IRVINE : Company, City Scrap Over Meeting Notes
City Manager Paul Brady Jr. declined Wednesday to release his notes of a Jan. 10 meeting with top city and Irvine Co. officials, despite the company’s suggestion that he do so.
In a statement Tuesday, the company encouraged Mayor Larry Agran and Brady to release the notes, which the company said would provide evidence that Agran had threatened to delay action on Village 38, a company project, unless it backed off its support for an overpass expansion proposal that the mayor opposes.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Feb. 2, 1990 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Friday February 2, 1990 Orange County Edition Metro Part B Page 2 Column 4 Metro Desk 1 inches; 27 words Type of Material: Correction
Irvine Overpasses--A street name in a story about a proposal to widen two pedestrian overpasses in Irvine was incorrectly identified Thursday as Yale Loop. The correct name is Yale Avenue.
“It’s not that there is anything in the notes that is a problem,” Brady said Wednesday. “It’s just that they’re notes to file, and they’re not meant for release. . . . They’re not part of any public record.”
The exchange followed a Tuesday press conference by Agran, in which the mayor produced copies of two memos indicating that a senior officer of the Irvine Co. recently suggested that the company is planning several mass mailings on an overpass proposal for Yale Loop.
“The city of Irvine is involved in what has so far been a successful struggle for independence,” Agran said.
That independence, he added, is threatened by the company’s efforts to sway the outcome of the overpass dispute and simultaneously aid Agran’s political foes.
In a three-page written response, company officials dismissed Agran’s allegations and said the mayor is trying to “drive a wedge between the company and the community” for political reasons. The statement further said its support for the overpass proposal does not include endorsement or support of candidates who back the measure.
Agran opposes the proposal to widen two Yale Loop pedestrian overpasses so they can accommodate auto traffic, while his chief opponent, Councilwoman Sally Anne Sheridan, supports the idea.
Sheridan, however, said she receives no support from the Irvine Co.
One of the two Yale bridges spans the San Diego Freeway; the other crosses the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad tracks. The bridges can already accommodate emergency vehicles.
Costs for the project are still undetermined, but preliminary estimates have indicated a tab of about $3 million per bridge.
The matter will go before city voters on the June 5 ballot, at the same time that voters will elect a mayor and two council members.
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