“If you’re a Supervisor that’s going to… promise us one thing and do another, we’re going to call you out,” said Creek Team leader Brent Linas.
Some residents of Orange County’s Fifth Supervisorial District have a new nickname for Supervisor Katrina Foley. Unfortunately for her, it’s not an endearing one.
Creek Team OC was first to adopt the moniker “Flip Flop Foley.” Interestingly, their main point of contention was Foley’s handling of the San Juan and Trabuco Creeks herbicide controversy, which the Creek Team calls “a riparian ecocide;” however, they also reference her “secret landfill expansion” in a video recently posted to Instagram. But, evidently, the name—or at least the general spirit of the critique—has stuck.
Separately, Foley was accused of flip-flopping on her stance on the Prima Deshecha expansion after she voted in favor of a plan to double the daily load of trash dumped at the landfill from a 4,000 ton limit to 8,000. After an immediate backlash from residents and hundreds of public complaints, Foley feigned ignorance: “Our office was not informed that this was being done by (OC) Waste and Recycling, and I learned about this from all the residents starting to email me,” Foley told the Voice of OC.
But Foley’s claim is false. And now, the public has receipts.
Last week, the Voice of OC released their findings after reviewing internal communications between Foley and county staff. Their conclusion is that “Foley was indeed briefed about the expansion years earlier, with multiple emails between her and some of the county’s top waste and recycling staff about the issue.”
We now know that Foley was made aware of resident concerns about the expansion as early as October 3, 2023, when a Rancho Mission Viejo resident emailed Foley to say that they were “concerned that the Prima Deshecha landfill is going to increase its daily fill capacity from 4,000 tons to 8,000 tons.”
“We expect you to keep your promise and not approve the additional fill rate until a mitigation plan is in effect,” the resident wrote.
Foley forwarded this message to OC Waste and Recycling Director Tom Koutroulis, who responded in less than 24 hours with an outline detailing how the county would increase the dumping rate at Prima Deshecha. Despite this, Foley claimed earlier this year that Koutroulis never briefed her.
Presumably, she was recently reminded of this email by Voice of OC. On Tuesday, she issued the following as part of a larger statement: “I did not recall the October 2023 email thread at the time.”
While Foley’s critics claim she flip-flopped on her position, that remains debatable. But what’s now objectively true is that her claim about prior knowledge has indeed flipped from “I was never briefed” to “I was briefed but I don’t remember it.”
The full report by Noah Biesiada dives deeper into the back-and-forth between Foley, OC Waste and Recycling, county staff, city managers, and concerned residents. But, in short, Foley seems to now be arguing that this all comes down to a discrepancy about what constitutes a “formal briefing.”
Interestingly, Foley is quoted as saying she never “flip-flopped” on the project. Mere coincidence? Or is Foley aware of her new sobriquet?
In either case, there now seems to be a direct timeline contradicting her prior claims. Though it arose from a completely separate issue, this is not dissimilar from the aforementioned Creek Team video which cycles through screenshots of their members reaching out to Foley and Orange County Public Works (OCPW) to seek audience with Foley but ultimately being “left in the dark” as parties continue to meet without them.
“Foley will always do the photo op, but never the follow through,” said Creek Team leader Brent Linas. “Every promise Supervisor Foley has made to the Creek Team has been broken. From the Oversight Committee to holding OCPW accountable, virtually nothing Foley has promised to the people has come to reality.”
Amanda Quintanilla, a candidate for San Clemente City Council claims that she emailed Foley about the improper notification of the Prima Deschecha Landfill under State Regulation Title 14 and did not hear back.
“[Foley] is on all the water boards and doesn’t care about the creeks or flora or fauna that inhabit them,” said one user on Instagram.
“If you’re a Supervisor that’s going to… promise us one thing and do another, we’re going to call you out,” said Linas.
