GOVERNMENT Billing time’s over for Costa Mesa...

GOVERNMENT

Billing time’s over for Costa Mesa city attorneys

Costa Mesa city staff won’t be able to walk down the hall for

legal help once the city finalizes negotiations with the outside law

firm it chose Tuesday. The city decided to transfer its legal counsel

from an in-house city attorney’s office to an outside firm to get a

more diversified level of expertise and keep costs down.

* Projects to upgrade TeWinkle Park will go forward except for

expansion of the softball fields, the Costa Mesa City Council decided

Tuesday. A contract for construction of the skate park was awarded

and groundbreaking is anticipated for later this month.

POLITICS

Nine seek to fill Newport Beach council seat

Nine hopefuls are vying to replace former Newport Beach City

Councilman Gary Adams, who left for a job promotion in Washington,

D.C.: John Blom, a photography studio owner; Timothy Brown, chair of

the English and speech communication department at Riverside

Community College; Michael Browning, owner of a real estate firm;

Leslie Daigle, a planning commissioner and owner of a land-use

consulting business; Barry Eaton, a planning commissioner and retired

planning director; Charles Griffin, a retired aviation engineer;

Gerald Hegger, an independent insurance agent; Richard Luehrs,

president of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce; and Ron Winship,

owner of a film production company.

NEWPORT BEACH

Labor Day a rough one for all on beach

Big waves and a sewage spill brought the summer beach season to a

close Monday, which was the last day of full lifeguard staffing on

city beaches. Hurricane Howard caused big swells that excited surfers

over the weekend, but some of Newport’s beaches were closed Sunday

and Monday because of an accidental spill of treated wastewater from

a Huntington Beach plant.

* An environmental group sued the city last week over Marinapark,

seeking to overturn the results of the referendum on the November

ballot if voters approve changing the city’s general plan to allow

the luxury hotel/timeshares for city-owned waterfront property on the

Balboa Peninsula. Stop Polluting Our Newport leaders said the

environmental report on the project approved by the City Council is

misleading and deceptive and voters won’t know exactly what it is

they’re voting for.

RELIGION

Lawsuits prove next step in church fight

* The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Tuesday filed a lawsuit

against St. James Church on Via Lido and two other Southern

California churches alleging that they committed a breach of

fiduciary duty, among other things, when they seceded from the

diocese.

St. James, All Saints’ in Long Beach and St. David’s in North

Hollywood broke away from the Episcopal Church USA and placed

themselves under the Diocese of Luwero in the Anglican Province of

Uganda, Africa.

Church officials said that St. James members voted for the

secession because they did not agree with the Episcopal Church’s

liberal views on homosexuality, the divinity of Jesus Christ and the

supremacy of the Bible.

St. James officials say they own the land and the church building,

but the diocese maintains that they own the church and surrounding

property. Court dates have not yet been set for hearings.