Irvine City Council candidate Tammy Kim is dropping out of the race in a special April election to represent District 5.
Her doing so is the crux of a settlement she said she agreed to Friday morning, Feb. 7, to end a lawsuit against her that alleged she did not live in District 5 and, therefore, could not legally appear on the ballot for the April 15 election.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Craig Griffin was slated to decide the case by 5 p.m. Friday in order to avoid delays to the production of the ballots.
The parties appeared in court Thursday afternoon to argue the case.
But Friday morning, hours before the ruling was due, Kim said she decided to settle with Ron Scolesdang, the 2024 Irvine mayoral candidate and resident suing the city clerk – Kim is a “real party in interest” in the suit.
“I’m confident this would have ended in our favor, but the constant harassment — the private investigation — was not going to end even if we had won,” Kim said in a phone interview.
A licensed private investigator had been hired to follow Kim at sporadic times over several weeks this winter.
The private investigator’s report became the basis of Scolesdang’s lawsuit alleging that Kim did not maintain residence in District 5. Scolesdang had been seeking a court order to have the Irvine city clerk remove Kim’s name from the special election ballot.
Scolesdang’s attorney, Brian Hildreth, argued that Kim lives in District 3 and registered a “sham address” in District 5 to run in the special election.
Kim’s attorney, Brett Murdock, argued she had proven District 5 residency through documents including a lease at a District 5 address, as well as rental payments, voter registration and a driver’s license.
He argued that the private investigator’s report could not be counted as admissible evidence because it relied on hearsay and check-ins at Kim’s disputed address “for a couple of hours on a few random days” during which time Kim happened to not be there.
Kim said on Friday morning that she decided to settle the case after consulting with her family.
“This is the conclusion that we thought was best for my family,” she said.
“There have been 18 months of nonstop attacks against me for various things,” she added. “I just want to recenter, and I’m still going to serve the community.”
Kim served on the Irvine City Council from 2020 through 2024 and finished second in the seven-person race for mayor in November won by Larry Agran.
Agran had to vacate his council seat to assume that new role.
It’s that seat which is up for election on April 15.
With Kim out of that race, three candidates remain: Bety Martinez Franco, Dana Cornelius and former councilmember Anthony Kuo.