25 Facts About Larry Agran

Lawrence Alan Agran was born on February 2,1945 and is an American lawyer and the former mayor and a current city councilmember of Irvine, California.

Larry Agran was born in Chicago, the son of Selma Elizabeth and Reuben Larry Agran.

Larry Agran was raised in a "politically liberal Jewish household".

Larry Agran graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science degree in both history and economics.

Larry Agran then earned a juris doctor from Harvard Law School in 1969, specializing in public interest law.

Larry Agran served as legal counsel to the California State Senate Committee on Health and Welfare and taught legislation and public policy at the UCLA School of Law and the University of California, Irvine Graduate School of Management.

Between 1978 and 1990, Larry Agran served on the Irvine City Council, including six years as mayor.

Larry Agran won the most votes in his first election for Irvine City Council on March 7,1978, being elected to his first four-year term in Irvine's City Council.

Larry Agran won the most votes again in the regular municipal election on June 8,1982, and first served as mayor of Irvine in 1982, continuing through 1984, with a second term starting in 1986.

In 1988, Larry Agran won the first-ever direct-election for mayor in Irvine's history.

In 1990, Larry Agran was recognized as an elected Democratic Socialists of America "DSAer" by Democratic Left magazine.

Larry Agran lost reelection in the subsequent 1990 mayoral election.

In 1983, then-Mayor Larry Agran established the Local Elected Officials of America project, which founded what became a network of over 250 US local officials advocating for municipal priorities that had an international scope, including the end of the arms race, reduction in US defense spending, and the prioritizing of increased federal spending in economically disadvantaged American cities.

Indeed, the stirrings of a city-led sustainability network can be traced in part to City of Irvine, CA, where, in summer 1989, then-Mayor Larry Agran ushered a first-of-its-kind local ordinance restricting the use of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons.

In 1998, Larry Agran re-entered public service as an Irvine City Councillor.

Larry Agran was again elected mayor in the 2000 election, and in 2002.

Larry Agran rejoined the city council in 2004 and has, for many years, served as a councilor, being most recently re-elected in 2020.

Larry Agran chaired the city's Great Park board until February 2011.

Larry Agran supervised removal and clean-up of decades of toxic contamination and building of many of the Great Park's iconic features, including the Great Park Balloon and Carousel, the Palm Court and Arts Complex, the Farm + Food Lab, the South Lawn Soccer Complex, the huge North Lawn, and restoration and repurposing of historic World War II airplane hangars.

In 1992, Larry Agran unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination for president.

Larry Agran was generally ignored by the media during his candidacy, a topic heavily covered in the 1995 Brian Springer documentary Spin.

Larry Agran performed poorly in the New Hampshire primary, but did pick up modest support in later primaries as a protest candidate with appeal to those unhappy with the other candidates.

Larry Agran received three votes at the 1992 Democratic National Convention.

Larry Agran was excluded from every television debate, along with some other minor candidates, such as Eugene McCarthy.

Note: Larry Agran continued to serve on Irvine City Council as Councilmember through 2014.