Our Laguna: The Hanos honored for raising a village

It’s been said that it takes a village to raise a child. But it takes villagers to make a village and vigilance to keep it the way they want.

Arnold and Bonnie Hano were honored Saturday as Villagers of the Year, recognized for their efforts to preserve their vision of their adopted hometown.

Village Laguna organized the celebration, at Sally and Jeff Jameson’s home, to toast and roast the Hanos, sharing fond memories of the couple and lauding their accomplishments and attributes.

Bonnie squirmed. Arnold grinned.

“Two-thirds of what you heard was [expletive],” Bonnie said.

“But the other one-third about me was all true,” Arnold said, poking fun at himself as is his wont.

More than 160 folks attended the celebration — but the most hesitant RSVP came from the Hanos.

“We are so glad you reluctantly agreed to be honored tonight,” Village Laguna President Ginger Osborne said.

Osbone was the first of several speakers to be introduced by Master of Ceremonies Gene Felder.

“I know this is not a memorial, but I am here to say thank you,” said former Mayor Bob Gentry, who flew in last week from his home in Hawaii for the event and the upcoming holidays. “You have been a force in everything to do with the protection of our sea and land.”

He congratulated the Hanos on the Blue Ribbon Task Force’s decision to recommend a moratorium on fishing in Laguna from Abalone Point to Aliso Beach. Gentry’s support is not surprising, considering his track record on environmental issues as a councilman.

Gentry was approached by the Hanos in 1982 when he was running for City Council and asked if he would accept an endorsement by Village Laguna.

“I told them I was not a closet environmentalist; of course I’d accept,” said Gentry, the first openly gay elected official in Laguna Beach.

The Hanos also supported equal rights for gay couples, opposing the proposition banning same-sex marriages on the 2008 ballot and back in the early 1990s when Gentry and his partner, Dennis, were the first couple to register as domestic partners after Ordinance 1230 was passed by the Laguna Beach City Council on April 21, 1992.

City Councilwoman Verna Rollinger was the city clerk who registered them.

“For about 50 years, Arnold and Bonnie have protected the things we love about Laguna and improved the things that needed to be changed,” Rollinger said in her tribute Saturday. “Their fingerprints are on virtually everything we love.

“There are quite a few people here I don’t know — and that’s a testament to Bonnie and Arnold. I can’t remember when I met some of you, but meeting Arnold is an event you never forget. He asked me how old I was. He asked about my family. I figured he must be an interviewer. Later I decided that I had just never met anyone from New York before,” Rollinger said.

“Or Jewish,” Arnold kibitzed.

Rollinger credits the Hanos for insisting she learn to talk into a microphone and to campaign for election by walking the streets and ringing doorbells.

Former Mayor Neil Fitzpatrick said he also got good advice from Arnold.

“He told me you don’t have to speak on every item,” Fitzpatrick said.

That advice, of course, does not apply to the public. The Hanos are among the regular speakers at council meetings.

“What I love about them is turning on the television on Tuesday nights, and they are there talking about the issues that concern the community,” said Doug Reilly, past president of Village Laguna.

And they sometimes take on dear friends. Can you spell kayak?

Councilwoman Toni Iseman wholeheartedly supported Billy Fried’s proposal to rent kayaks on the beach in front of Montage Resort & Spa. The Hanos were adamantly opposed, but their friendship stayed intact. Witness Iseman’s comments Saturday.

“This is the heart and soul of Laguna assembled here tonight and it’s all because of you two,” Iseman told the Hanos.

Fried, who came out on the short end of the kayak debate, was among the guests at the dinner.

“We are all here to acknowledge the man and the woman,” Fried said. “We all want what is best for Laguna.”

Although they may not always agree what the best is.

Laguna Taxpayers Assn. member Jim McBride responded to a piece written by Arnold.

“I disagreed with what he wrote, but I loved the way he wrote it,” McBride said. “So I wrote and told him so.”

Landscape architect Bob Borthwick also admires Arnold’s writing skills.

“I especially remember the column he wrote about his brother not coming back from World War II,” Borthwick said.

Barbara MacMurray said she loves Arnold because he is so articulate and “spot on.”

“Arnold’s major contribution to this town is if he opposes something, it is never personal; it is always the issue,” said Ann Quilter, co-chairwoman of the fundraising drive for the Susi Q Senior Center.

“At one heated council meeting, Arnold got up to the microphone, turned around, said I was his dear friend, blew me a kiss and then he said [Third Street] was not the right place for the center.”

“If I have to go up against anyone, it would be Arnold,” Quilter said. “He is always a gentleman.”

Perhaps the Hanos’ most enduring legacy was the formation of Village Laguna, founded in 1971 when a group that included the Hanos successfully prevented the “Miamization” of Laguna’s coastline with an initiative that limited building heights in Laguna to 36 feet.

Village Laguna has been in the forefront of city politics ever since. Arnold was the first president.

School board member Betsy Jenkins and her husband, Dr. Gary Jenkins, first met the Hanos during one of Rollinger’s political campaigns.

“Arnold supported Verna, and he was so articulate and so well-spoken I said these are interesting people that I would like to know,” Jenkins said.

The Hanos moved to Laguna on Sept. 1, 1955. Arnold wrote his first letter to the editor Nov. 1, 1955. But he is a writer of much more: hundreds of magazine articles and 26 books sport his byline.

Bonnie had a marriage and family counseling practice in Newport Beach until she retired in 1991.

Retired? They joined the Peace Corps and went to Costa Rica to help rehabilitate the school in a village. There is that word again. They so enjoyed the village life they stayed on after their tour of duty concluded. The Hanos returned to Laguna for good in 2000 and plunged right back into village affairs.

Their interests are varied.

South Laguna resident Michael Beanan brought his golden retriever, Makaela, to the party to thank them for their work on behalf of animals.

“It’s never dull around Arnold,” said the Rev. Colin Henderson, who served with Arnold on the Advisory Committee on Homelessness.

Bonnie is on city’s Heritage Committee and battles for the preservation of buildings that have historical or architectural merit.

That would include the Old Pottery Place that replaced the Pottery Shack, about which owner Joe Hanauer and his architect, Morris Skenderian, had some interesting chats with Bonnie.

Hanauer and his wife, Jane, co-hosted the dinner with the Jamesons. Skenderian and his wife, Stephany, were on the host committee, along with Andy and City Clerk Martha Anderson, Paul and Councilwoman Jane Egly, Henderson, Iseman and Steve Miller, the Jenkins, Laguna Beach County Water District Commissioner Marv Johnson and Planning Commissioner Anne Johnson, Heritage Committee member Jon Madison, Barbara and Ken MacMurray, Jacquie and Festival of Arts board member Bob Moffitt, Bill and school board member Theresa O’Hare, Rollinger, Lisa and homeless advisory committee Chairman Ed Sauls, and Johanna and Gene Felder.

The event was organized by Darrylin Girvin, Osborne, Barbara Picheny, Charlotte Masarik, Cindalee Penny Hall and Jackie Gallagher.

OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, 92652; call (949) 380-4321 or e-mail coastlinepilot@latimes.com