Hotel designer quits advisory group
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Alicia Robinson
Citing personal attacks by City Council members during the heated
campaign over a resort at Marinapark, hotel designer Stephen
Sutherland has resigned from a city economic development committee.
His resignation comes after 12 years on the committee, which
advises the City Council on economic issues, including attracting and
retaining businesses.
Sutherland was one of the original appointees to the committee,
which the council formed in 1993. Among the committee’s many
recommendations was working with the Fletcher Jones Mercedes
dealership to keep the company’s expansion facility in Newport Beach.
The community likely knows Sutherland better for his proposal to
build a luxury waterfront resort at the Marinapark site, a piece of
city-owned land that now is occupied by a mobile-home park, an
American Legion post and other facilities.
The proposal went to the ballot in November, and supporters and
opponents waged a bitter battle that ended in the defeat of the
Marinapark hotel plan. Accusations were slung by both sides, and
Sutherland said that harsh words from elected officials were the
reason he resigned from the economic development committee.
“As I said in my resignation, this is a committee that makes
recommendations to the City Council, and there are three members of
the City Council that participated in one way or the other in
character assassination, personal attacks [against me] during the
November election,” Sutherland said. “How can I be effective in front
of the City Council?... I just felt it was the best thing for the
economic development committee that I resign.”
Sutherland declined to name the council members he believes
verbally attacked him. Three councilmen -- John Heffernan, Dick
Nichols and Don Webb -- voted against certifying an environmental
report on the project, which many saw as taking a public stance
against the resort project.
Some council members said they’re not aware of any personal
attacks coming from the dais.
“I was kind of surprised at his comments, because I couldn’t
recall any remarks that were inappropriate,” Councilman Steve
Rosansky said. “I know there were some heated discussions at meetings
where residents certainly questioned his integrity.”
The council did question Sutherland’s business background, but any
personal attacks came from residents who opposed the project,
Councilman Tod Ridgeway said.
“I think looking at the credibility of the entity that we’re about
to do business with is a legitimate concern for a city council,”
Ridgeway said.
Nichols echoed Ridgeway’s comments, saying, “I think he’s taking
it as a personal attack that they attacked his financial backer.”
Sutherland at one time was in partnership with D. Michael Talla, who
withdrew from the project at Sutherland’s request because of his
investments in Las Vegas strip clubs.
Mayor Steve Bromberg and Councilmen Heffernan and Webb did not
return calls for comment.
Losing the election in November had nothing to do with the
decision to resign from the economic development committee,
Sutherland said, and the Marinapark issue hasn’t changed his love for
Newport Beach.
Ridgeway and Rosansky said they believe residents have gotten past
the divisiveness of the Marinapark campaign, but others said bad
blood is still circulating in the community.
“I think that everybody felt good when the election was over and
the results were what they were,” Nichols said. “Now the majority [of
the council] is taking off in another direction. They haven’t
bothered to come back to the community and find out how they would do
it and these kinds of things. They’re just acting with another
committee.”
The council in January voted to form an ad hoc committee, whose
members were named by Bromberg and approved by the council, to
consider future uses for Marinapark. But Nichols isn’t alone in
worrying that the committee won’t fairly represent the community’s
wishes for the property.
Two of the councilmen who were in favor of the hotel project are
on the committee, and options that could be considered include
commercial uses such as a large-boat marina, said Phil Arst, a
spokesman for the slow-growth citizens’ committee Greenlight.
“We feel that the public has voted, and the understanding was that
it would be park land, and we think it’s improper for the city to be
considering other alternatives,” Arst said.
* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be
reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson
@latimes.com.
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