Former Mayor and member of the Los Alamitos City Council Mark Chirco, a popular incumbent in Los Alamitos has somewhat surprisingly decided to forego what would have been his final term on the city council.
Chirco formally announced Monday he will not run for re-election, saying in essence the city is now on a solid foundation and he has a young family at home.
Chirco was elected city-wide before the city agreed to carve out districts and had he run for re-election he would have been a candidate in District 4.
“The city is in a great position now, we’re financially stable, we have an excellent team of employees, a new chief of police and great department leaders,” Chirco told the Council Monday.
Chirco has always made fiscal sustainability of the city his mission, serving for a very long period with Mayor Shelley Hasselbrink on the fiscal sustainability budget committee. Before the city passed Measure Y in 2020, the city’s fiscal outlook was “bleak.”
In addition, he said the city council “works together harmoniously.”
“This has been a tremendous honor for me,” Chirco said of his service to the city, adding though “I am not going to run for re-election.
“I am going to stick around,” he added, noting that he would work hard for the next few months until the new council takes office in 2023.
In addition, Chirco has never shied away from taking courageous positions on issues. Most notably, he is credited for guiding the city as mayor during the difficult days of the pandemic and calling for “an end to hate” in 2021 after a series of racial incidents.
“This is very disturbing,” he said at the time. “We have to commit ourselves to calling out all forms of discrimination against any race, any gender or any group of people,” said Chirco. “It is just wrong,” he said.
“We as a society must do more to embrace the fact that all of us are different,” he said. Chirco said he was encouraged by those who “called out these injustices for what they are.”
“Our differences need to be highlighted, celebrated and embraced,” said Chirco, “because that is what defines us as a nation and what makes our community such a special place to be a part of.”
Chirco served as Mayor in 2021 and according to the city’s website, like many others, he moved to Los Alamitos to take advantage of the Los Alamitos Unified School District system and of course, for the “small town charm.”
Chirco has an undergraduate degree from UCLA and a law degree from Georgetown University. He has been a practicing attorney for more than seventeen years and is employed as a corporate attorney.
Chirco began his service to the city as a member of the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Commission until he was unanimously appointed to the City Council in December, 2017, and elected to a four year term on the City Council in November, 2018.
In addition to serving on City Council, Mark has served on the Orange County Library Advisory Board, the Los Alamitos Budget Standing Committee, the City Manager Selection Committee, the Los Alamitos Zoning Code Update Committee, as a Trustee for the Orange County Mosquito Vector Control District, Director for the Orange County Sanitation District, and the League of California Cities – State Division, the City Selection Committee.
He currently serves as an alternate for the West Cities Policies Communication board of directors as well as on the Los Alamitos Budget Standing Committee. As a member of the Budget Standing Committee, Mark helped ensure a balanced budget for Los Alamitos for the 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 fiscal years. Mark was previously an AYSO coach/referee for four years and is a member of the Los Alamitos School PTA.