Assessing the Record of Irvine Mayor Agran

Fortunately, other citizens of Irvine as well as Mayor Larry Agran (July 10) are able to see the hypocrisy in using pseudopatriotism and religion to hide an inability to deal with problems or mask bigotry. That’s why the citizens have always elected Agran by such overwhelming margins.

We have found that few local issues are solved by Republican or Democratic solutions. In Irvine, with a City Council that listens to the community and solves problems with a pragmatic approach, we feel we are retaining a high quality of life, a safe environment for our children and protecting the value of our homes.

Despite efforts to misrepresent Agran’s view on growth and roads, the facts are clear to anyone who will objectively look at his voting record since 1978. Agran is for planned growth, but growth that is done with community input.

An example would be the reduction of traffic within our village associations while at the same time widening those streets that do not dissect our individual villages. These changes were made after detailed studies that involved traffic experts and residents. The response of the Board of Supervisors to these changes was to pull our transportation funds. The citizens can see through this political ploy. One only has to drive down Lake Street in Huntington Beach where the entire street has been replaced with houses to realize who is improving roadways. Of course, this “unplanned” growth pattern is more in keeping with that of the supervisors.

It should be obvious that Orange County has only two effective legislators--John Seymour and Marian Bergeson--and because of this, our county suffers.

If more Orange County residents would look beyond the misleading labels and elect more people with intelligence and integrity like Larry Agran, we would be on the way toward solving our pressing needs.

PETE SNETSINGER

Irvine