MAILBAG - Aug. 7, 2006

Point of KOCE: education, local programs

I read Tom Johnson’s “Fair Game” column in the Daily Pilot on July 7 concerning KOCE and I feel that he missed the point of this whole problem, which is that KOCE is involved with and in the Orange Coast and Orange County.

Another point of this for me is that I don’t want a religious channel on my television. I don’t want one more. There are already enough of them I have to avoid and the people involved in them are typically performing a charade. I feel that we desperately need education on our television, and that’s what KOCE is trying to provide a great deal of the time.

I really think our children need that more than the ideology that one religion is involved in.

BERNICE RILEY

Newport Beach

Newport: Where troubles aren’t that troubling

It must be nice to live in a city where the No. 1 subject for discussion in the Daily Pilot is where to put the new city hall. Should we add a second story? How about moving it next to the library? Should we use eminent domain to wrest control of the land from the nefarious grasp of those ogres at the Irvine Co.? Decisions, decisions.

Unlike us up here on the Mesa, you don’t seem to be all concerned with anything else, except maybe what will happen once the Greenlight folks take complete charge of everything. Fill the moat, pull in the drawbridge. But looking at your major problem from afar, and doing so through the prism of a business owner and entrepreneur, it strikes me as strange that you don’t see the simplest, certainly least expensive and probably the best solution to your problem:

First, figure out what everyone’s doing. That which isn’t completely necessary, stop. Fire everybody who was doing the unnecessary.

Second, I’m figuring maybe half of everything that’s necessary doesn’t absolutely have to be done during business hours. Divide your remaining staff in half and have them work day and night shifts. Who works graveyard? Draw straws. Flip a coin. Use seniority. Whatever. It works for FedEx and Albertsons and every bakery on earth. There’s no reason it shouldn’t work for city employees. If they need a job they’ll gladly accept the change, won’t they? Wouldn’t it be fun to find out?

CHUCK CASSITY

Costa Mesa

People have grabbed land all over Newport

The Pilot asked: “Will people who live near other pieces of public property also be able to encroach into those bits of land?” This has already happened in Irvine Terrace and I suspect other parts of the city. The Newport Beach City Council has held study sessions in the past and there is public record of concerns about this issue if the Pilot would care to do some research into it.

I agree strongly with the bullet points in last Sunday’s editorial. In fairness to all, no individual should be able to use public property for their exclusive private purposes. A possibility, in some cases, is for the city to sell or long-term lease the land at fair market value, but the agreements that are in place and being considered are rewards for the property owners’ illegal encroachments.

DENNIS BAKER

Corona del Mar

Eminent domain not as simple as it seems

This letter is in reference to Kenneth Jaggers’ letter of July 18, which was premised on certain misperceptions involving eminent domain as it may be used to acquire property for a Newport Beach city hall.

In that letter, the author suggested that property acquired through eminent domain can be “acquired based on an appraised value” and not a “negotiated market price transaction.” In fact, however, the power of eminent domain includes the mandate that government pay “just compensation” for the property acquired. While a government agency may initiate an eminent domain action based on its approved appraisal, California law provides the property owner with the right to obtain its own appraisal applying the legal standard of fair market value which is “the highest price” that a willing buyer and seller would agree upon each acting with full knowledge of the highest and best use of the property and without compulsion.

Ultimately, if eminent domain cases are not settled, fair market value is determined at trial by a 12-person jury considering the appraisals presented by each side.

Thus, in reality, the process poses substantial risk to an acquiring government entity that it may be required to pay substantially more for property than its initial appraised value. Certainly these factors would be considered by the city before deciding to utilize the power of eminent domain to acquire property for a city hall or any other project.

JOHN PETERSON

Newport Beach