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09/29/2010 9:56:00 PM
Orange County needs its own comprehensive veteran's services and a homeless shelter for our 5600 homeless veterans and other disabled people who cant get shelter access.
Looks like a very good spot.
Maybe the new Irvine Hoag facility can do a out of network agreement for VA care for now?
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Chip 09/12/2010 2:23:00 AM
There was a vote: no goddamn airport. I still don't want it for the same reasons. As Ltpar said prosecute the obvious criminals & just stick to delivering what the people voted for. Fast RE devels & politicians have been defiling south county since *governor* Reagan opened it up to them; this used to be a great place. Today, I would not start a life in OC.
And the patsy was stationed at Tustin.
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wbutterman 09/03/2010 3:57:00 PM
Hilarious - the lengths people will take to deflect the Great Airport idea, including subtracting runout areas from runway lengths. Quite weak.
Sorry, but MCAS Eltoro would have made a splendid airport! Perhaps we need to try again! Time to put this to a vote, perhaps after Agran is resting quietly in prison. After years of Great Pork flyers with nothing to show, and the incredible bad press of this mega-fiasco, I'm sure the OC voters would not be hoodwinked again.
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Brent Lettington 08/30/2010 10:32:00 PM
Another welcomed Agran story. I am not jaded when I say that unless Larry is convicted of something, he will always be pulling the strings in Irvine and the Great Park. Honestly most people in irvine do not care about local politics. Look at the number of presidential votes cast in the last election and then see how few voted for mayor/city council in Irvine. It proves most don't care. Now that there have been so many high density housing units built in Irvine since the last election, I am sure that he will be able to increase his base. No, he will keep plodding along filling his pockets, and making his friends richer. It will be after the money is gone that people outside of Irvine will care about what has happened.
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Matt J. 08/30/2010 8:48:00 PM
If you take the upcoming expenditures for just the park staff and balloon rides and then divide it by the population of Irvine (as of 1/2010), those "free" balloon rides will cost every resident $22.72, whether you ride it or not.
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Art Pedroza 08/29/2010 2:53:00 AM
Adios Agran!
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Defeat Agran's Enablers 08/25/2010 4:38:00 PM
I do not know if Irvine voters will EVER wake up and toss these bums out. However, anybody who is registered ANYWHERE in California can vote against Agran's Enablers.
Mimi Walters is running for state treasurer against Bill Lockyer. Mimi was chair of ETRPA (El Toro Reuse Planning Authority), a coalition of 10 south county cities that successfully prevented El Toro from being re-used as a civilian airport.
The thing is ANYBODY can say NO to something, like NO airport (at El Toro) of any size whatsoever! That is the easy part. Real leadership is coming up with a viable plan and actually implementing it.
All ETRPA simply did was give Larry Agran a HUGE BLANK CHECK by allowing Irvine to annex 100% of the base. The other 9 cities in ETRPA besides Irvine spent probably around 5-10 million each over a 10 year period and got NOTHING in return for it!
What ETRPA should have done is split up the base amongst the cities so that Irvine by itself would not have complete control of what is supposed to be a COUNTYWIDE asset like the alleged "Great Park".
ETPRA and Mimi Walters abdicated their duty to the taxpayers of Orange County by handing over El Toro to Irvine with absolutely no safeguards or checks and balances. If Mimi Walters can screw up handling a billion dollar asset like the park, then do you TRUST her with the state treasury??? I sure don't!
Another politician running for statewide office would be incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer. She awarded the alleged "Great Park" somewhere in the neighborhood of half a million in "stimulus funds" for a "hangar". The problem with that is she, is aiding and abetting the Agranistas with OUR FEDERAL TAXDOLLARS! The Great Park was promised to built WITHOUT TAXES!
In addition, at least twice in the past, the alleged "Great Park" has tried to rob the state taxpayers via a couple propositions (in 2002 and 2008) that would have either diverted general funds or bond money to the alleged "Great Park". Fortunately both measures were defeated. But until the Agranistas and their enablers are removed from office, the assault on our pocketbooks will continue.
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Jim Davis, Veterans-For-Change 08/24/2010 12:15:00 AM
What I honestly don’t get is why with all the media coverage most sources have not mentioned the serious chemical contamination at former MCAS El Toro.
The fact that this former base is on the EPA superfund list has barely ever been mentioned.
All those who served or worked on this base were exposed to chemical contamination, and already thousands are sick and dying or have died already.
Civilian workers right along with the Veterans who worked on this base and 129 others who are sick and dying have absolutely no clue why, and this is because the Department of the Navy, City of Irvine, EPA, and Lennar all refuse to inform the public that this land should not and cannot be used for residential, community park, or business without risking countless thousands of other lives.
The greed is too great for an admission of truth.
What I’d like to know is how many lives does it take to be lost before people begin to speak the truth, and stop risking the lives on countless others?
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IrvinePolitico 08/23/2010 6:05:00 PM
Mega Jesus wrote:
"Has Agran done anything illegal or unethical?"
This is a joke, right?
Let's start with October 2000, when he leaked a bogus report claiming he could build the Great Park for $200 million.
Then there were all the investigative reports in 2004 by the L.A. Times, O.C. Register, and O.C. Weekly documenting how Agran's campaign manager Ed Dornan had got together with some of Agran's inner circle to start registering "Great Park" business names with the state in anticipation of being awarded no-bid contracts by Agran.
Then there was the scandal in August 2004 when longtime Agran ally Chris Mears publicly renounced him, exposing a scheme involving Agran and Dornan to award a no-bid contract to a company that would run a municipal utility, and that Dornan would get about $700,000 as a reward.
Then there was the Grand Jury investigation in 2006 which found that Agran had betrayed his promise during the Measure W campaign that "the people of Orange County" would build the Great Park. Agran, Krom and Kang voted to seize for themselves control of the Great Park away from the board intended to represent "the people of Orange County."
Then there were the no-bid contracts given to Forde Mollrich, the political consultant firm that runs Agran's campaigns off the book. They get over $1 million per year to promote the Great Park while simultaneously promoting Agran's campaign slates as "the Great Park team."
Then there were all the Great Park no-bid contracts given to companies that donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Agran's nominally "independent" campaign slush funds. These funds were actually run by Agran cronies who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars flooding Irvine with a fake newspaper and other campaign propaganda promoting Agran.
Then there was the 2004 election in which the Agran slate ran a fake candidate for mayor, Earle Zucht, to pull votes away from the Republican candidate. Zucht claimed to be a Republican but reporters discovered after the election he was a poker buddy of Dornan's whose campaign was subsidized by a lobbyist who'd donated to the Agran slate.
Then there the coverup of a 2008 audit which found over $1 million in unexplained payments to the Great Park no-bid contractors. The auditor complained the contractors had stopped cooperating with the audit after the Agran slate retained its majority. Two months later, the auditor was given a bogus document they claimed gave the contractors the authority to spend money however they wanted without accountability. When all this finally came to light, Agran, Krom and Kang voted to end the audit rather than let the truth come to light.
Then there was the incident where Agran tried to hire a good buddy of his from Chicago to be the Great Park CEO. Agran conducted the "search" himself and refused to let other council members see the resumes of other applicants. After several months in court, the judge finally ordered Agran to release the documents and far more qualified candidates were found. The "buddy" went back to Chicago rather than be part of this cesspool.
The only reason, in my opinion, that Agran is not in jail is that the Orange County D.A. is politically connected to Agran's consultant Forde & Mollrich.
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MegaJesus 08/23/2010 8:37:00 AM
Has Agran done anything illegal or unethical?
Haterz gonna hate.
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GreatPorkRinds 08/23/2010 7:30:00 AM
wbutterman: LAX's 07L/25R runway has a length of 12,091', not 3.83 miles. SNA's 01L/19R runway has a length of 5,701' not 1.80 miles. Finally MCAS El Toro's two long runways are 10,000' not 6.0 miles. The overrun areas for all three of these locations are not significant and don't factor in to the discussion. Please come back and visit us again when you learn more of airport operations and can get the very basic facts straight.
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Roger Butow 08/22/2010 7:29:00 PM
wbutterman:
No, I don't live in a cheap condo in Aliso Viejo, and what's more I think that sentence reveals a lot about YOUR mindset. Shouldn't we be in dialogue, not demeaning each other for availing ourselves of honest dialogue this venue offers. We're not at a place where we can go back to Square #1, a ZERO SUM endgame (international airport) is unrealistic, so why bother?
Certainly I'm not fearful, uncertain or doubtful. I am a Vietnam-era Marine, I knew when I joined in 1966 I was probably going to die on foreign soil. After all, I openly identified myself, even though I'm a public figure (hence a target) I didn't use a pseudonym. I DO live in the smallest, funkiest surf shack in Victoria Beach (Laguna).
What I am proposing is that a compromise could still be reached. Use what's left for a Regional Transportation Hub (RTH). We'd have the OES (Office of Emergency Services) potential, commuter improvement elements, and fiscally sound planning, a better more realistic revenue model. This would benefit ALL of the OC, not the taxpayer rolls of Irvine. I still believe that Irvine's Larry Agran did this for $$$, the tax base, not for a better South OC.
Look at a GOGGLE MAP: Restrict the RTH to the EXISTING flight ramp footprint. This automatically means smaller craft, hence eliminating large aircraft regional opposition. When the Santa Anas blow or any other inclement weather, you'd still have the perimeter as a buffer zone in case of crashes. The perimeter, by the way, could then be the ground transportation element, which makes sense regarding access/egress.
God forbid we have a calamity that requires the National Guard, there'd still be a way to stage, house and transport them.
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wbutterman 08/22/2010 6:06:00 AM
I love the old 'The Logistics don't work due to Military Aircraft Magic' - the same old line used in the snooker job played on the public during the election. Runway lengths, including runout as follows for three major airports: LAX: runway 29=3.83 miles, SNA=1.80 finally KNZJ (MCAS El Toro) runway 34 = 6.0 MILES. Taking off due north is clear area free from development. People will still actually claim that 6 mines is not enough, when SNA, John Wayne has done it with one THIRD the length.
THIS is why we have a Great Pork. If a an airport was ever approved by voters, the profits could easily repay Lenmar, who have actually reneged on their contact anyway. I only hope the voice of reason can rise above this fear, uncertainty and doubt floated by people who probably live in Aliso Viejo in a cheap condo.
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Amy 08/22/2010 6:00:00 AM
Thanks Moxley for once again providing context to a major county issue. This report is devastating to Larry Agran's fake persona. I'm a Democrat but I have to admit Agran is the type of guy who spews lie upon lie upon lie. You've proven this in years past and again now. I also gree with Ltpar. Where's the FBI?
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Roger Butow 08/22/2010 2:37:00 AM
Residual contaminants of concern:
John Uldrich, another former MCAS El Toro Marine now on 100% service connected disability, provided this info....Our beef is mainly with the health impacts that already occurred, plus the ones now being experienced. These carcinogens are like ticking bombs. Our government (The Va et al) deny every claim regardless of benefits. This forces veterans and their families to spend years & personal funds to achieve justice.
Many times the veteran is gravely ill or dead before any resolution takes place---A little late for men & woman who raised their hand and vowed to give up their life for their country's interests---It's a form of "Death by Friendly Fire," now isn't it? This is why we're so pissed off. To this day our people have been treated like crap. We never get closure.
"The station was used for aviation activities for almost 50 years. Activities at the base have generated waste oils, paint residues, hydraulic fluid, used batteries and other wastes. In the past, there were few environmental rules and regulations and disposal technologies were limited. During those times, some wastes produced at station were disposed on the station. Recent recognition that these waste products may be harmful to people and the environment has resulted in new laws and regulations governing disposal.
Soil and groundwater contamination at MCAS El Toro is a result of several past operations that were accepted practices. example, in the 1940s, aircraft refurbishing included the use solvents during degreasing activities. Between 1943 and 1955, municipal-type solid waste was generated by station housing (typical residential activities). Early disposal activities included incineration. Later, solid waste disposal was conducted at cut-and-fill landfill sites. Four landfills received solid waste, paint residues, oily wastes, industrial solvents, and incinerator ash. Fire-fighting training exercises were conducted at two burn pit areas and included the use of various flammable liquids such as jet fuel, aviation gasoline, and other waste liquids.
MCAS is situated in a semi-urban, agricultural area of Southern California. The majority of the land immediately surrounding MCAS WAS used to raise oranges, strawberries, asparagus, and other agricultural crops. Portions of the station are leased for nursery use and agriculture use. The University of California, Irvine, has an agricultural field station directly north of MCAS. Located just northeast of the MCAS is a large nursery where fruit trees are grown. Until 10 years ago, the entire area surrounding MCAS was agricultural land; since then, urbanization has brought development closer to MCAS. New housing developments lie about one-half mile to the northeast of Site 1. About one-half mile northwest of the MCAS boundary are the main residential areas of the city of Irvine. The land farther north and northeast of MCAS in the Santa Ana Mountains and the San Joaquin Hills remains essentially undeveloped except for Rancho Santa Margarita."
Roger Butow Clean Water Now!
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Roger Butow 08/21/2010 11:32:00 PM
I think that it's a little late in this bait & switch game, the flying logistics prohibitive for large civilian craft to make it a full scale commercial airport. Military planes, by design with boosters/afterburners, takeoff and land more efficiently, including on a shorter or little runway like Harriers.
I do think that a compromise could have been reached 10 years ago: A municipal airport for small private/commercial planes, including helicopters, for local commerce and hops. To include a light rail connection plus PARK & RIDE for traffic congestion. This would get all of them out of John Wayne. It would also assist OC for emergency services if we have a major catastrophe. Recent seismic research reflects how close we are to the BIG ONE, having a local (albeit restrained) airfield could save thousands of lives. One of my annoyances is that we Marines always had a Plan B....Larry stopped at Plan (A)gran.
Worse, if part is converted back to air traffic, I assume OC taxpayers would have to not only pay off the contractual obligations, but a court could rule that there should be compensatory damages in addition for projected corporate profits. This is a slow moving disaster. It won't do us any good fiscally to have Larry A. behind bars if we're going to be stuck with one gargantuan tab. Worser, he and his fellows will spend their incarceration at some country club facility, ALSO on our dime.
To avoid partisanship at the State level, to avoid local shenanigans, ONLY a federal investigation could shake the monkeys responsible out of the trees. Once the federales get involved, some type of mandated relief like a court injunction, an estoppel that halts everything, should be put in place. I'd rather see my former base sit there as is, a mess, while things get sorted out.
Like Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan, going forward is counter-intuitive. When you're digging a hole, once you're almost in over your head you need to stop, otherwise you can't get out.
We need to re-load, now that the training wheels of Larry's choo-choo train are coming off.
Roger Butow Clean Water Now! & Salem-News.com
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wbutterman 08/21/2010 10:32:00 PM
Enough with the "Great Pork"!! More than a few people knew this was a giant scam to prevent the Great Airport from being built. A scam sold to the OC voters who were convinced by a flashy campaign that the so-called 'Great Park' would be a world class park and a crown jewel of OC.
Agran and the other criminals snookered the voters, time to put the issue up to another vote:
Shall the El Toro Marine Air Base be converted into a combination international airport, parkland/greenbelt and public space?
The "mixed use with airport" plans from the 90's could be implemented today, without the need to build thousands of new homes that would clog the 405, and would be hard to sell in this market anyway. And the dramatic positive fiscal impact of a Great Airport would certainly attract outside investors to help fund this operation.
I would bet that the voters that were snookered before would vote correctly this time, and vote for a Great Airport. And we could finally dismiss Agran and his Soviet style cronies.
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Sean 08/21/2010 10:15:00 AM
How do you administer something that doesn't exsist? With those attory fees paid you'd think some better BS lines are in order..So what can be done to put these mega-million thieves in jail for awhile?? all the corrupt politicians need to be rounded up and fed to the people with all they've stolen givin to charity..which also needs a little audit.
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Roger Bütow 08/20/2010 10:09:00 PM
The Mox-meister:
Great column, even though myself and other former USMC veterans who served at the base have been writing about this evolving train wreck (both fiscally and environmentally a catastrophe) for about 3 years now, you dug up some really interesting info that we'll research more fully. Mostly Vietnam-era Marines, we were hoping that a part of the originally agreed upon parcel would become a combination War Vets memorial and a sub-part of that Forest Lawn cemetery would be dedicated to the Orange County men and women of all military branches who served. Other burial spots are filled up and I'm 1/4 Native American, one of those who doesn't believe in cremation, I believe in letting my body give back, feed the Earth. Agran's Clown Posse won't even toss us a cookie, a table scrap or crumb of dignity. We raised our hands, and whether we cleaned latrines at El Toro, slogged through rice paddies or humped 60 pounds of equipment over Middle East deserts, we deserve better.
Can't thank you and cohort Matt Coker enough for keeping the fire from going out, or Christina Shea's and now Jeff Lalloway's honorable bravery and fiscal accountability---This involves a lot of $$$ and political influence, many are anxious that those of us whistleblowing could be disappeared. This should be investigated by the feds: It might involve RICO, it definitely requires legal investigative resources without any local conflict of interest, and it is a federal NEPA (National Enviro Policy Act) and Superfund rehabilitation. That and the OCGJ or DA Offices would have access or staff time to thoroughly investigate this.
Here's a link to the online paper where our close-knit working group posts more supplementary info, another resource for those interested. Be prepared to get a little choked up, there are some pretty tragic stories, what we feel legitimate cancer clusters-----Marines, their families, the civilian teachers and vendors have ALL experienced illnesses and death due to what believe was and still is ubiquitous contamination of the soil and water: http://www.salem-news.com/
PS: I'm not a Republican. This is more important than partisanship.
Semper Fi and a much deeply and sincerely appreciated thank you!
Roger Bütow Founder of Clean Water Now! and ODD MAN OUT @ Salem-News.com
Laguna Beach CA
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IrvinePolitico 08/20/2010 8:59:00 PM
Excellent article by Scott Moxley, who deserves the credit for sending Sheriff Carona to jail.
Overlooked in the article is the first time Agran dissembled on the Great Park. It was in October 2000, when he was running for mayor. Agran leaked to the OC Register a consultant study he claimed showed the Great Park could be built in 20 years for $200 million. The other four council members had agreed it should not be released as they felt the study conclusions were bogus. But Agran leaked it anyway to get himself some positive press.
The other council members called an emergency session and voted to censure Agran for his misbehavior. It remains the only time in Irvine history that a council member has been censured by his colleagues for wrongdoing.
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Ltpar 08/20/2010 7:25:00 AM
Good article Scott, however even laying it out the way you did, you just touch the tip of the ice berg on corruption and mismanagement in Irvine. What the media really needs to do is turn up the heat under the United States Attorney in Los Angeles to order a detailed investigation of the Great Park and the City of Irvine by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While Larry Agran and his Agranista's can take a raincheck on talking to the media, they have no such luxury when Federal Agents come a calling. The best part is if a person lies to a Federal Agent and are caught, they get prosecuted for that as well.
The Great Park is however just anothe page in the book of corruption in the City of irvine. the Agranistas have been shaking down developers in a "pay to play" operation for as long as they have been in power. If FBI Agents were to advise those developers that refusal to answer questions or failure to tell the truth would result in their own indictment, does anyone not believe they would give up the Agranistas in a heart beat.
All things considered, you have to give Larry Agran credit for being a man of his word. He once told an ally at the time, Council Member Dave Christensen, "Dave, there will be plenty of gravy for everyone at the Great Park." As the man in charge of ladling out that gravy, Agran has done a commendable job of taking care of his friends and political advisors, especially Forde and Moolrich.
While Lady Justice wears a blindfold, occasionaly the light of day does slip through to her. We can only hope that sooner or later, the Justice System will wake up and see what is going on in Irvine. No person or group is above the law, but so far the Agranistas seem to be proving to be the exception.
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Santiago Medina 08/20/2010 3:49:00 AM
Impressive investigative report, that of yours. I avidly devoured its lines, stunned by its revelations. This is the kind of journalism we need. I'd only disagree in the slight spin shown implying all this corruption happens because Larry Agran and company are liberal democrats. I hate to seem cynic but corruption has no political color or ideology. There are just as many (and as dirty) corrupt conservatives as corrupt liberals. The only difference is that the these take one side while those the other side, but both to milk the same cow (we taxpayers). A decent democrat politician (if any at all) could disagree with the decent republican politician (if any at all) in the way they approach problems, but dirty politician (either republican or democrat) only differ in that some steal from the directly from the public budget while the other ones get paid by private interests to allow the to steal (or embezzle) the same public budget. Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, the Colombian author and Nobel awarded once said that the only difference between liberal and conservative politicians was that the former would attend mass at 5 pm, while the later would do so at 8 pm.
