A busy beginning

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- In a way, John Cassady pulled a Dick Cheney.

Just as the nation’s new vice president headed the search to find a

running mate for President George W. Bush, Cassady headed the committee

to find a replacement for Rosalind Williams, whose untimely death in June

left vacant the post of executive director at the Newport Beach

Conference and Visitors Bureau.

After looking through loads of resumes, Cassady began to wonder if he

should apply.

“I asked the committee if I could sit on the other side of the table

and be interviewed for the position,” Cassady said.

And, just like Cheney, Cassady ended up with the job he was trying to

fill.

A mere 10 days into his new position at the helm of the city’s

conference and tourism promotion agency, which has 243 member businesses

and a $1.5-million annual budget, Cassady said last week the gig was

“pretty exciting.”

“I like it a lot,” said Cassady, who turned 52 Jan. 8, his first day

at the bureau. “It feels right.”

The fact that the bureau’s board of directors was looking for someone

willing to make a long-term commitment to Newport Beach had a lot of

appeal, said Cassady, who was working as Orange County’s district sales

manager for American Airlines before taking his new position.

Picking up a foot-long box filled with business cards, Cassady said

his new bosses had made clear their intentions in a visible way.

“At my former job, they printed 200 [cards] at a time,” he said.

Funded largely by the city’s hotel taxes, with about 7% covered by

membership dues, the bureau’s mission is to “promote tourism for Newport

Beach to enhance the economic fabric of the community,” Cassady said.

In a sense, Cassady now works as the city’s head cheerleader. He said

a real cheerleader -- his 16-year-old daughter, Kelsey, who lives with

her mother in Carlsbad -- had given him advice when he’d asked her what

she thought about his plans to change jobs.

“I think it will be challenging for you,” Cassady remembers his

daughter saying. “But it seems like a good idea. Without any risks, there

aren’t any rewards.”

Kyle, Cassady’s 20-year-old son, who is studying computer science and

philosophy at UC Santa Cruz, told his father to work where he felt “warm

and comfortable.”

“He was being very philosophical about it,” Cassady said with a laugh.

But warm and comfortable might not be the words to describe Cassady’s

initial days at the bureau.

On his first day, he attended a 6:30 a.m. meeting, only to find five

more appointments scheduled when he returned to the office, which is next

to The Arches Restaurant on West Coast Highway.

Then came the month-end report for December, a tax review and the

Christmas Boat Parade Awards dinner, Cassady said. He also attended his

first economic development committee meeting at the city.

He’s still getting up to speed on the different committees that he’s

on.

In fact, he’s been so busy that the walls in his office still remain

barren, because he hasn’t had the time to settle in.

While Williams left behind “a very good tradition,” Cassady said he

was beginning to think about areas for improvement. A redesign of the

bureau’s Web site (o7 https://www.newportbeach-cvb.comf7 ) that’s

scheduled for next month should help promote the city over the Internet,

Cassady said.

Although he lives in Huntington Beach -- 5.1 miles from his office, to

be precise -- Cassady said he used to visit Newport Beach’s beaches

during his childhood, which he spent in Anaheim.

After his job with American Airlines took him all over the state and

to Chicago, he moved to a trailer on Lido Isle while his house was under

construction.

“I really liked that experience,” Cassady said, adding that touring

Newport Harbor on an electric boat is one of his favorite things to do in

the city.

He’s quick to list other benefits offered in the town he now promotes.

“The best things are the Mediterranean climate, the scenic harbor and

world-class hotels,” he said. “And there are 300 restaurants in Newport

Beach.”

When it comes to his former line of work and the perception that more

flights out of John Wayne Airport could pose a threat to the city’s

quality of life, Cassady’s more cautious in his remarks.

“Two weeks ago, I had a position,” he said. “Today, in this job, I

think my position is pro-business, pro-growth. But you have to balance

that pro-business [mentality] with community livability.”

Cassady added that he would reserve comments on the airport issue

until the Orange County Tourism Council comes up with a position, a move

expected to happen soon, he said.

“I’m not prepared to make a strong statement for or against El Toro,”

he said, referring to a proposed airport at the closed Marine Corps Air

Station in South County.

Flight caps at John Wayne Airport are set to expire in 2005, and city

officials are trying to secure an extension of the limits.