Arianna Barrios, Orange mayor candidate, 2026 election questionnaire – Orange County Register

Ahead of the November general election, the Southern California News Group compiled a list of questions to pose to the candidates who wish to represent you. You can find the full questionnaire below.

Name: Arianna Barrios

Age: 56

Current job title: City Councilmember, District 1

Incumbent: No

Other political positions held: Former Trustee, Rancho Santiago Community College District, Area 7 (if you are asking for PAST

City where you reside: Orange

Campaign website or social media: votebarrios.com

How can the city best meet the demand and mandates for more housing, including at lower price points, while also preserving local control and the quality of life for existing neighborhoods and residents? (Please limit your answer to 200 words or less.)

Orange, like other cities, faces state mandates (RHNA allocations, SB 9, SB 35, etc.) that limit traditional local control. Orange needs to implement a balanced approach:

Target growth strategically. Orange can concentrate new density near transit corridors when possible, and underused commercial strips (like parts of Chapman/Tustin/Katella) rather than spreading it into established single-family tracts. The former Towne & Country business park is an example. This satisfies unit-count mandates while shielding existing neighborhoods from disruption.

“Gentle Density” tools. ADUs/JADUs, duplex-to-fourplex conversions on larger lots and adaptive reuse of vacant commercial/office space add units without dramatically changing neighborhoods.

Prioritize affordability mechanisms. Orange needs more density bonuses tied to affordable units and partnerships with nonprofit developers to help hit lower-price-point goals rather than relying solely on market-rate construction.

Engage early and often. Proactive community input on where growth goes (rather than whether it happens) preserves a sense of local voice even as the state constrains zoning authority.

Invest in infrastructure concurrently. Pairing new housing approvals with traffic, parking, and school-capacity planning addresses residents’ core quality-of-life concerns.

None of this eliminates tension between state mandates and local preferences — that’s a genuine, ongoing statewide debate regarding how much authority cities should retain.

How should the city balance rising costs, paying off debts, such as pension liabilities, and building reserves, all while meeting residents’ needs? Should a solution involve finding new revenue, economic development, trimming the budget, or something else entirely? (Please limit your answer to 200 words or less.)

Given Orange’s roughly $30 million structural deficit, no single lever solves this — it requires structural change.

1. STOP THE BLEEDING: With or without new revenue, we must live within our means, stop deficit spending, and change how we manage our operations.

2. RADICAL TRANSPARENCY: Before asking for new revenue, the City owes residents a transparent accounting of where discretionary spending will go. Fiscal credibility has to come before a tax ask, not after.

3. PRIORITIZE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT that grows the base without new subsidies. Streamlined permitting and targeted investment in underused commercial corridors expand revenue without raising rates.

4. TACKLE PENSION LIABILITIES with actuarial honesty, not by deferring the true cost onto future budgets — including scrutinizing any proposed benefit enhancements against their long-term liability impact, not just year-one cost.

5. BUILD RESERVES AS A DISCIPLINE, not an afterthought — a fixed percentage of any new revenue, sales tax included, should be walled off for reserves before new programs.

NEW REVENUE VIA SALES TAX: I support this only if paired with structural reform and real accountability — not as a standalone fix for problems the City still hasn’t addressed operationally.

The public expects transparency from public leaders in spending and governance. How can this be achieved? How can the city do better in this area? (Please limit your answer to 200 words or less.)

Transparency isn’t a communications strategy; it’s a structural commitment to letting residents see decisions as they’re made, not explained afterward.

My Plan Includes:

1. PROACTIVE DISCLOSURE OF DISCRETIONARY SPENDING: Any discretionary spending that happens outside the adopted annual budget — like reopening our public pool as a year-round operation — should be published with the rationale before or immediately after approval.

2. REAL BUDGET TRANSPARENCY: A public dashboard showing actual spending against budget, updated regularly, instead of a static document few residents read.

3. INDEPENDENT POLICY DEVELOPMENT: Structural changes — charters, term limits, or pension formulas — should go through publicly deliberated commissions with real notice and input, not floor amendments finalized in a single meeting.

4. CLEAN PROCESS ON CLOSE VOTES: The charter measure’s term-limit provision passed 4-3 after the Mayor’s vote didn’t match his stated position — a correctable-in-real-time error that should have paused the vote, not proceeded to finality.

5. INDEPENDENT AUDITS, PUBLISHED PUBLICLY: Not just financial audits, which the City already does, but PROCESS audits — how contracts get awarded and decisions get made.

Orange’s current credibility gap is less about hiding information and more about a governing process that by default doesn’t prioritize visibility.

In your opinion, what is the biggest need your city faces, and how would you address it? (Please limit your answer to 200 words or less.)

The biggest need facing Orange right now is restoring fiscal credibility and disciplined governance — not any single program or service gap, but the foundation everything else depends on.

Orange’s $30 million structural deficit didn’t appear overnight; it’s the result of years of decisions — like adding police officers without new funding or spending $250,000 on the city pool — both made without a consistent framework for fiscal discipline or accountability. This erodes public trust, which then makes every subsequent ask of voters harder, because residents reasonably wonder if City Hall can be trusted.

1. TRANSPARENCY FIRST: Require clear, regular public reporting on where discretionary spending goes and why — no more one-off deals decided outside public scrutiny.

2. REFORM BEFORE REVENUE: Fix internal budgeting practices and demonstrate discipline before asking voters for more money, rather than the reverse.

3. REBUILD STRUCTURAL DECISION-MAKING: Whether it’s staffing levels or pension formulas, decisions should go through fiscal analysis and genuine public input — not be decided in a single meeting by whoever holds the majority that night.

Get the fiscal foundation right to regain voter trust should be our priority.

Why would you make a good leader, and how would you represent the diverse communities of your city? (Please limit your answer to 200 words or less.)

Fiscal Discipline, Accountability, and Fairness are the hallmarks of my leadership style and what I believe our City needs to become the best version of itself. Orange residents deserve a leader who will fight for them, and put their quality of life ahead of corporate welfare, predatory developers, and special interests.

Drawing on 20 years of corporate and public agency experience crafting and implementing best practices, I have developed a comprehensive plan to fundamentally transform operations at City Hall to ensure that our local government works for everyone, not just the feared or the favored.

Until we restore fiscal credibility and modern, disciplined governance in the City of Orange, we have no business asking our residents to close our funding gaps.