On Tuesday, Aug. 8,The Irvine City Council took aim at removing the city’s weighted vote option on the Orange County Power Authority’s Board of Directors, but fell short once again. 

According to City Manager Oliver Chi, the discussion regarding Irvine’s future Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) board representation was placed on the agenda in recognition of the council’s June request to remove the city’s weighted vote option from the Joint Powers Agreement.

“The city council had a discussion related to direction provided to the city’s representatives to the Orange County Power Authority related to a proposed Joint Powers Authority amendment that contemplated removal of the weighted vote,” Chi explained. “Based on the council direction, staff was directed that if the city’s representatives to OCPA didn’t vote as the council identified the matter related to board representation, the city’s representation at OCPA should be brought back from full city council consideration. To that end this item has been agendized for council deliberation and discussion.” 

According to a staff report on June 13, city leaders agreed that two members of the OCPA Board would vote against the removal of the weighted voting provision, adding that the item would be reconsidered if the weighted vote was not upheld. 

On July 19, Council member Dr. Kathleen Treseder, voted against the removal of the weighted voting provision, while Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim voted for the removal of the weighted voting provision. 

In terms of representation, Irvine holds two seats on the agency’s board of directors. Kim and Treseder sit on the OCPA Board and currently represent 40% of the agency’s voting power. However, the Irvine city council has been unsuccessful in its attempt to amend the weighted vote option. 

However, Tuesday’s conversation abruptly shifted focus toward potential ongoing federal investigations involving current members of the Irvine City Council.  

Specifically, Treseder asserted that fellow Councilmember Mike Carroll was the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation, and added that the investigative entity was looking into Carroll’s former role as chair of the OCPA.

Treseder emphasized that if the council were to remove Kim from the OCPA Board of directors, in the amendment of the weighted vote, she would not feel comfortable with Carroll taking her place.  

“I noted that a couple of public speakers nominated Councilmember Carroll to be on the board. A lot of the issues that we have at OCPA can be traced back to his decisions. He was an adamant defender of many of the things that people are objecting to at OCPA right now,” Treseder said. “One caller mentioned the FBI investigation, and yeah, there is one into OCPA specifically focusing on Chair Carroll’s actions.”  

Carroll, who attended the meeting via Zoom, immediately objected to Treseder’s claims.  

“I have no idea what this is. I don’t know what she’s talking about — FBI and my name — without a doubt more of the outrageous things I’ve heard,” he said. “It’s an embarrassment to be honest with you.”

Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan asked Treseder to stay on topic. 

 “I think this is very germane and I believe I’m able to speak about what I want in this topic,” Treseder responded.  

“The mayor actually runs the meeting, it’s the mayor’s call,” Carroll said. 

“The assertion is true, unfortunately,” Treseder continued. 

In order to move the meeting forward, Khan moved onto Kim for comments on the issue. 

In response, Kim echoed Treseder’s comments adding that in the short time that she has served as an OCPA director she has “cleaned up” Carroll’s past actions as chair.   

“I’ll continue on that topic — Mike Carroll was the chair for OCPA and since Council Member Treseder and I have been on OCPA, we have had to clean a lot of the misdeeds and corruption that was happening under Mike Carroll’s leadership,” Kim said. 

Councilmember Larry Agran called for a point of order, at which point Khan moved to receive and file the agenda item. 

“I think it’s very unbecoming of any council member to be finger pointing and making assumptions on who did what. You have to understand, the board has changed — the demographics of the board have changed,” she said. “For you to come in, and have a new board to work with that is supportive, and to take credit and say you’re fixing everything is very false. Yes, you’re making progress, but don’t diminish the work that has been done previously.”
 

Speaking to Irvine Weekly via phone on Wednesday, Kim said she did not have any additional knowledge regarding any potential investigations involving Carroll, but expressed confidence that Treseder’s comments are based on factual evidence. 

 “I didn’t mention anything about the FBI, that’s Dr. Treseder,” Kim said. “My comments had to do with any perceived corruption, keeping in mind that Mike Carroll was the founding board chair of OCPA and faced a lot of criticism for lack of transparency and nefarious dealings.” 

Kim added that it was never her objective to become an OCPA board member, but did so as a default, due to the fact that all other council members have served, except Agran, who has been the most vocal against the agency. 

“I never asked to be on the board in the first place, because we need two people to serve on the board, Mike Carroll and Farrah Khan have already served on the board, and the only other person is Larry [Agran], he doesn’t want to serve,” she explained. “So I did it because there’s no one else. If I don’t do it, it means we don’t have representation — and I’m not going to not have Irvine represented.” 

Both Treseder and Carroll did not respond to Irvine Weekly’s request for comment Wednesday.

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