Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Fullerton voters choose candidates focused on improving infrastructure

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Fullerton voters appear to have affirmed the direction of their city by reelecting both incumbents on this year’s ballot for City Council.

Fred Jung is set to continue to represent District 1. Nick Dunlap to represent District 2. In Distirct 4, where there was no incumbent on the ballot, the race remains close. Jamie Valencia has a 55-vote lead over Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo.

Dunlap received nearly two-thirds of the vote as of Friday’s count in his head-to-head race against Jan Flory, herself a former Fullerton councilmember of 14 years.

First elected in 2020, Dunlap previously served as a city planning commissioner from 2016 through 2018. Professionally, he is the co-founder, president and broker of a real estate investing and property management firm. Dunlap is a third-generation Fullerton resident. He and his wife, Bianca, are parents to two girls.

“We did a lot of hard work over the past four years, and I think that shows through an improvement in our budget and an improvement in our road conditions,” Dunlap said.

“People see new business coming to town, new real estate development taking place,” he added. “We’re moving in the right direction.”

As other cities around Orange County have considered raising a local sales tax, Dunlap committed in his campaign to “fight for lower taxes and fiscally responsible governance.”

In his second term, Dunlap says he will support business-friendly policies and focus city spending on fixing streets and infrastructure, reducing homelessness with services and enforcement and investing in the police and fire departments.

“Priority No. 1 is continuing to improve our roads and streets,” he said. “Second is continuing to bring in good and needed retail, such as additional grocery stores and restaurants that are sought by our Fullerton residents. Also, it means playing a more active role in getting additional businesses to look at Fullerton as their home base, whether its moving their headquarters here or an office or sales or distribution.”

In District 1, Jung leads over challenger Matthew Truxaw by an even larger margin, receiving more than 70% of votes tallied as of Friday.

Jung, also first elected in 2020, said his two top two priorities as a councilmember were to update aging infrastructure and recruit public safety and city staff at a time when Fullerton was facing an exodus of employees. In his second term, he says he’ll maintain those priorities, while also focusing on economic development.

“Fullerton, as a city, is about 150 years old,” Jung said. “We’re still pulling clay pipes out of the ground. I would say that to update that aging infrastructure in a manner that’s not only expedient, but economically feasible, is an absolute priority.”

“We can’t do everything at once,” he added. “We certainly don’t have the money to do it, nor do we have the traffic exposure to repair all the streets at one time, but we should have a short-term and long-term plan in place to be able to do those things.”

Jung, the first Korean American elected to the Fullerton City Council, also is focused on community engagement, he said.

“I continue to work to build bridges and expand the avenues of cooperation to represent the residents of Fullerton,” he said. “I continue to defeat the dogmas of division and party to do what is in the best interest of the residents and future of Fullerton.”

While he accepted a Democratic Party endorsement in 2020, Jung said he did not seek party endorsements in the 2024 race for City Council, an ostensibly non-partisan position.

“I didn’t want to be handcuffed to a party platform,” he said. “I wanted to be able to govern for our residents of the city in the best manner I thought was possible without these kind of dogmatic ideologies in place.”

Valencia also committed in her campaign to leading in a “positive and non-partisan manner.” A Fullerton infrastructure and natural resources commissioner, she serves on the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Citizens Advisory Committee, as well.

Valencia echoed Dunlap and Jung that Fullerton’s “largest need is its aging infrastructure.”

“We have to put more money into fixing streets and roads,” she said in response to a Register questionnaire about how she would govern.

If results hold, Valencia will replace longtime councilmember Bruce Whitaker at the dais. Whitaker’s wife, Linda, ran to replace him and has remained in a distant third place behind Valencia and Jaramillo, but ahead of Scott Markowitz, who admitted to falsifying his nomination paperwork and might have been ineligible for the ballot if his misdoing was caught earlier.

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