Irvine council keeps Great Park Corp., despite grand jury recommendation and arguments of redundancy

The Orange County Great Park Corp. will remain an advisory panel to the Irvine City Council on the park’s development, despite arguments that the board should be dissolved because its five members also are on the council.

In a 3 to 2 vote during Tuesday’s council meeting, members opted to remain in their roles with the corporation after a discussion failed to clarify the legal effects of eliminating the panel.

The issue was first raised in November 2014, and an Orange County grand jury report last summer recommended the corporation’s closure.

“The time has come for us to stop pretending to be an independent group of people. We’re not,” said Mayor Pro Tem Lynn Schott, the newest member of the City Council. “We just need to go back to calling ourselves what we are, and that’s the City Council, making the decisions the voters elected us to make.”

The board was established in 2003 with nine members consisting of the City Council and four other members representing community and development interests. The board was reconfigured in January 2013 to eliminate the four community positions.

Council members receive an annual $10,560 stipend for serving on the corporation board. Schott said she would no longer accept her stipend.

Councilman Jeff Lalloway echoed Schott’s argument, saying it doesn’t make sense to have a body that serves only to advise the council when it is made up of the same five members.

“This absurdity has to end,” Lalloway said.

Councilwoman Christina Shea, chairwoman of the Great Park Corp., countered with questions about legal liabilities the city could face as it brings on partners in development at the park. A confidential memo from City Atty. Jeff Melching designed to guide the council on the issue appeared to offer little clarity.

Shea, Mayor Steven Choi and Councilwoman Beth Krom voted to keep the corporation.

“We are a rudderless ship up here. What is going to replace this? Who is staff going to take direction from? I have no idea. They have no idea,” Krom said. “When somebody fills in those blanks for me, I’ll be happy to take this matter up again.”

Choi said that until more decisions are made on park planning, the council needs more time to analyze dissolving the board.