Yorba Linda Councilwoman Tara Campbell believes ending police brutality is a bipartisan issue
This article is part of an ongoing TimesOC series about young politicians in Orange County. As a new generation is politically activated in the wake of the recent youth-driven protests, young O.C. politicians share insights about their paths in local government.
Tara Campbell and her fellow Yorba Linda council members were in the middle of their regularly scheduled meeting on June 2, when nearby, a protest for George Floyd attracted 500 people to the city’s Main Street and Town Center.
They knew it was happening because the organizer, Caleigh Cobb, 21, had alerted them beforehand. They received real-time updates and worked to keep their residents informed of the situation.
The protest, like others in Yorba Linda that followed in the coming weeks, was peaceful. On June 10, there was a march that started in the city’s Jessamyn West Park and attracted about 100 people.
“I’m glad folks are coming together as a community and peacefully protesting against injustice and racism and hate,” Campbell said. “I’m glad that people are practicing their 1st Amendment rights to speak out about this.”
A young conservative, Campbell, 26, doesn’t like the implication that there are two sides to the issue.
“We should all be standing together against injustice and racism,” she said.
Thousands of protesters have converged in Orange County to speak out about the death of unarmed Black man George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police, as well as other Black men, women and children who have died at the hands of police.
She pointed to a solidarity resolution she signed alongside Mayor Beth Haney, Mayor Pro Tem Gene Hernandez, and council members Petty Huang and Carlos Rodriguez on Tuesday, pledging to stand with their Black community as well as the protesters.
She also pointed to O.C. Sheriff Don Barnes’ statement on May 28 denouncing the actions of the four officers involved in the unjust killing of George Floyd, where he emphasized that what occurred in Minneapolis was “beyond the scope of any tactic we are trained to use.”
In the last few weeks, Campbell said she has had many conversations with Black families and business owners in Yorba Linda, as well as other residents of color, so she can hear from them directly.
“We are a welcoming city too,” she said. “These protests have brought forward a dialogue, and I am supportive of having a dialogue with one another about these issues.”
Yorba Linda residents elected Campbell to City Council when she was 23. When she served as mayor from 2018 to 2020, she was the youngest female mayor in California.
Campbell was born and raised in Yorba Linda, played basketball at Rosary Academy and studied at USC, originally planning to go into sports journalism. There, she got an internship at a bipartisan nonprofit in D.C. called No Labels, which aims to get Republicans and Democrats to work together.
“Believe it or not, somebody’s actually trying to do that,” she joked. “It was actually pretty awesome. We had about 80 members of Congress signed on when I was a part of it.”
When the government shut down in 2013, she returned to her hometown and realized that similar partisan politics had resulted in eight recall votes or attempted recall petitions of Yorba Linda City Council members or Water District board members in the last 15 elections.
Frustrated with those that were representing her city, she decided to run herself.
Her day job is as chief of staff for county Supervisor Don Wagner, and she previously held the communications director for county Supervisor Andrew Do.
In 2019, SafeHome.org named Yorba Linda the safest city in California.
The city, which does not have its own police department, has a contract with the O.C. Sheriff’s Department. About 32% of its budget goes to the police, which is lower compared to bigger cities in Orange County.
One of the common chants of the Black Lives Matter protests across the nation has been to “defund the police,” which questions the proportion of taxpayer money that goes to that department.
“I don’t believe ‘defunding the police’ addresses the issue,” Campbell said. “But I want to make sure that we are absolutely always checking protocols, looking at how we train police officers and what’s happening in our city. We want to listen to our community to see how we address issues in the right way.”
Part of listening to the community is engaging with youth in Yorba Linda.
In 2019, when she was mayor, Campbell started a Young Civic Leaders Academy for high school students. It’s a six-week nonpartisan program that she runs twice a year, spring and fall sessions, where she teaches students how local government works.
In their last week, the students hold a mock city council meeting where they are the members and make the decisions.
She just wrapped up the spring 2020 session, which included discussions about COVID-19 and its effects on local businesses. Now, six of her students are working as junior ambassadors for the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce and helping to promote the importance of shopping locally.
In fact, one of her former academy members is now her intern, who attended the 500-person Yorba Linda protest on Main Street.
“I didn’t want the next generation to grow up the way I did, where people have disdain for the politicians on TV and you feel super disconnected to it,” she said. “I want to give them the tools to proactively be the change they want to see, because I’m seeing a lot of young people wanting to be involved.”
For more information on the Young Civic Leaders Academy, contact Tara Campbell at tcampbell@yorbalindaca.gov or her social media handles @tarapcampbell and Facebook page. The next session will be in the fall.
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