Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran resigned Dec. 5 with just a week left in his incumbency to avoid terming out, thereby allowing him to run for another four years on the council.
Agran will return to the dias Dec. 13 after being reelected by Irvine voters to serve another term.
His resignation is in response to what he calls a “poorly written” policy.
Irvine city councilors and mayors are limited to two full terms, after such a rule was approved by voters in 2014. Mayors serve for two years and councilors for four.
Any partial term that exceeds two years is counted as a full four-year term.
Agran was elected in 2020 to serve a partial term of just over two years, filling Farrah Khan’s vacancy when she was elected mayor.
To avoid his partial term counting as a full four-year term, Agran resigned in a letter to the city on Monday.
In his letter, Agran pointed out how Khan vacated the council seat for mayor just a few days prior to her partial term exceeding two years. She was thus able to avoid having her time served count toward a full term.
“So, her first two years didn’t count as a full four-year term. And none of that is counted against her,” Agran told The Epoch Times.
Agran said he believes partial terms shouldn’t be counted as full terms, and that every councilor should be able to serve the full four years for a term. He said he had argued against the current policy back when it was passed in 2014.
“To limit terms, it should be a combined 12 years. Four years as mayor and eight years roughly as city council[or] ... I think that was the will of the people,” he said.
But Khan told The Epoch Times she doesn’t believe Agran’s actions reflect what 2014 voters had in mind.
“Shortening one’s term by resigning a few days before fulfilling two full years is not the intention of our policy,” she said. “And this opens the door for others to do the same, thereby avoiding term limits.”
Even though Khan’s time on the council does not count as a full term and she would be allowed to run again for a council seat, she said she has “no intention” of doing so.
Councilwoman Tammy Kim also said she disagreed with Agran’s reason for resigning.
“It’s a very career politician move of him to do. I think resigning is really skirting the will of the voters who had voted for term limits,” Kim told The Epoch Times.
Councilman Anthony Kuo said he remembers the political campaign for the 2014 term limit policy was initiated to stop lengthy term’s like Agran’s, who has served 30 years on the city council to date—the longest serving member in the city’s history.
“The voters changed the term limits. You might argue they strengthened them, and now once again he’s found a loophole,” Kuo said.
Kuo also said although avoiding term limits may not be the will of the voters, Agran has also proven to be the will of the voters as the city’s top vote-getter in the November election.
“I would actually say in this situation, they’ve said that they do want him over and over,” he said.
