Unspin; Larry Agran, Noble Public Servant? Feel Free to Groan
Copyright 2005 Orange County Register
The Orange County Register (California)
April 17, 2005 Sunday
By CHRIS REED
The Issue: A Register report last week that made a persuasive case that Irvine Councilman Larry Agran's political machine put up and heavily funded a decoy candidate last fall to split Republian votes and ensure his ally, Beth Krom, was elected mayor .
The Spin: Agran, below, criticized the report as inaccurate in a brief interview Friday but offered no specifics. Meanwhile, he continues to depict himself as a deep-thinking progressive -- not your typical self-serving pol but a noble public servant.
The Unspin: Sorry, Larry, but in a county with plenty of grubby pols, your 27-year track record shows you're the grubbiest of them all. The dishonor roll:
El Toro: The campaign for the 2002 initiative that killed the push for an airport promised a ``Great Park'' and limited development. It won. Now, however, the old military base is slated for massive development and a very routine park -- and former allies say Agran secretly covets a $200,000-a-year job running the Great Park Corp.
City business: Agran sees no problems in his friends and donors seeking city and Great Park contracts -- even backing the creation of a municipal utility contract for a firm with ties to his political adviser, a man with zero background in energy. No wonder Agran wanted the Great Park Corp. to be set up with rules exempting board members from conflict-of-interest restrictions and open-meetings laws.
Proposition 51: Agran was a prime mover in this deceptive 2002 state initiative. ``The Traffic Congestion Relief and Safe School Buses Act'' actually was a pork-barrel measure that would have steered $110 million from the cash-strapped state to affluent Irvine.
The list could go on and on. Yet Agran pretends his critics are all partisan snipers, even though fellow Irvine liberals are now leading the sniping.
No wonder not a soul was surprised by the report suggesting he may have manipulated Irvine's last election. We expect nothing less from our local Machiavelli. To use the cliche du jour, he is what he is.
--Chris Reed
