What to watch

For sale: One big fairgrounds lot

Residents could see a “for sale” sign on the Orange County

Fairgrounds, if state legislators decide it should be among unused

and underused properties the state will sell to solve budget

problems.

Costa Mesa residents kicked up a fuss when then-Assemblyman John

Campbell first suggested selling the fairgrounds in April, and they

continued to protest when the fairgrounds was listed as an example of

salable, underused properties in a report requested by Gov. Arnold

Schwarzenegger.

The report suggested ways the state can reorganize government

operations to save money and increase efficiency. In January

legislators will begin tackling the report’s more than 1,000

suggestions to decide which are most feasible.

Rape trial stirs up

teenage outrage

The retrial of three men accused of gang-raping an allegedly

unconscious 16-year-old girl when they were teenagers is scheduled to

start Jan. 31.

The first trial of Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner, both now 20,

and Greg Haidl, the 19-year-old son of former Orange County Assistant

Sheriff Don Haidl, ended in June with a hung jury. The videotaped

incident happened on a pool table in the garage of Don Haidl’s Corona

del Mar home in 2002.

Greg Haidl starts the year in jail and will remain there at least

until the conclusion of the trial. A judge revoked his bail after a

series of run-ins with the law, including allegedly having sex with

another 16-year-old girl he met at a party the night a mistrial was

announced.

With fewer counts against the accused and with Greg Haidl in jail,

the second trial will likely move more swiftly than the first, which

lasted about a month.

Even though it’s the second time around, and Don Haidl retired

from his position to draw attention away from his son, the case will

likely remain in the news.

Principal lawsuit targets district leaders, parents

A court date has not yet been set for an expected court battle

between the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and former Newport

Heights Elementary School Principal Judith Chambers.

Chambers sued Supt. Robert Barbot, Assistant Supt. of Human

Resources Lorrie McCune and Assistant Supt. of Elementary Education

Susan Astaritas in November for defamation, breach of contract,

violation of due process and intentional infliction of emotional

distress.

She felt she wasn’t given sufficient time to respond to her

firing, said her attorney, Margot Nelson.

Chambers is also suing three Newport Heights parents, citing their

alleged attempts to blame her publicly for the departure of popular

substitute teacher Shannon Jay.

First-period thrown out the classroom window

Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials announced in

November their plans to shake up the high school system within the

next five years by allowing students to choose when they want to go

to school.

The high school redesign phase will eventually allow students at

five local high schools more scheduling flexibility and the option to

take online classes from home, though there is no immediate

timetable.

Other California school districts have batted around the idea of

flexible schedules, but several Newport-Mesa officials believe

they’re the first ones to actually include it in their strategic

plan, a five-year blueprint and budgeting reference.

Three high school teachers are already teaching online classes in

American government, U.S. history and economics and opened them to

students from each high school. Board members said more online

classes are on the way, maybe as soon as next semester.

City sets planning limits, outrages some residents

Newport Beach city staff members will be hard at work over the

next few months analyzing the land-use options that general plan

advisory committee members have come up with for 13 geographic areas

in the city, such as Banning Ranch and Corona del Mar. The options

illustrate different scenarios for how much and what kind of

development should be allowed in these areas.

The committee has been meeting for about two years to see what

they think the blueprint for the city should look like for the next

20 years.

Their decisions already are meeting with strong opposition from

members of the city’s slow-growth Greenlight group.

The Planning Commission and City Council have given their feedback

on the options. As part of the general plan update process, the city

developed a computer model to analyze traffic and another to analyze

city finances.

Staff members will now begin asking these computer models, “What

if?”

Unusual trial gathers national attention

Corona del Mar resident Victoria Hawlish will go on trial in

January for allegedly touching a teenage girl inappropriately.

Hawlish is charged with four counts of committing lewd acts with a

minor, a girl who is a family friend.

Because Hawlish lives in an upscale area and because the alleged

offense is relatively unusual, the case will likely draw a fair

amount of attention.

Nothing happens at Marinapark site

After a potential hotel project for Marinapark was rejected by

voters in November, the burden is now on the grass-roots group that

led the opposition to come up with a viable plan for a park.

Protect Our Parks led the charge against the city developing a

hotel on its last piece of harbor-front property.

Newport Beach will hold a study session in January to start

dealing with issues surrounding the property. The question of

tidelands will also have to be resolved.

Although the state lands commission’s legal counsel has told the

city it believes a sizable portion of the land below the trailer park

is tidelands -- land the public must have access to that can only be

developed with uses that serve visitors -- the city hasn’t received

any official confirmation.

Residents of the mobile home park on the land are expected to work

tirelessly to keep heir way of life. So far, they’ve succeeded.

Lawsuits pile up against Costa Mesa City Hall

Costa Mesa is now using an outside law firm, Jones & Mayer, as its

legal counsel. The council decided in September to abandon its

reliance on the in-house city attorney’s office.

In the fall of 2003, the city experienced costly lawsuits. Rutter

Development sued the city in August 2003 over the 1901 Newport Blvd.

condominium project. Rutter ended up getting a subsidy of about $1.5

million to decrease the density of its project, finally approved by

the City Council in January.

Former City Atty. Jerry Scheer sued the city and other defendants

in September 2003 and got a $750,000 settlement over the way he was

treated. Scheer filed the lawsuit against the city, four present and

former council members and a deputy city attorney. The suit contained

16 complaints for damages including violation of free speech and due

process; unlawful harassment based on age and disability and

violation of the Brown Act open meeting law.

If more comes along, it will be up to the outside firm to protect

the city from litigation.

Family refuses to give up search for couple

Newport Beach Police will continue their search for retired couple

Tom and Jackie Hawks, who disappeared in mid-November after selling

their yacht.

Police suspect foul play and have charged 25-year-old Long Beach

resident Skylar DeLeon, the boat’s buyer, with money laundering. They

haven’t said if they think he’s connected with their disappearance,

but with a prosecutor who deals with high-profile homicides on the

case, there may be more to come.

DeLeon and his pregnant wife are believed to have taken a sea

trial on the boat before they purchased it for $400,000.

Police believe they may be among the last people to have seen them

alive.

The boat, a 55-foot cabin cruiser called the Well Deserved, still

floats at its mooring in Newport Harbor but is officially in police

custody.

No spiritual relief in court’s church ruling

The disagreement between St. James Church in Newport Beach and the

Episcopal Church USA lands even more dramatically in Orange County as

the future, and past, of the church gets decided in court.

Its future looks to be free of what members say is too liberal a

doctrine.

In August, the church announced it was going to break away from

the national church and remove the word “Episcopal” from its name.

Church members said they had major concerns about the Episcopal

Church’s liberal views about homosexuality, the divinity of Jesus

Christ and the supremacy of the Bible.

They voted to place themselves under the more conservative Diocese

of Luwero in the Anglican Province of Uganda, Africa.

All Saints Church in Long Beach and St David’s in North Hollywood

also broke away from the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, prompting

Bishop J. Jon Bruno to file a lawsuit against all three churches

stating that their buildings and properties still belong to the

diocese. That suit will be heard in Orange County.

The church’s past is up in the air because the national church

claims it owns the church and surrounding property. Church leaders

argue the opposite.

A court decision may decide the legal and land disagreements, but

what court can force people to change their beliefs?