New Irvine City Council members and the mayor were sworn into office on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at City Hall. Farrah Khan was sworn in as mayor, and Tammy Kim, Larry Agran and Mike Carroll, were sworn in to the council. 

All the new members of the council were present in-person except for Agran, who joined the ceremony virtually, via Zoom.

“It’s obviously a pleasure and honor to be a newly sworn member of the Irvine City Council,” Agran said. “I want to take a moment to express my regrets about the awkwardness,” referring to being part of the meeting via video. “I recognize going forward this really underscores what will be our shared responsibility and no doubt the top priority of each and every council member and of course our mayor – which is to strengthen our ability to combat the coronavirus pandemic. It’s afflicting our community, the entire Orange County community, and the entire country. And I think that this new council is up to the task.”

Carroll took the oath office for a second time for the City of Irvine. Carroll was elected to serve a four-year term, after serving a modified term due to the departure of former mayor, now supervisor, Don Wagner and the appointment of Christina Shea into the mayor post in 2019.

Carroll expressed gratitude on Tuesday, thanking all the voters in Orange County for making the 2020 election the most successful in terms of voter turnout, which he called, “a testament to democracy,” at the local level of government.

“I’d like to first thank the 38,000 or so residents of Irvine, voters that chose me to be a council member in this great city of Irvine, California,” Carroll said after taking the oath. “I also want to say thank you for everyone that voted … for participating at the level at which you did, at the highest turnout in the history of the city of Irvine – it’s really an amazing accomplishment particularly in this time of a global pandemic that has reached all the way down here to our community.”

First-time, newly elected council member Tammy Kim received the most votes of any candidate in the history of Irvine.

In an interview with Irvine Weekly the morning after Election Night, Kim attributed part of her success to targeting multicultural groups, in a variety of languages.

“Our campaign was reaching out to people in Chinese, in Mandarin, both simplified, as well as traditional, as well as Korean, and Vietnamese – we reached out to all of them.”

On Tuesday, Kim expressed her gratitude toward the voters in the city of Irvine, and extended congratulations to her new colleagues on council. She also thanked her mother, father, as well as her son, Christian, who were all watching virtually.

“I can’t express the pride I feel, being joined by everyone watching here at home,” Kim said. “This election, in many ways, has been viewed as historic, which to me is very humbling. For me, it’s an incredible opportunity to give back to this city that is global, dynamic and engaged.”

Irvine’s newly elected mayor, Farrah Khan, spoke last. She thanked her team and family, and said she is looking forward to collaborating with her new council members. 

“I see us setting the standard for local governance,” she said.  

One of her main priorities will be finding strategies to help residents and local businesses recover financially from the pandemic. Khan also has plans to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, by creating a COVID-19 task force. 

While Khan said she does not have any specific names to announce for the task force, she added that, “the goal is to have input from health care professionals (including pediatrics and mental health) on best practices for us to protect our community,” in an email with Irvine Weekly. 

“To the voters of Irvine, thank you for entrusting me with your vote of confidence. You sent a clear message that bold leadership, diverse representation and experience should guide this office in that of the Irvine City Council.”  

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