Patrick Harper selected as new mayor of Fountain Valley
The Fountain Valley City Council underwent a smooth transition of power on Tuesday, as Patrick Harper became the mayor and Kim Constantine the mayor pro tem, both being elected to their new positions by a unanimous vote of the council.
“We’re still coming out of COVID, so we need to be smart with vaccines and guidelines to keep our residents healthy, keep our businesses open,” Harper said of his goals for the year ahead. “I think we’ve done a pretty admirable job of keeping the city open, keeping our businesses open and that’s our goal, [and to] be safe at the same time.
“The other [thing] that’s high on my list is modernizing our internet services. … We’ve already started talking to some fiber optic companies about building up fiber optic throughout the whole city, and if that gets in, I think that’s just going to be fantastic.”
Harper said that Fountain Valley has harnessed success by taking care of the basics, likening the performance of city departments like police, fire, public works and community service personnel to the football fundamentals of blocking and tackling.
“I think when you do those four things — keep our city safe, clean, efficient and together — I think we’ll continue to keep Fountain Valley a great place to live,” added Harper, who previously served as a planning commissioner.
Upon being sworn in as mayor, Harper regaled the audience with the story of how his family ended up in Fountain Valley. Formerly a Huntington Beach resident, Harper was in between jobs during the Great Recession when the family decided to go on a cross-country road trip to look at potential places to live.
In the end, they found what they were looking for in their own backyard. With young kids that had yet to enter kindergarten at the time, he said Fountain Valley’s schools were a big draw.
Outgoing mayor Michael Vo received several tokens of recognition and a video tribute after the completion of his third term in that position. Fountain Valley limits service on the council to three consecutive terms. Vo is now entering the last year of his third term.
“In a time of a lot of turmoil in politics, it’s nice to have a person who is very even-tempered, very measured in the way he conducts himself, very statesman[like] in the way that you lead your city and your community,” Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do said.
Vo helped organize the Walk for Vietnam event, which was geared toward providing relief abroad to deal with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also named Fountain Valley a “City of Kindness.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Vo had two “City of Kindness” coins distributed to members of the audience, stating that the intent was that one would be kept by the recipient, while the other should be handed over to a community member who is witnessed performing an act of kindness.
“To be able to accomplish the job as mayor requires a lot of teamwork,” Vo said. “I have learned a lot from my city council colleagues, from the city manager, entire staff that have stepped up and made Fountain Valley a better team, a stronger neighborhood every single day.”
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