Nearly a dozen residents drew attention to current Irvine Vice Mayor and mayoral candidate Larry Agran’s controversial ties to a local newspaper and demanded more transparency during public comments at Tuesday night’s city council meeting.

“Surely this is something I should be reading and taking to heart as an independent newspaper,” a resident named Julie, the first to speak on the issue during the non-agendized public comments portion of the meeting, said. “Then I kind of dug in more and was really concerned about what I found.”

The publication, Irvine Community News and Views, describes itself as “fiercely independent” and says on a donation page that it was “founded on the belief that news shouldn’t be written or funded by corporate developers or special interest groups.”

But commenters raised concerns over Agran’s alleged 4% financial stake in the paper, the publisher’s former ownership of a political slate mail operation with the exact same name, and the positions that Agran’s wife and daughter-in-law hold with the paper, alleging that the paper is biased in favor of Agran’s interests.

• “This publication is clearly political while masquerading as independent,” another resident named Mike said. “My fellow citizens should be made aware of it.”
  
• “Watching the Trump trial, it’s very clear that the National Enquirer’s only job was to protect and cover Trump’s lies,” another resident said. “Here in Irvine, we also have a National Enquirer in the Irvine Community News and Views, whose only purpose is to protect Larry Agran.”

One resident expressed alarm that two of the recent articles by the paper’s publisher, Frank Lunding, critiqued Councilmember Tammy Kim, one of Agran’s opponents in the 2024 mayoral election.

Yet another resident, who said she once donated to the paper, expressed frustration that the paper is mentioned in hundreds of of Form 460s, which are used by political campaign committees to report campaign activity, and can be viewed via the city’s online portal.

• “There’s loans, contributions, unpaid bills, payments,” she said. “I think we have to closely look at what’s happening in our portal and I ask that the city attorney actually use that portal to take a look[.]”
  
• “Other newspapers, such as the OC Register, don’t sponsor committees,” another resident followed up, referring to the relative lack of Form 460s for that paper filed with the city of Irvine. “Something just doesn’t add up.”

It was unclear if the commenters were organized under one banner. Agran, who was presiding over the city council meeting due to Mayor Farrah Kahn’s absence, never addressed the commenters’ concerns other than thanking them for speaking.

The accusations of bias against Agran and the Irvine Community News and Views are not new. The Los Angeles Times ran a story on the paper’s connections to Agran in 2020.

According to the Times, the publisher, Frank Lunding, is a long-time friend of Agran’s and started the paper in 2014. Prior to that, Lunding owned a political slate mailer operation with the same name. Agran also wrote a column in the paper that he discontinued when he ran for office.

Agran also confirmed to the Times at the time it was published that he owned a 4% financial stake in the paper.

Moreover, the legality of the paper has been litigated before. Lunding sued the city of Irvine in 2016 after it barred Irvine Community News and Views from distribution in City Hall. The city ended up paying the paper a $350,000 settlement.

Nevertheless, Irvine Councilmember Mike Carroll and Mayor Farrah Khan were both quoted in the Times story at the time critiquing the paper.

• “I think everyone knows it’s linked to Larry Agran,” said then-Councilwoman Farrah Khan.
  
• “In the case of this ‘newspaper,’ Agran is once again avoiding disclosing who is trying to influence Irvine voters, by hiding political mail inside a supposed ‘newspaper,” said Councilman Mike Carroll