Mayor Larry Agran & Irvine Sustainability Commissioner Scotty Hong
Since 2015, our community newspaper has been dedicated to keeping Irvine residents informed, connected, and engaged. Our twice-weekly email newsletters deliver the stories that matter most — from the neighbors and local businesses making a difference, to the latest developments at City Hall, to a wide variety of community events, many of them free and open to all ages.
Each election season, we take that commitment a step further. As an elections attorney and publisher of Irvine Community News & Views (ICNV), I believe informed voters build stronger communities.
In the proud American tradition of local newspapers, ICNV endorses Mayor Larry Agran for re-election. Agran’s visionary leadership was responsible for preserving 10,000 acres of open space; creating the Great Park (instead of an international airport!); building thousands of affordable housing units; shutting down the City’s largest industrial polluter and replacing it with a new 700-acre Gateway Preserve; and establishing Irvine’s park system (ranked No. 1 in California). The City is currently implementing Mayor Agran’s Urban Forest Master Plan, which calls for planting tens of thousands of additional trees throughout the City to help reduce Irvine’s carbon footprint, manage stormwater runoff, enhance biodiversity, mitigate the urban heat-island effect, cool our neighborhoods, and improve air quality. Mayor Agran authored the 2024 ballot initiative that made sure all Irvine communities are represented on the City Council. And last year, he made sure Irvine’s lowest-paid workers receive a higher “Living Wage.”
For the first City Council election in District 6 — which includes the communities of UCI, University Hills, and the Jamboree and MacArthur corridors — ICNV endorses Scotty Hong. As Irvine’s Sustainability Commissioner, Hong, who was educated at Harvard and Cornell, transforms visionary health, safety, and environmental policies into measurable results. In just the past few years, he has built an impressive record of accomplishment — including the successful implementation of the Mayor’s Urban Forest Master Plan, the expansion of the City’s free green transit shuttle bus system (Irvine CONNECT), and the City’s expanded solar rooftop and battery storage program. Hong is currently working with local members of Congress on the safer storage of nuclear waste.
As an environmental public policy expert, Hong wants to get us out of the scandal-plagued Orange County Power Authority (OCPA), which would immediately reduce monthly electricity rates and reduce the City’s reliance on fossil fuels. Hong understands that Irvine cannot meet its carbon-neutrality goals by continuing down the same failed path with OCPA. Instead, he wants to invest in verifiable, real-world solutions to the climate crisis.
Most importantly, Scotty Hong listens, learns, and leads — isn’t that exactly what we want (and need!) in our City Council representatives?
- Endorsements: Larry Agran for Mayor & Scotty Hong for City Council - September 20, 2026
- Publisher’s Perspective: Councilmember Treseder’s Attacks on Local Democracy - August 8, 2026
- Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday! - July 1, 2026
