# Irvine City Council, District 6

Compare records and positions simply between Scotty Hong or Kathleen Treseder for Irvine City Council, District 6 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Irvine's 7-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the citywide-elected mayor and five other district councilmembers. The term is four years.

- Jurisdiction: City of Irvine
- Election: November 3, 2026 California general election
- Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements.
- Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/irvine-council-6
- Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/
- Sources last retrieved: October 6, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 90 out of 100 (Very strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Scotty Hong** — City of Irvine Sustainability Commissioner
- **Kathleen Treseder** — Councilmember, City of Irvine/Educator · Incumbent

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

Incumbent Kathleen Treseder faces challenger Scotty Hong for Irvine City Council District 6. This is the district's first-ever election. A 2024 charter amendment carved it out of what had been an at-large seat. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright. There is no runoff.

This person holds District 6's seat on Irvine's 7-member City Council, alongside the citywide-elected mayor and five other district councilmembers. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The term is four years.

Treseder, a UC Irvine climate scientist first elected to the council's former at-large seat in 2022, is campaigning on a first-term record of budget and lobbying reforms. Hong, the city's Sustainability Commissioner and a policy advisor to Mayor Agran, is running on a direct policy contrast: Hong wants Irvine to leave the Orange County Power Authority, the regional public-power agency whose board Treseder herself sits on.

## Kathleen Treseder

The incumbent is a UC Irvine professor of ecology. She studies climate change's effects on fungal ecosystems. She was elected to the council's former at-large seat in 2022 and sworn in that December. She also sits on the Orange County Power Authority board, having been sworn onto it in January 2023. She describes herself as "a scientist, not a politician." She says she has pushed to balance the city's budget and "banish corrupt lobbyists." She says she stopped what she calls a sweetheart deal for Live Nation to use public space. She says she worked to expand access to parks and green space. She is running for reelection on continuing to fight for what she calls Irvine's "progressive values." In her Vote411 questionnaire she calls herself a mother and climate scientist, and says she also wants to strengthen local businesses while protecting workers.

Her three stated priorities are affordability, meaning city investment in homes that the workers, students and families now being priced out can afford; climate action, including a comprehensive Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, clean transportation and open-space protection; and protecting immigrants, where she says "ICE does not belong in Irvine." On Flock cameras she opposes them on the UC Irvine campus, saying the risk to students outweighs the benefit. Elsewhere she would allow them only under enforceable rules, regular audits and outcome data tied to renewals.

**Strengths:** A completed first term with named actions. Those include blocking the Live Nation space deal, plus budget and lobbying-disclosure reforms. Her research career is relevant to her platform.

**Trade-offs:** Her opponent's central campaign proposal specifically targets the Orange County Power Authority. She sits on its board. See his profile.

**Keep in mind:** See Financial info. Cal-Access could not be independently checked for this race. The actions she credits herself with, balancing the budget and stopping the Live Nation deal, are her own account.

## Scotty Hong

Age 34. The city's Sustainability Commissioner and Chief Policy Advisor to Mayor Larry Agran. Hong holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a Master of Public Administration from Cornell. They are running in what they call the district's first-ever election for its own councilmember. Their platform includes expanding the Irvine Connect shuttle to UCI and District 6's residential communities. They also want improved lighting, sidewalks, and trails. They call for more neighborhood policing, more fire and EMS funding, and affordable housing. Their most specific proposal is withdrawing Irvine from the Orange County Power Authority. They say it "charges Irvine residents the county's highest rates and relies primarily on fossil fuels." They would favor expanded rooftop solar and battery storage and 100,000 more trees. In their Vote411 questionnaire they say their commissioner and advisor roles cover public safety, transportation, housing, sustainability and constituent services. They describe District 6 as UCI, nearby neighborhoods and the fast-growing Irvine Business Complex.

Their three stated priorities are safe neighborhoods and reliable services, with neighborhood-based policing, strong fire and emergency response, and traffic-safety work such as lighting, crossings and sidewalks; transportation, with the free Irvine CONNECT shuttle extended to UCI and more neighborhoods; and responsible growth, affordability and clean energy, with attainable housing near jobs and transit and more parks and shade. On Flock cameras they support limited use for specific purposes such as finding a missing person or stolen vehicle. They want public rules, audits, and no use for civil immigration enforcement.

**Strengths:** A policy contrast with the incumbent. Hong would leave the Orange County Power Authority, a board Treseder sits on. They hold a City Hall policy role suggesting familiarity with the office.

**Trade-offs:** No prior elected office. They are also the mayor's own policy advisor. So their candidacy sits inside the same city administration whose incumbent councilmember they are challenging.

**Keep in mind:** See Financial info. Cal-Access could not be independently checked for this race. Their account of their advisory and commission work is their own, from a candidate questionnaire.

## Sources

1. [OC Registrar of Voters — Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 (169 contests, 430 candidates filed)](https://ocvote.gov/fileadmin/user_upload/data/candlog/GEN2026/candlog.pdf)
2. [City of Irvine -- November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election Information page: confirms a Mayor (2-year term) and one Councilmember each for Districts 1, 5, and 6 (4-year terms) as Irvine's four November 2026 races; nomination period closed Aug. 7, 2026, write-in period Sept. 7-Oct. 20, 2026](https://cityofirvine.gov/election)
3. [City of Irvine -- Qualified Candidates for Mayor and City Council (Ballot Order), updated 8/13/2026 (the day of the Secretary of State's randomized-alphabet drawing): the certified nine-candidate roster across Mayor and Districts 1, 5, and 6, with each candidate's filed ballot designation](https://cityofirvine.gov/sites/default/files/legacy-documents/official-candidate-list-ballot-order-2026.pdf)
4. [City of Irvine -- the same Ballot Order document's full first-person candidate statements for all nine qualified candidates, filed with and published by the City Clerk](https://cityofirvine.gov/sites/default/files/legacy-documents/official-candidate-list-ballot-order-2026.pdf)
5. [Orange County Register (Laylan Connelly, with Anita Gosch contributing) -- "Candidate fields take shape for City Council elections in Orange County": staffed, bylined roundup independently naming Irvine's full nine-candidate field across Mayor and Districts 1, 5, and 6, and every incumbency call -- corrects the county candlog's District 5 count from 6 to 5](https://www.ocregister.com/2026/08/14/candidate-fields-take-shape-for-city-council-elections-in-orange-county/)
6. [Wikipedia -- Kathleen Treseder: a UC Irvine ecology professor elected to the City Council in 2022 (assumed office Dec. 13, 2022) as an at-large member; sworn onto the Orange County Power Authority board Jan. 17, 2023](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Treseder)
7. [Wikipedia -- Irvine, California: city-government section confirms voters passed Measure D in the March 2024 primary, expanding the council to a mayor plus six district councilmembers and electing Irvine's first Council members by district in 2024; Districts 2, 3, and 4 elect in presidential years and Districts 1, 5, and 6 in midterm years, with District 1 running an abbreviated two-year term in 2024 to land its regular cycle on 2026](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irvine,_California)
8. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Irvine City Council Member, District 6' race (statewide All Races list): each candidate's self-submitted ballot designation and campaign contacts, plus answers to the League's questions -- top three priorities, qualifying background, and position on Flock cameras or similar devices. Both candidates answered all three questions. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/irvine-council-6.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote)

## The rest of the ballot

Irvine City Council, District 6 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/

## How to cite this page

Vote or Else, "Irvine City Council, District 6 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/irvine-council-6 (sources last retrieved October 6, 2026).

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