EDITORIAL

Typically, when residents try to contact their city council members,

they get voicemail and have to leave a message. The better officials

respond quickly.

But when Newport Beach residents try to get ahold of newly elected

Newport Beach Councilmen Gary Proctor and John Heffernan, they can expect

a human voice to answer the phone. It just might not be their

councilman’s.

Both Proctor and Heffernan plan to hire aides to help them pore

through city reports, enabling them, they say, to do their council jobs

better.

It’s difficult to begrudge them the assistance, especially when they

are paying for it.

But we do have some concerns.

Proctor has already suggested that the city pay for aides for all

council members. We worry that already our newly elected leader is

finding ways to spend the taxpayer’s money rather than save it.

Thankfully, most of his colleagues have nixed the idea, and the rest

should follow suit.

Our biggest worry, however, is that Newport Beach residents will be

hurt in other ways.

The voters elect the council members, not their hired help, to take

constituent calls, research problems and, ultimately, make the tough

decisions.

That’s the nature of city council work. It’s a thankless job, with

long hours and late meetings. And that’s why it’s expected that those who

seek elective office are doing so, in part, out of a sense of community

service. Their own service, not some hired hand.

We believe these new councilmen need to understand this.

Instead of having someone else sifting through the mounds of paperwork

and telling the new councilmen how to vote, the voters need to trust that

they are doing their own homework, not having someone else do it for

them.