There’s an intriguing scandal on low boil in the orderly City of Irvine, involving the city’s sister program, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, the Shanghai Communique and possible Communist Chinese investment in Irvine’s Great Park.
Yep — never a dull moment in that dull city’s politics.
I’ll try to make this long, twisted tale short — readers can fill in the blanks with my generous servings of hyperlinks.
Irvine Mayor Beth Krom — who is apparently the only person in Orange County unaware she is a pawn of liberal Irvine Councilmen/Evil Genius Larry Agran — went to Communist China along with another councilman and an Irvine staffer, Valeire Larenne, whose job it is to tend to sister city stuff. The purpose was to cement a sister city arrangement with a Shanghai suburb called Xuhui.
Now, Irvine has had a Sister City in Taiwan for years.
But the sister city agreement Irvine signed with the Communist Chinese is outrageously anti-Taiwan:
This Xuhui sister city agreement effectively nullified Irvine’s long-standing sister city agreement with Taoyuan, Taiwan.
How progressive.
Since the story broke on Orange Punch blog, Krom has been desperately back-pedaling, spinning and trying to undo the damage. You see, Krom is up for re-election in November, and Irvine has one of the largest Taiwanese-American populations of any American city. Krom and her council allies Agran and Sukhee Kang — the "Great Park Team" are already facing stiff criticism for the management of the Great Park (the OC Grand Jury just recommended the county sue to take control away from the Irvine City Council), cronyism and awarding sweethear, no-bid contracts.
So offending a key Irvine demographic isn’t helpful got Krom.
[By the way, if you live in OC, you can see the OC Register’s Steve Greenhut square off with Krom over this issue on KOCE-TV’s "Inside OC" public affairs program. It airs this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. amd 11:30 p.m. and this Thursday at 8:30 a.m.]
And since Irvine is dominated political by Evil Genius Larry Agran, there’s a sub-text of shady business deals and money involved. R. Scott Moxley lays it all out at the OC Weekly blog The Blotter. Moxley’s contention is the driving force behind this very weird sister city deal is Agran’s desire to obtain Communist Chinese money to help build the Great Park. It’s a must read.