Q&A | Open Orange City Council seats for mayor
As the Nov. 3 Orange City Council election approaches, The Panther compiled a series of interviews with the various prospective candidates for mayor and districts 1, 2, 3 and 5 that will be divided into five installments differentiated by the open positions.
Adrienne Gladson (left) and Mark Murphy (right) are running for mayor in the Orange City Council election. Photo courtesy of Gladson and Murphy.
The Orange City Council election Nov. 3 offers open seats for mayor as well as Orange districts 1, 2, 3 and 5. To break down candidate perspectives and values for our student and community readers, The Panther asked these local politicians about their respective platforms, initiatives and goals to address concerns raised by the community.
Mark Murphy, the current mayor of the Orange elected in 2018, will be running for reelection against urban planner Adrienne Gladson. While both candidates overlap in their determination to aid the Orange economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the two candidates’ perspectives differ in non-fiscal matters.
The candidate responses have been lightly edited for clarity and stylistic standards.
Mark Murphy
Q: What are the most notable components of your campaign platform?
A: Orange’s quality of life begins with its citizens and businesses being safe. My top priority has always been and continues to be the safety of our community. This is accomplished by developing excellence in public safety personnel and providing them with the necessary resources to do their jobs.
I want to help our business owners in the community get back on their feet from the COVID-19 pandemic. This will happen through continued pursuit of recovery funds and the streamlining of permits for expansion. We secured approximately $3 million to support businesses and will continue to pursue funding. The paseo in our historic Orange Plaza and the outdoor dining are great examples of new approaches and quicker processing that has produced excellent results for a number of Orange businesses.
I want to address homelessness issues in our community and parks. Investments in our police department’s Homeless, Engagement, Assistance and Resource Team – combined with additional shelter space and mental services – provide an opportunity for more people to receive health assistance and to leave our streets and parks.
Q: What initiatives do you want to push for on the Orange City Council?
A: The new council will assemble plans for additional housing, including how to incent the creation of affordable alternatives for seniors and first time buyers. As a graduate from Orange High School, I am interested in revitalizing the joint activities with the Orange Unified School District. We have done a number of shared projects for recreation and I want to increase the activities there.
Q: How do you plan on utilizing your position to uplift community concerns and voices, especially those of marginalized groups?
A: Right now, as we continue to manage our way through the pandemic, we will leverage technology to continue to communicate and share ideas and solutions. As the restrictions are removed for gatherings, I believe our community events, both those that are already annual traditions as well as potentially brand-new events, will help reverse the negative effects of isolation that this pandemic has initiated. Something as simple as the Orange Plaza Paseo downtown has been so widely accepted as a means to safely gather in small groups, and I believe the city as a whole misses that opportunity on a larger scale. As mayor, I attend a wide range of events within the community and on the Chapman campus, and I look forward to those activities when they can safely resume.
Adrienne Gladson
Q: What are the most notable components of your campaign platform?
A: My platform is anchored around maintaining and improving our quality of life so that Orange remains a safe place to live, work and play for all its residents. That starts with bringing in and listening to the voices of all residents of Orange, including our Chapman family. I will work with the community to encourage outreach programs to promote neighborhood pride and clean-up efforts, push for responsible development and support community-centered solutions for street and sidewalk repair, traffic issues and homelessness. Promoting our quality of life also includes investing in more open space and public parks. I consider adequate parks and access to open space to be rights, not luxuries, that need to be invested in to enhance our community’s well-being.
Q: What initiatives do you want to push for on the Orange City Council?
A: First and foremost is our ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although I emphasize with the difficulties and frustrations of distance and limited in-person learning, I strongly believe that the safety of our community – including our Chapman University students, staff and faculty – during this crisis must be paramount. As mayor, I will continue to push for science and facts to be at the core of all city decisions and initiatives regarding our public health response, not ideology or political gamesmanship. But I also believe that we have to start actively planning to rebuild economically from the pandemic, to make sure that Orange continues to grow as a place where businesses can enter and where people can lay down roots and start families. An increasing trend towards remote working and online commerce opens up new opportunities for business and culture, and I will champion measures that will allow our city to be ready and flexible to capitalize on such opportunities.
Q: How do you plan on utilizing your position to uplift community concerns and voices, especially those of marginalized groups?
A: I believe that inclusivity and making sure that all members of our community feel welcome to live, work and play is a core Orange value, especially as our city grows and becomes more and more diverse. As a former president of the Orange Community Historical Society, I value the role our history plays in shaping our common values and identity. Although I am fully committed as mayor to do the work that has to be done to bridge and rectify past wrongs, I believe a community that is knitted together by our history can also advance new goals and dreams for the future, and thus, as mayor, will be a steward of our shared legacy.
Beyond our shared history, I will place the voice of the community at the heart of everything the city does, so that marginalized voices can not only feel heard but become part of the solution. Current city leadership has too often met community concerns with indifference at best and outright hostility at worst. Our community is not our enemy. They must have a majority stake in the decisions and actions of our community. That includes sharing in the responsibility of neighborhood safety and public safety. I will expand trained community volunteer programs like the Community Emergency Response Team, Neighborhood Watch and Citizen Police Academy. Empowering our community’s voices through these efforts will not only ensure that everyone’s voices and concerns – especially those that have been marginalized for far too long – are heard, but it will also foster greater mutual trust and respect, as well as cooperation.