Newport Beach sets up coast committee

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- Arguing that a pending lawsuit amounts to a

strong-arm tactic against the city, City Council members on Tuesday

rejected Newport Coast resident Phil Greer’s bid to serve on a committee

overseeing the community’s incorporation into the city.

“How are we supposed to work with you if you threaten to sue us?” City

Councilman Steve Bromberg asked.

Greer, who brought annexation to a temporary halt in November by

delivering a petition to a county hearing, countered that the lawsuit

instead pertains to an alleged conflict of interest by a judge. Greer had

originally filed the suit to stop annexation of Newport Coast to the city

of Newport Beach. But he said the litigation now is pending only because

a judge overseeing the original lawsuit failed to disclose that he is a

resident of Newport Beach.

“It has to do with the integrity of the process,” Greer said.

Councilman John Heffernan said in previous meetings with Greer that he

had made clear that, unless Greer dropped the suit, Heffernan wouldn’t

support appointing him to the committee.

Greer countered their concerns, saying, “It is our sincere desire to

work within the organizational structure of Newport Beach.”

But the council wasn’t swayed; members voted 5 to 1, with Norma Glover

dissenting, to exclude Greer and instead name Jack Butefish and Pat

Fuscoe to the remaining two slots. Along with Heffernan and four

representatives from the Newport Coast Committee of 2000, which

represented Newport Coast residents to the city during annexation

negotiations, the two appointments complete the seven-member body.

Greer maintained that the city should include a representative of his

roughly 1,000-member A Simple Vote group. Doing so, he argued, would make

the committee more representative of all Newport Coast residents.

Further, he said, if the Committee of 2000 were truly representative

of the community’s residents, the city would not have had an unpleasant

surprise Nov. 17, when Greer delivered 969 signatures to stop annexation.

Though the petition at first appeared to stop the process, a count of

the signatures showed that not enough were valid to halt annexation.

Newport Coast, which has about 7,000 residents, was annexed Jan. 1.