City may get legal on assessment district

June Casagrande

If a Newport Coast resident wants to take advantage of the library

he helped pay for, he must pay a toll to use the San Joaquin Hills

toll road (which he paid to help build in the first place). Then he

must drive about nine miles to the Aliso Viejo branch of the Orange

County Public Library -- three times as far as the main branch of the

Newport Beach Library.

That’s not OK with Jim McGee.

“I can’t say this with 100% certainty, but I’m as sure as I can be

that no Newport Coast resident has ever used that library,” said

McGee, a Newport Coast resident leader who serves on the citizens

advisory committee to the city of Newport Beach.

The triply absurd scenario is just part of a complex web of

confusion about how the county spent millions of dollars that Newport

Coast homeowners will continue paying off for more than 20 years.

On Tuesday, the Newport Beach City Council will vote Tuesday on

whether to hire to attorneys to launch an inquiry into up to $50

million in assessment district taxes that are unaccounted for by the

county. The plan to hire counsel at the city’s expense is required by

the city’s pre-annexation agreement with Newport Coast residents.

“The purpose of the review is to determine whether funds were

administered properly and in accordance with the law, because we have

great concerns that they were not,” McGee said.

In the 1980s and ‘90s, the county assessed Newport Coast

homeowners about $170 million to help develop the area. About

$420,000 of that money was earmarked to provide library services to

the residents of what was then unincorporated Orange County. But

instead of building a new branch library or improving services at a

nearer branch, their money was used to improve the Aliso Viejo branch

nine miles away.

This is just one of a series of expenditures over which residents

have been scratching their heads. More curious is that the residents

were only paid about $3 million when the local transportation

authority took possession of a stretch of the toll road that the

residents had paid about $13 million to build.

Asst. City Manager Dave Kiff said his department on Tuesday will

put the item, which has been in the works for about a year, before

the council. If the councilmen vote to hire the attorneys, they will

ask the county questions about where the money went -- questions that

the county has not yet answered to residents’ satisfaction.

“We’re hopeful that the council will approve the resolution and

that we can get started right away because we feel that the more we

delay in investigating these issues, the less likely it is that we’re

going to be able to get the information and answers that we need,”

McGee said.

* 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.