Conservancy Records Turned Over to D.A.

The city has turned over campaign finance statements to the Orange County district attorney’s office as part of an examination of campaign rule violations by the Irvine Conservancy.

The city attorney had been reviewing documentation of contributions to the environmental group by former Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, UC Irvine professor Mark Petracca and three other people.

The donations violated a city law that limits contributions to $190 from any individual for each reporting period.

City leaders said the violations should be reviewed by the district attorney’s office, not Irvine officials.

“It should be looked into by an outsider,” Mayor Christina L. Shea said Thursday. “The city attorney represents all five of us” on the City Council.

The donations in question range from $200 to $1,500, which the Irvine Conservancy accepted in the weeks before the November election. The money was used to print and distribute a last-minute mailer supporting Shea and two other council candidates running as a slate.

Shea won the mayor’s race by a large margin, and one of the two council candidates, Dave Christensen, also was elected.

George Gallagher, president of Irvine Conservancy, acknowledged that some violations did occur but said they were an oversight because the group’s treasurer did not have a copy of the city’s latest campaign laws, adopted in 1995.

He insisted that some of the other donations at issue were proper, however, because they were made on behalf of the contributors and their wives.

The group’s treasurer did not list the names of the contributors’ spouses on the campaign finance forms. Gallagher said the group was not aware of any violations until it received a Feb. 14 letter from City Atty. Joel Kuperberg. He said the group has since showed “good faith” in correcting the matter.

The conservancy monitors development in Irvine.