Irvine News Blog | Category Archives: Larry Agran

Forde & Mollrich attempt to bog down HSNO’s Great Park forensic audit

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Editor Posted in Christina Shea, Crime, Irvine, Larry Agran, News Leave a comment

Forde & Mollrich Attempt to Bog Down HSNO’s Great Park Forensic Audit

By: Irvine Councilwoman Christina Shea

Millions of dollars in no-bid contracts were awarded to political allies of former council leader Larry Agran. Hagen, Streiff, Newton & Oshiro Accountants (HSNO) forensic audit preliminary findings found significant waste and abuse surrounding no-bid contracts. Chief among the controversial contracts was Public relations firm Forde & Mollrich! Forde & Mollrich were paid $100,000 per-month to promote a park that largely didn’t exist. Forde & Mollrich have collected $20 million through city contracts over the years. Forde & Mollrich refused to respond to HSNO initial requests and forced the city to issue a city issued subpoena earlier this month.

The public has a right to know what happened to over $200 million tax payer money spent on the 1,300-acre Great Park, with very little to show for! Mayor Steven Choi, Mayor Pro Tem Jeffrey Lalloway and I commissioned this forensic audit immediately after being sworn in last year in order to find out exactly how this money was spent. Continue reading→

The Los Angeles Angels of Irvine?

Posted on May 4, 2014 by Editor Posted in Anaheim, Angels, Beth Krom, Jeff Lalloway, Larry Agran, Mayor Steven Choi, News, Sukhee Kang Leave a comment

LA-ANGELS-CAP

From the OC Politics Blog

In the Left Angeles Times yesterday is Angels talk with developer about potential Irvine ballpark (outside any paywall here – we’re never sure when it’s working). Matt “Jerbal” Cunningham also picked up on it at his Anaheim Blog and offered this rubbish:

Now, if you’re a member of the torpedo-the-Angels-negotiations claque, clear your mind and repeat after me: The Angels have nowhere to go. The Angels have nowhere (sic), The Angels have nowhere to go.

Well apparently they DO. We wouldn’t doubt for a minute that Emil Haddad, the very smart and powerful developer of 4,606 homes at FivePoint Communities which borders the Great Park or the slippery Irvine Councilman Jeff Lalloway would jump at any lucrative arrangement which would bring the Angels to a new stadium at the property — to hell with the bankrupt and corrupt $220 million Great Park plan — there’s a lot of money to be made and this opportunity is a perfect solution for recovering the funds squandered by Larry Agran, Beth Krom and their cronies when they controlled the Park Board and Irvine City Council. What better way for Irvine to get itself out of the Great Park hole than by bringing a revenue-generator to town like an almost-contending Major League baseball team that has a six-year, $144.5M lock on Mike Trout, as well as two expensive, aging “superstars” in Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton? Continue reading→

What Supervisor Spitzer said when he opposed the Agran deal with Nha Trang, Vietnam

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Editor Posted in Irvine, Larry Agran, News, Orange County, Vietnamese Americans 1 Comment

By: Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer

Last week, Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran proposed a “Friendship City” relationship between Irvine and Nha Trang, Vietnam. The item was placed on the Irvine City Council agenda for this past Tuesday’s meeting.

A large number of people appeared at Tuesday’s Irvine City Council meeting to protest the proposal, filling the City Council chamber and the City Hall lobby to capacity and spilling into the plaza outside City Hall. Crowd estimates ranged from 600 people reported by the Los Angeles Times to 2,000 people reported by CBS 2/KCAL 9 and the Associated Press.

Among those speaking at the Council meeting in opposition to the proposal were Orange County Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Janet Nguyen, State Senator Lou Correa, former State Assemblymen Van Tran and Jose Solorio, Orange County Clerk-Recorder Hugh Nguyen, Fountain Valley Mayor Michael Vo, Westminster Mayor Tri Ta, Garden Grove Councilmembers Dina Nguyen and Chris Phan, Huntington Beach Councilman Joe Carchio, former Orange County Board of Education Trustee Long Pham, and Garden Grove Unified School District Vice President Lan Quoc Nguyen. State Assemblymen Don Wagner, Allan Mansoor, and Travis Allen also sent representatives to voice their opposition to the proposal. Continue reading→

Agran ripped at tonight’s Council meeting by hundreds of Vietnamese Americans

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Editor Posted in Beth Krom, Christina Shea, Irvine, Larry Agran, News, Politics 22 Comments

“Irvine City Hall is absolutely packed with pissed off Vietnamese citizens,” according to Irvine Finance Commissioner Allan Bartlett, as posted on his Facebook page.

What happened? To make a long story short, Irvine Councilman Larry Agran completely stepped in it – he angered the entire Vietnamese community in Orange County. “More than 1,000 signatures were gathered by Vietnamese on-line petition against Agran adding Nha Trang a Vietnam city to Irvine’s friendship city plan,” according to Irvine Councilwoman Christina Shea’s blog. Continue reading→

The entire O.C. Vietnamese community is mad at Larry Agran!

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Editor Posted in Democratic Party, Irvine, Larry Agran, News, Politics, Vietnamese Americans 7 Comments

Has Irvine Councilman Larry Agran lost his mojo? You have to wonder about that as it has been nothing but bad news for the OC Democratic Party’s Irvine powerbroker since his coalition lost control of the Irvine City Council in 2012.

Agran’s latest gaffe is mind-blowing. Here is how the Los Angeles Times explained his gigantic faux pas:

Of all the places in the world, why did Larry Agran have to choose Vietnam?

That’s what local Vietnamese Americans wondered after learning the longtime Irvine councilman hoped to forge a relationship between the master-planned community and Nha Trang, a south coastal city in Vietnam known for its beaches and scuba diving. Continue reading→

Reception for Irvine City Council candidate Melissa Fox set for April 10

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Editor Posted in Beth Krom, Democratic Party, Irvine, Larry Agran, Melissa Fox, News, Politics Leave a comment

Melissa Fox, a local attorney who is running for the Irvine City Council, is holding a campaign reception on Thursday, April 10, 2014, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, at the Caspian Restaurant, located at 14100 Culver Drive, in Irvine.

Fox, an ally of Irvine Council Members Larry Agran and Beth Krom, serves on the Irvine Community Services Commission. She ran for the 70th Assembly District in 2010, garnering 37.8% of the vote, as the Democratic Party’s nominee. She was soundly defeated by the Republican nominee, Don Wagner, who ended up with 58.2% of the vote, according to Smart Voter. Continue reading→

Great Park audit reveals that Agran handed $174K a month to his political operatives

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Editor Posted in Beth Krom, Crime, Great Park, Larry Agran, News Leave a comment

Over the high-pitched squeals of Agran and his robotic council sidekick, Beth Krom, the new Irvine City Council majority ordered an independent audit to answer a question the Democratic political machine didn’t want answered: How did Agran spend more than $200 million in Great Park funds, but yet after more than eight years of alleged planning there was (and is) no park? (As reported by R. Scott Moxley at the OC Weekly).

Well now we know how Agran and Krom blew the Great Park money and it isn’t pretty. Continue reading→

Anon donations to Irvine candidates pale in comparison to Agran’s historic corruption

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Editor Posted in Irvine, Jon Fleischman, Larry Agran, News, Politics Leave a comment

Jon Fleischman Picture

From the OC Politics Blog

An out-of-state political group appears to have violated election laws when it funneled $200,000 in anonymous campaign donations to a conservative Orange County committee, which spent the money in a successful bid to shift the longstanding balance of power on the Irvine City Council, documents and interviews show, according to the O.C. Register.

A total of $186,000 was poured into the Irvine mayoral and City Council races by California Term Limits PAC, which was formed three months before the election by Irvine resident and Republican consultant Jon Fleischman. Continue reading→

Agran caught redhanded trying to regain control of the Irvine School Board

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Editor Posted in Beth Krom, Education, Irvine, Larry Agran, News Leave a comment

Larry Agran in 1992

It would appear that liberal Irvine Councilman Larry Agran is up to his old tricks again. This time he stands accused of fomenting a petition drive to void the recent appointment of an Irvine School Board Member and force a special election.

Chris Nguyen, over at the OC Political Blog, did a great job of catching Agran, and his fellow liberal Beth Krom, in the act. Here is Nguyen’s accounting of what this sordid pair is up to now: Continue reading→

Musick Jail – Larry Agran & Beth Krom got us where we are today

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Editor Posted in Beth Krom, Christina Shea, Irvine, Larry Agran, Musick Jail, News Leave a comment

Musick Jail – Larry Agran & Beth Krom Got Us Where We Are Today!

By: Irvine Council Member Christina Shea

A lot of Irvine residents are upset over the expansion we are now fighting at Musick Jail.

I want to remind Irvine residents of the agreement that was reached in February of 2000, when I was Mayor. Councilmembers Smith and Ward joined me in voting for the settlement agreement. Councilmembers Agran and Christensen voted against the agreement! Continue reading→