10 Set Sights on 4 Newport Council Seats : Election: The candidates are most concerned about airport- and budget-related issues.

NEWPORT BEACH —  Voters could change the face of city government in November with four of the seven seats on the City Council up for grabs.

Most of the 10 candidates view as paramount tandem issues involving airports--protecting the city’s settlement agreement on John Wayne Airport noise and lobbying for a commercial airport at the site of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Candidates also agree the council needs to find new revenue sources, trim city costs without reducing services and renew the city’s business climate over the next four years. But they have different opinions on the best way to accomplish those goals.

Candidates must live in the districts they are to represent, but are elected at large.

District 1’s John W. Hedges, the only incumbent still eligible to run for reelection because of the city’s two-term limit, said he wants to bring in new businesses to the Balboa Peninsula that will serve residents, not just visitors. A Central Balboa Specific Plan has been approved for the area.

Creativity and streamlining the permit process are the keys to bringing in new businesses, the 39-year-old airline pilot said.

Opponent Elaine Linhoff, 64, president of the Balboa Peninsula Point homeowners’ association, said she decided to run because she and other members of her group thought they were shortchanged in the final draft of the Central Balboa plan. Linhoff, a former substitute elementary school teacher and investment account executive, served on the Newport Tomorrow panel that helped draft the city’s General Plan in the 1960s. She has remained active on city committees handling community development, development standards and litter control.

Long Pham, the other challenger in District 1, said his 20 years as an engineer will help him recognize essential capital improvements and cut the best deal on projects.

He believes the city’s $18-million reservoir project is not worth the money and is destined for failure because of an earthquake fault on the reservoir site that was not discovered until after the project was begun.

Pham, 43, believes someone with construction experience could help guide the council in spending tax dollars more effectively.

Charlie Gabbard, a general contractor facing two other political newcomers in Corona del Mar’s District 6, echoed Pham’s position.

Gabbard, 57, said belt-tightening, particularly among the city’s management-level employees, is essential. He called for a freeze on employee salaries “until the economy gets better.”

Also high on his list is fighting a plan to convert Newport Coast Drive into a tollway.

Real estate broker Patrick Bartolic said his goal is balancing the city’s budget without sacrificing public safety or community comfort.

Bartolic, 38, said the key to business revitalization is to capitalize on the charm of the older areas of the city, including Balboa Peninsula and Corona del Mar.

He suggested hiring a consultant to examine ways to renovate those areas, much like Old Town Pasadena and other historic commercial districts that cater to high-end businesses and consumers without disrupting the character of residential areas. He also believes the city should look into helping business owners get low-interest loans to make improvements or to relocate into the city.

The other District 6 contender, Dennis O’Neil, 56, is an attorney whose practice focuses on helping cities and public agencies meet the state’s environmental review requirements for projects.

He said his experience as Newport Beach’s city attorney, a post he resigned in 1979, and serving other cities gives him the know-how to help fight off efforts to open John Wayne Airport to cargo flights, which city officials fear could erode the noise settlement agreement.

O’Neil, the immediate past chairman of the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce, said his other major goal is finding ways to support the businesses that bring tax revenue into the city.

Top priority for Art De La Loza, a Huntington Beach deputy city attorney running in District 3, which encompasses Mariners Mile, is improving neighborhood safety by promoting volunteerism in police reserve and other support groups.

He also wants the city to buy from local businesses and hire year-to-year contract lawyers to defend smaller civil cases.

His opponent, Planning Commission Chairwoman Norma Glover, believes the key to boosting city revenue is tourism. She said the city needs to work more closely with its visitors bureau to promote the city’s beauty and to lure big spenders into the city’s hotels, restaurants and shopping centers.

Glover, 58, is a former labor negotiator and print shop owner. She said the council needs to keep a tighter hold on the purse strings but advocates such changes as linking the city’s several computer systems to streamline paperwork.

The other planning commissioner looking for a promotion is attorney Thomas Edwards, a candidate in District 4, the district farthest inland.

Edwards, 48, said new businesses are the ticket to balancing the city’s budget. Promoting the city’s retail environment--perhaps including additions to Newport Center--will help draw and keep businesses, he said.

Edwards has been the city’s representative on the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority and served on the Committee for 21,000 Jobs and the city’s airport working group and aviation committee.

He said a commercial airport at the El Toro base would be the single largest revenue generator that the city could promote, because it would create jobs and produce businesses that support the aviation industry.

Once city coffers are restored, he said, he would try to hire police officers to fill positions left vacant by layoffs or attrition, and assign more officers to the older, deteriorating areas of the city. He also would encourage crime prevention programs and promote owner occupancy of homes to build up residents’ stake in the community.

His sole opponent is public relations consultant Ronald Winship, 52, who also has worked as a legislative analyst.

Winship lost to Mayor Clarence J. Turner in the 1986 election. He said he is running again because of concern over increasing crime, gang activity and the loss of police officers.

He said declining revenues have forced the city to cut back services such as beach cleaning and bay pollution control, which deteriorate the overall ambience of the city.

He believes public safety could be improved by providing financial incentives, including housing subsidies, for police officers to live in the city.