Letters to the Editor: Newport Beach council overlooked residents when agreeing to hire search firm

“We select the city manager, they (the people) do not select the city manager.” These words were spoken by Newport Beach City Councilman Scott Peotter as he and the other members of the Gang of Four majority proceeded to show the community exactly what he means.

After two City Council meetings packed with furious residents protesting the seemingly forced retirement of our excellent city manager, Dave Kiff, the Gang of Four promised total transparency regarding the selection of the next city manager. Their very next action was to schedule a closed-session discussion of the city manager selection. Transparency is not a closed-session discussion that excludes public input, and they were forced to cancel the closed session after another public outcry.

In open session, Councilwoman Diane Dixon suggested taking the next two weeks to interview the three firms that proposed to serve as a search consultant and to talk to the community about the type of leader we should be looking for to replace Mr. Kiff. This is what has always been done in the past, but the Gang of Four was determined to fast track its plans to replace Mr. Kiff and again declined to allow public participation.

They voted down Ms. Dixon’s proposal, and Councilman Kevin Muldoon immediately moved to appoint one of the three firms. No community outreach, no agreement on the attributes to look for in a new manager. Just the determination of the Gang of Four to control the process. The contempt shown to comments by residents who came to the council was palpable. They obviously intend to tolerate no community meddling in their power play.

Newport Beach deserves better than this, but it does not appear that we will get it. It is clearly time for the residents to stand up to the Gang of Four and take back our city in the November election.

Susan Skinner

Newport Beach

Congressman late to the party on airport issue

Re: “Rohrabacher’s four amendments aim to ease airplane noise in Orange County”: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) has been aware of this issue for about three years, so it is way past time for him to help his constituents. I suspect he is doing it now because he is facing a contentious election this year.

In October 2016 Rohrabacher debated Democrat Suzanne Savary when they ran against each other. He was asked what he would do to mitigate the airplane noise from John Wayne Airport. His answer was not very satisfying and he denied getting a letter and petition requesting airplane noise reduction from a Dover Shores community group that had been signed by approximately 2,000 residents.

I was not part of that group, but I was provided the documents by its leaders. I have the signed petitions and the letter to Michael P. Huerta, administrator of the FAA, which was copied to many administrators and politicians, including Rohrabacher.

The residents of the 48th Congressional District deserve faster and better representation than what we have gotten from Rohrabacher. Surely, he knows that poor representation like this leaves the door open for candidates like Democrat Harley Rouda.

Charles Mooney

Costa Mesa

The shoe is on the other foot

In reading Barbara Venezia’s column (“Politicians are asking for civil campaigning”) regarding the 48th Congressional District race, I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or get angry. GOP candidate Scott Baugh’s claims of being slimed by incumbent Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) are very much the pot calling the kettle black.

Baugh has been engaging in campaign chicanery since 1995, when he was indicted by the Orange County grand jury for election violations in the Laurie Campbell “Decoy Democrat” scandal. Also indicted was Rhonda Carmony, now Rohrabacher’s wife. (Editor’s note: The attorney general dropped the charges against Baugh and Carmony pleaded guilty to two felonies, which were reduced to misdemeanors.)

The whole time Baugh headed the OCGOP, he allowed sleazy negative campaigning by Republican candidates and their allies. Anything the Democrats did was junior varsity by comparison. Baugh has only Republican tactics to blame.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach

Koll businesses opposed to proposed condo towers

Where should Newport Beach grow? Wrong question for a developer to ask in a glossy brochure mailed to Newport Beach residents. There is no mandate for Newport to grow and negatively impact its current residents. Koll Center Residences is all about developer fees and not about quality of living or working in Newport Beach.

I have had an office in Koll Center Newport since 1987 and am currently a building owner next to the proposed KCR development. As a property owner I respect property rights, however, this development is in the common area managed by Koll Center Newport. The office owners’ association should be representing the interests of the building owners in Koll Center and not an outside developer. This is like a homeowners’ association selling off a park for development and pocketing the money.

There is a misconception that if there are residential units in the airport area, people will live and work there. None of my employees would want to purchase a multi-million dollar condo.

Why? It is in an office parking lot. What is appealing about that? And it certainly exceeds the price point for software developers.

Koll Center and the immediate area is loud, due to the airport and vehicle traffic noise. It lacks residential shopping, entertainment, services and neighborhood schools. If growth is pushed over to the airport, the traffic will increase. There are many reasons why the citizens of Newport Beach passed Greenlight and defeated Measure Y— chiefly to maintain quality of life. It turns out that over by the airport is also in everyone’s backyard.

Fred Fourcher

Newport Beach

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