Local Politics

Newport Beach and Huntington Beach React Differently to Fire Pit Pollution Findings

Call it "A Tale of Two City Takeaways:" Newport Beach and Huntington Beach's mayors, at opposite ends on whether to remove fire rings along their beaches, heard--and reacted differently to--state data indicating what's emitted from a pit over one evening equals the pollution spewed by a heavy duty d ... More >>

Anaheim's Citizens Advisory Committee Recommends Districts Be Put on the Ballot

There were more empty seats and less acrimony inside the Council Chambers of Anaheim City Hall last Thursday evening. Long the scene of political turmoil over the course of last year during council meetings, the mood was lighter as the location played host for the second-to-last gathering of the cit ... More >>

Larry Agran's Sabotage Squad

[Moxley Confidential] The sneaky campaign to save Democrats' control of the Great Park failed but kept Beth Krom on the Irvine City Council

Garden Grove City Council to Seek Limiting Public Comments at Meeting Tomorrow

Forget pension reform: if you want the ultimate indicator of how bloated city government is, look no further than item 7B on tomorrow's agenda for the Garden Grove City Council meeting. The item calls for the council to pass a resolution that would limit public comments from five minutes to person t ... More >>

10 Orange County "City Leaders" We'd Just as Soon Not Hear from the Rest of 2013

Being a city council member is a thankless job, although they do usually save you a nice parking spot at city hall.While we applaud public service, many, many holders of local office in Orange County use their positions of "power" to do some really fucked-up things.Here are but 10 supposed city lead ... More >>

[UPDATED with Second Reading Approval:] Lake Forest Scraps Pervs-in-Parks Ban

See the update at the end of this post about the council vote on second reading. ORIGINAL POST, DEC. 5, 9:39 A.M.: The Lake Forest City Council voted Tuesday night to repeal its ban on registered sex offenders in city parks. These are the same city leaders that last year passed the ordinance establi ... More >>

5 Sets of 2012 Orange County Election Losers

Anyone else hope someone switches the seating cards at the next Orange County Mayors Breakfast so that Tri sits next to Tita? Tri Ta became Westminster's first Vietnamese-American mayor and, he claims, the first in the country to win a mayoral seat via the voters rather than appointment. Meanwhile, ... More >>

OC Weekly 2012 Election Guide: Costa Mesa!

Unlike other city election guides that have graced the benevolent blog pages of Navel Gazing, this one will take on a different format. A brief mention of the proposed city charter, titled Measure V, will precede an outline of city council candidates. Current council members tried to bring the initi ... More >>

Jerry Amante, Tustin Councilman, Has Grand Jury "Misfeasance in Office" Finding Marked With Call for His Head and Hiring as a Lobbyist

Hey, Tustin City Councilman (and former mayor) Jerry Amante: the grand jury beotch slaps you for "misfeasance in office" and "exceeding or misusing a public power or position and thereby risking harm" for lobbying a college president to force the resignation of a professor who exposed the massive a ... More >>

[UPDATED w/ Lawsuit Announced] Opponents of Anaheim Hotel Bed-Tax Giveaway Lawyer Up, Threaten Lawsuit

​UPDATE FEB 29 12:31 P.M.: The clock ticked past the Friday afternoon deadline last week given by Anaheim community leaders who vowed to legally challenge the $158 million dollar tax giveaway GardenWalk hotel project. An invitation to city officials and one of the hoteliers to sit down at the tab ... More >>

It's Gotten Costa Messy In Costa Mesa

Scenes from the civic dissolution of America's latest public-employee battleground

[UPDATED with SJC Spooked:] Banning Pervs in Parks Sweeps OC

​UPDATE, AUG. 17, 11:17 A.M.: It's become so routine it's lost its news value: The District Attorney's office announces it's sending a rep before the latest of the 7,000 city councils in Orange County considering a ban on sex offenders in local parks modeled after the county law co-written by DA T ... More >>

Complaint or No, Expect a Prayer to Begin Tonight's Yorba Linda City Council Meeting

​The Yorba Linda City Council, which in the recent past was blasted for allowing an Islamic charity to rent community center space for a gala that teabaggy types likened to an al Qaeda monster truck jam, is now getting criticized for its own religulousness."Local governments should not be in the b ... More >>

[UPDATED with Early RSM Nod:] Banning Pervs in Parks Sweeps OC

​UPDATE, JULY 29, 9:41 A.M.: The Rancho Santa Margarita City Council voted Wednesday night to move ahead with a ban on registered sex offenders in city parks that is similar to the county law enacted in April.The council agreed that banning only those who have preyed on children would leave kids v ... More >>

[UPDATED with SJC Law on Agenda:] Banning Pervs in Parks Sweeps OC

​UPDATE, JUNE 22, 10:09 A.M.: While expressing some concern the county pervs-in-parks ban is too broad, the San Juan Capistrano City Council did decide Tuesday night to bring a local ordinance back for a vote July 5.Among the options the city with huge swaths of open space will explore are applyin ... More >>

[UPDATED with Enactment Cheered:] Westminster Jumps Aboard Bandwagon Banning Pervs in Parks

Erin Runnion​UPDATE, MAY 27, 3:40 P.M.: An Orange County supervisor, the district attorney and perhaps the most famous mother of a local crime victim today applauded Westminster officially enacting a ban on registered sex offenders from city parks.Cheers from Supervisor Shawn Nelson and District A ... More >>

Costa Mesa Fires City Workers While City Leaders Get Free Lunch

​Yesterday, lawyers for the Orange County Employees Association (OCEA) filed a complaint in Orange County Superior Court, asking a judge to stop Costa Mesa's city council from firing 100 city employees. The complaint, which names Thomas Hatch, the city's chief executive officer, as a defendant, al ... More >>

[UPDATED with Split Response:] Rackauckas and Hutchens Support Ban on Sex Offenders in Irvine City Parks

Irvine council members Sukhee Kang, Beth Krom and Larry Agran​UPDATE, MAY 11, 9:54 A.M.: The proposal to ban sex offenders from Irvine city parks did not wow all council members Tuesday night. Mayor Sukhee Kang, Councilman Steven Choi and the councilman who brought the matter before the panel, Jef ... More >>

Ronald Reagan Day in Larry Agran Land?

​It's unclear why this wasn't proposed a few weeks ago, but the Irvine City Council tonight will consider proclaiming Feb. 6 "Ronald Reagan Day," in honor of 40th president's birthday.The proclamation is not being foisted on the panel that leans Democratic because Reagan was once a member of the p ... More >>

Ho-Hum, a City Official Busted in Surf City

​A corruption probe resulted in the arrest of a city official in Huntington Beach this morning. Hell, that's not news, that's just another day in Surf City, you're probably saying to yourself. (Ah, ex-mayors Garofalo and Houchen, how we miss you so!) However, this time the busted city official ... More >>

Santa Ana Councilmembers Sal Tinajero and Michelle Martinez Admit to Thinking They Broke the Law, Use Same PR People?

Martinez: Once an outsider, now proudly a vendida​Two bizarre press releases sent late Friday to every reporter in Orange County that covers SanTana (except Moxley--interesting...) told the same story: that councilmembers Sal Tinajero and Michelle Martinez were taking action to retake a City Counc ... More >>

South County Cities Go to Pot

​Pot filled two South County city council chambers Tuesday night.That is, separate issues from modern life in the cannabis age were taken up by the city leaders in Laguna Niguel and Mission Viejo.

[UPDATED:] Irvine Does Shuffleboard Shuffle in Response to Grand Jury Report Blasting Great Park Funding

​UPDATE: As expected, the Irvine City Council approved its fuck-off response to an Orange County Grand Jury report critical of Great Park financing (see end of post) . . .The Orange County Register's Sean Emery gets great quote from Irvine City Councilwoman Christina Shea, who was reacting to the ... More >>

Grand Jury Report Blasts Great Park Financing, Accuses Irvine City Council of Lying, Conflicts

Hot air keeps it afloat.​A new grand jury report: questions whether the Irvine Redevelopment Agency created to usher in development of the Orange County Great Park can fully repay its initial $134 million loan from the city; faults the city of ignoring the poor business climate while churning ... More >>

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido Voted To Aid a Vending-truck Business In Which His Father Was Involved

Tustin Councilwoman Deborah Gavello and Her Colleagues are Driving One Another Barking Mad

Agran Crony and Gore Campaigner Agrees to Guilty Pleas in Federal Wire Fraud Case

Irvine attorney Sandeep Baweja, the 39-year-old money man for that town's "progressive" political boss Larry Agran and a former official with Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, agreed in court papers to plead guilty to two felony charges related to a scheme where he ripped off nearly all of the $ ... More >>

Irvine Police Association Blasts Mayor Sukhee Kang, City Council Members Beth Krom and Larry Agran

Irvine Police Association has criticized Mayor Sukhee Kang (left) and City Council members Beth Krom and Larry Agran over stalled contract talks.​Anyone who has attended a city-run meeting in Irvine has heard elected officials, especially City Councilman and Orange County Great Park Corporation ch ... More >>

As Stephen Smith Leaves Town, Irvine's "Tattler" Calls on Others to Step Up

Stephen C. Smith calls on others to keep tabs on Irvine City Hall.CORRECTED!Lost in Santa Ana a few months ago, half paying attention to the street signs and half to Larry Mantle's KPCC interview show blaring out of the car speakers, I heard the host steer his Orange County "roundtable" guests--Oran ... More >>

Lance MacLean Has Learned That Mission Viejo's Political Players Always Go for the Throat

Mission Viejo Councilwoman Cathy Schlicht Tries to Deliver, But Is Running Into an Opposing Majority

Attorney Who Misspent Clients' $2.7 Million Was at Center of Irvine Election Controversies

The Register's Greg Hardesty has the scoop on 38-year-old Irvine attorney Sandeep Baweja admitting to burning through nearly all of a $2.7-million settlement that was supposed to be shared by about 1,000 plaintiffs he represented in a class-action labor lawsuit.According to the story, Baweja played ... More >>

Irvine Candidate Forum: Mostly Civil, Some Fireworks

Irvine is either a city where the sun does nothing but shine, the streets are lined with gold and bad stuff never ever ever ever ever ever ever happens, or it's a swirling cesspool of cronyism, backroom deals and looming Muslim threats. That was the message voters were given as a busload of people r ... More >>

Surf City Mayor Debbie Cook Takes on Dana Rohrabacher, OC's Weirdest Republican Congressman

Muffle Scuffle

*Moved up, 'cause the conversation's fun! Irvine's reigning feet-to-the-fire holder Stephen C. Smith has a very interesting post on his IrvineTattler.com site. Here is an excerpt from “Sukhee Kang Knows Your Birth Date”: Councilman and mayoral candidate Sukhee Kang used a California Public Re ... More >>

Santa Ana Now Officially Run by Lazy Mexicans

*Updated, with new information on the bottom... As the largest city in Orange County, SanTana needs a more-committed city council than, say, Laguna Niguel. Unfortunately, the county seat is cursed with buffoons, a veritable clowncil, to use the term of Orange Juice! bomb-thrower Art Pedroza. We've ... More >>

Humberto Caspa's New Book Chronicles the Fear and Loathing of Mexicans in Costa Mesa

Controversial Developer Robert Bisno Brings His Grease-a-Palm Politics to Santa Ana

Cypress Goes Cultist

Cypress has followed Westminster's lead in officially embracing the occult. The Cypress City Council voted in a perplexing 2-1 majority to display "In God We Trust" in council chambers. Aww, poor Cypress - only three council members? Iddle biddle widdle council, so cute! Actually two council member ... More >>

Jerry, Be Wary

AG Brown: Investigate Santa Ana Renaissance Plan's conflict-of-influenza, por favor

Santa Ana Officials Redraw Renaissance Plan Boundaries Again

Today, Los Angeles Times SanTana reporter Jennifer Delson delivers a bombshell of a story on the city's Renaissance Plan: not only did city officials redraw the Renaissance Plan boundaries to omit the family businesses of councilmember Vince Sarmiento and Mayor Papi Pulido (as we reported last month ... More >>

Time to Give Santa Ana's Mayor a Nickname!

Today, bad-ass Los Angeles Times reporter Jennifer Delson writes about the idiotic Measure D, the SanTana ballot measure that would extend city council term limits from eight years to 12 years. She reveals that Measure D originally started as an attempt by residents and councilmembers to install ter ... More >>

Register, Times Slam Santa Ana Good--And a Challenge

If there's one thing that Orange County Register editorial writer Steven Greenhut hates more than Sheriff Mike Carona, it's city-controlled urban planning, and he ripped SanTana officials a new one and then some yesterday in a piece blasting the city's much-ballyhooed Renaissance Specific Plan. Prop ... More >>

Smiley Coyotl

When is a prosecutor not a prosecutor? The answer spared a Santa Ana activist/punk rocker from criminal charges

Agran's Irvine Machine Gets Challenger

A majority of Irvine voters are Republicans and yet for years Larry Agran's progressive political machine has controlled the mayor's office. It's a reality Republican city councilwoman Christina Shea hopes to shatter next year. This morning Shea announced that she will run for the job herself. She ... More >>

Remote Hog

Tom Goes to the Mayor

A Life Wasted

Dave Christensen went from Irvine politician to undercover agent in an FBI stingand then died in a mysterious hiking accident

Agranistas Fire Ordinance

Proposed law takes aim at political consultants, advisers and the media

Criticize Larry Agran, Go to Jail

Irvine's Rules of Ethical and Open Governance would restrict criticism of politicians, passing of "GO", collection of $200