Orange County is guaranteed at least one new supervisor, with four candidates vying for the open District 4 seat on the Board of Supervisors.
Doug Chaffee, who has represented the North Orange County district since 2018, is termed out and unable to run for reelection. Though the Board of Supervisors is officially nonpartisan, Chaffee was the first Democrat elected to its dais in 12 years.
The race to replace Chaffee features former and current elected officials with extensive political and civic experience, including La Habra Councilmember Rose Espinoza, Fullerton Mayor Fred Jung, OC Board of Education Trustee Tim Shaw, who also served previously on the La Habra council, and Buena Park Mayor Connor Traut.
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Housing, government accountability and public safety were top concerns quoted by all four, one of whom will represent the district that covers Brea, Buena Park, Fullerton, La Habra, Placentia, Stanton and parts of Anaheim.
Espinoza, who has served on the La Habra City Council for more than two decades, said she would push for the county to invest more in prevention efforts, including emergency rental assistance, eviction diversion resources and housing retention programs for seniors and fixed-income residents — all of which cost less than emergency shelter and crisis services, she said.
At the same time, Espinoza said, “it is important that the county continue partnering with existing nonprofits that create new housing for low-income residents, veterans, and others who are out of reach of homeownership.”
The county also needs to take measures to restore trust in government following the corruption scandal involving former Supervisor Andrew Do, Espinoza said. One way of doing so would be by releasing “regular, plain-language budget summaries,” she said, to clearly inform residents how their money is spent.
Such measures would “give citizens a real stake in governance through participatory budgeting,” she said.
Jung, who has served on the Fullerton City Council since 2020, said he’s running for supervisor to make the county a safer and more affordable place to live.
If elected to the board, Jung said he would work to direct more funding to the Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s Office, as well as the aging county jail system.
“From our Sheriff’s Department to the DA’s Office to our firefighters, we have to invest more in public safety,” he said. “More staffing. More equipment. Everyone in Orange County deserves to feel safe, and we have the ability to deliver that. It’s just a matter of priorities.”
On the issue of affordability, Jung said he would advocate for more county funding for the OC Housing Finance Trust to build more permanent, affordable and supportive housing. At the same time, he would support working with CalOptima to lower healthcare costs for residents, particularly for seniors.
“We’ve had the largest workforce in history retire over the last decade,” he said. “We need to prepare for how we’re going to care for them and afford them an opportunity to have a productive, fulfilling end-of-life.”
Shaw trailed Chaffee in the 2018 race for this seat by less than 1%. He served four terms on the La Habra council before joining the county board of education.
He’s built a platform around public safety. As the supervisor, Shaw said he would focus on bolstering the district’s emergency preparedness, ensuring that its water system can handle fire flow.
Regarding the county’s housing crisis, he said he supports increasing housing construction, including higher density developments around train stations, but not “price control” measures such as rent stabilization, inclusionary zoning and eviction moratoriums.
“Everything LA County has been doing is wrong,” he said. “When you so wildly favor tenants over landlords, you’re killing the incentive for providing housing.”
Traut, who also previously served on the Centralia School Board, said he would look to address the affordability crisis by supporting union partnerships and well-paying jobs, hiring local workers for capital improvement projects and investing in the local water supply to lower import costs.
On the issue of housing, Traut said he wants to deploy AI software such as CrossBeam to more efficiently review construction permits, removing bottlenecks so that new developments can be built quickly. The approach has yielded success in Buena Park, he said.
“The government often is the last level of society to innovate and we have to change that,” Traut said.
Traut said the Do scandal exposed “broader structural problems” with how supervisors handle discretionary funds and pledged to explore getting rid of discretionary budgets altogether. Shaw also raised concerns about supervisors having access to discretionary funds that could be used for political purposes and not in the interest of residents.
“Supervisors should not have unchecked control over public funding,” Traut said. “There needs to be much stronger safeguards and full transparency so the public can see where their money is going and why.”
The Board of Supervisors, the county’s five-member governing body, oversees a budget of nearly $11 billion and 18,000 employees across various departments, including public health, public safety, social services, animal care and public works.
Unless one candidate garners more than 50% of votes in the June 2 primary to outright win the seat, the top two vote-getters will move on to the November general election ballot.
Ballots are set to be mailed to all registered voters starting May 4.