The Recall of Irvine’s Tammy Kim Appears Dead; So Vote Her Out in November Instead

The DPOC, at Monday’s June meeting, voted against an effort to recall Irvine Council member Tammy Kim.  What the party should have done was remove her for missing more than the required number of meetings where attendance is required long ago (she was re-elected to the Central Committee in March), but our party secretary (calling you out Luis Aleman) is awlful at keeping attendence.

It’s interesting that the Party voted to condemn the effort to recall Kim; from all accounts, the deadline to submit more than 15,000 signatures was June 10.  One source told me it was July 10, but I’ve been unable to confirm this with the city. So why even vote on a measure that’s passed it’s “sell by” date?

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EDITOR’S NOTE, AN UPDATE FROM THE CITY: 

The deadline to submit signatures for a recall election for Councilmember Kim is November 27, 2024  (SO WELL AFTER ELECTION DAY; and if Kim loses, she’d have one more week on the council so the recall remains stupid).

Per Elections Code §11221, 10% of the total number of registered voters would need to sign the recall petition, so 15,300 signatures are needed for the recall to qualify for the ballot.

A special election could cost the City up to approximately $1.4 million.

Information on when the election needs to take place is available in the State Elections Code: §11240, §11241, and §11242.

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In terms of how much Councilmember Kim would be allowed to raise per donor to campaign against the recall, the City’s Campaign Contribution Limits would not apply. Additional information can be found in FPPC Campaign Manual 3.

For those who want to recall Tammy Kim, stop (and if the deadline has passed, you missed your window).

You don’t have to recall Tammy Kim, but she is running for Mayor.  If she loses, she’s gone from the city council by early December.  So help her opponent, Larry Agran,instead.  You’ll spend less time and money and accomplish the same thing.

A recall election is expensive, and the target of the recall can raise lots of money to fight it.  Kim won’t have that option.  Just give money to and support her opponent,Larry Agran.  Be reminded that earlier in her term, Kim denied Agran the ability to agendize multiple issues while Irvine had “the rule of two.” Kim partnered with Republican Mike Carroll to rewrite Agran’s proposals to make them her own and took credit for the ideas.  She was shameless, so to beat her, just work to elect Agran instead and she’s out.  Gone from city council….it’s that simple.  Check out the many videos on Irvine resident Dee Fox’s YouTube page.

Here’s the argument from the Recall Tammy Kim peeps:

Councilmember Tammy Kim has failed to fulfill her duties. She misused her authority, curtailing constituents’ First Amendment rights, and falsely claimed to have received threats, misappropriating city resources for unfounded “protection.” A subsequent inquiry by the Irvine Police Department concluded that the allegations were unsubstantiated. Additionally, she attempted to remove residents from City Chambers.

On March 12, 2024, Councilmember Kim abruptly departed a City Council session upon realizing insufficient support for undemocratic measures she advocated, resulting in an impromptu adjournment. The ACLU stated these measures were “intended to stifle expression of a political viewpoint that some members of the Council may disagree with.”

She has silenced these communities’ efforts to secure their rights, by seeking to block public comments on issues she refused to see as local, despite hundreds of public testimonials on their local impact.

Repeatedly, Councilmember Kim abandoned Council meetings without justification, particularly when it was time to listen to public comments from constituents with differing viewpoints, causing disruption. When present, she has demonstrated disdain towards constituents by wearing Airpods during comments and taking photographs of them from the dais. She has espoused hate speech, including accusing constituents of “using children as shields.”

Editor’s note: These charges apply to Councilmemebr Kathleen Treseder as well.  Council member Mike Carroll also left meetings but at least he did not require police protection.

From the Korea Times, this:

It’s very disconcerting to receive this kind of notice when the mayoral election is about six months away, Kim said. She also stated that it seems like a blatant tactic by her opponents to intimidate and undermine her campaign.

To meet the requirements for a recall election, the recall campaign must collect 15,000 valid signatures by June 10. Kim’s camp says the recall is being politically exploited because she is running for mayor in November and her term as a council member ends later this year.

The group did not get the required number of signatures by June 10, so voting against the Kim recall by that party was two weeks too late.  And there are those from the city’s AAPI community that think Kim is dodging her responsibilities as a council member by abandoning her chair when Irvine residents want to talk about Gaza and Israel.

Here’s their open letter to Kim who has ignored them:

Dear Councilmember Tammy Kim,

We’re writing to you today as Asian American and Pacific Islander residents of Irvine. For over three months, we’ve witnessed a genocide unfold in Gaza in large part due to the courageous reporting from journalists on the ground. We have also listened to the lived experiences of the Palestinian people and Palestinian diaspora in several contexts—including at our council meetings—as they call for a ceasefire and recount the terrible violence that Israel has inflicted on their loved ones through collective punishment. 

In recent council meetings, the primary argument against the passing of a ceasefire resolution is that any public forum on the subject is either a misuse of resources or outside of the council’s jurisdiction. That line of thinking is patently misguided if we truly live in a functioning democracy. Every level of government, local to federal, is integral to each other’s functioning. How Irvine votes on record is a reflection of its constituents, connecting us to other cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, Long Beach, and Detroit that stand on the right side of history. Conversely, how federal policy is implemented affects us locally. Our demands for a better resourced public education, housing, and healthcare system—issues that are important to your political platform—are neglected by a bipartisan, militaristic government. 

Many of our families emigrated to the United States due to American military campaigns across Asia such as the Philippine-American war, western imperialism in China, the division of the Korean peninsula, and the Vietnam war and its ‘secret war’ in Laos. From these histories, in which millions of people were displaced as refugees, we learned that US-backed wars only exacerbate the suffering of people forced to live through its unspeakable conditions. It does not liberate or resolve urgent socio-political injustices even if government officials claim otherwise. Over 24,000 people¹ have been killed by Israel’s indiscriminate bombing while roughly 85% of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have been displaced². After more than 100 days, there is still no resolution to the Israeli hostage crisis while the Palestinian death toll continues to rise. As Americans, we must do our part in stopping the flow of weapons and pressuring the Israeli government to resolve the conflict diplomatically. 

The irresponsible, opportunistic peddling of Israeli propaganda by media corporations and political actors has fueled the rise in islamophobia and anti-semitism. Continuing to remain silent on the genocide—to allow dishonest actors to lie without accountability—only further endangers our Muslim and Jewish neighbors here in Irvine. During catastrophes like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Asian-Americans witnessed how our communities bore the brunt of violence stoked by xenophobia. On April 13th, 2021 the city council passed a resolution opposing the rise of anti-Asian hate in Irvine³. We must find that same resolve when supporting a ceasefire resolution or risk losing our credibility when speaking to our children and future generations. 

We’re proud to see an Asian American woman representing us on Irvine city council but that diversity must translate into substantive action. We are asking you to represent us as you campaign to be Irvine’s next mayor. We urge you to take a clear ethical stance against the genocide in Gaza. We call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and an end to the US-backed Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Thank you,

AAPI Irvine Residents and Allies from Surrounding Orange County Cities

For recall proponents, focus your efforts on Dr. Kathleen Treseder who is aligned with Kim; as she has two years left on her term and is the one council member most afraid of her own shadow.  She has left the dais in fear of her safety due to social media messages that Irvine Police, who attend council meetings, have decided were not credible threats.  Treseder has done the same thing as a professor at UCI demanding security escorts because she didn’t feel safe walking on campus citing her #metoo efforts.

City Hall is a limited pubic forum.  And many public speakers have crossed the line in discussing Israel and Gaza into hate speech.  The cure for speech you don’t like is more speech, not less.  And while a city council has no power to bring about peace in the Middle East, what they can do is listen to the concerns of their residents. And city councils do issue resolutions on all sorts of subject matters.

The only two council members brave enough to listen to the public have been Irvine mayor Farrah Khan and Vice Mayor Larry Agran, who is also running for Mayor but will be on the city council until 2026 regadless on how the Mayor’s race goes.  People on both sides want to be heard, whether or not the council can do anything about the Middle East or not.  Council members Mike Carroll, Kim and Tresder are cowards for walking out.

Irvine Asians for Peace have been especially critical of Kim.  They have a nice collection of You Tube Videos, like this one where Kim details all of the ills of the wordlthat upset her. The difference is she got to make this statement and residents, who have a right to be heard in public comments, were denied this same ability by Kim in a March meeting where she moved to end a meeting before the public could speak on non-agenda items.

Here’s the summary from Irvine Asians for Peace:

At the 3/12/24 Irvine city council meeting, Tammy Kim exploited her position as councilmember to motion to formally end the council meeting, breaking a promise the council made that all non-agendized public comments would be heard at the end of the meeting once all business had been conducted. Kim also insisted that the zoom video recording be turned off so that the rest of the public comments would not be saved for the record. Due to the fact that Kim had a 3-2 majority on the council with Kathleen Treseder and Mike Carroll, the council meeting was formally adjourned. Mayor Farrah Khan and Vice Mayor Larry Agran stayed behind to listen to the rest of their constituents’ public comments while the other three left their seats. This is not the first time these three councilmembers have excused themselves during public comment sessions because they refused to listen to their Palestinian constituents and their allies.

Of course, if those who want to recall Kim are still hellbent on a recall, go after Treseder who votes lock step with Kim.