Councilmember Agran has created the Community Development intern program to encourage high school and college students to engage with their Irvine community and government. Periodically, interns from the program will feature projects they are leading. This week features Tracy Le, who interviewed Councilmember Agran for her social media account "Humans of Irvine” (@humansof.irvine). Her account will profile Irvine residents and workers that embody our City’s diversity, character, and achievements.

If you would like to learn more about the Community Development internship, please email LarryAgran@cityofirvine.org.

Hi! My name is Tracy Le, I am a Community Development intern and I am a junior at University High School. My goal for life is to be a journalist, so I am glad I could create Humans of Irvine! In my spare time, I love attending and competing in Model United Nations (MUN) conferences and hanging out with friends. Plus, I love swimming! I hope the stories and individuals showcased in Humans of Irvine inspire you.

For one of my first pieces, I interviewed City Councilmember Larry Agran, where I asked him about his time in office and his love of Irvine. Below is a short version of the interview. Hope you enjoy!

Q:  You have served the City of Irvine as Councilmember and Mayor. How have you used that experience to inspire those who want to make the Irvine community better?

A: I have been fortunate to be in the Irvine City Council as Mayor and Councilmember for almost 30 years, 10 as mayor, nearly 20 as a council member. That kind of length of experience gives you an opportunity for public service, and it really allows you to learn about the complexity of a government. Personally, I derive great satisfaction knowing that the application of being in a good government improves people’s lives.

Q: You seem to have had a passion for law for a while now. What about law makes you interested in it, how has law influenced the way you view Irvine, and how has law, in your opinion, impacted Irvine citizens?

A: Being a council member means a lot to me because I am able to assist individuals and families and protect the environment from devastation and other risks.  At Harvard Law School, I specialized in public interest law,  and that in turn led me into government, where I was first in the Legal Counsel of the California State Legislature’s Health and Welfare Committee. That allowed me to write legislation that was of enormous help to people’s health benefits and health coverage, and to improve public health laws and welfare policies throughout the state of California.

After getting elected to the Irvine City Council, I applied my knowledge of the law to see to it that we do some remarkable things here, preserving over 10,000 acres of natural, open space forever free of development, blocking an international airport, creating the platform of the magnificent Great Park which is now under construction and using the law to build an initiative in order to develop a Veterans Memorial Park and cemetery at the Great Park. 

Q: You also have a very strong interest in environmental issues at the city and county, possibly global level. Which of your proposals of solutions for a greener space stood out to you, and how should that inspire future generations to keep striving for Irvine to be a greener place?

A: The development of the banning of hydrofluorocarbons is my proudest achievement because of what a city can do. This had a tremendous impact on the growing hole in the ozone layer which was the existential crisis of its time. When we adopted that initiative to the city to ban the industrial emissions of chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting compounds, we made a small impact on the world’s quantity of global emissions,  but we set an example that was then copied by other cities, counties, state government, other countries and ultimately internationally adopted. It doesn’t get much better than this.