Irvine Watchdog Candidate Q&A: Melinda Liu
Irvine Watchdog is reaching out to each candidate running for City Council in the November 5, 2024 election. The goal of these Q&A sessions is to provide residents with more information about the candidates and to allow the candidates to share their vision with Irvine Watchdog readers.
Melinda Liu is a local attorney, Irvine mom, and candidate for Irvine City Council District 1. She’s lived in Irvine for over 20 years and is passionate about serving the community. Liu grew up in a family that is committed to public service with her dad being a Rotarian and involved in other charities.
Liu prides herself in helping her friends and asking, “How can I help you?” She sees herself as a consensus builder with supporters across the political spectrum who believe in her and her campaign.
Answers have been edited for clarity.
Irvine Watchdog: The Irvine PD recently spent over $150,000 on a Tesla Cybertruck. Do you think this was a good use of government funds? It’s been reported that this truck will be used for community outreach and in the DARE program, which data shows isn’t a very effective program.
Liu: This is a good question because a lot of residents are excited that we are getting a Cybertruck. And I test drove one at an EV event, and I don’t know too much about trucks. From reading the press release, my understanding is that this is a custom built Tesla Cybertruck.
As far as whether DARE is effective, I don’t have stats on its effectiveness in Irvine, but from what I can see a lot of the kids who go through the program here are pretty well behaved, and I don’t see a lot of drug problems, alcohol problems, and drunk driving issues. This could be a function of the DARE program or their upbringing. I can speak for my children, who went through the program and love Officer Mendoza and still talk about him years later.
Is this a good use of public funding? It depends on what our goal is – it seems that one goal is to change all city vehicles to be EVs. I can’t really say if it’s a good use of funds with a price at $150,000, but it is costly. Sometimes the government will spend a little bit more to promote a goal and lead in policy to help bring costs down. One example is the government spending money when solar was not as widely used and now the costs have come down for solar installation. My answer isn’t complete because I don’t have the specifics about the cost and comparisons to other options that the city might have been considering, but it’s good that people are asking questions about this. I have been trying to find more information about this purchase, and it will require a public information request.
Irvine Watchdog: Public safety comes up as a discussion a lot in Irvine. We are repeatedly reminded by city leaders that Irvine is one of the safest cities in the country. Do you think that Irvine residents are policed enough or do you think that residents need to be policed, patrolled, and surveilled more?
Liu: I feel that we are safe. To me, safety has three aspects when I think about Irvine. Fire safety for District 1 is important because of our location. The next issue related to safety that I hear repeatedly as I knock on doors involves traffic safety, how safe the roads are, congestion, and safety related to ebikes. And then the third safety issue is crime.
Let’s start with crime because that’s the easiest. We are the safest city for a city of this size according to FBI data, and about 70% of the crimes are property related. At least, personal safety is not really at risk. The violent crimes in Irvine tend to be domestic violence (DV) related. To me, domestic violence is a social issue that we need to resolve. A lot of times it is because families are under stress, there could be someone with a chemical dependency problem, or an issue with mental health. These are issues that we can prevent and provide services to address so people are not stressed and acting out violently toward their family members. I want to focus on reducing DV incidents in Irvine. We are lucky that we don’t have a lot of other kinds of violent crimes in Irvine.
Regarding traffic violence, I know we already sync our signals and we are in the process of improving design. I encourage voters to go to city hall or call when they have concerns about traffic safety because IPD patrols are based on these calls and complaints. We have an officer for almost every 1,000 residents, so for a city of this size, this is great. Are we surveilled enough? I think that we are not surveilled as much because crime isn’t that bad, and our citizens are responsible. When it comes to ebikes, I think we need to work closely with parents because keeping kids safe starts with lessons learned at home. Parents need to be in partnership with the rest of the community to keep people safe.
With fire hazards, my big issue is fire prevention. We have to work with OCFA on evacuation and how to fight fires, but at the same time we need prevention. We don’t need to evacuate if we can prevent these fires.
My parents live next door, and when the 2020 fire happened, I was working in my office at home. My daughter came in and told me that we had to go. In a few minutes, I had to grab all of our important documents and my parents’ important documents and a few other items and leave our home. This was frightening, so fires are a public safety issue, and I don’t want our residents to feel this kind of stress.
Irvine Watchdog: What are two solutions that you could support if you are elected that would address the housing crisis? There are a lot of renters in Irvine who feel priced out, including high income earners who feel that they may never be able to afford a home here.
Liu: I have a lot of lawyer friends, many of whom are successful, who are still renters because homes are so expensive in Irvine. The median price for a single family home in Irvine is more than $1 million, and to qualify for a mortgage, a lot of people need an income of about $400,000 per year and a down payment. I see an issue that starts from paying rent. If I’m paying so much in rent to live here, I’m going to have a hard time saving for that down payment. It’s going to be hard to buy that starter home. I also hear from a lot of people who are starting a family and are in a small home and feel cramped, and they are unable to afford a larger home to grow and raise their family.
We need to increase the supply of housing in Irvine to meet the demand. We aren’t stopping people from moving to Irvine because this is a great place to live. If you work in Irvine, you should be able to afford to live here because it cuts down on the commute, it’s safer for those workers, and they spend their money in our city. I want people to be able to live, work, and play in Irvine.
Offering different types of housing and options will be something that I can support. With the new general plan change, there’s an opportunity to create high density housing that’s transit oriented and close to large employers. I will support this because it will create more options for young professionals to be able to afford housing in Irvine. It would be great for a lot of people to live near the train station or the airport so they easily travel. I also realize that the middle of the city is largely built out, and we are not going to put high rise buildings in the middle of the city.
With the new general plan, we are identifying areas where we can build different types of housing that can help increase the supply to accommodate the population growth in a healthy, constructive way. To me, responsible development is more important than burying our heads in the sand and pretending that people don’t want to live here or are not moving in. I want us to grow in a responsible way that provides opportunities for people to live in Irvine. Part of the problem is people do get priced out of our city as you mentioned, and I don’t want to see my neighbor become homeless or become housing insecure because there’s an unexpected event that comes up like a large medical bill or a job loss. Homeownership is a way for people to build wealth, and I want people to have opportunities to own a home. It makes me sad that adults in their 30s who have great jobs are feeling so hopeless about ever having their own home in Irvine.
I want to see us build Irvine as a vibrant community with a strong middle class where people who work here can live here and enjoy the fruit of their labor. We want people who feel invested in the community and who aren’t transient because they will care more about what’s happening into the future.
Irvine Watchdog: The Irvine Company controls/manages 61 apartment communities in Irvine. Do you think renters benefit from this situation? Is this good for the average resident?
Liu: I can’t really say whether it’s good or bad, but this is the situation we are dealing with because The Irvine Company existed before the city was formed. There’s limited ability for the city to change this, but in a free market, you obviously want competition. In this case, The Irvine Company was already here. What I think is beneficial is if the city can work in partnership with The Irvine Company to offer affordable housing. The Irvine Company works with Families Forward to offer discounted housing to help people from falling into homelessness. We need programs like this to help families. It’s a matter of how we create policies and programs to help residents who might be struggling. The Irvine Company and private charities have worked with the city and community to find a balance, and I hope we can continue to do this to ease the housing crisis.
Irvine Watchdog: Would you support rank choice voting in city elections? This would allow voters to select candidates in order of preference for their first, second, and third choice, etc. for office.
Liu: I would say it takes a lot of education for voters to understand changes about elections. When I knock on doors, a lot of people don’t even know that we are having district elections for city council. If we did something like this to have a different way of voting, it would take a lot of education to let the public know how ranked choice voting would work.
I’m running a positive campaign and am focused on earning voters’ trust. I’m not sure that we could transition into ranked choice right now given the recent change to district elections.
Irvine Watchdog: Before you decided to run for city council, were you involved in any other political causes? It’s important for voters who might not know you to understand what grounds you politically.
Liu: I’m a single mom with three kids and two elderly parents to take care of, and I work, so I really didn’t feel the need to be involved in politics until 2016. A lot of people were motivated to get involved in that 2016 cycle and a lot of people were motivated to get involved to maintain the American dream. I started being involved with campaigns in that election with postcard writing and canvassing. I started to help candidates who I believed in, and I even donated small amounts to those candidates whose messages resonated with me.
As a mom, I’m motivated to leave the city and our world in a better place and make sure that the next generation has opportunities to raise their own families here. I have two daughters, and I’m a firm believer in equal rights and full bodily autonomy. I believe that everyone should have control over their bodies, and I’m bothered by leaders who want to restrict that freedom to control what you want to do with your body. I have always taught my children to work hard and take advantage of opportunities, but we need to make sure that there are opportunities available for people to do things like become homeowners and productive citizens. I believe in creating opportunities for people to thrive.
