The Political Landscape:

The California Supreme Court has turned down activist Allan Beek’s request to take up his battle against plans to build a new multimillion-dollar Newport Beach city hall in Newport Center.

“This is great news,” said attorney Jim Lacy, who penned Measure B, a charter amendment Newport Beach voters approved in 2008 that requires the next city hall to be built on a piece of city-owned land in Newport Center.

Beek has filed several legal challenges to the charter amendment. The state Supreme Court was Beek’s last option after several failed legal challenges.

“Now the city is going to be able to have that new City Hall in a logical place,” Lacy said. “It’s too bad it took so much litigation — Beek lost at every turn.”

Beek first sued Newport Beach and former City Clerk LaVonne Harkless over the legality of Measure B in an attempt to stop the election from moving forward. The City Council later voted unanimously to support the measure after voters passed the initiative with about 53% of the vote.

Beek then filed a second lawsuit claiming the council’s vote violated the California Environmental Quality Act and the city’s general plan. He alleged that the council’s vote to support Measure B was illegal because the city already dedicated the land as open space.

In June, the California Fourth Appellate District Court upheld the voters’ right to decide where to put the city hall.

The panel of three judges unanimously upheld Measure B and rejected all of Beek’s claims. The appeals court also rejected Beek’s request to rehear the matter in July.

“I’m not surprised,” Beek said Wednesday. “[The Supreme Court] only takes about 1% of cases.”

COUNCILMAN BLUDAU?

Clad in a green plaid blazer over his multicolored Hawaiian shirt, Newport Beach Councilman Don Webb at Tuesday’s City Council meeting promised to give retiring City Manager Homer Bludau a straw hat similar to his own before his last day at City Hall this week.

“I want to make sure you’re ready for retirement,” he told Bludau from the dais.

Webb, who is ineligible to run for reelection in 2010 because of term limits, also urged Bludau to consider a bid for his District 3 council seat.

“Since you’re in my neighborhood and the position is up for grabs the next election, I think we need to start calling you ‘Walking Homer,’” Webb said.

The councilman is known around town as “Walking Don Webb” for the daily walks he takes around Newport Beach.

Bludau received a standing ovation at City Hall on Tuesday night, a tribute to his last City Council meeting as city manager.

During his term, Bludau worked with 11 mayors and 18 City Council members and attended 264 City Council meetings.

A proclamation Mayor Ed Selich presented to Bludau at the meeting wished the retiring city manager and his wife “wedded bliss and Tuesday evenings free of City Council meetings twice a month.”

CONGRESSMAN CONTINUES iPHONE ANTICS

Those who have the number to U.S. Rep. John Campbell’s iPhone are often greeted with one of the congressman’s lighthearted rants on Beltway politics or perhaps a famous quotable or two.

“If it is a weekday, I am probably in Washington D.C. trying to keep Congress and the president from taking away your freedoms,” Campbell says in his latest recording. “If it is a weekend, I am probably in California enjoying those freedoms.”