Beth Krom's Biography

A resident of Irvine since 1985, Mayor 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.

As a City Council member, Beth Krom 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 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, Mayor 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 Mayor 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.

Mayor Krom has supported innovative partnerships, including the ZEV•net electric car share 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. Mayor Krom is part of 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 responsibilities as Mayor, Beth Krom serves on the Orange County Great Park Corporation Board, the Irvine Educational Partnership Fund Advisory Board, the board of the Discovery Science Center and represents the City of Irvine in the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities.

Mayor Krom and her husband Solly have three children, Abby, a Junior at Cal State Fullerton, Noah, a Sophomore at UC Santa Barbara and Hershel, a Senior at the Orange County High School for the Arts.