Column: New Laguna Beach candidate brings life lessons to current challenge

People who want to become a small-town politician can usually point to that one thing, the one perceived injustice that threw them over the edge and made them say, “That’s it. I’m doing something about it.”

For Lorene Laguna, a seven-year resident vying for a seat on the Laguna Beach City Council, it was May 18, 2016, an otherwise slow Wednesday night on Forest Avenue.

She watched an elderly woman in a wheelchair, a known, longtime panhandler, pull herself out of the chair and onto a public bench, where she defecated without apology.

Aghast, Laguna started a civic process — pictures, police, City Council, ordinance efforts — that in many ways never ended.

From that point on, Laguna became involved in several city committees. She educated herself. She picked her battles. She learned that the status quo doesn’t work. If she wanted to make a change, she had to do it herself.

“That was rather the start of everything,” Laguna said.

But of course the first thing itself is just the spark. For Laguna, in order to act on it, she had to rely on her experience as well, which began many years before.

She was a brand new mom in the Bay Area — two babies and a husband she met in college. Tragically, he got cancer and passed. Her children were under 2 years old.

“It was a significant, life-changing moment for sure,” Laguna said. “I was left to raise our two children together as a single, working mom. You’re either going to sink or swim.”

She taught high school science and made ends meet. She took life lessons from her mother, who once ran for state senate and was active in the National Organization for Women.

Eventually, with her children grown and successfully out of the house, she landed in Laguna Beach and bought a cottage in the canyon.

With time now to explore — she hasn’t owned a TV for 20 years — she spends her evenings walking and talking with people.

To learn more about the town, she started going to council meetings.

“I fell in love with the city, and I wanted to build a life here and establish myself in the community,” she said. “I was absolutely impressed and amazed at the people who went to speak at the dais at the council. The fervor and the passion of the community and the residents really made me fall in love with the town even more.”

Once the city’s insiders found a willing new volunteer, her civic involvement started to grow.

And with it came some red flags, especially when it came to the behavior of the council and local groups.

“Everyone seems to be on a hamster wheel,” she said. “They come up to council; they get their two- to three-minute public comment, and they’re told to go sit down. And often nothing happens with these comments, and most of them are never addressed unless it’s election season. But it’s business as usual once they get reelected.”

Like all the challengers in this election race, Laguna is a candidate who wants to break the cycle of business as usual.

“It took me a very long time before I was even accepted into the community,” she said. “It hurt me a great deal — the immediate suspicion and sometimes rejection you feel as a newcomer. A lot of the people who have been here a long time feel like you have no value because you don’t understand.”

But she feels she can contribute. She said she has paid her dues. She certainly knows what it’s like to pull yourself up and get something done.

She wants to fix parking, starting with more resident parking stickers. She wants a dog beach, diplomacy, transparency and yes, term limits. For more details on her agenda visit: lorenelaguna2018citycouncil.com.

With a resident-first focus, Laguna firmly believes that equality should start within the city limits.

“Why are the residents put in the back of the bus in favor of tourism?” she asked. “One of the reasons I decided to run was because I feel that city policy alone marginalizes the residents.”

As a simple example, she pointed to the front lobby of City Hall with its unusually tall counter.

“It’s like a border wall,” she said. “It’s really hostile. It can be redesigned to where you walk in and feel welcome.

“I can bridge gaps. I’m a peacemaker, and I’d like to bring people together in the community.”

David Hansen is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at hansen.dave@gmail.com.