10 stories that led the news

Raucous sea lions rile harbor residents

1 High home prices around Newport Beach’s waterfront testifies to the high desirability of living near the ocean, but not all homeowners love every aspect of seaside living.

This summer, large numbers of California sea lions came to Newport Harbor and kept homeowners awake with loud, after-hours barking.

The pinnipeds troubled boat owners too. Sea lions love to lay out in the sun and often climb on vessels to do so. Over Labor Day weekend, a group of the heavy animals sank a boat under their weight.

California sea lions are not an endangered species but are protected under federal law, which means that boaters are prohibited from harassing or harming the animals to keep them off property.

The animals caught the attention of Newport Beach harbor officials in June after sea lions broke into a barge used by the Balboa Angling Club-affiliated Pacific Fisheries Enhancement Foundation to raise white sea bass. Residents voiced their objections to harbor officials, and barge operators made repairs to prevent sea lions from lounging on the barge. But efforts to fix the white sea bass facility resolved neither the sea lion problem nor a debate between residents and barge operators over whether the barge belonged in Newport Harbor in the first place.

Eventually, the harbor commission voted to recommend that the Newport Beach City Council grant the barge a new mooring permit.

In January, the City Council is expected to discuss a set of harbor commission-endorsed ordinances that were proposed to keep sea lions away from the harbor. The proposed ordinances were designed to make the harbor less attractive to sea lions by denying food to the animals through measures like making it illegal to throw fish parts in the harbor.

Though considering new ordinances and mooring permits are often mundane functions of Newport Beach city government, the sea lions brought more media attention to the city than most issues. Newspapers across the United States picked up sea lion articles, and the Pacific mammals even got press on the other side of the Atlantic. In the United Kingdom, both the Times of London and the Guardian newspaper published stories about Newport’s sea lion invasion.

Gruesome testimony in high-profile trial

2 It has been just over a year since retired Newport Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks were first reported missing.

Now, the Hawkses are presumed dead, and five people have been arrested and charged in connection with their deaths. Although their bodies haven’t been found, the public has learned more about what police believe happened to Tom and Jackie Hawks.

In court testimony at a preliminary hearing in August, a Newport Beach detective testified that the Hawkses fought back in the final moments of their lives before they were overpowered, bound with tape, chained to the anchor of their yacht and thrown overboard.

Newport Beach Police Det. Evan Sailor recounted the details of the alleged killings based on information from Alonso Machain, 21, of Pico Rivera. Machain told police he was aboard the Hawkses’ 55-foot cabin cruiser, Well Deserved, and participated in killing the Hawkses on Nov. 15 along with Skylar Deleon and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, both of Long Beach, Sailor testified.

Police believe that Deleon, 26, and his wife, Jennifer Henderson-Deleon, 24, posed as prospective buyers of Well Deserved, which the Hawkses had put up for sale.

Following the two-day preliminary hearing, an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled that Kennedy, 40, and the Deleons will stand trial. Machain and Myron Gardner, 42, have been granted a separate hearing. Each two counts of murder, with special circumstances of murder for financial gain and multiple murder. The special circumstances make the five eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

A trial date for Deleon, Henderson-Deleon and Kennedy has not yet been set.

Costa Mesa council joins immigration fray

3 The debate over illegal immigration that has been raging around California and the nation has been played on the local stage over the last year, with the Costa Mesa City Council taking some well publicized steps to address the issue. In March, council members voted to close the city’s Job Center after 17 years of operation, and in December, they agreed to train city police to enforce federal immigration laws.

The Job Center was opened in 1988 to answer complaints about day laborers loitering around Lions Park and on city streets, but some in the city have always opposed it. Some residents say the government shouldn’t be sponsoring a job placement service, while others believe it’s largely used by people in the U.S. illegally and employers who avoid taxes by paying workers under the table.

The center was first set to close July 1, but after lengthy debate in the community, the council twice extended that deadline, making its final day of operation Saturday, Dec. 31.

In December, Mayor Allan Mansoor proposed a controversial plan to train city police officers to enforce federal immigration laws, and the council agreed to a modified version of the plan. It says the city will work with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department -- which is creating a similar plan -- and also ask U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to train some city police officers to ask questions and check citizenship documents when they are investigating people suspected of other crimes. If police have reason to believe a suspect is an illegal immigrant, the city could detain the person to be turned over to immigration authorities.

While some see the council’s actions as steps toward improving the city by pursuing those who break the law, many in the city have protested the Job Center closure and immigration enforcement plan, and some believe it unfairly targets the city’s sizable Latino community.

A group of churches, community organizations and business leaders has been working to establish a private job center but so far has not found a suitable site. The immigration enforcement plan is still in the development stage.

City hall proposal stirs, albeit slowly, Newport

4 A plan to replace Newport Beach’s City Hall was, at first glance, a ho-hum affair, with anemic turnout at public meetings on the project in March and April. But interest -- and grumbling -- started to swell after the council began to pursue a $48-million plan for a new city hall, a new fire station and a parking structure, and a residents group was formed to demand a public vote on the spending.

Proponents of a new civic center complain the existing facilities on the Balboa Peninsula are cramped, inefficient and don’t meet modern safety and accessibility standards. The council scrapped the idea of saving the current City Hall because it costs more to renovate than rebuild.

Opposition has run the gamut: Some believe the city doesn’t need new administrative facilities, and others suggest outsourcing city business instead of laying more bricks and mortar. Some people also said there may be a better location for the city hall, perhaps closer to the geographic center of the city.

With the civic center plan as a catalyst, residents group Newporters for Responsible Government in August began working on a ballot initiative that would require voter approval before city officials can borrow more than $3 million by any method. Now a vote is only required if the city sells bonds, which cause residents’ taxes to rise.

Faced with a potential ballot box battle and increasingly loud griping over the location and cost of a new city hall, the council in November chose to move sideways rather than forward.

Council members agreed to form two committees, one to study locations and one to look at financing for the civic center and how it fits in with building needs over the next 20 years. Committee members will be named in January and they will report to the council with recommendations in May.

Cox out, Campbell in, whirlwind between

5 President Bush’s appointment in June of Newport Beach Rep. Chris Cox as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission was, paradoxically, one of the longest-awaited but most unexpected acts of political patronage in recent memory.

Cox, 52, has Harvard degrees and worked as a lawyer in the Reagan White House, but he’d never held office before coming to Orange County to run for the House of Representatives. He was elected to represent the 48th Congressional District in 1988 and was praised throughout his career as a smart, personable statesman who embodied the conservative leanings of his constituents. Cox had a distinguished career in House leadership and recently chaired the new but powerful House Homeland Security Committee.

Over the years, the Republican never faced any serious challengers for his seat. He’s been rumored by political insiders and opinion makers as a good choice for CIA director, U.S. Senator, even vice president, and in 2001 he was being considered for a judgeship on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

But none of that panned out, so it was something of a surprise when Cox was nominated to the SEC post and then confirmed by the Senate within two months.

Even as their jaws dropped, Cox’s fellow politicians and hopefuls didn’t waste time gaping. The jockeying to fill his spot began immediately and led to an October open primary with 17 candidates on the ballot. But what seemed initially like an adventure in democracy began to look more like an anticlimactic dog and pony show, with Republican state Sen. John Campbell taking an early lead and blowing opponents out of the water with his fundraising and prominent backers.

One aspect of the race that drew national attention was the immigration angle: Jim Gilchrist, founder of the border-patrolling Minuteman Project, entered the race as an American Independent Party candidate. With a reputation as a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, Gilchrist pulled support from the ranks of conservative Republicans, including Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo. Media types proclaimed the race would foretell what tack President Bush would take in his immigration policy -- and whether the GOP would be weakened by a split on such a controversial issue.

But in the end, the results were inconclusive.

Candidates from five parties survived the primary and slugged it out in a December election, with Campbell the winner. Gilchrist lost the race, earning 25.5% of the ballots cast. Some saw that as a victory of sorts, and Gilchrist has said he may run for state or federal office in 2006.

The biggest losers were perhaps voters, who suffered through three special elections in three months. As taxpayers, they bankroll those elections, but many voters didn’t bother to use what they paid for by casting a ballot.

$282-million school bond squeaks by

6 In 2000, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District went to the ballot with Measure A, a $110-million bond measure that cleaned and repaired nearly every campus in town.

It had been the largest school renovation in Newport-Mesa history. So when the district submitted Measure F in August -- a plan to rebuild and modernize all 31 Newport-Mesa campuses for a whopping $282 million -- a number of brows furrowed. By the Nov. 8 special election, though, the Measure F campaign team had roused enough support to push the bond through with 56.1% of the vote.

Most of the Newport-Mesa campuses date to the 1950s or earlier, and their age had started to show in recent years. Newport Harbor High School has locked up Robins Hall, its centerpiece for 70 years, because the building’s infrastructure has decayed dangerously. The four high schools in town have one football stadium among them. Elementary schools lack science classrooms, rendering messy experiments almost impossible.

In its three-month campaign, a grass-roots group led by Newport-Mesa parent Mark Buchanan rented an office on 17th Street and enlisted teachers, parents and other community members to help spread the word.

As with Measure A, the new bond measure had opposition around town, with the Orange County Young Republicans mounting a door-to-door campaign against it.

Ultimately, the bond persuaded fewer voters than Measure A, which won 72% in 2000, but squeezed out a victory as absentee ballots trickled in through November.

“This is a great step forward for the cities of Costa Mesa, Corona del Mar and Newport Beach,” Estancia High School Principal Tom Antal said. “It will enhance schools and serve kids with enhanced programs for 20 years.”

Neighbors dig in to fight church expansion

7 A plan to expand St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach was significantly pared down over the last two years, and as it now stands, it won’t be much of an expansion at all.

The church originally asked the city for permission to grow by nearly 36,000 square feet -- the first expansion since 1982 -- adding a youth and family center that would serve a changing congregation.

But St. Andrews officials met resistance from neighbors who said the church already creates noise, traffic and parking problems. The blueprints bounced between the planning commission and City Council twice and were shaved down to 21,700 square feet of expansion that included a gym and about 150 underground parking spaces. The church said it couldn’t go any smaller, but neighbors still said it was too much.

In August the Newport Beach City Council made the final cut, granting the church the right to add 15,000 square feet and setting a laundry list of conditions such as how many people can attend evening events. As with any good compromise, nobody was entirely satisfied, but neighbors’ earlier bluster about lawsuits died down.

Church officials regrouped and in December announced they’ll build their youth and family center after all, but without adding any square feet to the campus. They’ll shift some facilities and possibly demolish others to make room for the gym and other amenities they believe their congregants need.

Neighbors so far have been cautiously pleased with the plan, which is still being drafted.

Museum to jump ship for cross-harbor move

8 The Balboa Fun Zone has been a Newport Beach institution since 1936, but big changes at the Balboa Village play spot are almost a certainty. With the year coming to a close, Newport Harbor Nautical Museum operators are finishing a deal to buy the Fun Zone from its current owners, Balboa Fun Zone Rides Inc.

Assuming the buy goes through as planned, nautical museum executive director David Muller has said the museum could have a visible presence in Balboa Village in about six months.

Muller was not yet the museum’s executive director when the museum entered into an escrow account to buy Balboa Fun Zone.

Discussing museum plans in April, then-museum chief Glenn Zagoren said Balboa Fun Zone was a “fail safe” and one of multiple options museum operators were looking at as a possible new home. The museum has been housed in Pride of Newport, a Newport Harbor riverboat, since 1995. The museum’s lease with the Irvine Co. is set to expire in June, though the Irvine Co. has agreed to let the museum stay in its current spot until museum operators are ready to move.

Zagoren resigned his museum post in June, and Muller was named as the museum’s new executive director. By that time, both Muller and Zagoren said the museum would most likely move across the harbor.

How Balboa Fun Zone will change remains to be seen. The deal gives Balboa Fun Zone Rides a 30-year lease to run the Ferris wheel and year-to-year leases for other Fun Zone attractions like the merry-go-round and bumper cars.

Balboa Fun Zone Rides president Joe Tunstall and other Balboa Village business owners have said they expect the museum to draw more visitors -- and customers -- to Balboa Village.

El Morro residents agree to leave homes

9 El Morro Village residents agreed in November to move out of the scenic mobile-home park and make way for a planned campground at Crystal Cove State Park. The deal between residents and the California Department of Parks and Recreation ended a battle that was fought both in court and the California Assembly.

Under the deal, mobile home residents agreed to vacate El Morro Village by the end of February. Between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, El Morro Village is part of Crystal Cove State Park and sits on some of the most beautiful beachfront land in Orange County.

The state bought the land that comprises Crystal Cove in 1979, and mobile-home residents had leases with the state that expired at the end of 2004. However, about 300 El Morro residents opted to fight the state’s eviction efforts in court.

Parks department staffers were filing legal motions to begin the eviction process in January. And in February, El Morro residents found a supporter in newly elected Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who proposed two bills that would have let El Morro residents ink new 30-year leases to stay at the mobile-home park.

DeVore touted the bills as money-makers for the state, but withdrew the proposals from consideration in April when it was apparent the bills wold not make it out of committee.

Legal efforts continued, and in August, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kim Dunning issued a judgment that favored the state, and both parties began to talk about reaching a settlement.

Changes to city’s Westside inch forward

10 After years of talking about improvements to Costa Mesa’s Westside, council members in March agreed on a blueprint they expect to lead to massive changes in how the area is developed.

The Westside has long been a mixture of industrial and retail businesses and multi-family housing that some see as run down and economically depressed. City leaders hope that a plan to allow zoning for mixed use developments -- which combine businesses and residences, and trendy, upscale artist lofts -- will spur new uses and reinvestment by existing Westsiders.

The March decision was an agreement by the council on which direction they’d like the city to go. The details of how to get there are being hammered out, with the council likely to consider specific zoning plans early in 2006.

Though the council’s action was welcomed by many, it wasn’t without controversy. A number of Westside residents and business owners who helped advise the city complained that the residential zoning was expanded too far -- against the recommendations of a broad-based committee -- and would lead to strife between new residents moving in and existing industrial businesses that may generate noise and odors at all hours.

More work remains for the council, with final zoning plans still to be approved and other projects such as landscaped road medians on the drawing board.

But so far, the Westside initiatives appear to be working.

In December the council saw a preliminary proposal to turn a vacant industrial site on Monrovia Avenue into condos with balconies and ocean views.20051230imsa4zncCOURTENAY NEARBURG / DAILY PILOT(LA)Hear that? Could be a sea lion barking, could be harbor residents complaining about the noise. The sea lions got international media coverage, hogging the headlines and the harbor in 2005.