Night turns to morning at City Council meeting

S.J. CAHN

All evidence aside, Tuesday’s Newport Beach City Council meeting

wasn’t about a new city hall.

It was about something much bigger -- and that’s no easy feat when

cost estimates for the proposed hall, which the council gave an

initial green light to, run about $87 million, with interest, over 30

years.

At issue was the nature of our representative government, plain

and simple.

The majority of the public speakers who opposed the city building

anew or remodeling City Hall -- and those opposed didn’t outnumber

those in favor by more than a few out of the dozen or so who spoke --

called on the City Council to put the issue to a vote.

Their reasons varied. The most hard-line pointed to a section of

the city’s charter (1109 for those who must know) concerning “bonded

debt limit.” It reads, in part: “No bonded indebtedness which shall

constitute a general obligation of the city may be created unless

authorized by the affirmative votes of two-thirds of the electors

voting on such proposition ... “

However, the city is not planning to go the bond route. Instead,

as it did with the Central Library, it will finance the construction

via certificates of participation, which are similar to bonds but

with one crucial difference: The annual payments on the principal and

interest are made from city revenue and not a tax increase. No tax

increase means no vote.

Other supporters of a vote were more esoteric. Allan Beek, a

former council candidate and sometimes Greenlight member,

acknowledged to the council that it didn’t have to put the issue to a

vote. The Greenlight law doesn’t come into effect, for instance.

Still, he told the council: “I think it’s the appropriate, honest and

fair thing to do.”

The council should take the people’s pulse, in other words,

especially given the cost of the project. Doing so would follow the

spirit, if not the letter, of the law.

Counter to this was the idea that voters already had their pulses

taken during the last council elections. In those votes, they chose

the members sitting on the dais (the appointed Leslie Daigle is an

exception, but more on that in a second). The members have the

community’s support, in other words.

Resident Lloyd Ikerd even called on the council to recognize this

support, take the lead and make the “bold” decision.

The majority of the council clearly agreed with this position,

most vocally Mayor Steve Bromberg and Councilman Tod Ridgeway.

(Bromberg, at one point stressing how the council’s six men all had

proven community support, essentially extended that public backing to

Daigle by pointing out that the council had chosen her as the best

person to occupy the seat. Think of it as a your-friend-is-my-friend

logic.)

Bromberg added that he was not hearing a chorus of opposition in

the community and broadly painted those at the Council Chambers as

being opposed to “just about everything government does.”

He also added another layer to the debate about representational

government. Were a vote to happen, he asked, how many of the city’s

50,000 voters would take enough time to wade through all the

information about the construction project. Fifty, he wondered. Five

hundred?

That question gets at the heart of why we elect people to

councils, to the state Assembly and to Congress. We simply can’t be

experts on all the issues they handle. Instead, we have to put our

faith, and vote, in others.

In Newport Beach right now, there are vocal people who don’t have

that faith in the City Council. They’re promising that debate about

City Hall isn’t over.

Whether it is will depend on the “silent majority.” Are they

silent because they approve of the council’s actions, or are they

letting groups such as Greenlight and Newporters for Responsible

Government make noise for them?

GETTING BUSINESS DONE

Although the city hall debate was the highlight of Tuesday night’s

council meeting, it wasn’t the only game in the chambers. There’s

always plenty else to see as our government goes about its business

(which got started on time!).

* Costa Mesa United, a group dedicated to raising $9.2 million to

build a pool at Costa Mesa High School and an athletic stadium at

Estancia High School, attempted to give a presentation to the council

in search of support. The first of the night’s technical difficulties

scuttled the group’s effort to show a movie. The group is expected

back at the next meeting. Among the group’s supporters at the meeting

were businessman Gordon Bowley and Irrelevant Week founder Paul

Salata.

An interesting moment, at least as far as I’m concerned: Beek,

heading past Salata, nodded and Salata returned the greeting with a

quick wave. In those two you have represented both the main competing

forces in town and two of the community’s nicest guys, who’ve

arguably done as much for the city as anyone. Unless you know them

both, it might be a difficult moment to explain adequately.

* More technical difficulties kept the audience and the council

from seeing pictures of boats involved in the First Team Invitational

Regatta. Regatta officials, along with folks from this weekend’s

Relay for Life, an amazingly named UCLA Day, and Poppy Week, all

received proclamations from the council. The final bit of technical

problems was the battery death of a laser pointer during a

presentation on the planned Newport Lexus dealership.

* I watched council regular, former candidate and occasional Pilot

columnist Dolores Otting nod in agreement frequently when Councilman

John Heffernan spoke. I might have made a big deal out of this, given

that they ran against each other: Otting, when she was speaking

before the council, described Heffernan as someone “whom I admire

greatly.”

* Heffernan, by the way, remains the most aggressive member of the

council when it comes to asking questions. He was solidly opposed to

allowing the Lexus dealership -- which is slated for the southwest

corner of the MacArthur and Jamboree intersection -- to have an

entrance onto Macarthur. His exchanges with Daigle on the issue were

pretty contentious, as far as this council goes.

* Bromberg and Ridgeway were none too happy to be chastised by

leaders of nonprofits that received city Community Development Block

Grants -- though not as much money as those leaders had expected.

I don’t remember having our hands bit when handing out a check,

the mayor said.

“I feel guilty handing out money,” Ridgeway added. “We’re doing

our best and we’re giving our max.”

* A few possible insights into the city’s newest member of the

council: When talking about the “wine bar” that was part of the Lexus

proposal, Daigle mentioned how at luxury dealers these days you’re

able to get a “cup of cappuccino.” No plain cup of coffee for her, I

think. Also, she talked about a “glass of chardonnay,” so keep the

Two Buck Chuck away. (I also thought she laughed when one man

addressed the council: “I can certainly understand where you

gentlemen are coming from.”)

* Speaking of coffee, there were plenty of empty Starbucks cups in

the trash outside the Council Chambers. For those who remember, at my

last Costa Mesa council meeting, I saw an empty pack of Coors Light.

* One for the conspiracy buffs: The slide giving the cost of the

city hall project was way too small to read.

* Finally, I knew I was getting myself into a long meeting when I

decided to attend Tuesday’s council meeting. But it’s never possible

to prepare yourself for a member of the audience, during public

comment, to say “Good morning” and have it be true.

* S.J. CAHN is the managing editor. He may be reached at (714)

966-4607 or by e-mail at s.j.cahn@latimes.com.