City may cut chamber link from Web site

NOAKI SCHWARTZ

NEWPORT BEACH -- City Manager Homer Bludau contends he will ask City

Council members to cut the electronic connection between the City Hall

Web site and the Newport Harbor Chamber of Commerce if chamber officials

don’t remove anti-Greenlight literature from their Web page.

Greenlight proponents say the link connecting the city’s official

Internet site to the chamber’s Web page is unfair.

“They carry the chamber up in the top left-hand, critical list of

links,” said Greenlight supporter Phil Arst, who issued a complaint to

the city. “It gives the appearance of city backing.”

The chamber, however, is defending its position and refuses to remove

its anti-Greenlight opinions.

“To single out these articles and remove the entire link because of

them I don’t think makes a lot of sense,” said chamber president Richard

Luehrs. “The city links to a whole bunch of Web sites, only one being the

chamber of commerce.”

The Greenlight initiative proposes to let voters have the final say on

certain major developments even if they’ve been approved by the City

Council and Planning Commission.

Although the chamber is entitled to post whatever information it

chooses on its Web site, Bludau said the city is not required to carry

its link.

“If the chamber doesn’t do anything, I will make a recommendation to

the City Council to disconnect their Web page to ours,” Bludau said. “The

council has taken the stand [that] they want to remain neutral on this

issue.”

But it doesn’t appear likely the chamber will make any changes to its

site soon.

“The reason why I won’t remove the anti-Greenlight position is because

it’s a fact that the Newport chamber opposes the Greenlight initiative,”

Luehrs said. “It’s our Web site and we can put information on it as we

see fit.”

While nearly all council members have publicly stated they would not

vote for the Greenlight measure, they have attempted to maintain a more

passive position on opposing the measure.

Mayor John Noyes reiterated that for now, the council will remain

publicly neutral on the issue and has yet to make a determination on the

issue over the chamber link.

However, Arst pointed out in his letter to Bludau that the link will

make it difficult for the city to appear impartial.

“We don’t believe political messages should be in the primary access

part of the city’s Web site,” Arst said, adding that only three other

city Web sites in the county -- Brea, Buena Park and Placentia -- include

chamber of commerce links on their Web sites.

In addition to the chamber opposing Greenlight, it is also backing an

alternative measure that would dismantle Greenlight’s initiative. The

Traffic Phasing Ordinance countermeasure proposes to make the city’s

traffic relief law part of the City Charter.

SITE OF CONFLICT?

Should the city remove from its Web site a link to the Newport Harbor

Chamber of Commerce site, which features anti-Greenlight campaign

literature? Call our Readers Hotline at (949) 642-6086 or e-mail your

comments to o7 dailypilot@latimes.comf7 . Please tell us your name and

hometown, and include a phone number (for verification purposes only).