City hall to go on ballot

**CORRECTION: The Orange County Registrar of Voters found 8,997 signatures valid and 1,873 signatures were ruled invalid.**

Newport Beach residents could vote in February on whether to build a city hall on a 12.8-acre parcel planned to become a park, now that the Orange County Registrar of Voters has qualified the measure for the ballot.

City Clerk LaVonne Harkless learned Monday from the registrar that at least 10,870 valid signatures were collected, which well exceeded the 8,997 signatures required to get the measure on the ballot.

“Obviously we’re very, very pleased to get the results back so quickly, and we’re excited about our campaign,” City Hall in the Park lead proponent and retired architect Bill Ficker said. “The next thing to do for us is to put our shoulders to the grindstone to keep all the people on board to vote for this measure.”

The City Council will vote Oct. 9 on whether to place the measure on the February 2008 ballot. The measure would change the city charter to specify that City Hall must be on a proposed park site next to the central library.

The issue also could go to a vote of the people in June or November 2008, Newport Beach Mayor Steve Rosansky said. The city charter states the measure does not have to go on the ballot until the next general election next November, but Rosansky said he believes the council will decide to send it to a vote of the people sooner.

“I imagine that there will be a fairly spirited debate between now and the election,” said Rosansky, who supports the proposed ballot measure. “The quantity of signatures certainly shows there’s a lot of people interested in the idea.”

Proponents must now prepare for a likely contentious campaign that may divide city voters. In several earlier votes, the council was split 4-3 over whether to consider the park site for city hall, with the majority opting to go ahead with the park plans. Ficker’s group maintains a city hall and park will fit on the property.

“Both sides agree that a vote should come sooner rather than later because it does cause division in the community,” Rosansky said.

Allan Beek, of the opposition group Parks are Priceless, said Monday the group will sue the city if the measure goes to a vote. The group wants to preserve the proposed city hall site next to the library on Avocado Avenue for a public park, and Beek said he doesn’t believe the location of city hall should be enshrined in the city charter.

“They spent enough money and got a lot of signatures,” Beek said. “The whole thing is a kind of comic opera. There’s nothing in the Constitution that says where the Capitol building should be built.”

City officials are in the midst of negotiations with the Irvine Co. to possibly lease a city hall site in the 500 block of Newport Center Drive, and they previously considered an Orange County Transportation Authority park-and-ride station next to the park site. They’ve also never officially ruled out rebuilding at the existing City Hall location on the Balboa Peninsula.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected]. ALICIA ROBINSON may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at [email protected].