A closer look at the Koll election

It is a sad day for our city when candidates attempt to win

elections by hoodwinking the voters instead of addressing the issues.

As these tactics are being practiced in the current election, a brief

evaluation of both sides of the Daily Pilot’s recent articles on the

voting records of two Greenlight candidates, while also mentioning

the deceitful campaign tactics used by Koll and its supporters, will

place the matter in perspective.

In last year’s Koll election, the Koll campaign deceptively named

its campaign committee “The Greenlight Implementation Committee.”

Brochures, advertisements and signs tried to create the impression

that they were really supporting the Greenlight philosophy of

limiting traffic and stopping unneeded money losing high-rise office

buildings.

Newport Beach voters were too smart to fall for those deceptive

tactics and delivered a message that they would reject deceitful

campaigns.

Currently, much ado about a minor issue has been made of the fact

that Greenlight candidates Richard Taylor and Madeline Arakelian did

not vote in the Koll election for reasons that I consider valid. In

contrast, pro-development City Council candidates Tod Ridgeway, Gary

Adams and Bernie Svalstad voted.

Disturbingly, Ridgeway, Adams and Svalstad also supported the

duplicitous Koll campaign. Indeed, Svalstad was an official endorser

of the deceptively named Greenlight Implementation Committee, his

name appearing in all of their literature. City Councilmen Ridgeway

and Adams voted for the Koll high-rise building, and supported it

through the campaign.

Disturbingly, none of the three ever stood up and said, “I disavow

the Koll development because I refuse to be associated with deceitful

campaigning. No project is worthwhile if passing it requires

bamboozling the voters.”

These three pro-development candidates have also hired an

expensive campaign manager for this campaign. This can signal a

desire to spin their campaign to divert people’s attention away from

the issues and we are already seeing signs of that. Who would you

rather have, people who voted in the Koll election, yet condone

deception, or forthright people like their opponents, Taylor and

Arakelian, who missed voting for valid reasons but who do not condone

deception?

PHILIP ARST

Newport Beach

* Philip Arst is the head of the Greenlight residents’ committee.