Bromberg plans reelection bid

June Casagrande

Nearly a year before the next City Council election the ballot is

already coming into focus.

Steve Bromberg will run for another four-year term on the City

Council, he announced Tuesday.

Newcomer Steve Rosansky had already announced when he applied to

fill Gary Proctor’s vacant seat that he planned to run in November.

Of the three council seats up for grabs next year, only one

remains a complete wildcard. District 7 Councilman John Heffernan

said he will decide sometime next year, likely in the summer, whether

he’ll run for another term.

“I have to sit down with my family and I have to look at all the

work that needs to be done for the city,” Heffernan said.

Formerly an odd man out on the council who had announced he would

step down two years before the end of his term, Heffernan’s

once-frosty relations with fellow council members have warmed

considerably. For example, Bromberg, who was once at odds with the

Greenlight-endorsed Heffernan, now speaks highly of his colleague and

has even said he would support Heffernan for mayor pro tem.

“I came into the job with a lot of bravado that I now feel was

misplaced and I regret that,” Heffernan said. “I’ve learned how the

job is done and performed better, and there have been less focus on

Greenlight issues, so I’ve been in a different position.”

This sea change on the council has distanced Heffernan from the

only other Greenlight councilman, Dick Nichols, whose remarks last

summer about Mexicans on Corona del Mar State Beach left him at far

greater odds with his colleagues than Heffernan had ever been.

Heffernan sided with the council majority in disapproving Nichols’

comments, but stopped short of voting to censure him. Heffernan and

Nichols cast the dissenting votes against censure, with Heffernan

arguing that to censure Nichols could hurt constituents by crippling

the councilman’s power to serve.

Heffernan and Bromberg both cited the city’s recent move to take

part in John Wayne Airport operations as incentive to stick around.

“There’s a lot to see through,” Bromberg said. “The new program

we’re embarking on regarding John Wayne Airport and the tidelands

could be very significant.”