INSIDE SCOOP

-- Compiled by the Daily Pilot staff

Ridgeway, watch out! Rodman might be coming.

We haven’t actually heard it from the guy himself. But Michael

Molfetta, Dennis Rodman’s lawyer, told us last week that his client plans

to get more involved in city life.

The Worm’s surprise appearance at last week’s City Council meeting to

protest a more stringent noise ordinance must have awakened his interest

in local politics. Molfetta said Rodman’s likely to show up at more City

Council meetings and might back council candidates in the future.

That, of course, immediately sparked worrisome rumors that the

ex-basketball star might consider running for city government himself.

Similar suggestions already came up before last year’s election, but

Rodman obviously didn’t follow suit.

Well, we’re sure that the good folks down at City Hall know this

already, but there’s no harm in pointing it out again, we think.

As of last Friday, Rodman’s not a registered voter in Orange County.

He needs to be one if he wants to run for City Council. And while that’s

something that can be changed easily, he’ll have to wait 3 1/2 years

before Councilman Gary Proctor’s up for reelection. That’s because you

have to live in the district you represent.

Rodman could always move a little to the east from his West Newport

Beach home and into Councilman Tod Ridgeway’s district on Balboa

Peninsula. That seat’s up in November 2002.

Oops! Guess we’ve just opened a whole other can of ... well, worms.

Talk about a crowded house

For the first time in recent history, Costa Mesa city staff was asked

to leave a City Council meeting Monday.

They left to make room for a standing-room crowd of speakers and

onlookers that exceeded the maximum capacity of the Council Chambers --

more than 200.

Also a first in at least four years: The City Council cut off the

meeting at 12:30 a.m., voting to address other issues on the agenda at

the next meeting.

Residents planning to discuss a street sweeping proposal in Mesa Del

Mar and new residential development standards were promised to top of the

June 4 agenda.

“I’m disappointed, but the City Council has a life, too,” Lance

Hailstone, president of the Mesa Del Mar Homeowners Assn., said after the

meeting. “They didn’t want to be here at 2 a.m. and my people didn’t want

to be there that long, either.”