Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/larry-agran/)
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.
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.
Inside OC’s Rick Reiff talks to Jeff Lalloway about the Great Park audit, potential lawsuits and the Republican effort to change air quality across Southern California.
Councilwoman Christina Shea has built her political career on rooting out corruption surrounding the Great Park. But what she’s doing behind the scenes for a consulting client is also crossing ethical lines, a government ethics expert says.
The city will be seeking extensions to the statute of limitations on claims against consultants Forde & Mollrich, Gafcon and the municipal law firm Rutan and Tucker. But the targets first have to agree.
Attorneys hired to help conduct an investigation of spending at the Great Park indicate the city could recover millions of dollars stemming from various contract violations, including numerous potential conflicts of interest.
Two long-awaited investigative reports on Irvine’s Great Park were released Monday, with each attempting to explain different aspects of why the county’s largest-ever public works project went awry.
In one of the final acts of an extensive investigation into the Great Park project, the former Irvine City Council leader was questioned about allegations of quid-pro-quo and millions of dollars in billing irregularities.
The Irvine City Council decided at a special meeting Monday to ask a Superior Court judge to intervene after the former councilman ignored a subpoena to appear for a deposition as part of the ongoing investigation into the Great Park.