Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley Wants to Represent District 5

The Great Park in Irvine, Calif., on Jan. 26, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

After a special election in March 2021, former Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley was elected Orange County Supervisor, filling the vacant District 2 seat after Michelle Steel’s promotion to congress.

With the county’s redistricting pushing her city into what is now District 5, she is running for its seat in the Nov. 8 election.

“I am somebody who is driven to deliver results that are meaningful for everyone. I’m not going to play partisan politics. I’m going to work on issues that the community at large cares about,” Foley told The Epoch Times.

Courtesy of Katrina Foley

In the last 18 months, Foley realized many accomplishments, including creating solutions to end homelessness, increasing safety in neighborhoods, and improving the quality and accessibility of mental healthcare.

One of her first calls to action as a supervisor was in October 2021 after a major oil spill impacted the coastlines of Orange County. The company involved, Amplify Energy along with two of its subsidiaries, face $13 million in federal fines, nearly $5 million in state fines, and a $1 million settlement to Orange County.

Foley said she joined efforts with county staff to blast the incident through the media, which helped pressure government agencies quick response in investigating the spill.

Tackling Homelessness

As a 25-year practicing lawyer, Foley says she approaches issues like an investigative researcher.

She said she initiated an inventory of the county’s resources expended on homelessness, mental health, and drug addiction. Around $1.7 billion was discovered to have been allocated towards these issues each year.

“We have a tremendous problem [with homelessness] in certain parts of our community ... where’s all the money going?” Foley said.

In September, Foley approved funding for the non-profit People Assisting the Homeless—better known as PATH—to address homelessness in the county via outreach by caseworkers from the agency.

“This is really a game changer,” Foley said.

While serving as mayor of Costa Mesa, Foley also served on the board of Be Well OC, which helps provide health care for those in need.

As a supervisor, she additionally helped open what’s known as the Be Well campus in Orange, where patients receive medical and mental health treatment when in crisis regardless of their ability to pay.

She also assisted Costa Mesa in restricting sober living homes while she was mayor. In recent years, the city had been flooded with such facilities as many as 600 in residential neighborhoods and many unlicensed.

As a result, Foley said, the city has now reduced its number of sober homes to around 300—all permitted.

At the supervisorial level, she said she hopes to pass an ordinance allowing Orange County cities to adopt a similar strategy to Costa Mesa.

“There’s a lot of addiction in our community and people need to get help, but we need it to be quality,” she said. “We need to be non-impactful to surrounding businesses and residential areas.”

Strengthing the Workforce

Recruiting high-paying industries to Orange County on top of the region’s strong tourism sector is a goal Foley pledged to work toward, if elected.

One such defense industry company, she said, opened last year in Costa Mesa, employing 2,500 with average salaries in the six-figure range. More of that is needed, she said.

“We have a lot of opportunity to recruit businesses, but we don’t have a plan,” she said.

Foley—who said her family was so poor when she was school-aged that she received free school lunches—like many others, said she is also concerned about the county’s high cost of living.

She said she is currently working on a project on 17th street with the county and developers in Costa Mesa that would allow residents to purchase apartments. The county would own the land and residents could purchase the unit she said. Currently in Orange County apartments are only available for rent.

“You can create some equity, sell your interest in the apartment, and then you have a net to be able to buy a house,” she said.

Climate Action

Protecting the environment is another accomplishment Foley has undertaken as supervisor.

She said she led the way in saving Banning Ranch, a state-protected coastal region nestled between Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, and Huntington Beach. The former 400-acre oil field was acquired as public land, making it the largest coastal park in the state, after Foley’s lobbying alongside Costa Mesa city councilors, private funders, and other support.

Foley also helped initiate the county’s Climate Action Plan last year, to help push through policies and programs to cut emissions.

Her district is the largest in the county spanning from Costa Mesa to San Clemente.

“I am responsive. I have the energy to handle this enormous district,” she said.

Foley has been married to her husband—a public school teacher—for over 30 years and is a mother of 2 two college-aged sons. She said she enjoys dancing with her husband in her free time, gardening, and going for walks on the beach.

She is running against termed-out California State Sen. Patricia Bates.