An Open Letter To The Community
Dear Laguna Beach,
My name is Ashley Cintas. I own Oto Sushi in downtown Laguna Beach, and I'm running for City Council.
Some of you know me from Oto. Some of you have seen me at a community meeting or candidate forum. And some of you may be seeing my name for the first time.
So I want to tell you a little about who I am, why I'm running, what I've learned from this community, and most importantly, what I want to do if you give me the opportunity to serve.
I'm a Southern California native, and I grew up with my grandparents owning an Irish crystal store in Carmel, and my mom owning her own gift store also in a coastal town. I spent my childhood at small-town beaches, helping their stores, and learning that a local community thrives and survives on just that: its community.
In my professional career, I've spent nearly two decades building and operating businesses. I've led multimillion-dollar North American organizations, managed large teams and budgets, developed and opened locations, and worked with cities through permitting and development. Most importantly, I had to build teams around a common goal, communicate transparently, deliver results, and be accountable for the outcome, the timeline, and the budget.
Then I made the biggest decision of my life. I chose Laguna Beach.
I put my life savings into opening Oto because I believed in this community and wanted to build something here that would last. Oto is also deeply personal to me. It's a family business. My twin sister, an artist, designed the restaurant. My nieces spend their summers here, enjoying the beaches, growing up around Oto and becoming part of this community alongside me.
Today, I employ roughly 46 people. And owning a restaurant in the middle of downtown has given me a perspective on Laguna I never expected. Every day, people walk through my doors and talk to me.
I hear from longtime residents who want to protect what they love about Laguna. Seniors worried about emergency care and public safety. Employees trying to build a life here. Business owners struggling with rising costs. Families thinking about the future. And visitors who remind me why people from around the world think this place is extraordinary.
Those conversations made me start looking more closely at our city.
I attended meetings. I read budgets and reports. I asked a lot of questions. And the deeper I looked, the more I became concerned by a pattern:
Too often, we measure action instead of outcomes.
A project was started. A study was commissioned. Money was allocated. An item was marked complete.
But did it actually solve the problem? Did it come in on time and on budget? Did we measure the result? And if it didn't work, did we change course? We are not asking those questions.
That matters to me because my entire career has required me to answer them. My job has been to take complicated operations, understand how all the pieces connect, identify what isn't working, build a plan, manage the money and people needed to execute it, and then be accountable for the result.
Owning my own business made that lesson even more personal.
When it's your money, your employees, and your name on the door, you can't confuse being busy with being successful.
Eventually, you have to ask: Did it work? That's a big part of why I'm running.
I don't want to change what makes Laguna special. I want to change how we approach the challenges that could threaten it.
We have important decisions in front of us: the future of emergency care, wildfire and evacuation, long-term financial pressures, major infrastructure needs, housing mandates, the health of our local businesses, and a growing list of projects competing for limited resources.
I don't see those challenges as reasons to be pessimistic. I see an opportunity to do things differently.
To plan further ahead. To prioritize. To connect decisions that affect one another. To measure results. To be more transparent about what things cost and how they're performing. And to give residents a clearer understanding of where we're going and how we're going to get there.
My priorities are straightforward: Fire & Public Safety. Fiscal Management. Forward Thinking.
But I don't want those to be campaign slogans. Here's what they mean to me.
FIRE & PUBLIC SAFETY: KNOW THAT THE WHOLE SYSTEM WORKS
Laguna has invested in wildfire prevention, vegetation management, evacuation planning, technology, and emergency preparedness.
My plan is to take the next step: test the entire system from beginning to end. I want an end-to-end wildfire and evacuation stress test, from detection to communication, to evacuation decisions, traffic movement, emergency response, and the capacity of our roads under realistic conditions.
I also want our remaining wildfire and evacuation priorities on a public dashboard with timelines, costs, responsible parties, and measurable outcomes.
The goal isn't another study or another item checked off a list. The goal is knowing that all of the pieces work together when people's lives depend on them.
EMERGENCY CARE: GET AHEAD OF THE PROBLEM
The possible loss of our emergency room has shown why cities cannot afford to wait until a problem becomes a crisis.
My plan is to pursue every viable path to preserve emergency care while independently understanding the costs, regulatory requirements, timelines, and alternatives.
That means bringing healthcare, financial, legal, county, and state expertise to the table and giving residents clear information about what is possible, what it will cost, and what needs to happen next.
Providence is responsible for its decisions. Laguna is responsible for how prepared and effective our response is.
And that philosophy should extend beyond the hospital. I want us to identify major risks earlier, build plans before we're forced to react, and give residents visibility into our progress.
That's what forward thinking means to me.
FISCAL MANAGEMENT: PRIORITIZE, PLAN AND MEASURE
I believe long-term forecasting matters, but a forecast isn't the same as a plan. The City has begun looking further ahead financially, but identifying future gaps is only the first step. I want a clear plan for how we close those gaps, prioritize our commitments, and fund what we take on before asking residents or businesses for more money.
Before taking on a major commitment, I want five questions answered:
What will it cost? How will we pay for it? Who is responsible? When will it be completed? And how will we measure whether it worked?
I want us to prioritize the projects that matter most, give them realistic timelines and resources, and actually finish them rather than continually adding initiatives to a growing list.
Before asking residents or businesses for more money, I believe we should clearly understand where our money is going today, what our existing commitments will cost tomorrow, and where we can operate more efficiently.
And I don't support an Audit Committee made up only of the Councilmembers whose government it is supposed to help oversee. The City's current Audit Committee lists only two Councilmembers. Meaningful oversight should include independent voices.
My plan is a five-member committee with no more than two Councilmembers and three qualified members of the public, including one appointed by our elected City Treasurer, with the ability to recommend deeper performance audits when warranted.
Because knowing the numbers are accurate is important. Knowing whether the money produced the result residents were promised matters too.
CITY HALL: FIX THE PROCESS, NOT JUST ONE PIECE OF IT
I hear the frustration around permitting and Community Development all the time. I don't think the answer is simply approving more or approving less. Residents and applicants deserve a process that is understandable, predictable, and fair.
Planning and design review are services; they shouldn't be obstacles.
My plan is to push for clearer objective standards wherever possible, fewer contradictory requirements, measurable timelines, and better coordination between departments.
I'm supportive of technology where it makes government faster and better. But making one part of plan checking faster doesn't solve the problem if the real delays are departmental handoffs, resubmittals, unclear requirements, or multiple review cycles.
That's something my career has taught me repeatedly: You can't fix one piece of a system and assume you've fixed the whole thing.
And that really sums up how I see Laguna's future.
Our finances affect our ability to provide services and protect public safety. Our permitting process affects residents, housing, and businesses. Our businesses contribute to the economic health of our city. Infrastructure decisions create costs that can last decades. Emergency preparedness depends on roads, communications, technology, and people all working together.
The pieces matter. But we have to start looking at the whole. And that's what excites me about Laguna's future.
We don't need to become a different city to become a better-run city.
We can protect our beaches and open space while planning responsibly for the future. We can preserve the character of our neighborhoods while making City Hall more predictable and effective. We can support our arts community and the independent businesses that give Laguna its identity. We can prepare seriously for wildfire, fight for emergency care, and make thoughtful decisions about how we spend residents' money.
We can preserve what makes Laguna extraordinary and be better prepared for what's coming next.
I chose Laguna. I invested here. I built a business here. I employ people here. I have gotten to know this community from behind a sushi bar, across restaurant tables, at City Hall, in people’s homes, and in countless conversations with residents who care deeply about this place.
The more I have learned, the more strongly I have felt that I have something meaningful to contribute. Laguna doesn’t need to choose between protecting what we love and preparing for what’s ahead.
We have to do both. That’s why I’m running for City Council.
Thank you for taking the time to learn a little more about me and why I’m asking for the opportunity to serve this community.
For Laguna. For our Future.