During her term as Mayor, Beth Krom saw the city recognized nationally as the “Safest Big City in America” for four years in a row. She was also proud to see Irvine distinguished as one of the “Most Livable Cities” by Money Magazine, one of the “Top 15 Green Cities” and one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People in America.”  In addition, the city’s “rainy day reserves” were tripled to more than $30 million during her term.

A resident of Irvine since 1985, Councilmember Krom has brought her experience as a teacher, a business owner, a community volunteer and a mother to her work on the Irvine City Council. It was the fight to defeat the El Toro Airport plan that motivated Beth Krom to run for City Council. An advocate for preserving “quality of life” in the City of Irvine, Beth Krom worked side-by-side with then Mayor Larry Agran to draft and pass Measure W — the countywide initiative that killed the El Toro Airport plan once and for all.

Over almost a decade of dedicated service, Beth Krom has worked to advance the plan for the Orange County Great Park. Just following her election as Mayor in 2004, the auction of the El Toro Base was successfully concluded with Lennar Corporation the winning bidder. It was then Mayor Krom who had the honor of signing the development agreement with Lennar on behalf of the City of Irvine. Through that agreement, 1,347 acres of public land (about twice the size of New York’s Central Park) and nearly $400 million in Developer Fees and Assessment District funds were committed by Lennar to support the development of the Orange County Great Park — the first great metropolitan park of the 21st century.

An advocate for balanced communities, Councilmember Krom is focused on ensuring a sustainable future for the City of Irvine. Through prudent management of our City resources, Irvine now has adequate operating funds, significant reserves and an Asset Management Plan to fund long-term rehabilitation and maintenance. Among the initiatives that Beth Krom has worked to advance are Irvine’s long-term housing strategy to ensure a full spectrum of housing opportunities in the City and the establishment of Irvine’s Community Land Trust to support the development of high quality affordable housing that will remain affordable in perpetuity.

During her term as Mayor, Beth Krom also led the effort to create a residential and commercial Greenbuilding Ordinance — the first of its kind in Orange County. And under her leadership, an enhanced traffic management program was implemented to upgrade all of Irvine’s signalized intersections and move traffic more efficiently. With the launch of the i-shuttle in the Irvine Business Complex in June 2008, providing transit linkage to Metrolink commuters, integrated transit planning has been enhanced under Beth Krom’s leadership as well.

Throughout her tenure on the City Council, Beth Krom has supported innovative partnerships, including the ZEV•net electric carshare program at the Irvine Transportation Center, the Hydrogen Hybrid Fuel Cell Vehicle partnership with Toyota and the National Fuel Cell Research Center at UCI and the national “Plug-in Partnership” to advance the development of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. As Mayor she joined a national coalition of Mayors for Climate Protection which is working to ensure that what we do at a local level supports the health of our people and our planet.

In addition to her official city responsibilities, Beth Krom serves on the Orange County Great Park Corporation Board, the Irvine Educational Partnership Fund Advisory Board, the Transportation Corridor Agencies boards, the Local Government Commission, the boards of the Discovery Science Center, Arts Orange County, Laguna Canyon Foundation, San Joaquin Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary, and has represented the City of Irvine in the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, Southern California Association of Governments and the Orange County Council of Governments.

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