Proven Leadership for Laguna’s Future
As a lifelong resident, I'm honored to serve the town my family has called home for three generations. Laguna Beach is no accident.
In 1924, when the town had no reliable water, five neighbors pooled their savings and, in the guise of starting a duck hunting club, bought 120 acres of water-bearing land in the Santa Ana River Basin. Within a couple of years, residents passed a water bond by a vote of 359 to 0. Since then, Laguna has been shaped by people willing to take on hard problems in unconventional ways.
Four years on the city council, including a year as mayor, have taught me that our ability to solve those problems depends on local government doing its core jobs well: public safety, infrastructure, and efficient services. I've spent days with our police, dispatchers, firefighters, paramedics, lifeguards, street sweepers, and planners, because delivering results for residents means understanding how the work actually gets done.
Laguna turns 100 in 2027, and the next four years will shape our next century. We inherited something extraordinary. Our job is to leave it even stronger.
MY TOP PRIORITY
My top priority is keeping emergency care in Laguna Beach. Providence has said it won't meet the state's 2030 seismic deadline and will stop operating an acute care hospital here after that. Under state law, the ER closes with the hospital. I wrote the Hospital Action Plan that the council adopted in March and co-chair the Hospital Task Force with Councilmember Bob Whalen. In August, Providence agreed to study a smaller hospital that keeps an emergency room. While a study is not a commitment, it is real progress. We're exploring every option to protect access to emergency care in Laguna; the stakes could not be higher.
Keep Emergency Care in Laguna
Public Safety & Emergency Care
Retain an emergency room in Laguna Beach that can accept ambulance transports, so emergency care doesn't depend on who operates the hospital. This is my top priority.
Expand our state-of-the-art wildfire defenses, including AI detection citywide and innovative tools to mitigate our risk. Laguna should be the model for how a fire-prone town prepares.
Continue investing in data-driven policing to keep Laguna the safest coastal community in Orange County. Keep police fully staffed to reduce visitor impacts in summer.
Infrastructure
Achieve greater water independence by 2028 through the Fountain Valley well and, if the numbers make sense, the Doheny Desalination Project.
Implement a water resources strategy that keeps sewage out of the ocean: Carry out the Wastewater Master Plan's highest-risk projects, invest in stormwater diversion, and use the $12.5 million to make the Coastal Treatment Plant more reliable, recycle more water, and send less to the ocean.
Build a new Fire Station 1 and complete seismic retrofits of Fire Stations 2 and 3.
Government Efficiency
Close the $2.3 million gap between operations and the capital budget with improved efficiency, not new taxes.
Clarify our long-term infrastructure plan. Adopt one 20-year infrastructure plan and spend capital dollars on schedule.
Budget from outcomes. Set the results the community wants first, give every department goals that ladder up to those results, and measure whether the outcome improved. Implement three to four performance audits a year, and share results on a public dashboard.
Keep streamlining permitting and other processes. Expand the AI plan-check pilot to the rest of permit review, and adopt a City AI policy so the tools are used consistently, with staff review and clear guardrails.
Laguna’s Character
Address the impacts of climate change and coastal erosion to protect our beaches.
Extend Affordability for Vista Aliso: extend affordability for the city’s biggest existing senior housing project past 2041.
Complete the Comprehensive Zoning Code Update and go into the Seventh Cycle Housing Element with a certified plan: pick our own sites, write our own rules, and don’t allow the state to override our height limits and design review.
Secure County support for eliminating glyphosate from our county-controlled creeks.
Promote for concerts at the Irvine Bowl year-round: a standing concert season outside summer, giving residents more use of the venue outside of festival season.