Powder Blue Report: Beth Krom Loses Her Cool

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Beth Krom Loses Her Cool

So last night I was watching the Irvine City Council meeting on television. The last item on the agenda was a discussion of Measure M that was agendized by Christina Shea. The discussion moved quickly from Measure M into election season politics/campaign/slate mailers. A gentleman named Guy Mailly took to the podium and proceeded to rip Mayor Krom for the deceitful Hometown Crony Guide. As Mr. Mailly was trying to wrap up, the Mayor was literally yelling at him to finish up. It was quite a scene seeing Beth's face turn red. As the discussion was coming to a close, you know Larry would have to chime in and have his say. He proceeded to rip the Prop 90 slate mail pieces that have gone out to Irvine voters in the last week. Larry wants to have a "special meeting" Thursday to go on record as the council being against Prop 90. Beth, being the puppet that she is, of course sided with Larry on this.

6 Comments:

At 4:54 PM, Anonymous said…

Interesting. I saw it differently. I didn't see Mayor Krom lose her cool. But rather express herself passionately over the matter.

More importantly, I have a problem with someone bringing a campaign issue in front of the council. The HVG is not city business.

Allan, I'm surprised you would approve of this. But then again, I'm not.
At 6:06 PM, Unknown said…

You're shocked Heywood that this race is slipping away from you. I give you points though for trying to defend Beth. Maybe you are Beth or she put you up to this? I know this blog is monitored at Team Crony headquarters. How can the Hometown Crony Guide not be part of the city's business when it lies as much as it does, uses millionaire heiresses to fund its distribution, skirts Irvine's strict contribution limits, and flies in the face of the council majorities so called "ethics ordinance". You might want to tell your team to practice what they preach.
At 9:11 PM, Dan Chmielewski said…

Allen --
see my previous post in regards to the Lincoln Club's lawsuit against the city which basically allows the HTVG to exist.

And while I'm not wild about the name, Heywood has a point. HTVG is not city business.

Prop 90, since you brought it up, is opposed by virtually every newspaper in the state as a bad idea. Except the OC Register, natch.

To accuse Heywood of being Beth is hysterical. You really don't know her and it shows.

The last time I saw a mayor lose it was Ms. Shea in 2000. I don't have to get into details here do I?
At 10:21 PM, Anonymous said…

Dream on Allan. There are no issues in Irvine that will cause folks to want to change course.

As far as being Beth you apparently slept through the class in critical thinking while attending Westwood Community College.

If Beth is accused of skirting the campaign finance laws, you must be outraged at Team Irvine's being supported by any number of entities outside the city.

You must be paranoid to believe the other side reads and doesn't laugh out loud.

I know I do.
At 8:22 AM, Anonymous said…

Transcript of Mr. Mailly's public comments at the Irvine City Council meeting.

Mayor Krom:

Welcome.

Guy Mailly:

Good Evening.

A few weeks ago I received the same mailer that Ms. Shea received, Council Member Shea received. And it purports to be a Hometown Voter Guide promoting Measure M. In the fine print it appears that it was paid for, in part, by the Yes on Measure M committee. It also had advertisements for the Mayor and for the other members of her slate.

I was surprised that Measure M backers would get involved in a partisan political race. I called Art Brown, the Chairman of the OCTA and He emphatically told me that neither the OCTA or Measure M had anything to do with it.

So I had to investigate it further. I went to the Orange County Registrar of Voters. I learned that there is no Yes on Measure M committee. Here is a certified copy of the list of filed committees and there is no Yes on Measure M committee. The real Measure M committee is called the Committee to renew measure m and it’s filing is some 100 pages and they received 1.6 M dollars of contribution - not a dime of it went to the Hometown Voter Guide despite the representations that some of it did.

I had to figure out what’s the Hometown Voter Guide. So I learned that the Hometown voter guide is a so called slate mailer organization. It received in the Months of July, August and September $48,000 from a corporation called Planning 2020 and 35,000 from the campaign committees of Krom, Kang and Gaido. This year through the end of September, HVG received $127,000.

So the question is what is Planning 2020? Well, Planning 2020 is a corporation that is based in Monterey California in the Bay Area. You wonder what do they have to do with Measure M. Apparently, very little. It collected contributions of over $ 60,000 from one of the heirs of John Getty, John Paul Getty, fortune. It was - that heir is Anne Getty Earhart who lives in Laguna Beach. It also received $ 12,000 from a subsidiary of KB Homes.

I wondered what connection is there between Hometown Voter Guide and Planning 2020. Well they all have the same officer acting as their filing officer - Renita Smith. And curiously enough, Mayor Krom, Councilman Kang and Ms. Gaido also use the same filing officer as the treasurer who files their campaign reports.

In conclusion, what have I learned? The Mayor and others running with her are using

Mayor Krom:

If you could, I’ll give you a few minutes to wrap up if you could conclude your remarks

Guy Mailly:

I, I it’s a very short conclusion.

In conclusion, the Mayor and the others running with her are using a slate mailer that appears to use a phony Measure M committee to create the misleading and false impression that Measure M backers support them. In fact, the real Measure M committee has not contributed to the Hometown Voter Guide. I did some research and according to that research, in news reports last year, that former allies of Council member Agran, such as UCI Professor Mark Petracca, allege that all the mailers in the last election cycle were approved by Mr. Agran, thereby, allegedly rendering the purported independent expenditures

Mayor Krom:

Mr. Mailly, could you conclude your remarks.

Guy Mailly:

as excess contributions to the committees of Mayor Krom, Council member Kang and Agran. The smears against Council member Shea in these mailers are unbecoming of a great city and makes Mayor Krom and her slate look very, very bad.

Mayor Krom:

Thank you.

Guy Mailly:

Whether the Anne Getty Earhart $48,000 contribution

Mayor Krom:

Mr. Mailly

Guy Mailly:

was illegal, illegally laundered through a

Mayor Krom:

Mr. Mailly!

Guy Mailly:

corporation

Mayor Krom:

Mr. Mailly!

Guy Mailly:

has yet to be determined. Whether the Krom, Kang

Mayor Krom:

Mr. Mailly!

Guy Mailly:

Gaido slate has received illegal contributions

Mayor Krom.

Mr. Mailly! Your time is up.

Guy Mailly:

are an excess contribution in violation of Irvine contribution limits has yet to be determined. All I know that the conduct by, this conduct raises serious questions about the ethics of Mayor Crom, Council member Kang and candidate Gaido. In my opinion, this conduct violates the spirit, if not the letter of Irvine’s campaign contribution laws and it’s contribution limits. Irvine deserves far better from it’s elected officials.

Mayor Krom:

Thank you very much for coming down this evening. . . ,

I had to investigate
At 9:16 AM, Anonymous said…

Heywood Jablome said…

Interesting. I saw it differently. I didn't see Mayor Krom lose her cool. But rather express herself passionately over the matter.

I had to investigate.

After about three minutes, Mayor Krom tells Mr. Mailly that she will give him a couple of minutes to wrap up.

Shortly, thereafter, she starts interupting him saying Mr. Mailly, Mr. Mailly, Mr. Mailly, Mr. Mailly your time is up.

If this is what you mean by "express herself passionately over the matter" I guess you are right. The way I saw it was this: a informed voter received the mailers, investigated the matter and shared his findings. This guy was sharp. He had certified copies of committee filings from the Registrar of Voters. He chose his words carefully. He investigated deliberately. He shared his findings in an articulate manner. And she lost her cool.

Anyway, that's my take on it.