SOUNDING OFF:Laguna needs diversity on City Council

By Carter A. Mudge

Oct. 6, 2006 12 AM PT

As we approach the coming election, it seems that even too much of a good thing is too much. I don’t personally know Verna Rollinger and make no comment on her qualifications for City Council. However, were Rollinger elected, that would put the Village Laguna candidates in the majority (Rollinger-Egly-Iseman).

Village Laguna does some noble things in town, and in many respects functions like a local equivalent of the American Civil Liberties Union with an environmental twist. That is, Village Laguna sometimes takes extreme or infuriating positions to “keep the camel’s nose out of the tent” — to try and stave off the Montage Resort & Spa, urbanization, water pollution, greenbelt encroachment and mansionization.

However, Village Laguna’s candidates haven’t always tempered their zeal with good judgment or the pragmatism required in local politics. A few examples:

When Village Laguna controlled the slate, the Design Review process got so out of hand that a homeowner, frustrated at being told what color his house should be, painted a giant American flag on the wall and invited the news media to come mock Laguna and the design review board process. That one got a few laughs in the media.

When the water district had cash to build a new reservoir on its property at Top of the World, the City Council stood in the way, fearing the impact on the environment. Who knows what would have happened in the 1993 firestorm if that reservoir had been built? In large part, that issue was what swept Village Laguna out of power in the subsequent election.

In 1988, when South Laguna was annexed into the city and the second-unit “granny flat” issue came to a head, the Court of Appeals reviewed the city’s handling of the issue and opined it was playing “fast and loose with its residents,” that it “misled and discouraged them” and that the city used “every trick in the book to avoid complying with [the state granny flat statute].” (Wilson v. City of Laguna Beach (1992) 6 Cal.App.4th 543).

Now those issues are all behind us, but shouldn’t they teach us the lesson that one-party control of anything may not be a good thing? Even a fully Republican-controlled executive and legislative branch at the federal level hasn’t yielded the promised nirvana. As the alternative candidate, Kelly Boyd certainly brings his own set of baggage to the election, but what he also brings is diversity of thought and opinion.

Diversity — one of Laguna’s greatest assets. Balance — an attainable goal. See you in the water.

Carter A. Mudge lives in Laguna Beach.

SOUNDING OFF:Laguna needs diversity on City Council

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