Election 2022: Meet the candidates for Laguna Beach City Council
Seven candidates are running for three seats on the Laguna Beach City Council, a five-member panel.
Mayor Sue Kempf and Councilman Peter Blake will be running as incumbents, while Toni Iseman — a six-term council member — has chosen not to seek reelection.
The Daily Pilot sent out questionnaires to each of the council candidates to get a better idea of who they are, why they are running, and their priorities should residents vote them onto the dais on Nov. 8. The candidates are presented here in alphabetical order.
Some responses have been edited for formatting, brevity or clarity.
Peter Blake
Age: 58
Professional occupation: Art dealer
Education: high school
Time lived in Laguna Beach: 36 years
Neighborhood in which you reside and how long you’ve lived there: Downtown since 2020. South Laguna before that.
Public service, activism and volunteerism: Currently a councilman. None before that.
Immediate family members: My wife, Stephanie, and my daughter, Perriand (she’s actually a puppy but doesn’t know any different)
Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why:
1. Law and order/safety: You can’t have quality of life when you live in fear of crime or for your safety. These are the most important issues we face as a community. I’ll continue to work with the police and firefighters to ensure our protection.
2. Property rights: I consider this inalienable right paramount to our ability to express ourselves via our most important and valuable asset.
3. Lifting of business restrictions: We need to remove the hurdles for businesses so that we can attract and create a world-class dining and retail experience that is commensurate with the more cultured and sophisticated residents that now call Laguna home.
Ruben Flores
Age: 61
Professional occupation: landscape designer, builder/developer, estate manager, retail and gallery owner
Education: bachelor of science in ornamental horticulture with minors in business administration, soil science and botany. Master’s degree in business administration with emphasis in marketing.
Time lived in Laguna Beach: 28 years
Neighborhood in which you reside and how long you’ve lived there: Harmony Hollow, Upper Woods Cove, Bluebird Canyon.
Public service, activism and volunteerism: Chair of the View Restoration Committee (four years), president of the Beautification Council (five Years), board of directors for Pacific Marine Mammal Center (five years), Garden Director (10 years), designed and installed the Sister Cities Garden in Heisler Park along with the Sister Cities Organization and the Laguna Beach Garden Club, member of the Laguna Beach Garden Club (15 years), Laguna Outreach for Community Art member and artist instructor, garden walk guide (14 years), founding member of the Urban Tree Fund, board of directors for Akomi Dance Inc., California Landscape Contractors Assn. (25 years), Laguna Canyon Conservancy, Village Laguna, Xerces Society, Laguna Art Museum/California Cool team, Audubon Society, Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce, Arbor Day Foundation, American Horticulture Society, National Wildlife Federation since 2015, National Parks Assn., Sierra Club and Pacific Horticulture.
Immediate family members: Dad, mom, two sisters, two brothers and significant other
Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why:
1. Safety: Fires, traffic on Coast Highway and Laguna Canyon Road.
2. Development: Ensuring we grow as Laguna Beach. Keep the character of our beautiful town, which was bestowed a national award, Treasured Historic American Landscape, because of its beauty and ability to blend the incredible natural beauty of ocean and canyon. Why choose to overwhelm our natural beauty with static trending edifices? Let’s develop responsibly while keeping Laguna’s historically, naturally beautiful, clean, eclectic, urban mosaic of beautiful shops and homes.
3. City management: Support the citizens of Laguna Beach by kind transparency that results in a cohesive, more efficient and supportive community. We are a small town. Resident input equals kind management that seeks resident input, allows city employees to earn trust, and seeks local experts to support city growth.
Sue Kempf
Age: 66
Professional occupation: retired company president/business executive
Education: bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration
Time lived in Laguna Beach: 16 years.
Neighborhood in which you reside and how long you’ve lived there: Victoria Beach (13 months), Bluebird Canyon (13 years), the Village (two years)
Public service, activism and volunteerism: chair of the Laguna Beach Emergency Disaster Preparedness Committee, Laguna Beach Planning Commission, Board member of Laguna Canyon Foundation, Festival of the Arts, Laguna Beach County Water District; advisory member of the South Coast Water District, mayor and City Council member, volunteer basketball coach — Boys & Girls Club.
Immediate family members: Cheryl Sykes, Karen Sykes, James Kempf, Rhonda Kempf, Allison Kempf, Julia Velasquez, Edgar Velasquez, Oliver Velasquez, Nicolas Gallindo, Anthony Gallindo, Jason Woodling, Aaron Woodling
Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why:
1. Public safety: The No. 1 responsibility of a council member. In particular, we had two fires in Laguna Beach this year. I plan to enhance our Fire Mitigation/Fire Safety Plan, which has been very beneficial and timely.
2. Quality of life impacts: Protect our natural environment, fully implement our Neighborhood Engagement Team (police department), continue outdoor dining and create a beautiful Promenade.
3. Fiscal oversight: Continue my work on Lean Six Sigma, devote resources that benefit the entire community, maintain significant reserves, look for county, state and federal funds for community needs.
Mark Orgill
Age: 61
Professional occupation: entrepreneur
Education: high school
Time lived in Laguna Beach: 38 years
Neighborhood in which you reside and how long you’ve lived there: Catalina Street and Legion Street, near downtown, for 27 years
Public service, activism and volunteerism: I chaired the boards for Laguna Beach Community Clinic and Visit Laguna Beach. I was a past board member for Laguna Beach Boys & Girls Club. I was also instrumental in the formation of the Civic Arts District. I have developed and managed several properties in Laguna Beach, including Seven Degrees, which was an event venue and exhibition space with artist work-live units.
Immediate family members: Dora Orgill (spouse), Owen Orgill (son), Alyssa and David Kayo (stepdaughter and son-in-law) and Amelia and Asher Kayo (grandchildren).
Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why:
1. Division over how the city can best evolve while preserving its small-scale, distinctive character: Community input is an important aspect of how Laguna Beach has evolved, but contentions have been intensified recently due to a mix of high-profile, overly ambitious developers. City leaders have made less than earnest efforts to meaningfully involve the public in a fully proper and deliberative process. Increasingly, in Laguna, it is feeling like our angry national conversation.
2. Managing tourism: Visitors staying overnight add great value with the bed tax they pay, which provides fully discretionary city revenues, helping subsidize residential services, and the sales tax from their dining in town and purchases from artists and merchants generates both economic and fiscal benefits. While the city welcomes those visiting for the day, we need to better manage some of the adverse impacts. There are ways to ease congestion and inconvenience with solutions focused on parking management (like designating parking for festivals and merchants and creating new parking options in South Laguna), increased pedestrian safety at critical crossings and intersections, and continuing to improve transit options.
3. Best practices in municipal operations: We need to better manage our city staff with proper oversight from our City Council. Most basically, we need to keep our city clean, correct the record-level of backlogs in planning and code enforcement despite historically high staffing levels, carefully oversee acquisitions, and only discuss items in closed sessions that are on the agenda and then noticed for public hearing. We should be at the vanguard of sustainable water and energy use, and we should do a better job of tapping the talent in our community.
Jerome Pudwill
Age: 71
Professional occupation: marketing director
Education: bachelor of arts in English, social sciences from Sonoma State College; secondary teaching credential — Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Time lived in Laguna Beach: 36 years
Neighborhood in which you reside and how long you’ve lived there: Arch Beach Heights (16 years)
Public service, activism and volunteerism: I’ve been heavily involved in Laguna civics since 2018, working closely with residents and groups such as Laguna Residents First, creators of Measure Q. I played an active role in branding and supporting George Weiss in his successful election to City Council in 2020. As a volunteer civic watchdog, I recently exposed a city effort to purchase our much-loved library and sell or raze it for a parking lot. I support constructive activism.
Immediate family members: my wife, Loretta
Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why:
1. Finding consensus among residents, businesses and visitors: We must come to grips with tourism’s demands in parking, traffic, public safety and environmental exposure. Meanwhile, residents — Laguna’s largest stakeholders — developers and business interests are pulling in opposite directions. We must come together with give and take in order to resolve these differences and make Laguna thrive. I will work to balance residents’ needs with others’ desires.
2. Restoring government transparency and accountability: There is no reason that city leaders should have trust and transparency issues. Facts and actions should be immediately and abundantly clear without need of drill-down inquiry. Information about fiscal management and the acquisitions we’re paying for must be provided when the public asks for it. Anything less breeds mistrust. As for accountability, our stakeholders rely on quality city services, and when they feel staffing and morale issues are costing too much and underserving the community, they become rightly concerned. I will work to address these concerns.
3. Preserving and protecting our unique environment: Laguna’s classic charm is at risk from future over-development and over-tourism. Residents are feeling the danger of losing their hometown beauty and the natural seaside environment they moved here for. Affordable housing, undergrounding, fire mitigation and compatible growth are taking center stage. Comprehensive long-range planning is a must. We have one Laguna. I will do my best to help manage it so we may grow responsibly and prosper.
Alex Rounaghi
Age: 24
Professional occupation: policy advisor to O.C. Supervisor Katrina Foley
Education: Dartmouth College: bachelor of arts, government and history
Time lived in Laguna Beach: 24 years (my whole life besides college)
Neighborhood in which you reside and how long you’ve lived there: I recently moved to an apartment in North Laguna, but I lived in South Laguna for my whole life (besides college).
Public service, activism and volunteerism: Chair, Laguna Beach Housing and Human Services Committee, 2021-present; Parking, Traffic and Circulation Committee, 2015-16; Orange County Juvenile Justice Commission, 2015-16; Laguna Beach Junior Citizen of the Year, 2015.
Immediate family members: Robin Rounaghi (mother), Ali Rounaghi (father), Charlie and Willie Rounaghi (brothers)
Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why:
1. Public safety, particularly fire prevention: Wildfire poses an existential threat to Laguna Beach. Two significant fires this year affirm the need to strategically leverage all city, county, state and federal resources to mitigate this threat. I strongly support the 2019 Fire Mitigation Plan and want to underground the utilities on Laguna Canyon Road, whose proximity to our wilderness and one of our major thoroughfares makes them an unallowable risk.
2. Preserving the uniqueness of Laguna, especially regarding housing and environment: Laguna’s small-town character, close-knit community and natural beauty are its key features. We must ensure that our seniors, artists and workers — the people who make Laguna what it is — are able to live and thrive here. We must also protect our beaches, trails and open spaces, which face increased impacts from climate change and visitors.
3. Data-driven, community-engaged governance: We must make evidence-based decisions in order to safeguard taxpayer dollars and deliver real results for Laguna residents. I plan to implement performance-based budgeting, create a five-year strategic plan for the city, and rely on local talent rather than wasteful consultant contracts. Overall, I want City Hall to be more strategic, efficient and user-friendly.
Louis Weil
Age: 39
Professional occupation: realtor
Education: Arizona State University — bachelor’s degree in communications
Time lived in Laguna Beach: 13 years
Neighborhood in which you reside and how long you’ve lived there: South Laguna, 9th Street (five years); the Village (eight years).
Public service, activism and volunteerism: Laguna Beach Design Review Board member, Laguna Beach Affordable Housing Task Force, board member of the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce.
Immediate family members: Meghan Weil, Kellan Weil, Lochlan Weil, Greg and Barbara MacGillivray (in-laws)
Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why:
1. Public safety: I am supportive of our police, fire and marine safety departments, as key services to the residents and tourists. We need to address short- and long-term challenges with staffing, outdated buildings and resources for the departments. I plan to continue efforts to address wildfire mitigation responsibly to balance the natural environment that surrounds Laguna Beach. I also plan to prioritize undergrounding plans throughout the community.
2. Infrastructure: I’m focused on infrastructure improvements — I’m talking reliability of our electric grid as well sewer repair, fixing deficiencies in sidewalks, family-friendly park improvements, improved beach access and public bathrooms near beaches, particularly in South Laguna, and better interconnectivity for bikers and pedestrians. I believe I’m a good consensus-builder who can work with different sectors to find solutions that improve our community for all residents.
3. Right-fit development: I’m a strong believer that we can put residents first without kneecapping small businesses. We already have rules in place to prevent huge developments that would change the character of Laguna Beach. No one wants high-rises. As a Realtor, I know that our property values are dependent on keeping our town quaint and unique — it’s all about balance, and that’s what I promise to deliver. I want our town to thrive so that my two young boys and future generations experience the eclectic community we are lucky to enjoy right now. Let’s revitalize our downtown with local businesses that serve local needs, not just tourists.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.
