Fountain Valley swore in a new fire chief and a new police chief this year, and the city didn't wait for a press conference to introduce them. It put them on a sidewalk.
Three times since March, Mayor Jim Cunneen has led a one-mile walk through the city with Police Chief Craig Heredia, Fire Chief Chris Nigg, and City Manager Maggie Le at his side. No agenda, no registration, no dais. Just a meeting point, a mile, and whoever shows up in walking shoes. The city calls it Mile with the Mayor, and it's the most visible piece of something Cunneen has branded Fitness Valley. But look at where the three walks have actually happened, and who they were built around, and the walk reads less like a fitness program and more like the way this city's newest leadership has chosen to make itself available.
The Sequence Matters
The timing isn't incidental. On March 5, Fountain Valley held its 2026 State of the City at Freedom Hall in Mile Square Park, a formal evening built around the theme "Stars, Stripes, and FV Proud" in partnership with Supervisor Janet Nguyen, the Fountain Valley Kiwanis, and the Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce. That night served two purposes at once: it helped kick off the country's 250th anniversary, and it was where the city formally welcomed its new fire and police chiefs to the community.
Sixteen days later, on March 21, the first Mile with the Mayor happened in front of City Hall at 10200 Slater Avenue. Same cast: Cunneen, Heredia, Nigg, Le. Different format entirely. No stage, no program, no RSVP. Residents were told simply to show up ready to walk. That sequence, a formal introduction followed two weeks later by an unscripted mile through the neighborhood, isn't standard practice for a new department head. It's a deliberate second act, one where residents get to ask questions without a microphone in the way.
Three Saturdays, One Consistent Roster
The second walk followed the same script on June 13, again starting at City Hall. Same four names attached to every announcement. By the third installment on September 19, the meeting point had moved to the Fountain Valley Recreation Center and Sports Park at 16400 Brookhurst Street, and the walk did double duty as a nod to September's Hunger Action Month, with the city asking participants to wear orange.
What hasn't changed across all three dates is who's leading them. Every announcement names the same four people walking together: the mayor, the police chief, the fire chief, and the city manager. For a city that just turned over two of its top public safety positions in the same year, that consistency reads as intentional. If you want to ask Heredia a direct question about anything happening in your part of town, or ask Nigg about a station response time, this is apparently the forum built for exactly that, four times a year, with no barrier to entry beyond showing up at 9 a.m.
Why the Move to the Sports Park Is the More Interesting Data Point
The shift from City Hall to the Recreation Center and Sports Park for the third walk is worth pausing on. City Hall is an administrative building. The Sports Park is the physical center of the city's recreation footprint, sitting along Brookhurst next to the David L. Baker Memorial Golf Course and the tennis courts, and it's the same site that hosts the annual Summerfest and the Lobster Festival.
Moving the walk there puts it on ground that's already doing work for the city's broader Fitness Valley branding. It's not a coincidence that the Recreation Center is also where residents pick up the quarterly Fountain Pen guide, the city's activity catalog for seasonal classes, camps, and programs. The Center at Founders Village, the city's senior center a short drive away on Bushard Street, runs its own fitness room stocked with cardiovascular and weight equipment donated by MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center, complete with a required orientation and equipment training session before anyone can use it unsupervised. None of that is new this year. What's new is a mayor-led walk that now touches that same infrastructure directly instead of starting from an office parking lot.
What Fitness Valley Actually Adds Up To
Fitness Valley isn't a single program. It's a label Cunneen has put on three things that already existed separately: the seasonal class catalog at the Recreation Center, the fitness room at Founders Village, and now this quarterly walk that connects both of them back to the people running the city day to day. The walk is the only piece of that trio where residents get face time with the mayor, the city manager, and both chiefs at once, walking at the same pace as everyone else, with no formal ask beyond conversation.
That's a different kind of civic access than a council meeting or a public comment period. Nobody has to submit a request to speak. Nobody has to wait for an agenda item. You show up, you walk a mile, and if Chief Nigg happens to be next to you at the halfway point, you can ask him about the new fire station rotation or whatever's actually on your mind.
If the Pattern Holds
Three walks in, the cadence is clearly quarterly: March, June, September. If that rhythm continues, the fourth installment would land sometime in December, though the city hadn't posted a confirmed date as of late September. Worth watching for two things when it's announced: whether the meeting point stays at the Recreation Center and Sports Park or moves again, and whether the same four names are still leading it. Two new department heads walking alongside a sitting mayor and city manager, four times in their first year on the job, is the kind of consistency that either becomes a real tradition or quietly fades once the introductions are no longer necessary. So far it's held.
For residents who haven't gone yet, the format is about as low friction as city programming gets. Show up at the posted meeting point, usually City Hall or the Recreation Center and Sports Park, at 9 a.m. on the scheduled Saturday. No reservation, no fee, no fitness level required. The full history of dates and locations is posted on the city's Walk a Mile with the Mayor page, and the city calendar is the fastest way to catch the next one before it's posted.
We've been walking these same streets for a while now. If the next Mile with the Mayor lands in December, look for us there too. In the meantime, if you're curious what any of this civic momentum means for your own property or your next move in Fountain Valley, the Lily Campbell Team is always glad to talk it through over coffee, or on a mile of pavement.
