Insider, outsider in race

In Newport Beach’s Council District 7, a longtime city watchdog is taking on a councilman who has proposed several high-profile initiatives since his February appointment to the seat.

Dolores Otting, a businesswoman who attends most council meetings to ask questions and make comments, has run for council twice previously. She lost her 2004 bid to John Heffernan by 3,125 votes.

Otting also put her name in for appointment when Heffernan resigned in January. Keith Curry, a financial advisor, got the appointment and is now running for election to the seat.

The appointment threw off the District 7 seat’s normal election cycle, so Tuesday’s winner would have to run again in 2008 to stay in office.

Perhaps more than in any other race on Newport’s ballot this year, the District 7 contest is a choice between the establishment candidate who was handpicked by the rest of the council and the outsider who challenges the council’s decisions.

Some think Curry has acquitted himself well as a councilman, particularly in the financial issues that are his professional expertise.

But his day job at Public Financial Management led to an allegation in May that he might have a conflict of interest because the company manages $25 million in city investments.

In response, Curry asked that the city not use his firm to invest money raised for capital projects, and he promised to recuse himself from any decisions on the city’s contract with the company.

But Curry has stood out in other ways. In April, he proposed a city monument to the Marine battalion the city adopted in 2003 and he drafted Measure W, an initiative on Tuesday’s ballot intended to limit the city’s use of eminent domain.

Otting has been among the vanguard of residents who question the council’s representation of residents. She is endorsed by the Greenlight residents group, which proposed Measure X and opposes the city-backed Measure V.

She also helped circulate petitions for a ballot measure that would have required a public vote on most financial borrowing by the city, but it failed to qualify for the ballot. And she repeatedly questioned the cost of a proposed new city hall, an issue the council has dragged its feet on for months.

When the new council is seated in December, members will likely take up the city hall issue and other future facilities planning. Whoever takes the District 7 seat will be responsible for the northern portion of Newport Coast, where residents are presently tangling with the Irvine Co. over the extension of a road closure.