By John Russo and Marianna Marysheva

This month the Irvine City Council will consider a significant change to how Irvine prepares and approves its budget. Like nearly all California cities, Irvine creates and approves a new General Fund budget each and every year. This is not a “best practice.” If executive management’s fiscal reform proposal is approved by the City Council, Irvine will have its first-ever two-year budget, developed in the context of a comprehensive five-year financial plan, starting July 1, 2019.

By Molly McLaughlin

On October 23, Irvine will take another step to enhance local government transparency, when our City Council considers approving an Irvine Sunshine Ordinance. The goal of the proposed Ordinance is to assure adequate review of various related agenda materials by the public before items are considered by the City Council and its commissions and advisory boards. 

Simply put, there will be quadruple the time to contemplate government action before that action takes place. Here’s how:

Join Orange County Soccer Club for their third playoff game, this Saturday! The playoff game will be held at the Great Park’s Soccer Stadium when Orange County Soccer Club takes on Phoenix Rising FC in round 3 of the USL Cup Playoffs. The team beat Reno 1868, 1-0, in round 2. Game begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, November 3.

The Irvine City Council will consider approval of an Irvine Sunshine Ordinance that would expand review time of nearly all upcoming agenda items to 12 days – which is four times longer than California law requires. The proposed ordinance will be heard during the City Council meeting beginning at 5 p.m. Tuesday, October 23. An ordinance requires a second reading, which would be November 13.

The City of Irvine has been awarded for its “exemplary Information Technology (IT) practices” by MISAC, the Municipal Information Systems Association of California. MISAC announced the Technology Achievement awards for 2018 this month.

Public agencies are recognized for best practices in IT standards and the use of technology for: budget, strategic planning, operations, customer satisfaction, Internet solutions, and security.

“My colleagues on the City Council and I take great pride in Irvine being a leader of innovation in California,” said Mayor Donald P. Wagner.