THE LAST WORD:

Mayor Ed Selich showed true leadership at the recent mayor’s dinner held at the Marriott Newport Beach.

In a speech that started as a somber dedication to his father, who passed away last year, but took a turn toward the comical when he poked fun at a Daily Pilot cartoon depicting him and Bill Ficker wrestling over the fate of City Hall, Selich urged the city to come together to abide by the will of voters and build city hall — as called for in the recently-OK’d Measure B — on Avocado Avenue next to the central library.

“The voters have spoken,” Selich said.

He went on to outline goals for 2008. You can bet we’ll keep track of how the city does on those counts.

Meanwhile, kudos to Selich for taking the high road on an issue that has fractionalized Newport Beach for too long (Also, check out Mike Lukash’s cartoon on this page. Sorry, Ed and Bill, we couldn’t resist).