Apparently auditioning for a Peter Gabriel video, Former Irvine Mayor Sukhee Kang said “I don’t remember” thirty four times during his Great Park deposition.
The City of Irvine has released former Irvine Mayor Sukhee Kang’s Great Park audit deposition.
The scope of what Sukee can’t remember while being mayor and serving on the Great Park board is comprehensive: who was present for meetings, what he voted on, why, who prepared what was voted on, what has happening at the Great Park, who worked at and on the Great Park, how stuff got paid for…. The list goes on and on. Reading this testimony one might think that all Sukhee did as mayor was give speeches written by staff (and Stu Mollrich pp. 68-84), voted as others recommended, and not much else.
Which his detractors were claiming years ago.
In between all the memory lapses is interesting stuff.
As I blogged last October, Gafcon managed the remodeling of Stu’s Laguna Beach house while Forde & Mollrich heavily influenced which Great Park invoices got approved. This deposition reveals that Gafcon remodeled two Laguna Beach houses for Stu (pp. 26-36), and that tax-payer funded Design Studio resources were apparently used on the project.
As I blogged about last year, Gafcon’s final payment, the “closeout for contract two”, got approved in a rather opaque manner. Sukhee doesn’t remember having anything to do with this. (pp. 52-58) At least Sukhee is consistent.
Yet again, the Auditor’s rely on Bill Kogermann’s early testimony:
Q And when I deposed Bill Kogerman, he read the recitals to the agreement, which is the first page of the agreement, and he said that he didn’t agree with the recitals stating that all work was done by the Great Park Design Studio in a manner that is satisfactory to city and the corporation because there were ongoing disputes at the time between the city and the Great Park Corporation, and that he would have never voted on this agreement had he — had he seen it. (p. 57)
Which makes clear, again, why the Auditors needed to subpeona Larry Agran. No one will take responsibility for this contract, but most say Mr. Agran was heavily involved.
The deposition almost provides a brief glimpse inside the Agran political machine on page 106 and 107, when Sukhee appears willing to talk about a dispute between himself and Larry Agran involving the approval for the first phase of Five Points communities development. But then auditor Anthony Taylor uncharacteristically botches a question, and Sukhee reverts back to non-answers.
Lastly, lest anyone think we here in Irvine are a bunch of snooty elitists I will point out the Irvine has positvely egalitarian requirements for becoming mayor: Sukhee was working as a General Manager for Circuit City when he entered politics. (p 12)
Speaking of Gafcon, I’ve recently been informed that Gafcon employee and former Angels Stadium Give-it-away dude, Charles Black has been rehired by the Crooked Council of Anaheim.
Look for another 3-year Angels extension coming soon.
Good recap Tyler. Yeah either Sukhee was lying about not remembering any details about meetings with Agran and others or he really was just a bot as Mayor doing whatever Larry told him to do.
Larry supposedly got deposed this past Friday. I’m sure he won’t remember anything either of what happened.
I don’t remember this chump being mayor, either. Was he the Dems’ answer to Choi-ian the Librarian (apologies to Meredith Willson)?
He was and remains the most recent Democratic Mayor of Irvine. He’s considered to be more moderate than Larry and Beth, but generally voted with them.
Actually he voted with them 100% of the time. There was nothing moderate about doing whatever Larry told you to do.
Easy assertion to make. Have you checked all of the minutes from the years they were all on Council? Willing to have someone (not me) do that research for the compensation of $10 per instance where you were wrong?
I said that he is considered to be more moderate. That’s my sense of the view among Democrats, at least, including the three from the Council. If you can’t distinguish Bill Clinton from Bernie Sanders, though, your mileage will certainly vary.