Rutan & Tucker are out (in Irvine)

     I read in the Voice of OC (Irvine Terminates City Attorney's Contract) that

…Irvine’s City Council Thursday decided to terminate the city attorney contract, ending a services partnership with a well-known contract law firm that council members say goes back decades. … Terminating the services contract with Rutan & Tucker … is also a move by the Republican majority to bring new officials into the city bureaucracy who don't have longstanding relationships with [Larry] Agran and [Beth] Krom.

Larsen

     These Repubs, like most of the rest of us, think that Agran and Co were up to no good. You'll recall that, during the battle over the fate of the El Toro Marine Base (which ended in 2002), Agran formed an alliance with Tom Fuentes, who died in May. Oddly, when Agran presided over the Great Park board, he hired a public relations firm headed by Fuentes' old pal Arnold Forde, a fellow as crafty and unprincipled as you'll ever find. Forde's firm made millions on that contract, but nobody seems able to explain what that big money bought.

     The SOCCCD has often hired the services of R&T. For instance, the district used R&T during my successful First Amendment lawsuit in 1998 (and during the appeal in 2001).  During much of this saga, R&T’s team comprised David C. Larsen (who argued in court) and Robert E. King.

     Robert E. King, of course, later became a notorious Vice Chancellor of Human Resources in the district (SOCCCD).
     He left ignominiously, an apparent casualty of Mathurian politics.
     These days, King seems to be running Legally Nanny, which represents “household employers and domestic employment and homecare agencies.”

SEE ALSO:
• Writing OC history: the Bold and the Ruthless
• OC's "win at any cost" political ethic: Butcher-Forde, Tom Fuentes, & James Lacy