Election 2018: Meet the candidates for Newport Beach City Council

Eight candidates are running for four available seats on the Newport Beach City Council in the Nov. 6 election. All four incumbents are running in Districts 1, 3, 4 and 6, with one challenger each.

The Daily Pilot sent a questionnaire to all council candidates to get a better idea of who they are, why they’re running and what issues they feel are most pressing. Some responses have been edited for formatting, brevity or clarity.

District 1

Diane Dixon (incumbent)

Age: 66

Professional occupation: Retired senior vice president, Avery Dennison Corp.

Education: Bachelor of Science with honors in political science, USC

Time lived in Newport Beach: Since 2013

Neighborhood in which you reside, and how long you’ve lived there: Lido, since 2013

Public service, activism and volunteerism: Newport Beach City Council, 2014 to present (mayor, 2016); Orange County United Way; United Way of Greater Los Angeles; KCET-TV board; YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles; ALS Assn. Golden West Chapter; Women’s Leadership Board; Harvard University Kennedy School of Government

Immediate family members: Husband Patrick

Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why.

1. Fiscal discipline: Relentless

2. Unfunded pension liability: Accelerated paydown of $320-million unfunded liability

3. Smart growth, traffic management, traffic safety

Mike Glenn

Age: 38

Professional occupation: Owner of software development company, owner of news organization

Education: Did not answer

Time lived in Newport Beach: 14 years

Neighborhood in which you reside, and how long you’ve lived there: Balboa Peninsula, 14 years

Public service, activism and volunteerism: Newport Harbor Elks; Newport Beach Republican Assembly; Orange County Republican Liberty Caucus; Orange County GOP Central Committee; Newport Harbor Republican Women; SaveNewport.com; Bar and Tavern Assn.

Immediate family members: Sister Anna Glenn, father Sam Glenn, girlfriend Krista Hartin

Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why.

1. In the past four years, debt has increased, taxes have increased and spending has increased — the death-spiral trifecta.

2. Crony, no-bid deals involving tens of millions of our Newport Beach tax dollars

3. Special building permits that bypass the general plan, and likewise the rejection of building permits allowed in the general plan

DISTRICT 3

Marshall “Duffy” Duffield (incumbent)

Age: 66

Professional occupation: Boat designer and manufacturer, Duffy Electric Boat Co.

Education: Did not answer

Time lived in Newport Beach: 60 years

Public service, activism and volunteerism: Newport Beach City Council, 2014 to present (mayor, 2018); Harbor Commission

Neighborhood in which you reside, and how long you’ve lived there: Dover Shores

Immediate family members: Married with three children

Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why.

1. Management of Newport Harbor

2. Increase harbor water quality

3. Pressure the airline carriers and Federal Aviation Administration to fly higher and quieter out of John Wayne Airport

Tim Stoaks

Age: 57

Professional occupation: Architect and planner

Education: Bachelor’s degree in architecture

Time lived in Newport Beach: 15 Years

Neighborhood in which you reside, and how long you’ve lived there: Santa Ana Heights/Back Bay, 15 years

Public service, activism and volunteerism: Santa Ana Heights Redevelopment Agency Project Advisory Committee; AirFair; Oasis Senior Center Building Fund Committee; Line in the Sand; Newport Harbor Educational Foundation; Friends of Newport Beach Animal Shelter

Immediate family members: Did not answer

Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why.

1. Development and traffic: I pledge to champion resident/voter-approved growth to protect Newport Beach’s extraordinary quality of life for generations to come.

2. Controlling noise and pollution from John Wayne Airport: I’ve been battling the impacts of John Wayne Airport for over 15 years.

3. Restore ethics and transparency to Newport Beach’s city government: I pledge to put principles above personalities and to work diligently to restore an inclusive, aboveboard governing process.

DISTRICT 4

Roy Englebrecht

Age: 72

Professional occupation: Boxing and mixed martial arts fight promoter

Education: Master’s degree in education administration

Time lived in Newport Beach: 36 years

Neighborhood in which you reside, and how long you’ve lived there: The Bluffs, 15 years total

Public service, activism and volunteerism: Newport Beach Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission; Orange County Youth Sports Foundation; Mariners Church

Immediate family members: Wife Nancy, son Drew, daughter Allison West

Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why.

1. We need to immediately convene a group involving local residents and city staff to begin updating our general plan. With so little space left in our city to develop, we have to make sure we do it correctly and within general plan guidelines.

2. Pension reform. We have gotten ourselves into tremendous debt, but going forward, we need to create pension reform so we stop this cycle of unfunded liabilities that spirals out of control.

3. City expenses. Newport Beach doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. We need to curtail the out-of-control overtime we see happening and look at redundancies in city departments to perhaps be able to reduce costs.

Kevin Muldoon (incumbent)

Age: 39

Professional occupation: Executive and corporate counsel at local technology company

Education: Bachelor of Arts in history, Loyola Marymount University; juris doctor, Chapman University School of Law

Time lived in Newport Beach: Seven years

Neighborhood in which you reside, and how long you’ve lived there: The Bluffs, two years

Public service, activism and volunteerism: Newport Beach City Council, 2014 to present (mayor, 2017); former Orange County deputy district attorney

Immediate family members: Wife Heather

Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why.

1. Public safety: Need to continue to fight the statewide effects of Prop. 47, Prop. 57 and early release of convicted criminals.

2. Unfunded pension liability: Continue to pay down the unfunded pension liability with annual budget surpluses. Currently, Newport Beach is paying down its unfunded pension liabilities faster than any other city in the county.

3. Airport mitigation: Continue to work with community groups, engineers and the airlines to mitigate the noise and air pollution caused by flights departing from John Wayne Airport.

DISTRICT 6

Joy Brenner

Age: 72

Professional occupation: Fundraiser at UC Irvine and Hoag Foundation

Education: Bachelor’s degree in sociology

Time lived in Newport Beach: 57 years

Neighborhood in which you reside, and how long you’ve lived there: Corona del Mar, 57 years

Public service, activism and volunteerism: Newport Beach Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission; Friends of the Corona del Mar Library; Corona del Mar Residents Assn.; Corona del Mar Civic Assn.; Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce; Corona del Mar High School student government; PTA; Newport Harbor High School Leadership Council

Immediate family members: Daughters Teresa and Liz, five grandchildren

Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why.

1. Overdevelopment and traffic need to be managed by controlling high-rise, high-density development in Newport Beach and on our borders. We must use all road funds available to provide creative traffic solutions and protect our quality of life.

2. Fiscal responsibility is critically important in order for our residents to enjoy the high-quality infrastructure and services for which they pay with high taxes. By paying down our unfunded pension liability and being frugal in our spending, we can stop the wasteful use of our tax dollars and provide quality services to our community.

3. I will work to restore integrity at City Hall by making sure our conflict of interest and campaign finance laws are fairly enforced and that no council member is above the law. We must make sure the public’s business is conducted in public whenever possible, as required by the Brown Act, in order to stop backroom deals.

Scott Peotter (incumbent)

Age: 61

Professional occupation: Architect, small-business owner

Education: Bachelor of Science in architectural studies, University of Illinois

Time lived in Newport Beach: 13 years

Neighborhood in which you reside, and how long you’ve lived there: Corona del Mar, five years

Public service, activism and volunteerism: Newport Beach City Council, 2014 to present; Newport Beach Planning Commission; Boy Scouts

Immediate family members: Wife Linda, three children

Name the three issues you believe are the most important facing the city and why.

1. Financial: Clearly the unfunded pension liabilities and Civic Center debt that previous councils encumbered us with are hanging over our heads and have the potential to keep the city from upgrading its facilities like fire stations. We have been paying this debt down sooner than required, and need to continue in order to minimize our liabilities.

2. Harbor: The harbor is the jewel of the city and has been neglected for decades, with only half the necessary dredging performed, along with other deferred maintenance. We need to improve our harbor to the world-class amenity that it is.

3. Taxpayer Protection Act: This is a charter amendment that is on the ballot this November that will require future city councils to get voter approval before taking on massive debt (greater than $50 million) without voter approval. Had this been in place before the Civic Center $130-million debt was issued, I believe the voters would have sent that council back to the drawing board for a more reasonably priced facility.

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UPDATES:

6:05 p.m. Oct. 8: This article was updated to include that Diane Dixon is retired.

This article was originally published at 8 a.m. Oct. 6.