Irvine District 5 Special Election: Tammy Kim’s Residency Challenged by Ron Scolesdang
Former mayoral candidate Ron Scolesdang, served a demand letter to the City of Irvine, to object to the candidacy of Tammy Kim for Irvine’s City Council District 5 Special Election.
The Irvine City Council will convene in closed session this Tuesday, January 28 at 1:00 PM regarding this “significant exposure to litigation”. See agenda. The attachment on the City Council agenda, item 1.1, revealed that a private law firm Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, LLC, representing Scolesdang investigated Kim’s residency and eligibility to run as a candidate in District 5. The letter was also sent to Orange County District Attorney, Todd Spitzer, and The United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
According to the private investigator’s report, which was attached as an exhibit to a letter from the law firm representing Scolesdang, the investigator observed Kim’s whereabouts for weeks and attempted to contact Kim at the apartment she had listed in District 5. The “investigation determined that Tammy Kim Shin does not reside [in District 5]”, and Ms. “Park and her teenage daughter were briefly interviewed on the sidewalk and stated that no one but their family has lived with them in their apartment and they have lived there for approximately eight years.”
The private investigator report chronicles five separate days of surveillance, between December 19 to January 9, including early morning and late-night stakeouts at the District 5 and District 3 addresses. The report also includes candid photos of Kim carrying boxes at her District 3 residence. Furthermore, title ownership records, vehicle records, and descriptions of conversations with neighbors were used to support the conclusion that Kim continues to live in District 3.
The City of Irvine could violate City and State law if her nomination papers are allowed to qualify her for the special election. Notable provisions from the report are as follows:
In furtherance of this evidence, our client has received the attached report from a licensed private investigator who has observed both residences over the course of the past few weeks and he has observed her coming and going from, loading groceries into, and regularly parking her car at her true residence on [Redacted] in District 3. Photos within the attached report show Kim bringing a load of items into her home at [Redacted], not a nominal delivery for a home where she doesn’t reside…The private investigator also reports he did not once witness Kim visit or sleep in the sham residence in District 5 and observed other people using the parking garage assigned to the address, which he later confirmed belonged to a Board Member of her organization and who told the investigator that they had lived there for 8 years and never rented a room to anyone.
The report also described efforts by Kim to refile her nomination paperwork with the City days before the filing deadline. It is alleged that this resubmission of paperwork was an effort to “cure” the residency deficiency and is “a prima facie admission of guilt to both Voter Fraud in the November 2024 election as well as the attempt to defraud the voters of Irvine in the Special Election of 2025.” The record reflects that Kim owns a condo in District 3, but has publicly stated that she is renting in District 5 in order to avoid harassment received in District 3 by her opponents.
Kim could be in legal trouble if the report’s claims are accurate. Specifically, Under California Elections Code Section 201, no individual is eligible to be elected or appointed to an elective office unless they are a “registered voter and otherwise qualified to vote for that office at the time nomination papers are issued.” It’s further alleged that she may have voted in a jurisdiction, with its own local elections, that Kim did not reside in.
The report reads, “A candidate who knowingly files false candidacy papers is guilty of a crime, punishable by monetary fine and/or imprisonment. Elections Code section 18203 provides that “[a]ny person who files or submits for filing a nomination paper or declaration of candidacy knowing that it or any part of it has been made falsely is punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for 16 months or two or three years or by both that fine and imprisonment.” Lastly, the report alleges that Kim could be guilty of filing a false affidavit of voter registration.
To date, there is no evidence that any criminal investigation has been initiated. Scolesdang was a political rival of Kim during the 2024 Mayoral race and is a Registered Republican whereas Kim is endorsed by the Democratic Party of Orange County (DPOC) in the current District 5 Special Election.
In response to the allegations, Kim provided Irvine Watchdog this response:
“The complaint filed with the City of Irvine is politically motivated, backed by Republican interests. It is a cynical ploy to promote their favored candidate, based on distortions and a flawed opposition research report. My relocation to District 5 early last year was driven by security concerns due to the council’s inaction on a resolution concerning the Israel-Hamas conflict. We’ve learned that a well-known GOP operative in Orange County has been openly boasting about orchestrating these unfounded attacks, which clearly illustrates the lengths they are willing to go to disrupt our democratic process. The tactics being used are not merely desperate; they are a calculated distraction from the issues that truly matter to the residents of Irvine.”
