Ever since 2014, after Larry Agran was voted out of office, he has spent his spare time going after Mayor Christina Shea in a very vindictive and nasty way, primarily through his fake newspaper. Some of his lies claim that she is against the Veterans Cemetery at the Great Park and that she is in favor of grounding the balloon ride, among other falsehoods and personal attacks.

When Agran controlled the Irvine City Council, he ran the Great Park with an iron fist, hiring his Kool-Aid-drinking friends and passing out public funds at a feverish pace. He literally ran the project into the ground with wasteful spending. A forensic audit revealed wasteful spending in excess of $250 million; it showed that what was accomplished at the time did not merit the $260 million spent on no-bid contracts, with consultants who helped bankroll Agran’s campaigns.

For example, Forde & Mollrich billed the city $100,000 per month for allegedly performing public relations work for the public project. Councilmembers Christina Shea and Steven Choi were not given access to invoices and other relevant information and had to go to court to obtain them. To ensure that Agran and his Democratic majority remained in office in Republican-heavy Irvine, decoy Republican candidates ran in several Irvine elections that siphoned off just enough votes from authentic Republican candidates. After the election, these decoy candidates would never heard from again.

What is more remarkable is that Agran and his new political ally, Kevork Nazar Abazajian, are attempting to take control of the city with a misguided recall attempt of Mayor Shea and Councilmember Carroll, two very passionate public servants.

Please do not allow this to happen in Irvine. Great things are now happening at the Great Park and throughout the city. The community can enjoy a world-class sports park, including Olympic water polo and volleyball. We can also enjoy a fire museum, Pretend City, the amphitheatre, and an expanded Wild Rivers, among other popular venues. For all that, we can thank Mayor Shea and the current council majority.

Steve Greenberg is chair of the Transportation Commission, director of the Colony Homeowners Association and a former member of the Investment Advisory Committee and the Green Ribbon Committee.

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