WEEK IN REVIEW

A Corona del Mar security guard was arrested last week for allegedly

having a unloaded handgun in his car on campus.

James Bradley Holthaus, 36, was arrested after a student told parents

that he had seen a gun in Holthaus’ car.

Holthaus is being held on $10,000 bail and is on paid administrative

leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

School officials said they were shocked at the discovery.

On a much brighter note, three Newport-Mesa Unified School District

principals were named Principals of Excellence by the Irvine Co. last

week and awarded an astounding $10,000 each, to spend however they wish.

Cheryl Galloway, at Davis Education Center, Daryle Palmer at Kaiser

Elementary and Judy Laakso at Victoria Elementary School were the

recipients.

And so ends this year’s Week of the Teacher.

-- Danette Goulet covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at danette.goulet@latimes.com.

Blackouts? Where? Where? Where?

More lights went out last week in Newport Beach as residents were hit

by rolling blackouts on Monday and Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the city faced back-to-back outages in two different

areas. Police officers manned blacked out traffic signals during the

outages and posted impromptu four-way stop signs to prevent collisions.

Costa Mesa was on the hit list, but escaped outages both days.

The city didn’t escape other problems. Costa Mesa Police are looking

for a man who they say exposed himself to children on three different

occasions last month. His victims were girls between ages 7 and 10.

Officials said they do not anticipate he will turn violent but expressed

concern that all three incidents happened in public places.

Two Newport Beach Police officers and a man caught stealing tires were

hurt early Friday morning when the suspect intentionally rammed his truck

into the patrol car. The officers escaped with minor injuries but suspect

Richard Dennis Starling of Buena Park was taken to Western Medical Center

in Santa Ana to be treated for multiple injuries.

-- Deepa Bharath covers cops and courts. She may be reached at (949)

574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.

South County flexes legal muscle

South County announced it will take the airport fight back into court.

At a special session called Tuesday evening, the El Toro Reuse

Planning Authority said it would sue Newport Beach to stop a recent

mailer and television ad by pro-airport groups.

The flier criticized Irvine’s Great Park plan, which could go forward

if voters approve the authority’s initiative in March 2002. The cable

spot depicted a rabbit eating a dollar bill and promised new taxes to pay

for the park.

Authority members would not say when they will file the suit. On

Friday, the group sued the Southern California Assn. of Governments,

alleging it hadn’t prepared an adequate environmental review of its

recommendation for an airport at the closed El Toro Marine base. The

association has recommended a 30 million annual passenger facility by

2020.

-- Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at paul.clinton@latimes.com.

Better than most bank accounts

As far as the big picture is concerned, Newport Beach’s finances seem

to be in good shape for the next fiscal year.

City Manager Homer Bludau presented a balanced budget to council

members last week, with income of $136.9 million and expenditures at

$135.5 million.

A blueprint for the city’s spending activities over the year, the

budget is not set in stone. But council members will spend a total of

three study sessions and two public hearings before adopting the document

on June 26.

Some issues, such as a proposal to hire 14 new employees and a lack of

funds to cover higher energy costs, have already faced criticism from

several council members and will likely be debated more in weeks to come.

And pointing to a possible economic slowdown, Councilman Tod Ridgeway

said it was time to begin looking into city services that could be

privatized to save money.

“Five years out, we’ll look at this much more,” he said.

-- Mathis Winkler covers Newport Beach. He may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at mathis.winkler@latimes.com.

A restless night for the council

Costa Mesa City Council members didn’t get much sleep Monday night.

Their meeting went into the wee hours, and that was even with two

potentially controversial items -- the proposed widening of East 17th

Street and a change to city law that would have given the council power

over the California Scenario garden in Town Center -- taken off the

agenda.

And what the council did get to, the establishment of a

4,000-square-foot minimum lot size for single family homes, is looking

like trouble. It turns out that the change could kill off a planned

development of the El Camino shopping center into medium-density housing.

Council members are saying they didn’t realize what they were doing

and will give the change a second look.

-- Jennifer Kho covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at jennifer.kho@latimes.com.