Six apply to fill Newport Beach council vacancy

Alicia Robinson

Six people have applied to fill the Newport Beach City Council seat

that Mayor Steve Bromberg will vacate June 17.

Bromberg will be sworn in June 24 as a judge in the Orange County

Superior Court. He’s been on the council since 2000, but he can’t

hold both offices. Friday was the deadline to apply to fill

Bromberg’s council seat.

Some of the names will be familiar to Newport voters -- Patricia

Beek and Robert Schoonmaker lost to Bromberg five years ago, and

Bernie Svalstad ran unsuccessfully for the council in 2002. Other

applicants are real estate broker Donald Abrams, city economic

development committee member Lloyd Ikerd and city Planning

Commissioner Ed Selich.

The council will hold a special meeting June 21 to interview the

six candidates and appoint one. Public comment will be allowed once

the interviews are done.

The appointment will be watched closely because the new council

member will be thrown headfirst into some controversial issues -- St.

Andrew’s proposed expansion, the future use of Marinapark, and the

city’s general-plan update.

Bromberg was sympathetic to the concerns of businesses and boaters

on the harbor, issues not all council members understand, said Mark

Silvey, chairman of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce’s marine

committee.

“As far as the City Council was concerned for a long time, who

cares about the harbor?” Silvey said. “They’re slowly letting all the

condos take over the harbor. The last place in this harbor that the

city owns is Marinapark.”

An ad hoc committee is now discussing what to do with the

Marinapark site, which was the subject of a controversial hotel

proposal that voters nixed last year.

Residents in the neighborhoods surrounding St. Andrew’s

Presbyterian Church are anxious about the council appointment too.

The council on Tuesday will set a hearing to decide whether the

church can begin an expansion, which neighbors say is too big.

“I think it’s deadly for the St. Andrew’s thing,” said Margit

Motta, who is a Newport Heights resident and who opposes the church

expansion. She doesn’t think her councilman, Steve Rosansky, has

taken a firm position on St. Andrew’s.

The new member will also be the third council appointee in three

years, a fact that rankles some in the community. Council members say

they’re just following the city charter.

But the council can decide to waive the rules. Tuesday, council

members will discuss whether the new mayor should serve for six

months to finish out Bromberg’s term -- as policy dictates -- or if

the term should be extended through 2006.

The council will decide on the mayor’s term Tuesday and select the

new mayor on June 28. As current mayor pro-tem, Don Webb is the

obvious successor, but other council members might want the post.

“I’m very interested in being mayor during the greatest part of

the centennial year [2006],” Webb said. “It’s been a goal, and I’ve

let people know that.”