Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/beth-krom/)
Former Irvine Mayor Beth Krom looks back at her career with Rick Reiff talking about the battle against a regional airport in Irvine along with the challenges of the Great Park and life beyond public office.
Supervisor Todd Spitzer wants to hire Orange County Divorce Lawyer Jeff Lalloway as a public policy advisor for the County of Orange for $190,000 a year next Tuesday. Irvine City Councilwoman Beth Krom calls it cronyism.
The city’s high-profile and controversial forensic audit of the Great Park was plagued by poor governance, a lack of auditing standards, and a compromised bidding process, according to a scathing report released by the State Auditor’s office Tuesday.
After more than six years of holding the powerful accountable in Orange County, Adam Elmahrek is leaving for the Los Angeles Times.
As websites like Airbnb have created a boom in short-term rentals, council members want to update the city’s rules on when and how private homes can be rented out. But they want to study the issue first.
Council members battled over whether they should release the city attorney’s legal opinion on Councilwoman Christina Shea’s controversial, and perhaps illegal, consulting work for KIA Motors America. The council ultimately chose not to release the opinion.
A proposed land swap would have resolved concerns from Chinese home buyers that living next to a cemetery is bad feng shui. But A majority of council members said changing course might derail the cemetery altogether.
Councilmembers also voted to have the phrase e pluribus unum – Latin for “out of many, one” — emblazoned in the meeting chambers. The gesture is a reminder of an ongoing effort by the council’s Republican majority to cast the city in a more conservative light.
Given the years-long controversy over stalled construction, it might seem like a specious claim. But a representative from developer FivePoint Communities says they are going to start building substantial portions of the park “over a year early.”
In another successful effort to rollback the policies of their Democratic predecessors, Irvine’s Republican council majority did away with a requirement that city contractors pay a so-called living wage to their employees.