As I wrote about last week, at the June 14, 2023 Irvine City Council meeting, Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan sprung a secretly negotiated construction deal on the city’s residents that will block 80% of the city’s construction workers from working on city construction projects in Irvine. The normal public process for these sole source, no-bid, multi-year contracts for all construction labor is where there is one vote to start PLA negotiations and a subsequent vote to approve the final PLA language that is “negotiated.”

One of the questions I asked at the meeting was “Does this secretly-negotiated construction deal have to come back to the Irvine City Council at a future meeting for a final vote?” Staff and the four Democrat members of the City Council appeared to believe that the PLA does NOT have to come back for a final vote. Unfortunately for Mayor Khan, former Attorney General Kamala Harris says “Yes” it does need to have a final vote because otherwise it would have been “negotiated” in secret/in closed session.

Begin forwarded message:
Date: September 21, 2015 at 4:45:08 PM PDT
To: OPINIONLIST@AGPROD2.DOJ.CA.GOV
State of California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General Kamala D. Harris
September 21, 2015
Published Attorney General Opinion No. 14-302
The following opinion is now available on the Attorney General’s site:
The labor negotiations exception to the open-meeting requirements of the Ralph M. Brown
Act does not permit a community college district’s governing board to meet
in closed session with its designated representative to discuss the negotiation of a project
labor agreement because the contractors and laborers covered by such an agreement are not
district employees.
Download the published opinion (PDF) by clicking the Opinions Search, which contains
published opinions from 1986 to the most current.

Coincidently, this opinion was requested by Irvine’s current Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner. Below is a 2015 article in the Orange County Register by then-Assemblyman Don Wagner about negotiating PLA’s in “Closed Session.” The article reiterates the opinion of California Attorney General Kamala Harris when she ruled that you can NOT negotiate a PLA in closed session. It is interesting that she would confirm an anti-union position in the middle of her run for the U.S. Senate to replace Barbara Boxer. 

Another non-union construction association, the Associated Builders and Contractors, asked Assemblyman Wagner to make the written request to the California Attorney General to get a ruling on the issue, because our local community college had tried to negotiate a PLA on their $198 million dollar construction bond. The ruling forced the college to vote publicly on the final deal.

Hopefully, the City of Irvine will also make an effort to act transparent and take a final vote on this special interest deal. The public deserves to know how this deal for sole source, no-bid, multi-year contracts for all construction labor became policy in the city and how Mayor Khan’s political donors (Big Labor union bosses) were involved.

Transparency Extends To Construction Deals / Oct. 1, 2015
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/public-685473-act-brown.html
BY PHILLIP YARBROUGH and DON WAGNER / Contributing writers
“…The fight for transparency continues today, and a recent ruling by California Attorney General Kamala Harris reaffirms the protections of the Brown Act. After learning of some improper closed-door negotiations, we asked the Attorney General’s Office to clarify whether government construction contracts that exclude nonunion firms are subject to the Brown Act. 
Government construction contracts that require union-controlled hiring practices are commonly referred to as project labor agreements. By restricting government construction contracts to PLAs, contractors must sign an agreement subjecting their employees to union oversight. In order to receive a contract, a company must submit its employees to union controls and force employees to pay union dues, whether or not they are union members. 
Monopoly hiring power is given to unions under the provisions of PLAs.
Many local government officials, unfortunately, have wielded their authority to grant the lopsided privileges of PLAs to union-only firms. It is these same union-only firms, and their affiliates, who have then made substantial political contributions to these same officials. This was all done under the cloak of closed-session negotiations, where public opinion and scrutiny was unwelcomed…” 
-Phillip Yarbrough is a Rancho Santiago Community College District trustee; Don Wagner is a state Assemblyman representing parts of Orange County.

Last night at the Irvine City Council meeting, Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan sprung a secretly negotiated construction deal on the city’s residents that will block 80% of the city’s construction workers from working on city construction projects in Irvine. 

How Much Could This Cost Irvine Taxpayers?

If Irvine completes $200 million dollars of construction, Mayor Khan’s special interest deal (PLA) will cost Irvine taxpayers roughly $30 million dollars in higher costs.  Unfortunately, the Irvine City Council ignored all the questions asked at the meeting and sent in via email before the meeting about cost increases and reduced bidders. In the last year, Southern California has seen cost increases and reduced bidders at Midway City Sanitary District, the City of Long Beach, and the City of Palm Springs. The threat of increased costs is very real in today’s construction market.

Why Was This Negotiated In Secret?    

Another concern the public should have about this special interest deal is how it came to the Irvine City Council. It is one of the topics I asked the City Council about during my comments representing the Western Electrical Contractors Association. Besides pointing out the inherent discrimination in PLAs and the increase in price Irvine taxpayers can expect, I also highlighted the fact that this all seemed to be done in secret – rather than the normal public process where there is one vote to start negotiations and a subsequent vote for the final language that is “negotiated.” However, no one was interested in our comments and seemed to have unfortunately made up their mind in secret. I’m planning on writing another blog next week going into the legality of this issue more in-depth. Former Attorney General Kamala Harris agreed that PLAs cannot be negotiated in secret or closed session.

Did Farrah Khan’s Political Consultant Play A Role In This “Negotiation”?

It has been well documented that Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan’s political consultant, Melahat Rafiei, has recently been involved with several secret backroom deals. The first was her involvement in the Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu indictment, which coincidentally reopened the construction around Anaheim Stadium.  The LA Times reported that the California Democratic party leader was “linked to a sprawling corruption investigation of the proposed sale of Angel Stadium land…Rafiei, who has been accused of trying to bribe public officials in a mushrooming federal corruption probe…acknowledged in the letter that she was a confidential witness in the FBI probe of the proposed $320-million sale of Angel Stadium land. Federal investigators said in a court filing that they believe fraud, bribery, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and other corruption in the negotiations between Anaheim and the Angels over the proposed sale.”

FBI investigators said in an affidavit that while Rafiei cooperated with their inquiry for a time, the witness was complicit in corruption, and no further cooperation is expected. “I also believe CW1 (Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan’s political consultant, Melahat Rafiei) has omitted material facts to investigators throughout CW1’s (Rafiei’s) cooperation with the FBI, including additional instances where CW1 (Rafiei) has offered to pay bribes to elected public officials,” Special Agent Brian Adkins wrote in an affidavit. The document was attached to a criminal filing charging the former head of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce with lying to a mortgage lender as part of the scandal.

The second backroom deal by Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan’s political consultant, Melahat Rafiei, involved pot dispensaries in Irvine. As reported by the The Voice of OC, Melahat Rafiei’s “recent political scandal is enveloping city hall, in which she (prominent Democrat consultant and lobbyist Melahat Rafiei) plead guilty to a scheme to bribe two councilmembers in 2018. Irvine Councilwoman Tammy Kim, who also paid Rafiei as a consultant, claims Rafiei regularly tried to insert herself into city hall on Kim’s behalf. “Her talking points were being written by Melahat and she was in the room for all her meetings,” Kim said. “I believe she was on a lot of things, or that Melahat had access to city staff on the mayor’s behalf.”

The third backroom deal by Rafiei involved  Irvine Councilwoman Kathleen Treseder. Treseder began publicly raising complaints about Rafiei’s work while on the campaign trail, claiming in a letter sent to Voice of OC that Rafiei admitted to arranging a deal to put Farrah Khan on the state Coastal Commission.

And now we have this current PLA popping up with a backroom memo from Mayor Farrah Khan. It seems only fair for the public and taxpayers to ask what role, if any, prominent Democrat consultant and lobbyist Melahat Rafiei played in this Project Labor Agreement (PLA) negotiation. 

Considering that Rafiei’s clients include Anaheim Councilman Jordan Brandman, six current Long Beach City Council members, and the mayor, and multiple failed campaigns for county supervisor, backing candidates like Garden Grove Councilwoman Kim Nguyen in her 2020 bid and Joe Kerr’s 2022 run, according to county campaign finance disclosures (Rafiei also advised now disgraced Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin De Leon,) – it again only seems fair for the public and taxpayers to ask what role, if any, Melahat Rafiei played in this Irvine PLA negotiation. Anaheim has a PLA. Long Beach has a PLA. Garden Grove has a PLA. Los Angeles has a PLA. Which city is next on Rafiei’s to-do list?

We often see these special interest deals passed to try and gain favor with Big Labor unions when Democrat politicians aspire to higher office. Jose Solorio passed a PLA at Rancho Santiago Community College while trying to run for State Senate. Coast Community College District Trustee Jim Moreno tried to pass one while running for Supervisor. Garden Grove passed one right before Kim Nguyen and Jim Kerr started running for Supervisor. But thus far, Farrah Khan has yet to declare for Senate, Assembly, Supervisor, or Congress.

According to the OC Independent, “Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim, 52, has announced her intention to run for mayor of Irvine in 2024. .. term limits prevent Current Mayor Farrah Khan from seeking re-election in 2024. 

Veteran Councilman Larry Agran, also a Democrat, has declared his intention to run in 2024 for mayor. The 78-year-old Agran has served three previous stints as Irvine mayor: from 1982 to 1984, 1986 to 1990, and 2000 to 2004.”

So, in conclusion, it was an interesting City of Irvine PLA fight. Only Republican Councilmember Mike Carroll voted “no” on the PLA. All the other 4 Democrat Councilmembers voted “yes.” As I mentioned above, I am hoping to do a deeper dive into how illegal and inappropriate the process was to “negotiate” this special interest deal. Still, for the time being, Irvine taxpayers will waste $30 million dollars for a construction policy that excludes 80% of Irvine’s construction workers and apprentices.