Failure to reach a compromise is a leadership failure

Noticeably absent from Thursday night’s special Newport Beach City

Council meeting on the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church expansion was

the continuous shouting and name-calling that might have been

expected from an overflow crowd of 250. The calm and relative

politeness were a great credit to both sides of this long-running

debate -- St. Andrew’s on one side and its neighbors on the other.

That the two sides had to spend the long night at the Council

Chambers -- many people sitting on concrete steps or leaning against

the City Hall flagpole -- was a sad reminder that something was

missing from this controversy.

Each side claims it was willing to compromise and find a solution

all could accept. Each side also claims that the other wasn’t willing

to bend enough to make it happen.

Why did they fail then? Because something was missing from this

controversy.

That something was strong leadership from somewhere within City

Hall.

Planning Commissioner Larry Tucker and City Councilmen Steve

Rosansky and Don Webb tried to bring the two sides together. All

three failed.

This failure, and the bitter feelings that now hang over Cliff

Haven and Newport Heights, is the unfortunate result of the City

Council’s relatively inexperienced makeup. Collectively, four of the

members -- Mayor Don Webb, Councilmen Rosansky and Ed Selich and

Councilwoman Leslie Daigle -- have 63 months in office.

With three members in the past two years leaving office, there

simply has been a drain on experienced, long-serving council members.

Add in that Councilman Dick Nichols continues to be a lone presence

on dais, and there is a leadership void in Newport Beach.

Certainly on Thursday night and into Friday morning, Mayor John

Heffernan showed a strong hand and proper demeanor as he managed the

overflow meeting. Anyone coming before the council with an issue

should hope that his actions last week are a sign that he’s now

stepping up to help fill this void.

Councilman Tod Ridgeway, who is by far the longest serving member

-- he’s twice served as mayor -- perhaps was hamstrung during this

debate by not being in a top seat on the council and in that the

church dispute cut across the districts represented by Rosansky and

Webb. Hindsight now suggests that, baring some more substantive

reason, he should have gotten involved.

What this issue clearly needed was one person intent on seeing a

compromise reached. Leaders on the two sides should have been locked

in a room and not allowed to leave until a deal was reached. Issues

of far greater importance -- whether the birth of the Social Security

system, or the end to wars, or the construction of the Mormon temple

in Newport Beach -- have ended in compromise. The expansion of St.

Andrew’s should have been no different.

The hopeful end to this issue is that there is no reason to think

a lack of leadership will endure. Daigle and Selich have been in

office 10 months total, and Daigle is a politician on the rise. Webb,

who now serves as mayor pro tem, is an obvious candidate to be named

mayor next year, and perhaps he will rise to the occasion as

Heffernan has.

It’s just too bad that none are quite there now.