Thursday morning 12/29
The Irvine City Council is meeting as I type, deciding AT THE LAST MINUTE whether to stick with purchasing overpriced energy from the OC Power Authority for another 18 months (the deadline to withdraw is this Saturday Dec 31), or to possibly impose conditions for staying (such as replacement of controversial CEO Brian Probolsky and attorney Ryan Baron), or possibly to continue with the status quo.
If Irvine chooses to leave the Authority they’d be following in the footsteps of the County Board of Supervisors, which voted 3-2 last week to cut its losses and ditch this white elephant. The decision was made by the Board’s two Democrats along with Supervisor Bartlett, and the stubborn intractable problems with the OCPA have been detailed in multiple audits, but Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan, who did take a leadership role in creating this whole fiasco, believes she has identified the real problem:
“Khan, who was the first Muslim and the first woman of color elected to the Irvine City Council, added, ‘I almost feel like if this Brown woman hadn’t started this effort, maybe they would have liked it.‘”
Wow, that is disturbing, if the two Democratic Supervisors plus Actual Brown Woman Lisa Bartlett rejected the OCPA simply because it was the handiwork of a Woman of Color!
Of course that suggestion is grotesque and comical, and reminiscent of the fallbacks of many of Melahat Rafiei’s clients and friends… I just thought of four other examples, but let’s not get sidetracked. Let’s just say that in this era, the Race Card is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
There are many other places you can read litanies of the OCPA’s problems under Probolsky and Baron and the rest of the current leadership, which their protectors Farrah, Melahat and Mike Carroll stubbornly refuse to replace, address or fix. Obviously there must be reasons that powerful people (of WHATEVER color) want to keep things the way they are, and it’s possible the FBI is investigating exactly who’s profiting how – it’s gotta be more than just Probolsky trying to help Farrah get on the Coastal Commission.
But a lot depends – probably the future of this agency depends – on the decision the new Irvine Council is making as I type.
- I know Larry Agran has no faith in this agency whatsoever, despite having been an environmentalist his entire lengthy career.
- I know new member Dr. Kathleen Treseder, who used to be enthusiastic about OCPA, is gonna want to leave if they don’t change their leadership.
- And I know that swing vote Tammy Kim, who had been an ally of Farrah’s, but has been getting worse and worse treatment from the autocratic Mayor lately, is concerned with how much it’d cost Irvine to leave, what the city’s “exposure” would be.
And they should be coming out of closed session any minute now…
Afternoon Update
As I mentioned, this meeting was called as an emergency, apparently by Larry Agran (with the agreement of Treseder and Carroll), because if Irvine doesn’t leave the agency by Saturday the 31st, they are stuck with it till the summer of ’24.
Quickly it became clear that there was a viable option: to vote to leave but demand certain important changes, because until the summer of ’23 there’s always the possibility of RESCINDING that vote and staying, if the demanded changes are made. That became Larry’s position, which he put forth as a motion (below) – as he put it, “In the language of HARDBALL, this gives us LEVERAGE. Or maybe it’s nicer for me to say, INCENTIVE.” Unfortunately, Larry’s motion only got a second from the autocratic Brown Mayor “for purposes of discussion.”
This seemed hell of reasonable to me, but it was apparently way too harsh for any of the other Councilmembers (there was nobody in the Council who advocated leaving outright.) Farrah of course sees no problems with her beloved agency beyond “growing pains” and says she is “absolutely boggled” that anyone in Irvine would want to ditch it. At least she didn’t mention her race or gender this morning.
She proposed a SUBSTITUTE MOTION – the time-honored way to kill an original motion – which she hadn’t even bothered to type out: Irvine would stay in the agency, hope things get better, look at the whole thing again in June of ’23 (that was Dr. Treseder’s contribution I think), and – in an awkward concession to the strange Mike Carroll – write a letter to the County Board of Supervisors begging them to rescind their decision to leave OCPA.
Yes, that was an obsession of Mike Carroll‘s, that somehow Irvine would suffer greatly from the County’s departure from the agency. Farrah said he was mistaken about that, but he persisted in his worry. I think maybe this Probolsky crony has the city and the agency confused in his head – some kinda Stockholm OCPA Syndrome? Nobody expects the County to change their minds IN THE NEXT TWO DAYS, and both Larry and Farrah said it’d be pointless … but to placate Mike, Farrah agreed to write that letter. And Carroll STILL VOTED NO on Farrah’s motion, nobody knows why.
But it still passed 3-2. The big and inexplicable news was newly elected Councilwoman Dr. Kathleen Treseder, onetime OCPA enthusiast, fierce OCPA critic of late, proud FBI informant, elected as a heat-seeking missile against corruption … backing Farrah’s wait-and-see milquetoast motion. Does she know something we don’t? We know she hopes to be put on that Board, does she really think she can make all the necessary reforms if and when she gets on? Irvine voters deserve an explanation!
The suspense HAD seemed to be, would Vice-Mayor Tammy Kim side with Dr. T against Farrah? But there was no Dr. T to side with. As of yesterday, Tammy’s biggest concern seemed to be how Irvine and its ratepayers might be hurt financially by ditching the agency, what their “exposure” might be. She kept talking about her “fiduciary duty” today. But City Manager Oliver Chi (who had been a great CM for Huntington Beach) assured the Council that this exposure would be minimal. After hearing Larry’s plan to PROVISIONALLY leave the agency with the option to reverse course by June, Tammy was concerned about the damage such indecision would have on hiring and retention.
Another fixation of Tammy’s was that Larry Agran should “sacrifice himself” and join Dr. T. on the OCPA board. I agree those two would be my first choices, but Larry apparently doesn’t wanna. Anyway Tammy gave a third vote to Farrah’s motion, and nobody but Larry supported his.
Farrah’s milquetoast motion drove Larry into an Agran rage, which I and certainly many viewers shared. He called it WEAK, he said correctly that “We’ve done nothing! We’re going to give them another six months to get their act together? That’s what we said SIX MONTHS AGO!”
And who OUTDID Agran’s rage but Tammy Kim (I’m told she really can’t stand Larry for some reason) who, trembling with anger, scolded him that he has NO BUSINESS calling Farrah’s motion WEAK when he refused to “SACRIFICE HIMSELF” and serve on the Board! It was all in all a weird meeting, and disappointing to most of us. But before I sign off…
A WORD ABOUT TRINI.
On second thought, I think I will write another piece – “What’s Next for the OCPA?” or something.
After I talk to Jose Trinidad Castaneda, a few other people, and continue my own research.
See you back here, same Bat-Time, same Bat-Station! .
Bravo!!!
Larry Agran goes nuclear on Khan, shows teeth. Kim, Khan and Treseder want to kick the can for six (6) more months. Carroll acknowledges the situation is grave. Agran claims Khan is just towing the Business as Usual line for the OCPA.
Council vote 3-2 on Khan’s substitute motion to kick can six more months and request County of Orange rescind vote to bail out on OCPA. Business as usual wins with women out voting men 3-2. Kim, Khan and (surprisingly) Treseder vote yay on Khan’s substitute motion, Carroll and Agran vote nay.
Yeah, I promise to finish my update by… Let’s say, 7. But basically nothing meaningful happened.
I wonder how they sweet-talked Treseder. This has a really bad look.
Indeed.
It’s not the brown woman. It’s the flabby white blob they picked to run it.
And at least two brown ladies who inexplicably go to the mat for the white blob.
Today’s meeting turned out so mystifyingly, I’m working on how to understand and explain it. At least partially. But Agran is right – nothing happened.
So interesting that every problem now seems to be because of Whiteness not the idiotic mistake to get involved in the OCPA to begin with. It’s a shame more people didn’t vote the Brown lady out of office when they had the chance last month.
It is getting old. But I’m probably biased…
Yes, “playing the race card” is a thing — we’re about 50 years past Tom Wolfe’s “MauMauing the Flak Catchers,” which touched on the subject — but it’s a thing that I think should only be discussed by whites who first acknowledge that white privilege is a much bigger and more powerful problem. Otherwise, it comes off looking like a bunch of white guys (in this case) placing their emotional harms of been made to feel bad over the serious material harms caused by racial oppression — which is seriously “not a good look.”
I’m sure that Farrah did lose some votes over the past 8-10 years due to her race, ethnicity, and religion — and that she gained some votes on those bases as well. But when her acts demonstrate a self-serving pattern of clumsy misfeasance and flagrant lying, we really don’t need to say more about her attributing it to race than “well, of course she’d say that, but it isn’t true” without spreading the brush too broadly.
Invoking Don Rickles, “what are you a moron?”
The OCPA has demonstrated little transparency or accountability. They have been reactionary towards constructive criticism and have lacked leadership and direction. And, Kathleen Treseder joined the dark side after claiming to have helped illuminate the OCPA sham to the Feds. This is how dysfunctional the DPOC is, they endorsed candidates in the same city that have gone to the feds regarding the experiment that is OCPA, had a campaign manager who wore a wire for the feds and is believed to be an OCPA player “behind the scenes” and another who has been silenced or shunned by his democratic council colleagues by the rule of 2 while trodding closer and closer to ringing the death knell for the OCPA. The DPOC has tied the party into a Gordian knot.
I was at the airport and on Vacation so I can’t get updated with all the fireworks from Thursday morning, but I will definitely be checking out the recorded video from the Special Session meeting.
Word on the street, from Dr Treseder in Irvine Watchdog private group discussion, revealed Carroll and Khan finished with their Board duties. Kim and Dr Treseder will now be OCPA Board.
I wait in anticipation for their firing of OCPA CEO Probolsky, and their General Counsel Ryan Baron.
Time to clean house at OCPA for 2023 and we can hope to freaking fix the dam corrupt organization, once and for all.
Luis Huang
AD73 Delegate
That explanation actually makes sense. Irvine is likely on the hook for damages to other cities anyway, so it makes more sense to see whether installing decent governance and competent leadership can navigate the city away from its worst outcomes as the other cities involved could control a rump version of OCPA that could be used simply as a shell plaintiff to extract funds from Irvine.
The disagreement here (as opposed to there) is likely to be between people who think that a government entity goosing the market towards greater production of green energy is a good thing — as I, Vern (I think), and Treseder do — and those who think that it’s an inappropriate role for government, as I take it EN and Zenger do. All of the above are presumably on the “If it is to be done, it should be done right” team, which puts us on the opposite bench to the “if it should be done, it should personally enrich or empower us and our cronies” team of Farrah, Carroll, and Probolsky. I think that it should continue, for now, as an organization that will figure out how (transparently) and when (not so precipitously) to do what OCPA was intended by its architects (like Treseder) rather than its implementers (like FarCar) have wanted it to do. So the the extent that I was dismayed by first learning of this, it was because I hadn’t really thought it through. Six months of “powering down” and preparing for a more logical successor is not bad idea.
Larry’s resolution struck the right position.
I think the folks who voted for Dr. T., who sounded a lot like Larry on this issue when she was running, are owed a clear explanation.
Funny that Farrah is all no comment when Bieseda calls but the new OCR Irvine beat reporter Farzan has no problem getting a statement.
That’s pretty standard practice when you don’t yet feel like you’ve been abused by a reporter (not that Biesada was guilty of such.) Telling the truth about Farrah will get him onto he shit list soon enough.
By the way, you’re sort of playing the race card here, even if in the opposition direction.
Uh, Farrah and Melahat call themselves cabal.
Sidhu, Brandman and their allies called themselves a cabal.
Cabals don’t talk to the Voice of OC. First rule of Cabal Club.
Btw, I love the new tagline, misspelled world and all. It captured Farrah’s self-proclaimed ownership of the whole operation.
Oh you mean the story’s new title. Brokeback Mountain reference of course.
The Probe is a non-degreed dude with zero experience outside of online hardware (fail) and political intrigue, taxpayer-milking.
He won’t give up that quarter mil per annum without a fight, and he’s a lot smarter and more manipulative than his dopey small-time pol board members.
Let’s see, Khan has shown the race card as follows:
1. Claimed Irvine elections were plagued with Islamophobia,
2. Accused Mayor Shea of racism leading up to the mayoral elections,
3. Demanded Laguna Hills/Laguna Hills School District provide retribution to a minor over off-colored statements that were recorded during a basketball game between Laguna Hills High School and Irvine High School,
4. Called me an Islamophobe after I linked her to genocide deniers, and,
5. Implied the OC Board of Supes want the OCPA to fail because it was started by her.
Everyone in the OC is a racist except Farrah. Who knew?
Tammy Kim believes her constituents are environmental organizations and activists and not Irvine residents. Some of those activists like Trini the tool are OCPA operatives or vendors and other non-Irvine residents.
False urgency alert – “OCPA is our one chance to achieve our decarbonization and climate goals!”
Climate control is fantasy formed by fear. Green scare
https://twitter.com/tammykimOC/status/1608863226749677569?cxt=HHwWgsDTqZSl6tMsAAAA
I get the sense that your big problem with urgently fighting climate change is that it will benefit Turks, Azeris, Pakistanis, and Israelis along with everyone else.
F!ala with a law degree.
Why are the oil companies not vehemently lobbying against climate change initiatives, decarbonization, and electrification?? Ask yourself that? If eco-activism is in part based on limiting or ending our reliance on oil, where is the opposition?? Among other things, you are still going to need oil to make the cars that won’t be running on oil. Bozo.
Honestly, Eric, waking up to see five of your comments kvetching about how we don’t give you free rein in the comments section goes quite pleasantly with my cup of tea.
We can actually make oil, if we need it for purposes like machine lubrication. You know that, right?
Oil companies are, as I recall, hedging their bets by investing heavily in alternative energy sources. While they do object to regulations more than you suggest, they also know that they have a limited resources and are responding intelligently. (You might someday consider doing the same.) Anyway, you now have a new nickname: Neheismanian.
https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/story/2023-01-04/orange-county-power-authority-at-a-crossroads-as-member-cities-make-tough-choices?_amp=true
But I thought the contract details were confidential… if the OCPA had been more forthcoming they would not be in this mess and so now that they made a mess they are gonna be forthcoming. Come on…
The only reason there was any discussion on the contracts at all came after Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan asked staff to provide a brief public explanation on one of the contracts, and thanked staff for the private briefings board members received on the contracts in advance of the meeting.
Most of the specifics of those contracts were also kept confidential, with the agency’s chief legal counsel Ryan Baron stating that under state law those contracts had information which could be kept secret for up to three years.
“Things like price, quantity, the location of the unit, and other commercial terms are considered market sensitive information,” Baron said during the meeting. “It’s a standard process, all the (community choice energy programs) do it.”
https://voiceofoc.org/2022/09/oc-power-authority-disputes-accusations-of-secrecy-completes-200-million-in-power-purchases/?amp
Mr. Szabo should ask Larry Agran about the status of OCPA’s
Compliance with his FOIA requests.
https://councilmemberlarryagran.org/news/ocpa-leaves-public-records-requests-unanswered-in-response
In other news, Khan and Kim steal Agran’s thunder and place district elections and council expansion on Jan 10th agenda.
https://councilmemberlarryagran.org/news/utgh9kn23b7r669f6jm6p3jd0cs1df
https://irvine.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=68&event_id=2107 (Find 8.3 and 8.4 on agenda)
Unless and until OCPA divulges contract deets, none of its municipal participants can ascertain their exposure for withdrawing or remaining in the OCPA. That information should be available to the participants and their constituents without need for inquiry. Otherwise, it’s a Smoke show.
The two “brown ladies” a Muslim from Pakistan and Korean have both failed to recognise concerns of Hindu Community as to bigot James Mai. For Tammy Kim, virtually everything is Asian Hate – until it’s not.
Yes, Hindus protested in Irvine of late, although not very large numbers. Mostly Priya and Aarti turned up to speak many Hindus turned up in support but did not speak. Another gentleman, Paresh with his wife threatened in writing to sue if Mai is reappointed.
The silence of these woke female Council Members grates on my ears. I find interesting since late October, Cameron supported Kathleen Treseder and turned up to her events. For doing this she was trolled without mercy by her “patriot” followers, who are also mostly racist themselves.
Cameron sent scathing email to Anthony Kuo and copied every City Councilmember and president of Irvine Hindu Mandir. Her email blames James Mai and his racism for as said “Red Wave that wasn’t”. She copied Hindu activists, as well as her Republican friends and slagged OCGOP for supporting John Park and Anthony Kuo and told people not to give money to local Republican party, saying they were “Neo-Nazis”.
I feel horrid for her frustration, but she has suffered loads. Dan is correct, there are no winners here (except maybe Kathleen Treseder).
OCPA gives Treseder the Heisman and stalls her initial efforts towards reforming the agency.
https://twitter.com/DrTreseder/status/1613714059018526721?cxt=HHwWgoDTjeGYiOUsAAAA
https://twitter.com/DrTreseder/status/1613594654641094658?cxt=HHwWhIDQlcHy0eQsAAAA
This will be in my next OCPA piece which I’ll try to finish over the weekend.
“Gives [her] the Heisman”?
It means get denied. What is the statute doing? Avoiding contact (engagement).
On another note, shouldn’t we be more concerned with educating the electorate rather than changing climate? I get you the forces behind climate change activism want dumb voters.
“Giving someone the Heisman” means denying someone something that they want?
Can you come up with an example of a previous usage of the term where it means that? I’d hate for future lexicographers to think that it originally came from this blog.
I’d argue that doing what it can to change climate is as much or more the proper role of government as educating the electorate about climate.
What I’d hate is “getting the Steve Harvey.”
https://youtu.be/EvegBo4TUdQ
I was wondering if he meant Heimlich.
By the way, I unapproved one of his comments that was a bunch of unsubstantiated attacks served in a cryptoracist crust.