Well, that’s an unfortunate way to start 2024. Jennifer Le, Costa Mesa’s Director of Economic and Development Services, has resigned and joined the Irvine Company as its Senior Director of Entitlements.

City Hall can be inscrutable but it’s hard to interpret this as anything other than a blow for the City and for City Manager Lori Ann Farrell Harrison. Ms. Le, who was elevated by Farrell Harrison to the role of Director after serving as Assistant Director for several years, was at the center of some of the City’s most important 2024 initiatives. These include the reassessment of our retail cannabis ordinances, the ongoing planning for Fairview Development Center, the programs under the Housing Element (including the rezoning of the sites covered by Measure K and the in-progress inclusionary housing ordinance), our short-term rental ordinances, and our outdoor dining ordinance. She also just oversaw the implementation of Costa Mesa’s new land management and permit system, TESSA, which I understand has received mixed reviews from the building community thus far. And finally, she was spearheading the drafting of an Economic Development Strategic Plan for the City, though I haven’t heard anything about that since the City Council tapped TCCG as its consultant waaaaay back in June 2022. And that’s just the stuff I know about.

In other words, Jennifer Le was everywhere in the last couple of months. So what gives? Why leave in the middle of so many projects, many of which could define whole careers?

Money might certainly be a motivator; Ms. Le has devoted several decades to public service and, while our pensions are reasonably generous, the base salary probably isn’t great for someone with two high ed degrees. And if anyone is ready to pay out beaucoup bucks for former public servants that know the ins- and outs- of the entitlement process, it would be the Irvine Company.

Headed by Donald Bren, one of the richest men in the world, the Irvine Company owns vast amounts of real estate throughout Orange County, mostly in Irvine (unsurprisingly) but also in Costa Mesa. They own The Enclave, a very nice luxury apartment complex in the freeway triangle area, as well as Pacific Arts Plaza, and probably more I don’t know about. So I have a feeling we’ll be seeing Jennifer Le again, just on the other side of the revolving door.

Which isn’t to say I don’t wish her well. In my personal dealings with Ms. Le, she’s only been courteous, generous with her time, and very thoughtful. She was always well informed and a master of the subject matter, especially when it came to zoning or housing. And while I wish sometimes City Hall would be a little bit more aggressive in these areas, it was hard to tell whether that cautiousness was personal to Ms. Le or institutional. I’d guess the latter, which is why I have a bad feeling she will be very missed from a policy perspective.

So I hope two things come out of this: first, that we replace Ms. Le as soon as possible, with someone equal to the (enormous) task of her office this year, and second, we fix whatever caused her to leave in the first place. We are already down a Director of Parks and Community Services, so we really can’t afford any more high level departures. Here’s hoping that Ms. Le simply wanted a change of scenery.