State of the City Address Returns to City Hall on March 11
Mayor Larry Agran will deliver the first State of the City Address of his current term at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11, in the Council Chambers at City Hall. The address will be preceded by a free public reception at 4:30 p.m. The public is invited, and no RSVP is required. Agran stated in a City press release:
“Irvine continues to thrive as a model city, and I look forward to sharing our accomplishments and vision for the future at this year’s State of the City Address. This event is a great opportunity for our community to come together and plan for an even brighter Irvine future.”
The event returns to its traditional venue at City Hall after three years at the Irvine Barclay Theatre under former Mayor Farrah Khan. Agran’s staff confirmed to Irvine Watchdog that the return to City Hall was at his request, and that it is his desire to give the address at the seat of city government.
From 2022 through 2024, Khan delivered the address at the Barclay, where it was packaged as part of a largely entertainment-oriented program featuring music and dance performances by members of the community. The City solicited corporate sponsorships to offset the cost for these events. Documents obtained by Irvine Watchdog through a Public Records Act request show that the City offered three tiers of sponsorship packages in 2022 and 2023:
- A $15,000 Presenting Sponsor was allowed to display its sponsor banner at the event and to display its promotional material at the event. The Presenting Sponsor was entitled to reserved seating and parking, plus reception attendance, for eight attendees.
- Two $5,000 Gold Sponsors were entitled to reserved seating and parking and reception attendance for five attendees.
- Three Silver Sponsors were entitled to reserved seating and parking and reception attendance for three attendees.
All sponsors were offered the following additional benefits:
- Company name and logo listed as a sponsor in the official event program;
- Company logo on the City’s State of the City website; and
- “Special acknowledgement on all City of Irvine social media platforms.”
A City news release regarding the 2022 event stated: “The City of Irvine would like to thank our event sponsors, including Presenting Sponsor, City of Hope, and Gold Sponsors, HMart and Merchant Landscape Services, Inc.” No Silver Sponsors were listed that year.
The City’s records reveal that in 2023, the University of California, Irvine and UCI Health shared the Presenting Sponsorship, each paying $7,500. H Mart and Merchants Landscape Services were the Gold Sponsors, and Concordia University, Cox, and the Irvine Company were the Silver Sponsors. The City collected a total of $32,5000 from these sponsors. A City news release displayed the above sponsors’ corporate logos, and also named Sunright Tea Studio, Diamond Jamboree, and the Iranian American Women Foundation as additional sponsors.
In 2024, City of Hope Orange County became a Gold Sponsor, and Merchants Landscape dropped to the Silver Sponsor level, replacing Cox. The City’s news release again included sponsor logos and thanked the sponsors by name twice in the text, while adding “[s]pecial thanks to Cox Communications.
Photos of the 2022 and 2023 events show a number of empty seats on the main floor of the 755-seat Barclay, and no one sitting in the 170-seat balcony. Khan’s first State of the City address in 2021 was delivered virtually from an empty Council Chamber due to the COVID pandemic. In 2020, former Mayor Christina Shea delivered the last live State of the City at City Hall to a capacity crowd.
As with previous State of the City addresses at City Hall, Agran’s will not be a sponsored event.
