Newport Coast looms as redistricting challenge

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- The federal government’s doing it. State officials

are trying to figure it out, and Orange County supervisors are working on

it.

For the city’s elected leaders, however, redistricting as a result of

the 2000 census isn’t quite as high on the list of priorities.

But with the likely annexation of Newport Coast by early next year,

city officials said Friday they’ll begin to consider the issue in the

near future.

“We’re going to have a meeting sooner than later,” said Councilman

Steve Bromberg, who sits on the city’s redistricting subcommittee,

together with Councilmen John Heffernan and Gary Proctor. “It’s something

that we have to look at very carefully.”

Unlike most cities of its size, Newport Beach is split up into seven

council districts. While council members must live in the district they

represent, all voters in the city elect them.

The city charter, which functions as Newport Beach’s constitution,

requires council members to look at redistricting every four years. It

doesn’t require city leaders to redistrict, however. The last committee,

which was established in 1999, didn’t make any recommendations to the

council, City Manager Homer Bludau said.

Right now, the city’s districts are split up fairly equally at about

9,500 people each. The numbers are based on the 1990 census, which

counted 66,641 residents in Newport Beach. The 2000 census recorded the

city’s population as 70,032 residents.

With an estimated 14,080 constituents, Bromberg’s district sticks out

a little. That’s because it includes Bonita Canyon, which was annexed in

1998.

One of the city’s easternmost districts is also likely to balloon when

Newport Coast is annexed.

That community has about 2,671 residents, according to 2000 census

figures. Newport Coast leaders have requested that the area will be kept

together and merged with one district.

“As a new neighborhood, we’re tying to engender a sense of community,”

said Jim McGee, who chairs the Newport Coast Committee of 2000, an

umbrella organization that handles annexation issues for the area.

City officials have promised to honor that request. But during the

July 10 City Council meeting, Newport Beach resident Dolores Otting said

she wasn’t so sure about that.

Otting attended a January council retreat, during which the annexation

was discussed. She said city officials had said Newport Coast would

likely be split up into different districts after annexation.

Bludau said Newport Coast leaders had never been told the area would

always remain together. On Friday, McGee agreed that such a promise had

never been made.

“The city made it very clear that they could not guarantee” one

council district for Newport Coast, he said, adding that it would be up

to the area’s residents to lobby city leaders during future redistricting

processes.

Councilman Dennis O’Neil’s District 6 could possibly include Newport

Coast. But O’Neil said he suspected the affluent master-planned community

would more likely go to Heffernan’s District 7.

In either case, it’s important to keep the population equally divided,

O’Neil said.

And with Santa Ana Heights and Bay Knolls also expected to join

Newport Beach in the near future, city officials will also have to

consider residents in those areas, he added.

Newport Beach City Council districts

District 1 (Tod Ridgeway -- Balboa Peninsula): 9,617

District 2 (Gary Proctor -- West Newport Beach): 9,656

District 3 (Norma Glover -- Newport Heights): 9,847

District 4 (Gary Adams -- Upper Newport Bay area): 10,139

District 5 (Steve Bromberg -- Balboa Island, Newport Center, etc.):

14,080

District 6 (Dennis O’Neil -- Corona del Mar): 9,545

District 7 (John Heffernan -- Harbor View etc.): 9,422