From the Newsroom -- Tony Dodero

We in the newsroom always shake our heads when we hear someone say,

“no comment.”

Because speaking those two words almost always guarantees only one

side of a story will be told.

And more often than not, the side not telling its story will see

public confidence erode bit by bit.

The Newport Beach City Council could well be a textbook example of

that.

For years, the Greenlight crowd has been able to paint the council and

City Hall as developer-cozy entities, eager to give away the store and

quality of life to the highest bidder.

Sure there was a time or two when someone would object, but for the

most part, the council or city officials never mounted a credible

defense. Maybe the council didn’t really have a defense, and maybe the

personalities who were in charge then just weren’t the best fit.

But when the other side of the story isn’t told, it’s hard to know.

Enter Marilee Jackson.

Jackson is the city’s new public information officer hired in August.

Actually, Jackson is the second person to hold such a title in city

history; the first person hired for the job less than a year ago didn’t

work out.

So Jackson is now the official City Hall spokesperson and some point

to the lack of such a person as the reason the problems with Greenlight

were exacerbated in the first place.

The heavyweight and successful city managers of the past, Bob Wynn and

Kevin Murphy, never saw a need for such a post, preferring to handle the

spokesperson role themselves or hand it off to a deputy.

Current City Manager Homer Bludau, however, changed that and Mayor Tod

Ridgeway, who has complained about the council being “marginalized” in

the Greenlight debate, hopes to use Jackson’s talents to make the

council’s case to the Newport Beach residents.

“If there’s value for me being here, it’s to make sure the citizens

get the full picture,” said Jackson, formerly with Comcast cable

television. “It makes the council look like it has a black eye because

it’s not responding, when in fact the information just isn’t getting out

there.”

She contends that while Murphy and Wynn may well have made the right

decision not to have an official spokesperson, the city and the world

have changed since then.

“Information technology has changed,” she said. “The degree of the

villages themselves has changed. To bring it all together, you need one

voice going out to all of these factions. For a long time, the city has

been silent, not because they wanted to be, but because there wasn’t

anybody to lay it out there.”

And that’s what Jackson is going to do, lay it out there. A former

television reporter out of Phoenix, Jackson is most familiar with that

medium and will use a combination of television programs and a newsletter

to better tell the story of City Hall.

“It’s not just what goes on in this compound; it’s what the community

needs to know about how their city government is being run,” she said.

One of her main projects will be a cable access television show titled

“Profiles of Government.” She said that will be one of four cable

programs that have been relatively successful on a local level, the

others being “Pick a Pet,” “Speak Up Newport Government Issues” and

another of her creations, “City Scenes,” which will have its third

edition with a feature on urban forestry. Newport is one of a few cities

that has its own hired person devoted to urban forestry, she noted.

As part of the production, Jackson visits a council member in his or

her own district and walks the district with them, kind of in the same

vein as public broadcasting legend Huell Howser does on his show,

“California Gold.”

“I want to get away from the talking head that people see,” she said.

“I want them portrayed as real people.”

Along with the television programs, she is producing a newsletter and

more consistent news releases and interacting more with the city’s

Conference and Visitors Bureau.

Jackson came to California in 1990 after 23 years working in Phoenix

television. She holds a journalism degree from the University of

Missouri. Before signing on with the city, she was the Comcast/Adelphia

public affairs manager in charge of all local original programming. She

worked with about 25 freelance television journalists in Newport Beach,

Buena Park, Fullerton, Placentia, Seal Beach and Santa Ana.

But Jackson notes she’s not here in Newport Beach to remake the wheel,

just to get it some grease. And she’s got her work cut out as the

aforementioned Greenlight crowd has not only won the war of words, but it

has flexed its muscles with a recent ballot box victory against the Koll

expansion and the announcement that there will be Greenlight-backed

candidates in November’s election.

“That old adage that the squeaky wheel gets the oil has really reared

its head,” Jackson said. “I just need to make it known that there are two

sides to every story.”

* TONY DODERO is the editor. His column appears on Mondays. If you

have story ideas or concerns about news coverage please send messages

either via e-mail too7 tony.dodero@latimes.comf7 or by phone at

949-574-4258.