Irvine Weekly asked the candidates running for Irvine City Council, “Why are you running for office?” These were their responses:
Tammy Kim
I am running for Irvine City Council to bring my experience as a small business owner, nonprofit leader, community advocate and a mother to better serve our residents and businesses that help to make Irvine such a wonderful city. This is my opportunity to give back.
Mike Carroll
I am running for City Council because there is much more work left to do. We need someone who will fight for our residents, and now is not the time for experiments in leadership. I will continue aiding and assisting our residents during COVID-19, work on safely re-opening our community, ensure Irvine remains the Safest City in America, implement solutions to reduce traffic, and support our public schools.
Mark Newgent
Out of loyalty to my city, colleagues and my family. We need to bring back honor and integrity to local government. For far too long people that lack basic values have and are using City Hall for their own personal gain, dishonoring our city.
Lauren Norris-Johnson
I decided to run for office because I have a passion for solving problems that matter to all of us: public safety, traffic and rising housing costs. As a small-business owner, mother, attorney and Irvine Community Services Commissioner, I understand how these issues impact Irvine families.
Laura Bratton
Clean air and traffic reduction, police accountability and public safety.
Larry Agran
When I previously served as mayor and on the City Council, Irvine became the safest, smartest and greenest city in America. But in the past eight years, I’ve watched the City Council abandon good planning and good government, rubber-stamping massive development schemes and catering to the interests of developers rather than standing up for the best interests of Irvine residents.
John Park
As a 21-year resident and as one who considers Irvine our forever home, I felt compelled to run to preserve and protect Irvine’s way of life. Keeping Irvine, Irvine is a priority for me and that means adhering very closely to our original Master Plan for the city.
Hai Liang
I am a 27-year retired Army Master Sergeant and in the fortunate position to have a pension which gives me a lot of free time. I really miss being a leader of a great organization that takes care of its people. During that time, I had the opportunity to travel to many different countries and interact with many different kinds of people in a very diverse environment. Irvine is such a diverse environment. With my experience as a leader in the Army, I want our community to continue to thrive and move in a positive direction for our families and our future.
Dylan Green
I‘m running for City Council to make a government that works for all of us, and not just the wealthy developers or the well-off. In 2016, I went to watch Bernie Sanders speak at the Verizon Amphitheatre, an amphitheater that not only no longer exists, but its replacement was built and funded by FivePoint, a developer company with deep pockets of dark money that have been influencing our election for years.
Diana Jiang
I am running for City Council to be the independent voice for the people, to preserve and improve our great city.
Carrie O’Malley
As a 23-year Irvine resident, community leader and public policy expert, I am running for Irvine City Council to be an advocate and resource for ALL Irvine residents. I am running in order to utilize my talents to help keep Irvine the amazing city that over 280,000 of us call home.
Anshul Garg
Helping and working with people and communities has always been a passion of mine, whether in the job or in the business. To extend the same passion helping everyone, I decided to run for the local office so I can do more for every resident of Irvine, in terms of the benefits available to them throughout the city and how they can be part of the decision-making of the policies of their city.
Abigail Pole
The Veterans Cemetery has not been built, the Covid-19 response is wanting, and there have been policies put in place that harm the people that I love. In short, I am running for office because I am angry. I’m angry we have elected leaders who have forgotten they serve the people and have failed to serve us, the citizens of Irvine, in any meaningful way. I am running to show them that if they forget whom they serve, we the great people of Irvine will remind them.
Christina Dillard did not submit responses to our candidate questionnaire.
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