Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/melissa-fox/)
Irvine residents now will have 12 days to study regular agendas for the City Council, Planning Commission and other city bodies after the Council voted Tuesday to strengthen its transparency ordinance.
Melissa Fox, Irvine City Council member, writes that divisive issues such as SB 54 the “Sanctuary State” bill should be avoided at Irvine City Council as they are outside the jurisdiction and Constitutional authority of the council.
The location of Orange County’s first veterans cemetery remains unclear after the Irvine City Council directed staff to identify a site in or around the Great Park and put the project through the planning process. Councilman Jeff Lalloway brought a motion Tuesday night to reinstate original cemetery site near the heart of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, adjacent to the Great Park. But, before it could go to a vote, Mayor Don Wagner introduced a substitute motion that directs different commissions and city staff to start studying the original site and explore other city-owned land. “Give me a site,” Wagner told Voice of OC after the meeting. “You tell me where it can be … is it a golf course (that’s slated to be built in the Great Park)?
The Irvine City Council has directed city staff to develop an ad campaign, encouraging residents to buy from Irvine stores to help offset the ongoing drop in sales taxes caused by online shopping.
Irvine City Councilman Jeff Lalloway said Monday he will ask the City Council to approve Orange County’s first veterans cemetery in its original site near the center of the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro after voters overwhelmingly rejected a land swap that would have moved it to strawberry fields near the 5 and 405 freeways.
Irvine, Huntington Beach and Laguna Niguel Tuesday decided to fight plans by the Orange County Board of Supervisors to build homeless shelters in the cities on county-owned land.
Irvine voters will decide June 5 if they want to keep the ability to vote on city development projects after Mayor Don Wagner proposed two ballot questions, including one that would exempt developments approved by the City Council from voter approval.
Orange County’s long-anticipated veterans cemetery took a big step forward in 2017 with a developer’s land swap that moved it from the heart of the former El Toro Marine Air Corps Station to strawberry fields near the junction of the 5 and 405 freeways. But enough voters signed a petition to move it back to the main base that the city council will have to decide Jan. 9 whether to reverse itself or put the issue on the ballot.
The Irvine City Council is rumored to have scheduled a closed session discussion of the veterans cemetery during its Sept. 26 meeting. The discussion reportedly will include using 100 acres of the veterans cemetery land for hotels, homes or other commercial purposes until the land is needed to bury veterans.
Several Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine and other city council members and candidates reported robust fundraising for the first six months of 2017, according to the latest campaign finance disclosures.