Irvine Mayor Has Become a Major Player

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran’s enemies brand him an opportunist, an egoist--even a Marxist.

They ask how conservative Irvine can get behind a man who ran for president as a stand-in for George McGovern, had the city host members of a baseball team from then-Marxist Nicaragua, and champions a much-despised proposal for the Orange County CenterLine, which would link the well-manicured sprawl of Irvine with urban Santa Ana by light rail.

“He’s like the old Mayor Daley and Boss Tweed rolled into one,” said Bill Mavity, treasurer of the anti-CenterLine group Fund Alternatives Instead of Rail.

The wonkish, soft-spoken mayor who casts himself as a populist underdog says he has grown accustomed to the tags. But as he runs for reelection as mayor, heading a slate of like-minded Irvine City Council candidates, Agran has acquired a new label: Goliath. That’s what his opponent, Mike House, called him at a recent event.

Strengthened by his leadership of the successful movement to kill the proposed El Toro airport and instead build a “Great Park” at the closed 4,700-acre Marine base, Agran has become a progressive titan in a conservative area.

“No one sees him as a peripheral force ... anymore,” said Fred Smoller, chairman of the political science department at Chapman University. “This guy is a mainstream player in the county.”

Agran’s political power has been cemented by his New Democrat-style shift toward the center, including alliances with The Irvine Co. and other power brokers he once railed against. His willingness to shorten the proposed CenterLine route so that it doesn’t go through communities that oppose it has further undercut his critics.

But it remains to be seen whether Agran’s coattails are long enough to carry his slate of “Agranistas”--a label they defiantly adopted following the Nicaragua incident--on to the City Council with him come Nov. 5.

A trio of opponents including House, who call themselves the New Priorities Team, is seeking to take control of the city. Their platform: The El Toro fight has been won and it is time for new leadership focused on keeping taxes down and helping the city’s financially strapped schools instead of building transit-oriented villages and holding taxpayer-sponsored multicultural events at City Hall.

“Larry’s moving away from what people came to Irvine for,” said Christina Shea, a longtime Agran opponent and former mayor who is running for City Council on the New Priorities slate. “They came for this sprawled, beautiful place, with lots of green and houses set back from the street. We are not into these high-density, no-cars ideas.... People in Irvine like their cars.”

At a recent Chamber of Commerce candidates forum, Shea and running mate Chuck DeVore sought to paint Agran’s allies on the ballot--Councilwoman Beth Krom and photo-processing store owner Mitch Goldstone--as puppets.

The four candidates are vying for two open council seats, along with Linda Lee Grau, who is not affiliated with either slate.

Agran’s lone opponent in the race for mayor is House. But Shea and DeVore directed their attacks at Agran during the forum.

The mayor stood his ground, belittling the New Priorities candidates for what he said was their promise to trim millions of dollars worth of fat from the city budget. Exactly what fat were they talking about, he asked. He seemed unimpressed by their vague answers.

He also said he resented the implication that he is a puppet master controlling his allies on the council. “That is an insult to our entire community,” Agran said in a later interview.

But even as Agran kept his cool, one of his Agranistas stumbled.

Goldstone acknowledged--and later disavowed--a $50,000 loan from an out-of-state uncle, which he reported as coming from himself. State law does not allow candidates to misrepresent the source of contributions. Such a contribution also would exceed the city’s $340 limit.

Campaign finance has become a key issue in the Irvine election, with outside political action committees expected to pour tens of thousands of dollars into advertising for both sides. Also getting involved are nonprofit organizations with anonymous donors funding large political mailings.

“This has been ratcheted up to unbelievable levels,” termed-out Councilman Greg Smith said of the money it now takes to run a viable campaign in Irvine.

Smith contends that Agran’s supporters are the ones who have exploited loopholes in the city’s campaign finance law, thereby triggering a fundraising race. He says the mayor’s vows to get money out of politics are disingenuous. And he says the same thing about Agran’s promises on CenterLine.

“This business about letting people decide whether it will go through their neighborhoods is a whole lot of smoke,” he said.

The Agran team says Smith and others are trying to create an issue where one doesn’t exist.

“The reality is: CenterLine will go nowhere unless the residents approve it,” said Councilman Chris Mears, a close Agran ally who is not up for reelection. “Our opponents are just trying to misconstrue the facts so they seem to create some kind of threat to the city. Nobody is going to force this down anybody’s throat.”

It’s not the CenterLine rhetoric that has annoyed the Agranistas the most, however. The biggest annoyance is that their opponents are trying to trumpet their role in killing the proposed El Toro airport. Shea says she was instrumental in fighting the airport during her term as mayor, and her running mates say they were at the front lines as private citizens.

“These people are like blisters,” Agran said. “They show up after all the hard work is done. I don’t recall a single instance in which they took part in that campaign.”

El Toro remains at the top of Agran’s platform. He insists that the airport threat is not gone. He has been promising voters that if reelected, he will personally be involved in ripping out the runways with a jackhammer within months.

“Here we are having marched 90 yards down the field and I am determined not to fumble the ball heading into the end zone,” Agran said. “If my opponents are saying the airport is already dead, they are betraying an ignorance that is shocking.”

Smoller says Agran is smart to keep pounding on the airport theme.

“The Great Park thing has been an amazing victory, and it was his vision,” Smoller said. “Voters will reward that kind of effectiveness.”

Yet others bristle when Agran is cast as a visionary--and not only those from the right.

Former close Agran aide Stephen Smith accuses Agran of selling out on his way to the political center. He said he was shocked to learn that the mayor was accepting campaign contributions from Irvine Co. executives at the same time that the company had a high-density development proposal before the city that will increase its population by a third. The proposal was approved unanimously by the City Council in June

“He would never have done that a decade ago,” Smith said of Agran’s push to get the development approved.

Agran says the development on unincorporated land has been part of the city’s General Plan for years and will preserve open space. If city officials had rejected it, he said, theIrvine Co. could have simply taken its proposal to county officials and gotten approval for an even bigger development.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Candidates on the Irvine city ballot in the Nov. 5 election:

Mayor:

Larry Agran*, attorney

Mike House, businessman

City Council:

Chuck DeVore, aerospace industry executive

Mitch Goldstone, small-business owner

Linda Lee Grau, small-business owner

Beth Krom*, small-business owner

Christina Shea, small-business owner

*Incumbents