyist for solar issues and for advocating for the grantng of City money to her organization. Previous tax returns filed by OC Goes Solar shows that the organization had never received over $50,000 and had only previously filed “post card” returns. Kathleen Treseder agendized and voted for the grant without disclosing the contribution to her campaign by Forthal.

Claim 3:

Kevork Abazajian, friend, neighbor, and colleague of Kathleen Treseder at UC Irvine recently filed his Form 700 as an incoming member of the Irvine Sustainability Commitee. Abazajian lists no income and no assets which is unbelievable since he is an employee of UCI and owns a house on the campus. This form was clearly filed to obfuscate the source of income and property holdings of Abazajian and violates the very leter of the Fair Political Practices Act and the reason for the statements of Economic Interests.

Transparent California lists his UCI total pay (not including benefits) at SALARY REDACTED for 2022 interestingly MUCH lower than Treseder’s 1 or her husband’s 2, he must not be as good a Professor).

1 Per Transparent California, Kathleen Treseder’s 2022 total pay was SALARY REDACTED

2 Per Transparent California, James Randerson’s 2022 total pay was SALARY REDACTED

3. Abazajian failed to fill out Schedule E and list UCI income for him as well as his Spouse.

Claim 4:

On the Climate Action Campaign webpage, “two campaigns” are listed.

The first: Community Choice Energy

CAC began working with Irvine residents in 2017 to introduce a bold Climate Action Plan and Community Choice Energy (CCE) to the City of Irvine.

In 2020, we helped establish Orange County Power Authority (OCPA), the region’s first Community Choice Energy program serving Irvine, Buena Park, Huntington Beach, and Fullerton. The County of Orange has also joined the program, which will begin serving customers in 2022.

We have watchdogged the launch of the agency, consistently advocating for transparency, clean energy, and equity. In 2021, we won the creation of OCPA’s Community Advisory Committee to keep the community at the center of the agency.

Kathleen Treseder is listed as a donor to the Organization on the same webpage. Yet Treseder neither disclosed this fact nor recused herself for a financial interest when voting on items concerning the Orange County Power Authority and, in fact, has used her Board position at OCPA to carry out her personal agendas. All of these votes, including the votes regarding the continued existence of the OCPA, should be set aside since Treseder has an un-waivable conflict of interest.

How can she be a major funder of the organization who advocated for the JPA and is now “watchdogging” it but able to vote on questions including Irvine’s participation in the JPA? She clearly has a vested interest in t he outcome. She is unable to act impartially, but even more troubling, she has never disclosed the financial ties between her and Climate Action Campaign which would lead to her disqualification from voting and from serving on the Board of the OCPA.

Furthermore, Ayn Craciun, an appointed commissioner of Treseder’s has improperly lobbied the Irvine City Council and the Orange County Power Authority in violation of Municipal Code Section 1-9-103(A) and Treseder has not only done nothing about this, but been complicit in making it happen by appointing Craciun.

The second campaign listed is:

Per Transparent California, Charis Kubrin’s 2022 total pay was SALARY REDACTED

In 2021, we helped Irvine commit to carbon neutrality by 2030. CAC also helped Irvine become one of only three cities in California to qualify for the Cool Block Challenge, signing up dozens of Irvine residents to become Cool Block Leaders. Through these efforts, Irvine is set to receive $1M to fund the implementation of its climate programs and policies. The Cool Block program will also provide Irvine residents access to $80 million in financing for residential carbon reduction projects including solar panels, electric heat pumps and more. We’re working to scale and replicate these wins in other cities throughout Orange County.

 Here, Treseder voted, without disclosing her interest, in the City’s Climate Action Plan.

Additionally, the last sentence about “scaling and replicating” the wins throughout Orange County violate the Ethical Public Service Ordinance because Treseder cannot lobby for this Organization or this “campaign” in other cities in Orange County without violating the Ordinance.

Based on the foregoing, the City Atorney (sic) must investigate each of these claims and take action where appropriate. Our clients urge the Council to adopt the recommendations contained in Treseder’s memo for changes to the Lobbying Ordinance since all of the individuals listed above would be dealt with even more harshly under Treseder’s proposed changes than the current Ordinance. Ethics and Integrity are very important to the political process and not something to be used by Kathleen Treseder for her own agenda.

Please provide your response to REDACTED EMAIL ADDRESS.

On behalf of concerned Irvine Residents,

 

Alex Wang

Great Park Resident

cc: Irvine City Clerk

Irvine City Attorny (sic)

Irvine City Manager

Enclosures: Ordinance

Form 700 – Ayn Craciun

Form 700 – Senait Forthal

Form 700 – Kevork Abazajian

Form 990 Climate Action Campaign

 

Wang addressed questions on this move by Treseder with TheLiberalOC.

“When Kathleen Treseder promoted herself trying to establish a new lobbyist ordinance, I felt like it was important to look at the people who she works with in politics and very quickly realized that her main political asset, Ayn Craciun is a professional lobbyist,” said Wang.  “That is very hypocritical, but not unusual for Treseder.”

He continued, “We are just regular Irvine residents with jobs and families and we don’t have time to do this full time like a tenured Professor, but many of the claims in the email were written by an attorney we are working with who lives near us and we are hiring a law firm to help pursue these claims at the City and State.

“Kathleen Treseder is the worst kind of politician.  She views herself as above the debate and justified in doing whatever it is she thinks is right and views everyone else as corrupt and unethical.  In reality, Treseder’s own record is very troubling and her past legal dealings at UCI suggest that she is a very dangerous person.  The voters of Irvine only know that she is a professor and loves the environment, they don’t know that she was removed from her Chair position due to her bizarre behavior when she carried a baseball bat to a meeting with administrators and called the police because of a threat to her safety from a colleague who was out of the Country.  We want people to understand that Kathleen Treseder is not only a liar and a fraud, but a very dangerous person who should not be entrusted to vote on issues important to Irvine.  (Note, the statements here are allegation based on a book by the colleague, Richard Symanski, who we have spoken to via email).

“In the short term, Craciun should have to register as a lobbyist, Treseder should have to recuse herself from votes where Craciun is involved, Craciun would have to be removed from her appointments because she is a lobbyist, Abazajian should be fined and forced to re-file a proper disclosure, and the grant of $150,000 to Forthal should be examined closely.  I don’t know how a politician enriching their friends with appointments and grants of City money is ok in any way.  It is certainly not ok for a politician who is such a hypocrite and guilty of the very things she accuses others of doing.”

Wang concludes: “If you watched the Council meeting on Tuesday, you will see that when one of our associates from UCI spoke, Doug Elliott and Treseder both claimed that ‘Mr. Strader’ ie behind this.  We have obviously heard of him because Treseder mentions him every meeting, but we have never met him and we are not working with him or anyone related to him in any way.  It is insulting that Treseder would disrespect residents, voters, and a student of her University by ignoring their statements and attributing them to someone not involved.  She can blame anyone she wants, but it won’t change the fact that Ayn Craciun is a lobbyist who has not filed at the City, she was appointed to two Commissions by Treseder, and this explicitly violates the Irvine code.”

My take is Treseder had no firm recommendations; many items, she wasn’t “married” to any specific idea.  Tammy Kim seemed interested in addressing “fake newspapers,” inferring Irvine Community News & Views which is a real newspaper as is the Irvine Standard and other weeklies.