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No-show Newporters an embarrassment

DOLORES OTTING

So here we are again.

Wednesday was basically the first workshop for the Newport Beach

City Hall question: remodel or replace?

I say the first workshop since the original one, with 10

attendees, was an embarrassment to all of us who live here and must

pay taxes to help support the $181-million city budget for 2004-05.

The second meeting was canceled because city officials decided

they should do some advertising and did not want another disaster on

their hands. So what should have been the third and last meeting is

officially the first meeting that actually incorporated advertising.

Yeah!

The city went all out and put up banners and did a mass e-mail to

who knows who. I know I didn’t get an e-mail, but some friends

e-mailed me their special invite.

And, if you’ve missed the banners, well, they are white, blend in,

and really don’t attract much attention. They are not quite up to par

with the turquoise banners we saw for the spring egg hunt.

In case you have been out of town or just missed it -- which would

be easy since there really has not been much in the way of

advertising -- the city of Newport Beach is contemplating $40 million

of debt for us, which when paid in 30 years will be closer to $80

million or more. On August 12, 2003, the City Council gave the go

ahead for interim funding to determine the need for a new City Hall,

a new fire station and a new parking structure.

Hard to imagine that this meeting of April 2 would have been the

third and last meeting for the Newport Beach City Hall. This process

is beyond fast track. This process is a comet ride, bulldozing its

way into not only your wallet, but your children’s wallets, and your

grandchildren’s wallets. Compare the City Hall planning with the

Newport Coast Community Center planning.

Newport Coast committee members worked with city planning and

whomever for more than 18 months, spent over $288,000 in design, and

had to agonize while the city changed door knobs, light switches and

which way the doors would swing, only to find out three days before

the council meeting of March 22 that they did not have enough

parking.

Wouldn’t you think the site plan and parking would have been

approved before the light switches?

Apparently when it comes to something for themselves and not us,

the city knows how to get it done. Remember the cover for our water

supply at Big Canyon Reservoir took about five years and at one point

was No. 12 on the city’s top 10 list of priorities.

Now that we are in the era of the “prevailing wage,” Newport Beach

city leaders need to incorporate words like downsizing, privatizing

and outsourcing. Newport Beach has more employees per resident than

any other city of its size or larger in the county. We can’t ride

this wave forever, and the price of these sumptuous quarters for the

bureaucrats is maybe a legacy that we really cannot afford.

With a $181-million budget, does it make sense that we should be

looking at a new City Hall when we cannot afford two lighted

crosswalks in Corona del Mar for the safety of our residents?

Isn’t this an awful lot of money for so few people when we can’t

get a couple of lighted crosswalks for all of us?

Rebuild or replace? Or behind door No. 3 none of the above.

God bless our troops!

* DOLORES OTTING is a longtime Newport Beach resident and City

Hall activist.

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