Greenlight unveils its candidates

June Casagrande

Making good on its ambitious pledge to put up a candidate for

every available City Council seat, the Greenlight Committee on Monday

rolled out its slate to an enthusiastic crowd of about 100.

Allan Beek, Madelene Arakelian, Rick Taylor and Dick Nichols will

vie in the November election to tilt the scales of a city government

that Greenlighters say has grown unresponsive to residents and

unwilling to curb development.

“These candidates are all independent; they are not part of the

Greenlight inner sanctum,” Greenlight spokesman Phil Arst told the

crowd at the Newport Beach Tennis Club on Monday evening. “These are

the best candidates to represent the people on the City Council.”

The Greenlight refrains of controlling traffic, limiting large

development, making government more representative and preserving

quality of life in the city were the central themes of the evening.

But a new theme has also emerged:

“I’m really ashamed sometimes when I see how the City Council

treats its citizens who come up to the podium to speak,” Taylor, a

longtime airport activist, told the crowd. “People get spoken to like

petulant children.”

Taylor, who will challenge incumbent Gary Adams for the District 4

seat, was just one of the speakers who said the tone of City Council

meetings needs to change.

Beek, the best known of the Greenlighters, kept his focus on the

big picture: representative government and growth.

“On the council, I’m going to vote as nearly as possible to how I

think people would vote if the issue were on the ballot,” said Beek,

who will compete with former Public Works Director Don Webb for the

District 3 seat that will be vacated by Norma Glover.

Arakelian, a two-time candidate for state Senate, said the

character of Newport Beach as a beach community and family community

must be protected.

“It’s becoming a metropolis,” said Arakelian, who will oppose

Mayor Tod Ridgeway for the District 1 council seat. “It’s growing to

a point where we’re no longer a small, quaint community.”

Nichols, who made the final decision to run for office less than a

week ago, said in an interview that he strongly supports Greenlight’s

limits on developments that significantly exceed the city’s general

plan.

“A general plan is a general plan,” he said, emphasizing his

belief that uncontrolled development threatens to make Newport Beach

traffic similar to such places as Beverly Hills.

Councilman John Heffernan, now the only Greenlight council member,

drew loud cheers when he took the lectern.

“Right now, I’m in solitary confinement up there,” he said. “I’m

ostracized on the council .... If we can have more people up there,

we will finally have a pragmatic discussion of the issues.”

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

june.casagrande@latimes.com.