Irvine, CA --  Councilmember Melissa Fox praised the nearly two dozen students from UC Irvine and Irvine Valley College who spoke recently to the City Council on the issue of affordable housing. 

Irvine, CA -- At the Irvine City Council meeting on March 14, 2017, the Council unanimously voted in favor of Councilmember Melissa Fox's motion for an official proclamation recognizing April 23-30, 2017, as "Days of Remembrance" in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and in honor of the survivors, rescuers and liberators, and urging all to "remain vigilant against hatred, persecution, and tyranny."

"I want to thank the Mayor and my City Council colleagues for their unanimous support for this proclamation," Councilmember Fox stated. "The memory of the Holocaust should serve as a reminder throughout the ages of the need to treat all people with respect and dignity, and to ensure that hatred, bigotry, and tyranny have no place in America or any civilized community."

You can read the proclamation  here.

Kenneth Montgomery is a retired Civil Engineer with more than 40 years of experience in managing public works and traffic and transportation issues as Director of Public Works for 3 Southern California Cities: Norwalk, Redondo Beach, and Laguna Niguel.  Ken retired from the City of Laguna Niguel in 2009 after 18 years as that City's first Director of Public Works/City Engineer. He has been closely following transportation issues in Irvine for decades.

"I am delighted that Ken Montgomery will be contributing his expertise and insights to fixing Irvine's traffic problems and building a transportation system that will serve Irvine into the 21st Century." Fox said.

"When I ran for election to the Irvine City Council, I promised to reduce Irvine's traffic congestion both in the long and short term, while providing more transportation choices for Irvine's residents and commuters, and to reduce travel time, reduce noise, improve safety, improve resident access to employment and entertainment centers, improve parking and reduce emissions." Fox explained. "Ken Montgomery is also deeply committed to these goals - and he has the expertise, experience, and vision necessary to achieve them."

As Laguna Niguel's Director of Public Works/City Engineer, Ken managed transportation and traffic issues for this new and developing city, including hiring the traffic engineering staff and managing their Transportation Commission.  He has also worked with Caltrans for years on redesigning freeway interchanges to minimize impacts on city streets.  Ken is an expert on traffic control devices such as stops signs, new traffic signals, street striping changes and school zone traffic management, and has designed and implemented dozens of major and minor street improvement projects to improve traffic safety, capacity and traffic flow.

Ken is a strong advocate for increased transportation choices as a means of traffic reduction.  He was instrumental in building train stations in each of the cities he has served.  He was personally responsible for the Metrolink station that serves Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo, and has worked closely with the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) on the bus lines and bus stops and shelters that serve Laguna Niguel.

He is also an avid bicyclist, who knows and champions the Irvine bike trail system.  Like Councilmember Fox, he is an advocate for making bicycle commuting safer and more practical.

Ken holds a degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He and his wife Judy have resided in Irvine for 37 years and have lived in the same Woodbridge home since 1980.

Ken is an active member of Irvine Rotary Club and serves on its board.  He is also an Irvine CERT member, has served on the Arborlake Home Owners Association Board of Directors, and was a volunteer for the two Solar Decathlons held in Irvine's Great Park.

"I'm excited to seriously tackle Irvine's traffic and transportation issues," Montgomery said. "I look forward to working with Councilmember Melissa Fox, my fellow traffic commissioners, city staff, and all our community stakeholders in getting Irvine moving again."

Meetings for the Transportation Commission will be held on the first and third Tuesday of each month in the City Council Chambers starting at 5:30 pm. Like all commission meetings, it is open to the public.

Irvine, CA -- Nearly 300 people, many of whom were veterans wearing yellow "Southern California Veterans Cemetery" caps, attended the dedication ceremony on Friday, Oct. 27, of 125 acres of strawberry fields that the City of Irvine will donate to the State for an Orange County veterans cemetery.

 

"This is an historic moment," said Bill Cook, a Vietnam War veteran who heads the Orange County Veterans Memorial Park Foundation and has advocated for the cemetery since 1999.

 

The ceremony took place in the strawberry fields that were the end of a runway of the El Toro Marine Base.

 

"This place will become monumental," Cook said. "It will be centerpiece right there when people come into Orange County and they'll see the flags and grave stones and they're going to know that service was done here."

 

When fully built out, the cemetery will offer more than 210,000 gravesites, enough to serve the needs of veterans for the next 100 years, according to state officials.

 

The ceremony kicked off with a flyover by four World War II era airplanes and concluded with the raising of the U.S. flag, a gun salute, and bagpipe music. Irvine Mayor Don Wagner officiated, and numerous federal, state, county and city officials attended the event and addressed the audience, including Congressman Lou Correa, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, State Senator Janet Nguyen, OC Supervisor Todd Spitzer, and Irvine City Councilmembers Christina Shea and Melissa Fox.

 

Groundbreaking could take place as early as October 2018, Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva said. 

 

"Each time we've hit a milestone, there's been a stumbling block or those who had wanted to stop it, and each time we have moved forward to make this happen," Councilmember Melissa Fox said. "I have absolute faith that we will continue until this much needed veterans cemetery is completed, until we have a first service here."

 

"It was a tremendous honor to be part of today's dedication ceremony," Fox added. "Thank you to the Orange County Veteran's Memorial Park Foundation and all who've served."