Photo by Daniel Langhorne

Yorba Linda City Council Member Tara Campbell was sworn in Tuesday. The Yorba Linda native is the youngest person ever elected to the City Council and is one of three women on the City’s first female majority council.

By Daniel Langhorne

For the first time in Yorba Linda’s 50-year history, women are a majority of the City Council.

This historic landmark in Yorba Linda politics came Tuesday night with the Council’s election of Peggy Huang, a California deputy attorney general, as the next mayor and the installation of recently-elected Council Members Tara Campbell and Beth Haney.

“I’m thrilled to be a part of Yorba Linda history by being part of the the first female City Council majority,” Haney said.

Photo by Daniel Langhorne

Yorba Linda City Council Member Beth Haney was sworn in Tuesday. She is one of three women on the City’s first female majority council.

Huang appeared relieved to no longer be the sole woman on the dais.

“You know for the last two years I was sitting here by myself as the only woman,” Huang said. “I was praying for at least one [woman] so it’s a bonus to get two.”

Councilman Gene Hernandez said tongue-in-cheek that Huang was getting the council majority change out of her system.

“I’m trying to build a sisterhood here,” Huang said with a smile.

Campbell, who received the most votes of any council candidate, is the youngest person to be elected to the Yorba Linda City Council, City Clerk Marcia Brown said.

“Many of you know I was born and raised here in Yorba Linda and it is so exciting to me to have someone raised in this community serve on the City Council as we celebrate our 50th year as a city,” she said.

Photo by Daniel Langhorne

Yorba Linda Mayor Peggy Huang will lead the first female majority city council in the City’s history.

The last council meeting of 2016 was also marked by the retirement of Councilman Mark Schwing after serving for 20 years on the City Council, which include four terms as mayor. After living in the Land of Gracious Living for 30 years, Schwing and his his wife are moving to Ladera Ranch to be closer to family.

Among the many projects Schwing participated in while on the City Council was the dedication of the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum; the funerals of Richard and Pat Nixon; and the completion of the Gypsum Canyon Bridge, Community Center, Tommy Lasorda Jr. Field House, Yorba Linda High School, Gun Club Road Park and the Costco Gas Station.

“I’ve enjoyed it,” Schwing said. “I hope I’ve made some differences. The population of the city has gone from just under 30,000 to almost 69,000 today.”

Councilman Craig Young also stepped down from the City Council after losing a seat to Haney by just 319 votes. Young was part of majority that consistently supported property owners’s rights to sell their land to housing developers, despite huge outcry from neighbors opposed to high-density housing projects.

This council majority approved the Covington townhomes across the street from Nixon Library, Heritage Crossings condominiums at Yorba Linda Boulevard and Prospect Avenue and the Anderson Grove attached homes at Lakeview Avenue and Bastanchury Road.

Young said he was also pleased to see the repair of La Palma Avenue and the City pay off its debt.

“This has been one of the quickest four years, I think, of my life when you just factor the public service piece of it and it has been an absolute delight,” Young said.