A notice of intention to recall was issued to Fullerton Mayor Fred Jung and Councilmember Jamie Valencia last week, with residents citing leadership concerns among other issues.
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The two councilmembers were delivered the notices in the parking lot outside City Hall ahead of the Tuesday, July 21, city council meeting, a social media video shows.
The petitioners gave a general rationale for Jung, who represents District 1, alleging “poor leadership, poor decorum, and poor management of city resources.” They said that “Fullerton deserves a leader who upholds the values of integrity and transparency,” implying, without specifying incidents, that Jung has failed to meet those standards.
As for Valencia, the three-part notice lays out a more detailed argument.
It cites incompetence, arguing that Valencia is frequently unprepared and misunderstands agenda items she votes on. It also raises transparency and ethics concerns, alleging she voted to sell city-owned land at a discount to a megachurch in her district and approved below-market public lease terms for a campaign donor – actions the petitioners describe as “public giveaways” that create conflicts of interest and worsen the city’s budget deficit.
The notice further flags her policy decisions, citing votes against emergency support for immigrant families, opposition to the “Walk on Wilshire,” and her support for the mayoral appointment of Jung, whom they note is also her campaign donor and political advisor, despite what they call overwhelming public opposition to him.
Rather than fixing roads and serving residents, the notice asserts, her voting record “routinely aligns with special interests over the people of District 4.”
Valencia, who also works as a nurse in a pediatric intensive care unit, said the recall was “politically motivated,” alleging it was backed by allies of a political opponent she ran against in 2024, though she did not disclose the opponent’s name. She added that they “refuse to accept the results of the 2024 election and are unable to govern or work responsibly.”
“If this recall succeeds, my replacement won’t even be chosen by the voters of District 4; the councilmembers from the other districts will appoint a replacement,” she said. “This recall would cost Fullerton taxpayers more than $200,000 while undermining the will of District 4 voters who elected me to make tough fiscal decisions.”
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Jung dismissed the recall effort against him as a vague, partisan stunt driven by social media politics. He defended his six-year record, highlighted his 75% reelection margin and framed the recall as a costly waste of taxpayer money that “subverts the will of the voters.”
“The notice is all of two sentences. That’s it. There’s no specifics. Quite frankly, they might as well have just put, ‘We don’t like him,’” Jung told an Orange County Register reporter Monday. He argued that the recall was fiscally reckless and estimated the cost at more than $800,000, based on figures from the city clerk.
He said Fullerton already faces severe, “well-documented budget pressures” and that forcing a recall election would divert attention and money from “aging infrastructure and dire public safety needs.” He characterized the effort as a partisan maneuver that overrides the will of District 1 voters.
Jung also addressed the personal responsibility he feels representing a changing city while carrying what he described as the weight of being the first Korean American elected official in Fullerton. He emphasized that he takes pride in that milestone but feels pressure to make sure he is not the last, calling it a “great burden” to represent a community whose “heritage and lineage” inform values that may be unfamiliar to others but are deeply familiar to him.
He added that many of his constituents are small-business owners and working and middle-class residents who “don’t have the luxury” of paying attention to city politics to this degree.
“There’s a hyphen in between Korean and American, and I feel that uniquely. You almost have to be hypersensitive to that community,” he said. “Yet at the same time, you’re trying to represent an entire city that has extraordinarily wide and diverging needs.”
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