NEWPORT BEACH Top city staff gets...

NEWPORT BEACH

Top city staff gets top money with raises from City Council

The three top city staffers all got 5% raises after council

members evaluated their performance. City Clerk Lavonne Harkless will

now earn $92,400; City Atty. Bob Burhnam will earn $173,250 and City Manager Homer Bludau will see his base salary go to $178,500.

American Legion members applauded Tuesday’s City Council decision

to grant them a 50-year lease on their peninsula property.

Legionnaries wanted the lease in part to assure their longevity at

the site, where a proposed luxury resort had put the area’s future in

question.

City Council members are asking for resident input on an

aggressive plan to control public drunkenness and crime in West

Newport on the Fourth of July. Residents are asked to e-mail city

officials to give their opinion on the option of closing West Newport

roads to everyone but residents on the holiday.

* 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.

COSTA MESA

Studying a bridge from

the Westside to Huntington

It was back to the future for those on both sides of the

long-simmering debate about plans to build a bridge at 19th Street

from the Westside to Huntington Beach.

The Community Redevelopment Action Committee, which has been

charged with coming up with a plan to improve the Westside, has

proposed that the City Council approve a study of just how feasible a

span over the Santa Ana River would be.

Plans for such a bridge have been debated for more than a decade,

with little support outside of neighboring Newport Beach.

The Planning Commission also decided to postpone outlining

specific boundaries to be added to the existing Downtown Costa Mesa

Redevelopment Project Area. Business owners appeared at the meeting,

asking for more time to look at what the inclusion of more land might

mean.

The proposed additions encompassed 434 acres along the length of

West 19th Street and portions north and south of the major

thoroughfare between Anaheim and Whittier avenues.

* LOLITA HARPER covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.

BUSINESS

Good news: Median home prices rise in Newport-Mesa

Newport-Mesa homeowners received more good news Monday when a

regional Realtors’ trade group reported explosive growth in median

home prices for October.

The median, or middle, price in Newport Beach soared 34.39% over

the last year, from $628,750 to $845,000. That was good for third

best in the county. In Costa Mesa, the median price shot up 27.58%,

from $310,000 to $395,500.

The California Assn. of Realtors included the findings in their

monthly report, which tracks sales of new and existing homes. The

group includes single-family homes as well as apartments and other

multi-family dwellings.

Group economists attributed the spurt to attractively low interest

rates and an abnormally slow “wait-and-see” period after the Sept. 11

terrorist attacks. Senior economist Robert Kleinhenz said coastal

Orange County has always been an attractive place to own a home.

In other business news, Costa Mesa company ICN Pharmaceuticals

announced Monday it was paying $1 million in civil penalties to

settle a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The complaint, filed in 1999, charged the company with securities

fraud. ICN had failed to disclose a letter from the Food and Drug

Administration denying approval to its hot-selling ribavirin.

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment, business and politics. He

may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

paul.clinton@latimes.com.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Woman arrested for allegedly leaving baby in car

Costa Mesa Police arrested a 34-year-old Huntington Beach woman

Tuesday on suspicion of child endangerment after officers found her

4-month-old daughter locked in a car alone for about 30 minutes.

Mary Gisella Selby had allegedly parked her car in the 2300 block

of Harbor Boulevard and gone grocery shopping when police officers

got a call from the fire department alerting them to the situation,

officials said.

Police found the baby in the car in a car seat, red in the face

and sweating, officials said. Police arrested Selby as she came out

of the store pushing a cart and took the child into protective

custody.

In other news, local attorney Jennifer Keller was hired as one of

the defense attorneys in the high-profile Robert Blake case. The

actor is accused of shooting and killing his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley,

outside a Studio City restaurant last year.

Keller will team up with former Orange County prosecutor and her

law school buddy Thomas Mesereau Jr.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.