Olive branch to Laguna Beach

Recent comments by Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider and your recent editorial deserve my response.

As a member of Orange County Transportation Authority’s Regional Planning & Highways Committee, I reviewed recommended federal beautification funding grants of $3.8 million.

Of the 39 grant applications, only 10 were recommended for funding. Two of these 10 were for Laguna Beach projects. None was for North Orange County cities.

Laguna Beach is one of Orange County’s most beautiful cities. So, I questioned the relative need of Laguna Beach beautification relative to many other cities that had been denied funding.

“I thought Chris Norby was a friend,” said Mayor Pearson-Schneider. Questioning the beautification priority list hardly makes me an enemy.

Can I reaffirm Laguna Beach’s beauty and still be a friend?

The committee voted in favor of all the recommended projects. Laguna Beach will receive over $560,000 to become even more beautiful, while north O.C. cities will get zero. So be it. Not all funding disbursements can be geographically balanced.

As an OCTA Board member, my job is to probe and question. I am not a rubber stamp for staff recommendations. Doesn’t this still qualify me as a friend of Laguna Beach?