In the June primary, fewer than 300 votes separated incumbent Katrina Foley and Assemblymember Diane Dixon, who are now in the final stretch of campaigning for the November election to decide the Fifth District OC Board of Supervisors seat.
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The South Orange County district includes Aliso Viejo, Costa Mesa, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Newport Beach, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, unincorporated areas as far inland as Coto de Caza and Ladera Ranch and parts of Irvine.
Since 2022, Dixon has represented Assembly District 72, which covers portions of the Board of Supervisors’ District 5. Before that, she served on the Newport Beach City Council for eight years.
Foley, previously the mayor of Costa Mesa, was elected to the county board in 2022 alongside Second District Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, who won his seat outright during the June primary.
Both Dixon and Foley, who were interviewed and responded to written questions, agree the county needs to take urgent action to address upcoming budgetary challenges. In June, then-CEO Michelle Aguirre said the county’s spending has been outpacing its revenue growth, and officials had to draw $75 million from one-time reserves to balance the general fund budget.
“There should not be a deficit in a county that has a $10.8 billion budget,” Dixon said. “Orange County families and businesses have to live within their means and county government should be no different.”
Dixon said the county should prioritize essential services — public safety, mental health services and infrastructure — and eliminate waste to make sure taxpayers are getting value for every tax dollar spent. She said she’d explore private-public partnerships for community development projects that would benefit residents at little cost to the county. She cited similar initiatives she oversaw on the Newport Beach City Council, such as a new library lecture hall funded with a combination of taxpayer dollars and private donations.
“The city has received ownership for 50% of the cost, and the community takes great pride in it,” Dixon said about the recently opened Witte Hall.
If reelected to a second term, Foley said her main objective is to create an economic development plan to optimize county-owned land and boost general fund revenue, which can then be invested into services for residents.
“We’ve not done a good job as a county in managing these developments in a way that expedites the development so that we can start generating revenue,” she said of projects that have been agreed to, but developers have not made progress on. “We have many parcels yet to be developed sitting with vacant buildings on them.”
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The county must also cut bureaucratic red tape so small businesses can thrive, Foley said. For example, she said the wait time for environmental health permits for new restaurants has been reduced by nearly 90%, a project she spearheaded during her first term in office.
On the issue of housing, both candidates agree that more inventory needs to be built to address the crisis, though they differ in their approach to achieving that goal.
Dixon said she considers the California Environmental Quality Act the “root of the entire problem of housing in the state of California” that’s spawned an ecosystem of lawyers and “professional activists” who feed off lawsuits. If elected supervisor, she said she would use her relationships from serving in Sacramento to lobby for changes in the state law to expedite permit approvals, reduce unnecessary lawsuits and improve relationships with developers.
“As long as you have these forces against development, you’ll have a housing affordability issue,” Dixon said.
Foley said the county must use its zoning power and streamline permitting to encourage projects and partner with developers and cities to “develop affordable, supportive, workforce, market rate, and owner-occupied housing for the full spectrum of income levels.”
She said one change she previously championed was to increase the “utilization of Project Based Vouchers” to “underwrite units for cities and allow residents to move out of shelters into permanent supportive and affordable housing.” It is also necessary, she said, to focus on building more affordable, for-sale workforce housing so that college graduates and working, middle-class families can also stay in the county, noting that programs for people experiencing homelessness only fulfill a fraction of the county’s housing needs.
The five-member Board of Supervisors sets policy and direction and oversees the county’s $9.5 billion budget, 18,000 employees and various departments including the county health care and social services agencies, animal care, public works, landfills and more.
Read more of the voter guide, including what the candidates said about how they would address housing needs and what more they think the Board of Supervisors can do for residents at ocregister.com/voter-guide.
Ballots may be returned by mail (must be postmarked by Nov. 3 and received within seven days) or to a ballot drop box. The first vote centers will open for casting ballots in person on Oct. 24.
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