Peggy Huang: CA Councilwoman with a Vision for City Development

As a teenager, Peggy spent much time in politics and knew she would eventually return to it. As a resident and mother in Yorba Linda, California, she put hours of effort into serving the city, and in 2014 won a race for city councilwoman.

Peggy was trained by American Majority President Matt Robbins at the Marian Bergeson Excellence in Public Service Series when she decided to run. The most important thing she learned from the training was fundraising strategies. Peggy believes that the training armed her with campaign strategies and served as one of the most valuable foundations for her journey to city council.

“The Bergeson Series made campaigning a lot easier,” said Peggy.

Peggy’s primary concern and the center of her work is educating citizens on the importance of development and the allocation of city funds. Unlike other states, California property taxes go to the state, then funnel down to the county; the city gets about one percent online. Because there is so little for Yorba Linda to hold onto for expenditures, it has been dependant on development fees.

“People hate development,” lamented Peggy. “Ironically, they feed off of it.”

When taking her daughter to school, Peggy had the opportunity to connect with the city through PTA meetings. A topic related to the city council and Peggy’s work would normally come up at the meetings, and the other parents have had the chance to get to know Peggy as a member of the city council. She has a lot of the same conversations with the same people; which has connected her intimately to the city.

“Property revenue won’t make up for everything; it’s important for people to connect the dots there,” maintained Peggy.

Peggy’s concern was that average citizens have no vision for the financial future of their city. She has found it a challenge to help people learn to think that way. Any kind of activity oriented towards development can make people nervous.

“One day the developer’s fees will run out and you have to plan ahead for disaster,” said Peggy. “No one really thinks about it, but it’s dawned on them that they are going to run out of land.”

When asked for her thoughts on the election process, Peggy pointed out that a lot of people who run for office in her area run on single issues. Peggy advises anyone running for office to become familiar and involved with as many aspects of the city as possible. Extending time to become knowledgeable of the city enables candidates to avoid a learning curve, and focus their energies on the campaign.

“It’s when you’re a single-issue person that you get accused of not knowing anything,” said Peggy.

Peggy found it rewarding that she had already met and developed relationships with many of the people whose votes she needed when she began her campaign.

“That part was what made my campaign unique,” said Peggy, “and an important part of my walk to city council.”