Arlis Reynolds is running for re-election for District 5 of Costa Mesa City Council. Her opponent is Robert Dickson, a paralegal.
“I want all residents to enjoy what I had growing up in Costa Mesa: safe neighborhoods, stable housing, beautiful parks, strong schools, and an engaged community,” she says on her campaign website.
Reynolds did not respond to a request to be interviewed for this story, but since being elected in 2018, she helped establish funding for improvements in her district—which includes areas west of the 55, north of Fairview Park and Wilson, west of the Santa Ana River, and south of Newport Beach—opened a Bridge Shelter in 2021 to reduce homelessness, secured $12 million in parks grants, and has supported local businesses and community-based organizations.
If re-elected, according to her campaign website, she will focus on expanding parks, and recreation, advancing the city’s sustainability goals, balancing its budget , and increasing safety.
The 38-year-old grew up in Costa Mesa, attended the city’s public schools and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an engineering degree , and received her MBA from the University of California–Irvine.
Her professional career has focused on clean-energy investments and her advocacy work, according to her campaign website, has included the protection of the coast and natural environments.
She lobbied the city to purchase Banning Ranch to prevent a massive, high-density development project from replacing what the state’s Native American Heritage Commission calls a sacred sight and the last large, protected coastal open space in the city.
According to her campaign site, she has earned the Police Association’s endorsement through her opposition to the OC Needle Exchange program, which seeks to provide clean needles to drug users so they will avoid contracting infections.
Before joining the city council, Reynolds was the Vice Chair of Costa Mesa’s Parks and Recreation Commission and, in that role, served as liaison to the Fairview Park Steering Committee, advising the council on park improvements.
She has several endorsements, including Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine), Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley, and Costa Mesa’s Mayor John Stephens, Mayor Pro Tem Andrea Marr, and councilmembers Loren Gameros, Manual Chavez, and Jeff Harlan.
