Newport Beach : Council Member Calls Civic Survey ‘a Sham’

Newport 2000, a political action committee that hopes to have alternative candidates on the City Council ballot in November, told council members this week that a group-sponsored survey revealed that residents want to slow development in the city.

One member of the City Council called the survey, which elicited 175 responses, a “sham.”

The survey, mailed to 1,200 homes, sought opinions on a variety of issues, including how residents felt about noise from the John Wayne Airport expansion, traffic congestion and water pollution in Newport Bay. The majority of respondents opposed airport expansion and increased traffic.

Sixty-five percent of those who answered also said the political influence of the Irvine Co. and Koll Co. were a major factor in the city’s industrial and commercial development.

“I’m really shocked Louis Scott would lend his name to such a sham,” said Councilman John Cox, referring to the Newport 2000 representative and former advertising executive who helped conduct the survey. “This document is a fund-raising document. It’s not a survey.”

Along with a questionnaire, residents were sent a letter in which they were asked to send a “generous contribution to help Newport 2000 mount a strong campaign in support of the right kind of candidates for the November, 1986, election.”

The letter also said that “our city government is doing a terrible job” and recounted numerous examples of what Newport 2000 viewed as the council’s failings.

Cox questioned the group’s methodology and said the letter’s leading questions tainted the survey’s findings.

Scott said that Newport 2000 is also considering a citizens initiative for the November ballot to address traffic congestion in the city.