A New Era Dawns in Irvine with a New City Council

From left: Councilmembers Melinda Liu and Mike Carroll, Mayor Larry Agran,  Councilmembers William Go, James Mai and Kathleen Treseder.

New Mayor Larry Agran, re-elected Councilmember Mike Carroll, and new Councilmembers William Go, Melinda Liu and James Mai took their oaths and joined incumbent Councilmember Kathleen Treseder on the Council dais.

These six Councilmembers will be joined by a seventh and final colleague after a special election next April 15th to fill the Council seat vacated by Agran upon his elevation to Mayor. It is the first seven-member Council — with six Councilmembers elected by district and the Mayor elected by a citywide vote — in the City’s history. It’s a change approved by Irvine’s voters in the March primary election this year.

After the new Councilmembers were seated, Agran delivered these extemporaneous remarks on the significance of the events:

My favorite part of the U.S. Constitution is the Preamble, which was added to the Constitution after the rest of the Constitution, a somewhat flawed document, had been put together. I think it is civic scripture, really. Let me just read it, because I think it sets the tone for what we need to be doing here in Irvine, as well.

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

To me, that’s the most beautiful passage in the entire Constitution because it summarizes what government should be about. “We the people.” That means us, together. It indicates a belief in the possibilities of the representative self-government that we have not only as a nation but at every level of government. “We the people.” The people, working together – ordinary citizens and in many cases extraordinary citizens.

Then it directs what government at all levels should be about. “Provide for the common defense.” Keeping the people safe. That’s our No. 1 priority: Keeping the people safe. Then “promote the general welfare,” the idea that government can be an affirmative force in our lives.

And here we are in the City of Irvine, a little more than 50 years old, and through elected representatives, through civic participation, we have created a remarkable city — the most culturally diverse and thoroughly integrated city in the United States. We’re among the top 60 cities in population. We’re bigger than Cincinnati, we’re bigger than Pittsburgh, we’re bigger than a whole bunch of “big” cities. And we’ve done all this pursuant to a master plan that people have argued about and debated about. It’s been our civic endeavor from the beginning.

Now as we move from a five-member City Council to a seven-member City Council, and as we provide for district representation that will allow Councilmembers to more clearly focus on the problems and possibilities of our neighborhoods and villages, I believe we are on the verge of becoming an even greater city.

My aspiration, and I think all our aspiration, is to continue to work together, overcoming differences, to make Irvine the safest, smartest, greenest, healthiest and kindest city in the United States of America. Let’s do that together.”