Voters have spoken, now the work begins

In Costa Mesa, voters tossed two incumbents off the City Council and

elected three new members, including one who had served before. In

Newport Beach, voters returned all three incumbents, including one

who ran unopposed. So, which city most needs a shot of political

healing?

It turns out it’s not Costa Mesa, where Planning Commissioners

Eric Bever and Katrina Foley, along with former Mayor Linda Dixon,

will take seats on the council next month. It’s Newport Beach, where

Councilmen Steve Bromberg, John Heffernan and Steve Rosansky return

to the dais.

The reason, of course, is the vitriol still hanging in the air

following the vote on Measure L. Voters thoroughly turned it down,

nearly 2 to 1, signaling in the narrowest sense that they do not want

the strip of land on the Balboa Peninsula known as Marinapark --

where the American Legion, a Girl Scout house and a mobile-home park

sit -- rezoned to allow for a hotel. More generally, the debate

turned on personal attacks on the man who proposed the development

and on the City Council’s handling of the proposal. That debate

illustrates two political truths in Newport Beach, one far more

serious than the other.

The less pressing is that there is a small, vocal group of

residents -- which, fairly or not, can be classified as members of

the slow-growth Greenlight movement and the anti-Measure L Protect

Our Parks -- who have deep disagreements with how city leaders are

running Newport Beach. Their objections begin with questions of

development, but widen out to issues of how council meetings are run,

how the city’s budget is spent and whether residents are getting the

treatment and service they deserve.

The more pressing truth is that there is an obvious majority in

Newport that has concerns about how the city is handling development.

Those concerns weren’t great enough for them to vote anyone out of

City Hall, but there remains an obvious chasm -- between city and

business leadership on one side and residents on the other.

That gulf is one city leaders need to bridge. As elected

representatives of the people, their mandate is to serve the

interests of the community, and they must now see that there are many

people who don’t agree with the direction the city is headed, the

trio of reelections not withstanding.

Their goal, though, does not have to be reconciling with

Greenlight or Protect Our Parks. City leaders need to focus on the

apparently wide -- but not deep -- discontent in the community. They

need to reach out to residents and ensure that they are leading the

city in the right direction.

Costa Mesa’s elected leaders, to be sure, are not without their

obstacles either. All three “new” council members are seasoned in the

ways of City Hall, which fortunately will smooth the transition.

The issues they face are not new ones: redevelopment of the

Westside, use of playing fields, managing the budget and planning the

changing nature development. And there is the expected council

divisions, with Councilmen Allan Mansoor and Bever forming an

aggressive bloc calling for limited government and controversial

Westside renovation. Will Foley and Dixon amount to a competing

twosome? How will Mayor Gary Monahan fit into the mix?

Such questions will begin to be answered in the coming months. For

now, we should trust the will of voters in both cities and hope they

indeed picked the best people for the jobs.