Text of undated letter received October 24, 2004
Chris Mears
Irvine City Council Member
Orange County Great Park Corporation Board of Directors, Chair
Dear Friends,
As many of you know, I have endorsed Mike Ward for Mayor, and Greg
Smith, Mike House, and Steven Choi for Council - a team running
together as "Irvine First" - because I believe these people have what
it takes to restore integrity to City Hall.
I have witnessed first hand the various ways in which private financial
interests have been advanced at City Hall over the past several years.
Most of us know the phrase "influence peddling", and influence peddlers
have secured a beachhead at City Hall through their relationship with,
and support of, Larry Agran and Beth Krom. Chief among these peddlers
is Ed Dornan, someone who has sought to make huge dollars through the
proposed city utility and the development of the Great Park. Of course,
Ed is Larry and Beth's political pointman, pollster, and fundraiser,
and is also the owner of the "Hometown Voter Guide". The "Hometown
Voter Guide" is a political slate mailer which has collected hundreds
of thousands of dollars - typically from people who want to do business
with the city - and then uses the dollars to create and send mailers
that support Larry and Beth and their slate of candidates. You do the
math.
Unfortunately, there's more, although it takes some telling. The
genesis of my personal and political falling out with Larry has been
re-engineered by Larry and Ed in order to try to diminish the message
and the messenger. In truth, the beginning of the end of my personal
and political friendship with Larry was my decision, in the spring of
2003 not to run for Mayor or for Council in November, 2004. Prior
thereto, Larry and I had been political allies in the election of 2000,
and formed the core of a formidable team on the council. Larry faced
term limits in November, 2004, and our plan was that I would run for
Mayor at that time, which would free Larry to leave the council and do
what he had wanted to do for some time; become the highly paid
Executive Director of the Great Park Conservancy, a group that was an
outgrowth of Larry's grassroots political organization, Project 99, and
a group that, prior to the passage of Measure W, wanted to design and
build the Great Park. In Larry's thinking, I would anchor a council
majority as Mayor that was "Larry friendly", and would hopefully view
with favor the idea of providing at least interim funding, as
necessary, for the Conservancy - with the Conservancy paying Larry a
couple of hundred thousand dollars a year as its Executive Director!
My decision not to run for Mayor - based on personal and professional
considerations, and just plain old fatigue with Larry's continual
manipulation of the process - created havoc with Larry's plans, and he
was furious with me, in part because he didn't believe Beth Krom was
strong enough to be Mayor and champion his agenda. Thus, Larry felt
compelled to run for city council in order to preserve, and advance,
his interests. Unwilling to abandon his goal of becoming Executive
Director of the Great Park Conservancy, Larry sought to find a legal
way that he could serve on the council and, at the same time, work as
the highly paid Executive Director of the Conservancy. In fact, Larry
obtained a legal opinion that he could do both, so long as he abstained
from voting as a council member on any action that might direct money
to the Conservancy. It may be legal, but it hardly passes the smell
test.
It is also important to understand that Beth Krom has known about, and
supported, all of the influence peddling and manipulation engaged in by
Larry. Indeed, I took Beth out to dinner last March, just days after
the council had, on my motion, continued consideration of the city
utility, and days after I had confronted Larry and Ed Dornan about the
impropriety of Ed's financial interest in the utility. I wanted to be
sure Beth knew about Larry and Ed's manipulations and influence
peddling, and I wanted to gauge her reaction. I spent a couple of hours
laying out everything I knew about Larry and Ed's dealings, and the
role of money and self interest in the process. Beth's response was
underwhelming, to say the least, taking the position as she did that
there wasn't any decision presently before the council that would
require her to concern herself with these matters. Within days after
that meeting, I received a more definitive response: Larry and Ed began
a whisper campaign of personal attacks directed at me, obviously for
the purpose of try to damage the credibility of the messenger. Those
attacks continue to this day, as Beth well knows, and she is running
for Mayor on the slate with Larry, Sukhee Kang, and Debbie Coven.
One of the more outrageous personal attacks against me was launched
just days ago by political activist Frank Barbaro. The genesis of the
attack, financed by Larry's political machine, was my refusal to go
along with lobbyist Barbaro's union clients. He approached me to
support prevailing wage union contracts for the Great Park and I
refused. To go along with the Barbaro/Agran union plan would transfer
$90 million dollars available for sports parks and other amenities for
union wages. I refused... hence the attack.
Frank did get one thing right: I'm angry as hell, along with every
other Irvine resident who learns the truth about the fleecing of City
Hall. I'm angry at people like Larry and Beth and Ed and Frank and
anyone else who seeks to subvert the public interest with influence
peddling. I'm angry at Larry and Beth and Ed and Frank and their
minions who seek to personally and politically assassinate the
character of anyone who disagrees with them, let alone those of us who
have gone public with the truth about their influence buying and
selling in our city. And I'm angry, too, at their continual lying to
the public about what they know to be true. Irvine deserves better,
and, on November 2nd, Irvine can do better.
I haven't always agreed with Mike Ward and his "Irvine First" team, and
I'm sure I will have honest disagreements with them in the future. But
I do not question their honesty and integrity, qualities that are
sorely lacking, and sorely needed, at Irvine City Hall.
I encourage you to vote for the entire Irvine First Team. Vote to
return integrity to Irvine city government.
Sincerely,
/s/
Chris Mears
Irvine City Council Member
PAID FOR BY: RESTORE INTEGRITY TO IRVINE CITY HALL . 5319
UNIVERSITY DRIVE #801 . IRVINE, CA 92612 * ID#1269982