No-show Newporters an embarrassment
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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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