Subject: Sukhee Kang

• Chairman Jao

  It looks like Irvine Republicans may have finally developed their own alternative to the Hometown Voter Guide. The Irvine City, School and Neighborhood Leaders Committee (ICSNLC) has paid for $28,011 worth of independent expenditures opposing Beth Krom, $7,612 to oppose Mary-Anne Gaido, another $7,612 to oppose Sukhee Kang, and $17,465 in support of Christina Shea. Krom is Irvine's Mayor, Kang is a Councilmember, and Gaido is Planning Commissioner; the three are campaigning together as "The Gre

  November 1, 2006

• 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. Shea will face Agran's Sukhee Kang and whatever shell Republican campaign Agran also secretly sponsors to the divide GOP voters. Over the years, Shea has been the bee in Agran's bonnet, especially on et

  September 13, 2007

• 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 Records Act (CPRA) request in August 2006 to obtain an estimated 90,000 records with personal information about Irvine voters, including birth dates, home addresses and e-mail addresses. The Irvine Tat

  August 3, 2008

• 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 running for Irvine City Council gathered in the council chambers tonight for a candidate forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters, whose Sharon Holdt served as moderator. Current council members

  October 21, 2008

• You Read the Irvine Election Results Here First

  Kang, Krom and Agran: staying put. Allow me to take you way, way, way back in time to last Thursday, Oct. 30, when the following was posted here (and it was in the print edition that hit the streets that day, too): [Irvine mayoral candidate Christina] Shea and fellow incumbent Sukhee Kang are the only candidates for the two-year mayor’s seat. Whoever loses still has two years remaining on his or her council seat. Among the candidates for two open, four-year council seats are outgoing Mayor B

  November 5, 2008

• I'm Not Dead Yet

  Christina Shea had one of those gut-check moments when Orange County Great Park Corp. board clerk Steve Larsen read the roll at this morning's regular meeting at Irvine City Hall. "How come you didn't call my name?" Shea asked defensively. Last month's defeat in the mayoral race against Sukhee Kang leaves her with only two years remaining on the Irvine City Council and Great Park board before she will be termed out. After Larsen corrected his mistake, Shea was quick to remind, "I haven't

  November 20, 2008

• Cirque du Great Park?

  The Orange County Great Park Corp. board today unanimously recommended that the Irvine City Council authorize the board's CEO Michael Ellzey to enter formal negotiations with Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil to bring its winter 2010 touring production to the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station base. Council approval is very likely as all five council members sit on the Great Park board. To say the vote was a forgone conclusion is an understatement: moments after the vote, the park's hired

  November 20, 2008

• On Safest-City-In-America Irvine and Its Orwellian Reality

  Like Gustavo's car, except much, much nicer...Larry Agran and his acolytes will undoubtedly crow about Irvine getting ranked for the fifth straight year as America's safest big city, and good for them! Irvine is a cool town, with lots of parks, great restaurants, and a multicultural community that sprang up despite the intentions of Irvine Co. head Don Bren. Mayor Sukhee Kang told the press that his city earned the distinction by "planning, leadership, and a partnership between police and the co

  June 2, 2009

• Auto Industry's Demise is Orange County Great Park's Gain

  No one is buying cars in this country. That means new cars aren't leaving dealer lots. That means U.S. ports are getting backed up with cars that, at least temporarily, have no place to go. And that means ships bringing these cars into those ports are getting backed up as well.Gee, if only there was a huge expanse of land around here where nearly nothing will be going on for the next several months so these autos could be held in the short term?Well, wouldn't you know it, but there is this forme

  December 18, 2008

• 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 the dumb card, saying he invested the money in the stock market without knowing what he was doing, apologizing for his knuckleheaded conduct in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and r

  December 31, 2008

• It's Thursday, Must Be Time for More Irvine City Campaign Sliminess

  If you thought the man and organization behind Larry Agran's campaign slush funds was only involved in Irvine political shenanigans (as we previously reported here), now comes word that Frank Lunding is up to his eyeballs in it in the Carmel Valley as well. Jessica Lyons reports in the Monterey County Weekly that attorney Lunding and his Planning 2020 group is suing Monterey County, its supervisors and a group called Carmel Valley Forum in connection with Carmel Valley's bid to incorporate as

  January 22, 2009

• Will Obama's Stimulus Plan Help Make the OC Great Park a Reality?

  Calling the action "momentous," the Great Park Corp. Board of Directors voted unanimously today to recommend the Irvine City Council adopt the Great Park Design Studio's Comprehensive Park Plan, the final planning piece required before the building phase can begin--as soon as March 20--on the ambitious, mixed-use park on 1,350 acres of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.Now all the directors have to do is figure out how to pay for it.To that end, director Miguel Pulido, who is Santa Ana

  February 19, 2009

• Three Local Elections Worth Watching. Call It Morbid Fascination

  October 30, 2008

• Agran Dispenses Great Pork

  July 7, 2005

• Great Park With All the Fixins

  June 23, 2005

• Say Youre Gay, Larry!

  Irvine Mayor Agran could learn damage control from New Jersey Governor McGreevey

  August 19, 2004

• 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--Orange County Register senior editorial writer Steven Greenhut; former LA Times religion writer William Lobdell and the Weekly's irrepressible Gustavo Arellano--into the topic of local bloggers. The three

  May 12, 2009

• "Art" Stands in the Way of Demolition at Irvine Hospital

  The fountain of disputeInternationally recognized Laguna Beach artist Marlo Bartels creates whimsical-but-functional sculptures that grace parks, museums and even the inside of people's homes. The city of Burbank commissioned him to make "Early Burbank," a 10x10 foot tile mural. Two undulating mosaic benches he made line the entrance of the Spanish Walk development in Palm Desert. He also has pieces in Cancer Survivor Parks in San Diego, Rancho Mirage and Phoenix, Arizona. Many Laguna Art Museum

  May 15, 2009

• Great Park Thanks Barbara Boxer. In Yer Face, Chuck DeVore!

  Chuck DeVore may be a long-time Orange Countian, the member of the state Assembly whose Irvine-based district includes the future Orange County Great Park and a possible friend in a high place if he scores an upset victory next year to become the junior U.S. senator from California. But it is DeVore's likely foe, Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is reaping the thanks of the Great Park Corporation Board of Directors this week.The board is simply giddy over Boxer's sponsorship of a $470,000 appropriation t

  April 24, 2009

• 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 chairman Larry Agran, boast about overseeing "America's safest city."Likewise, anyone who complains about the shady, back-room, ethically challenged way the city of Irvine is run, or the plastic, uninsp

  July 27, 2009

• "Press Conference" Against Iran Government Produces No News, Much Political Support in Irvine

  Rep. Laura Richardson (inset), Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Rep. Ed Royce, together at last.If the goal of a press conference is to produce a "big announcement" that makes news and warrants coverage--the usual reason one calls a press conference in the first place--then the Iran Supporters Network failed Friday evening at Irvine City Hall. But if the idea was to bring local politicians, community leaders and the Iranian American community together, engage in some spirited preach

  August 10, 2009

• Park Place Owners Have a Rocky History in Irvine

  Maguire had this office tower built at Park Place in 2006.​Maguire Properties' announcement today that it has sold its Park Place I office property in Irvine is just the latest twist for a massive campus that seems to have been dogged by controversy since the Los Angeles-based developer acquired it five years ago.To get a sense for this, just follow this timeline.June 1999: After more than two decades as the most visible tenant at the futuristic, distinctive green-glass, 1.7 million-squa

  August 12, 2009

• Tale of 2 Police Forces: While Irvine's Fumes, La Habra's Bites the Bullet

  To protect and serve . . . for less.​While their counterparts in "Safest City in America" Irvine fume over an employer-proposed wage freeze, officers who belong to the La Habra Police Association seem to have gladly accepted a deal that imposes what is essentially a 5 percent pay cut. "Although difficult, we commend our members, and other city labor groups, for agreeing to tighten our collective belts in order to help the city through our national recession," says La Habra association presiden

  August 19, 2009

• Irvine Cops Angry at Agran Machine Scheming Plan Protest Today

  Agran: Screwing Irvine Cops?​It's always fascinated me that Irvine's Larry Agran, Orange County's most liberal (and wily) politician, has enjoyed solid political support from two groups: corporate executives and cops--especially considering most folks in those two categories sit on the other end of the political spectrum. But the law enforcement alliance might finally be over. Today, the Irvine Police Association plans a protest to draw public attention to the Agran-controlled city council's "

  August 20, 2009

• 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 $2.7 million he'd previously won for his clients, the FBI announced today.In a plea agreement prosecutors filed late Thursday in United States District Court in Los Angeles, Baweja indicates he will pl

  October 2, 2009

• More Republi-Drama at OC GOP Meeting

  Chris Norby, in the fray​After a not-so-harmonious Western Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend and amidst a downright ugly state assembly race in north county, Red County's Alan Bartlett reports that last night's OC GOP Central Committee contained a few moments of strife and hand-wringing as well.First up: AD 72 candidate Linda Ackerman reportedly has filed an ethics complaint with the GOP against primary challenger and current county supervisor Chris Norby over one of his ca

  October 20, 2009