Three candidates are squaring off to represent Irvine’s newly drawn District 3 on the City Council.
District 3 straddles the 5 Freeway on the city’s north side, including the area around Irvine High.
The candidates, in alphabetical order, are Tom Chomyn, James Mai and Jing Sun. They tended to align on key issues, such as prioritizing funding for police and public safety, investing in city transportation to accommodate growth and incentivizing residents to participate in city programs to adopt green technology to help Irvine be a leader on climate change.
But each candidate comes to the table with a unique background in business and public service that sets them apart from one another.
Chomyn and his wife Jeannine have lived across from Irvine High School for 27 years, raising three kids in the city. Chomyn began his career in urban planning before switching to technology sales. He unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2022 and currently serves as a city community services commissioner appointed by Councilmember Larry Agran.
Chomyn has campaigned with Agran, a longtime staple of Irvine politics, himself running for mayor against Councilmember Tammy Kim and a slate of other challengers. And the two of them align on priorities such as planting thousands of trees across the city, supporting a veterans memorial park in the Great Park and challenging the Orange County Power Authority’s default enrollment of Irvine residents and businesses into an electricity rate that has a higher cost, but also a higher ratio of alternative power sources.
Chomyn said he also advocates for modernizing and expanding the Heritage Park Library and improving parks and trails in District 3.
Mai is chairman and CEO of Bristol & Bates, a business strategy consulting firm with offices in Southern California and Arizona. He and his wife have a 5-year-old and a teenager in Irvine Unified schools.
He’s also a city community services commissioner appointed by Councilmember Mike Carroll, and he’s president of the Irvine Community Alliance Fund, a nonprofit organization that supports programs and services offered by the city. In addition to his city roles, Mai is an at-large representative of the Orange County Housing & Community Development Commission.
He said it is important for city leaders to look for underutilized areas for development, implement affording housing policies through zoning and incentives, invest in new infrastructure and engage the community in future planning.
Sun is also on the city community services commission; he was appointed by Councilmember Tammy Kim. He has lived in Irvine for more than a decade with his wife and two daughters, moving to the city to complete his MBA from the Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine. Prior, Sun earned his bachelor’s degree in math from Peking University in China.
Like his competitors, Sun said advocating for the construction of affordable housing through transit-oriented development is important to him. Sun also said he would fight for housing justice, advocating for people of all ages and backgrounds to have access to have housing that meets their needs.
Like Chomyn, Sun proposes to “rejuvenate” the city’s older libraries and to beautify Irvine’s existing trails network. Sun also said he’d advocate for Irvine to expand and improve its dog park facilities, adding multiple across the city. Currently, the city offers one dedicated dog park, Central Bark, near the 5 Freeway and Sand Canyon Avenue.
Read more about where each candidate stands on important issues in the OC Register’s Voter Guide at ocregister.com/voter-guide.
