With Irvine’s Districts 1, 5 and 6 open for new seating, 10 City Council candidates are hopeful for spots on the seven-member dais.
The upcoming election will be Irvine’s second by-district election for councilmembers since the city transitioned to the system in 2024. The city’s mayor is still elected by all voters.
Councilmembers who win the four-year term are responsible for representing their district as the council guides the day-to-day needs of the city as well as weighing in on some large decisions coming up, such as how the city should meet state housing mandates and what to build next at the under-development Great Park.
We asked the candidates questions about housing, city finances, transparency, and more, which you can read in our voter guide.
District 1
The three candidates vying for Irvine’s District 1 are familiar faces in City Hall.
Former mayor and councilmember Sukhee Kang, incumbent Melinda Liu and John Park, an Irvine finance commissioner and business owner, will be options on the November ballot to represent the northernmost part of Irvine.
District 1 includes major master-planned communities, such Northpark and Orchard Hills, and The Market Place shopping destination. Notably, District 1 will continue to develop with construction on nearly 1,000 homes on 70 acres of land known as the Gateway Village that started in 2026. The Gateway Village is part of a larger development project called the Gateway Preserve, which will include more than 700 acres of nature preserve on land around the now-shuttered All-American Asphalt Plant.
Educator and business owner Kang served several terms as an Irvine councilmember and two terms from 2008 to 2012 as the city’s mayor; Kang was the city’s first Asian American to be elected to the position.
He said the most pressing issue the city faces is a $6 million budget deficit with the capacity to grow to $47 million by 2030 if left unaddressed.
“That brings a massive risk to Irvine’s quality of life in every aspect. Our exceptional schools are put at risk, city services are cut back and limited, and the city faces grave turmoil as this deficit grows. Furthermore, the council has mismanaged any response to this deficit in a way that spends even more money and city resources,” Kang said.
The sitting councilmembers in recent months have proposed hiring freezes, paid parking at the Great Park and spending cuts, along with other ideas to bridge the looming deficit.
“I am ready to address it in a way that puts residents and city services first,” Kang said, adding, “there is no reason the council should get a personal budget of over $4 million, higher than any other city in Orange County.” He proposed “securing greater funding from the state and federal governments, as I did previously.”
Liu, a licensed attorney and real estate broker and a certified mediator, said “the biggest need Irvine faces is the structure reform to prepare the city for its next 50 years.”
“As a young city of 55 years, we have experienced unprecedented success and fast-paced growth as a result of our master plan,” said Liu, who was first elected to the council in 2024 when the District 1 seat was a temporary two-year term to help with getting the council seats onto a staggered rotation as Irvine transitioned to district elections. “As we approach built out, I plan to update policies to match the possibility of brain drain, increasing need in city service, environmental impact, traffic and infrastructure burden, and affordability.”
She mentioned several moves made in her last term, saying she “advocated for family-friendly policies such as workforce housing and affordable childcare to allow parents to be productive” and recently, “proposed a citizen-led comprehensive charter review committee to modernize our government.”
Park said his years serving in Irvine’s finance commission could help inform a solution to the budget deficit.
“I believe the solution starts with a genuine line-by-line review of spending, prioritizing core services like public safety and infrastructure over projects that sound appealing but add costs the city cannot currently absorb,” he said.
He said he does “not believe new taxes or fees are the answer” and instead proposes the city grow its tax base through “smart economic development, pursue funding it is already entitled to, and rebuild reserves through discipline rather than shortcuts.”
Park, who has also been on the city’s planning and transportation commissions, said his time on the three commissions as given “me a detailed understanding of our city’s budget, land use, and infrastructure challenges.”
District 5
Steven Alves, Julie Glossbrenner, Anthony Kuo, Betty Martinez Franco and Byron Salvatierra are running for Irvine’s 5th district, which includes the Rancho San Joaquin, University Park, Westpark and Woodbridge neighborhoods.
The five candidates in the city’s most congested race agree on more than not when answering the voter guide questions: Irvine needs to get creative about how to meet state demands for more housing, city spending should be responsible and forward-facing and, generally, that affordability, public safety and polishing city infrastructure are priorities.
Alves, District 3 Councilmember James Mai’s former chief of staff, said, “I come in already knowing how to get things done at City Hall.”
“Irvine’s biggest need is planning for the future beyond our current growth model,” Alves said of the challenges facing the city.
He proposed bolstering the city as a “premier place to start business, relocate a headquarters, or establish a U.S. presence for foreign companies” and raising housing options and infrastructure improvements to support city growth.
Kuo, an Irvine commissioner and previously an at-large councilmember from 2018 to 2022, said: “Irvine’s greatest need is a renewed focus on public safety.”
“Irvine must ensure our Police Department has the staffing, resources and support necessary to keep pace with a growing city,” he said. “We should prioritize recruiting and retaining outstanding officers, maintain strong response capabilities, invest appropriately in technology and equipment, and ensure our officers know their elected leaders support them and respect their professionalism in doing their jobs.”
Kuo proposed city leaders “examine crime trends, staffing levels and response times and communicate those results openly with residents.”
Incumbent Martinez Franco, the first Latina elected to the council, is seeking another term on the dais. She won in 2024 to finish the remaining two years of Larry Agran’s term when he was elected mayor. Martinez Franco and challenger Salvatierra, a U.S. Army veteran and security transformation manager, agreed on housing affordability as the city’s most pressing issue, but proposed different solutions.
“Seniors living on fixed retirement incomes are finding that their checks no longer last through the month. Families are working more hours to keep up with rent, groceries, healthcare, and other basic expenses,” Martinez Franco said. “With more than half of Irvine’s housing units occupied by renters, housing costs have a major impact on working families and can also contribute to food insecurity.”
She suggested addressing the “root of the problem” by “pushing developers to build more workforce housing at price points that teachers, nurses, young professionals, and other working people can actually afford.”
Salvatierra said he’d support housing “built near transit, and require any new development to include real retail and commercial space from the start, not get dropped in with nothing nearby,” while considering improvements to sidewalks and bike lanes “so growth doesn’t just mean more traffic.”
“Affordability also means childcare,” Salvatierra added. “I’d expand childcare assistance programs, since it can cost as much as a mortgage payment. And it means investing in places like a library annex and community center at Woodbridge, so families have somewhere to gather without paying for it.”
Glossbrenner is a housing specialist and long-time Irvine resident who said she got her footing in local politics by regularly attending city council meetings.
“Our city is growing, and that growth affects everything from traffic and infrastructure to public safety, parks, open space, housing, and city services. We need to look at these issues as a whole rather than making decisions one project at a time,” she said.
If elected for a first term, Glossbrenner said she’d focus on “responsible planning, efficient infrastructure, protecting open space, providing housing for different stages of life, and making sure our public services remain outstanding.”
District 6
District 6 draws in Irvine’s westernmost neighborhoods, anchored around UC Irvine and several nearby residential and commercial areas, such as the University Hills and the Irvine Business Complex.
Scotty Hong and Kathleen Treseder are facing off for the seat.
Hong, one of the city’s sustainability commissioners and chief policy advisor to Mayor Larry Agran, said his experience in City Hall would support his ability to “listen, work collaboratively, and stay focused on practical results.”
A first term as District 6’s representative would mean “addressing traffic, expanding reliable public transit, improving roads and intersections, strengthening public safety, and investing in parks and neighborhood amenities” as more housing and development emerge for the city,” he said.
“Growth should be planned around complete communities, not simply adding more housing without the infrastructure residents need,” Hong said.
Treseder, a climate change researcher at UC Irvine, is Irvine’s last remaining at-large councilmember; she was elected to the council in 2022 and kept her seat as the city transitioned to district-based elections.
“Irvine’s biggest challenge is balancing the budget while maintaining public safety, quality of life, and environmental protection. Having served on the council, I understand these issues aren’t separate,” she said.
“As your District 6 councilmember, I will champion investments in quality of life, environmental protection, and public safety with the city’s long-term fiscal sustainability in mind,” Treseder said.
She emphasized her support for expanding the Irvine CONNECT shuttle system to include a UCI-Jamboree route.
Read more of the voter guide, including what the candidates said would make them good leaders and how they would represent the city’s diverse community at ocregister.com/voter-guide.
Ballots may be returned by mail (must be postmarked by Nov. 3 and received within a week of Election Day) or to the OC Registrar of Voters’ drop boxes around town now, and the first vote centers will open for casting ballots in person on Oct. 24.