Brandon didn't set out to become a politician. A few years ago, he and his wife Lisa decided to start keeping bees and a few backyard chickens at their home in Buena Park, part of a small permaculture garden they'd been building together. It turned out the city's code didn't actually allow it - and not everyone on the block was thrilled about it either. Brandon could have just given up the bees. Instead, he got curious about why the rule existed in the first place, and frustrated that so many neighbors equated a drought-tolerant, pollinator-friendly yard with neglect, while a plain water-hungry lawn was treated as the “responsible” choice.

Lisa encouraged him to take that frustration to City Hall instead of just venting about it at home. Mayor Connor Traut saw a resident who'd done his homework and cared more about getting it right than getting credit, and appointed him to the Climate Action and Sustainability Commission. Brandon spent years on that commission - including helping rewrite the city code so bees and backyard chickens are legal in Buena Park today.

That same hands-on, ask-good-questions approach is why Mayor Traut, who is moving on to serve as an Orange County Supervisor, encouraged Brandon to run for the council seat he's leaving behind. Brandon was hesitant. His wife, mother, and sister were not. (“The women in my life made me do it,” he jokes and he's only half joking.)