35 Facts About Larry Agran

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

In May 2023, Larry Agran announced that he would be running as a candidate for the 2024 Irvine mayoral election.

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 grew up in North Hollywood, Los Angeles and was a baseball player as a child.

Larry Agran later attended North Hollywood High School where he played as a quarterback.

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 in the United States Army Reserve from 1962 to 1970.

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 supported increased class integration and the use of federal funding for moderate-income housing in Irvine.

Larry Agran's calls for the use of zoning and changes to Irvine's general plan to slow the pace of suburban sprawl and protect open space gained him considerable support from the influential citizen group Irvine Tomorrow, which initiated a door-to-door campaign that helped elect Larry Agran to one of two open seats on the Irvine City Council.

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.

Larry Agran garnered support in the 1986 election by calling for restraints on excessive growth in the city and the preservation of hillsides and farmlands, as well as arguing against new freeways in the Irvine area and advocating for the withdrawal of the city from the Transportation Corridor Agencies.

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

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

Larry Agran proposed removing all United States troops from Western Europe and Japan and redirecting 150 billion dollars as a "peace dividend" to local cities and towns for local services such as "public health clinics, libraries, police forces, and transportation", a national health program, and environmental protections.

At a debate at Lehman College on 31 March 1992, Larry Agran was arrested after calling out from the audience to be included.

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.

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.

Larry Agran argued against the term limits, calling it the "worst written term limits proposal in history" in a statement on the 2014 ballot, saying that it was a bid by then-Mayor Steven Choi to stay in office for eight more years.

Larry Agran is one of the longest serving city council members in Orange County, having served for over three decades on and off the city council since 1978, alongside serving as mayor for five non-consecutive 2 year terms.

In December 2022, Larry Agran had resigned with a week left on his term in order to run for another four years on the city council, which prompted his colleague Vice Mayor Tammy Kim to call it a "slippery power grab" and asking Larry Agran if "40 years on the city council [was] not enough".