Irvine Councilmember Larry Agran resigned Monday night, citing a “peculiarity in our city charter.”
However, the resignation is only temporary: He will be reinstated to serve a new term on the City Council next week after voters reelected him in the November elections. The resignation, he said, will allow him to seek reelection after this new four-year stint rather than be subjected to term limits.
While he has served on the City Council on and off since 1978, term limits for City Council members went into effect in 2014 limiting council members and the mayor to a maximum of two terms.
In 2020, Agran ran for a City Council seat, but he came in third. However, since Farrah Khan was elected as mayor in the same election cycle, he was sworn in to fill her vacant seat on Dec. 8, 2020. That term was set to end on Dec.13 this year.
Agran, in his resignation letter, noted that Irvine’s city charter considers a partial term that lasts longer than two years to be a full term. If he did not resign, Agran said, he would run over that two-year benchmark by only “a few days.”
Although he said it would not be “an urgent matter,” Agran told the Register that he plans to propose an amendment to adjust the term limits during the upcoming City Council term.
While it would be “tricky” to adjust the charter, he thinks the Irvine City Council should follow the lead of the state legislature and measure term limits in years.
In 2014, Agran voted to put Measure W on the ballot, which sought term limits for council members and the mayor — even though he campaigned against it.
Ultimately, Irvine voters adopted Measure W. Agran said the “current term limit system was contemplated that people would be limited to two full terms, meaning in people’s minds, two four-year terms.”
Agran will be sworn in to the City Council with Councilmember-elect Kathleen Treseder and Khan as mayor in a ceremony at City Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 13.
In addition to amending the term limit article, Agran also wants to address the future of the All American Asphalt plant and intends to remain the lead on the issue.
“We also need to follow through on the promises made to the community — and, in fact, heavily supported by the voters — to see to it that a Veterans Memorial Park within the Great Park is in fact built over the next two years,” Agran said.
Also top of the agenda is the issue of district elections, he said, calling it “a long overdue reform.”
“We are the biggest city in the state not to have district elections and certainly the biggest in Orange County not to have district elections,” Agran said.
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