Irvine is gearing up for a riveting mayoral race, featuring a choice between long-time political veteran Larry Agran, who is famously reusing yard signs from previous campaigns, and the fresher prospect of Tammy Kim. The current atmosphere surrounding Irvine’s City Council has become increasingly toxic, attributed to both Larry Agran and Mayor Khan.
Historically, there has been little affection between Agran and Khan; however, in the past ten months, they have manifested an environment of hate and divisiveness culminating in a proposal from the dais to establish a sister city relationship with Gaza—an entity linked to Hamas, a designated terror organization by the U.S. Agran has inflamed an atmosphere of hate and division in what once was a previously peaceful and diverse community. Why do City Council members and even some residents require police escorts from city council meetings if not for hate exacerbated by Larry Agran.
Looking beyond this obvious transgression as an elected official, Larry continues to abuse his power at opportune times to use city funds in order to prop up his campaign. Some recent examples that deserve scrutiny are listed below as the recipients of Larry’s largess from the rainy-day funds in the Irvine City coffers (ref. Irvine City Council 23 July 2024). Are Irvine residents not allowed input into how their tax dollars are spent?
- The allocation of city reserves for a school bus under the jurisdiction of the Irvine Unified School District (IUSD).
- Support for Groundswell, an organization not based in Irvine with known antisemitic ties to CAIR. Does this organization deserve Irvine funds at all? If Agran is worried about hate speech, allocate Irvine City funds to our own Irvine Police and the hate portal for the city.
- A direct donation to the Irvine Children’s Fund from the council that circumvented established processes.
Let’s break down the last bullet to understand the irregularity of this allocation. By sidestepping this protocol, Agran has effectively bypassed the established vetting process for non-profits requesting funding from the city. To be clear, the Irvine Children’s Fund is a very worthy organization, but why weren’t the other non-profit organizations granted the opportunity to request rainy-day funds from City Council? Why was this disbursement of money not subject to established procedure? The Irvine Recovery Plan Grants meets to evaluate and score the applicants and present to City Council. Larry bypassed all established procedures and made it possible for any councilmember to reach into rainy day funds without following any set procedure for allocating city funds to organizations. Is it fair or appropriate that this donation to the Irvine Children’s Fund did not have the same vetting process before this allocation was made? This raises questions about fairness and appropriateness. The allocation for the Irvine Children’s Fund was clearly motivated by political considerations, representing an abuse of power. Larry has now motivated his Daughter in Law’s paper – ICNV – to make false and misleading statements about Tammy Kim’s stance on this issue stating “Tammy voted against giving money to the children’s fund”. This again is straight up political posturing to make it seem like Tammy is against funding children in Irvine. This could not be farther from the truth. Tammy put forward a counter proposal that Irvine funds should be allocated on an ongoing basis to the children’s fund instead of this one time donation that circumvents city process. LARRY VOTED THIS DOWN so that he could make these misleading statements about Tammy but this was conveniently overlooked in the ICNV article.
Larry is a lifelong Democrat with socialist roots. He began in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and has been active in the Democratic party in Irvine since the early 70’s. To put this in context, many people in Irvine were not yet born. He is one of the founding members of the Democrats of Greater Irvine (DGI). Due in large part to his unyielding socialist influence on this group, many democrats refocused their efforts on the Democratic Party of Orange County (DPOC) which maintains a more democratic representation of Irvine. It was telling that at the recent DGI meeting where the vote was to endorse a mayoral candidate, none of the candidates received enough votes to be endorse but at the same meeting for the DPOC Tammy Kim received an overwhelming endorsement prompting an unauthorized letter campaign from DGI requesting that “in the interest of party unity, DPOC should not endorse a candidate [either].” It is noteworthy that this email blast was not sent to all DGI members and selectively excluded those who were known supporters of Tammy Kim. Quite simply, Tammy Kim is much more representative of the Irvine constituency than Larry Agran.
As his base has begun to erode or quite simply expire, Larry is now turning to the Republican party for support as is evidenced by the sudden support and admiration for Michelle Johnson in District 1 as well as a sudden kinship with Mike Carroll.
A pressing question remains: where is Agran’s campaign funding coming from? The complex web of donations (See picture below) from various committees is challenging to trace, and little has been filed with the state for this campaign cycle. Agran has increasingly relied on his publication, the Irvine Community News and Views (ICNV), which functions as a thinly veiled slate mailer featuring attack pieces against Kim. In a recent article titled “Publisher’s Perspective: Tammy Kim’s Scheme to Evade Irvine’s Campaign Finance Laws,” publisher Frank Lunding accuses Kim of financial impropriety. However, Lunding’s understanding of election law is questionable; his experience comes from Illinois prior to the expansion of the Federal Elections Commission, and he was removed from his board due to neglect of duty. Is he really the expert Agran should consult for campaign advice, rather than the Irvine community itself?
The use of Irvine Community News and Views to support his political endeavors is not new. Larry owns stock in the paper as indicated in the diagram below and filed with the city. Also noteworthy is that his Daughter in Law runs the paper. Attached reference the papers filed with the state for the ICNV listing Kerri Agran as an agent of the LLC. Back in 2014, Larry actually sued the city of Irvine under Free Speech to allow his paper to be placed on the newsstands in City Hall. He actually cost the city money to defend his self-aggrandizing publication to be printed. Currently, ICNV is printed primarily during election periods and is otherwise available online. How are these expenditures not allocated to his campaign financing subject to FPPC laws? Documented evidence indicates that ICNV has been a significant funder of the Great Park Cemetery, through various campaign committees, and its debts seem to remain unresolved. It is concerning that ICNV, previously listed as a campaign committee with the city and state elections board, has transformed into an LLC, raising suspicions of its involvement as a dark money PAC acting as an Independent Expenditure. ICNV is billed as a community paper and they pay for the postage which Larry clearly gains political benefit in each mailing. Is this not a disclosable contribution to Larry’s campaign?
Frank Lunding, appointed by Agran to the Transportation Commission, has shown unwavering support for Agran through ICNV. It is essential for Lunding, Agran, and ICNV to demonstrate that they are not funneling dark money into the mayoral campaign, or face potential investigation from the Secretary of State, particularly given the limited funds declared thus far.
Concerns regarding transparency and the appropriate use of public funds are critical, especially when it involves funding decisions that bypass established processes. The accusations of circumventing bylaws, particularly with the Irvine Children’s Fund, suggest a potential misuse of power that undermines voter trust. The role of the Irvine Community News and Views and its relationship with Agran, is a crucial aspect of understanding the broader implications of this race. Questions regarding the transparency of funding sources and the compliance of political activities with state election laws could lead to significant scrutiny not just for Agran, but for the community’s overall electoral integrity.
Larry needs to come clean. Now.
