Memo Submitted by Councilmember Agran Declaring October “Children’s Environmental Health Month” Still Waiting For Second Signature
Irvine City Councilmember Larry Agran submitted a memo on September 8th to declare October 2021 as Children’s Environmental Health Month in Irvine. This gave the Mayor and other City Councilmembers plenty of time to provide a second signature to the item so it can be discussed and hopefully adopted at the September 28th City Council meeting.
The memo, however, has thus far failed to receive a second signature. Irvine’s “Rule of Two” requires a second signature from the Mayor or City Council for an item to be placed on the Council agenda. A number of worthy causes have been placed on the upcoming agenda, but Councilmember Agran’s memo for Children’s Environmental Health month continues to be ignored.
This follows an unfortunate pattern since January — with the “Rule of Two” invoked to shut out Councilmember Agran from adding important items to the Council agenda. This means issues important to the Irvine community — like the Veterans Memorial Park and Cemetery, and transitioning the City to district elections — have been shunted aside.
What is puzzling, however about the Children’s Environmental Health month memo is that the California State Assembly has already approved a resolution recognizing October as Children’s Environmental Health Month. In fact, Irvine Assemblymembers Cottie Petrie-Norris and Steven Choi co-authored the State resolution. Councilmember Agran hoped and expected that the City Council would wish to approve a similar proclamation for Irvine to “reaffirm that all children have a right to clean air and water, safer food and products, and healthy environments.”
Councilmember Agran said, “I’ve always been proud of the open space and clean environment Irvine has created and maintained for our community. The California Assembly has made October a time to recommit to this, and I urge my colleagues to provide a second signature to my memo.”
To read the memo, click here.