New City Hall sounds like same old problems

DOLORES OTTING

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Today the Daily Pilot begins a new Forum page

feature, “Watchdog,” in which city activists will be given a regular

opportunity to put a microscope on the action of our two city’s civic

leaders.

Like many of you, I watched the last Newport Beach City Council

meeting from home and it was well into the night -- close to 11 p.m.

(so what else is new) -- before one of the hottest and most expensive

projects to hit a city agenda in Newport finally appeared before the

public for discussion: the new City Hall.

As the City Council discussion ensued we learned that there was a

conflict of interest, and due to this “conflict” the city deferred

from executing the agreement with Griffin Structures Inc. for almost

two years so that this “conflict” could be resolved. I kept waiting

for them to explain to the public what this conflict of interest was,

but it was not revealed. They kept talking about it, but never

telling us about it. At this point I was beginning to wonder whether

I was watching a scene from “The OC,” but no, it was the City Council

-- the Newport Beach City Council that is supposed to conduct the

business of the public in public. The preamble to the Brown Act

states: “The legislature finds and declares that the public

commissions, boards and council and other public agencies in this

state exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the

intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their

deliberations be conducted openly.”

And more importantly, the Brown Act states: “The people of this

state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve

them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public

servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and

what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining

informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they

have created.”

So here we are embarking on a $45-million-plus project, per

Councilmember John Heffernan’s count, for a new City Hall, a new fire

station and a new parking structure that no resident in the city has

asked for. I have gone to the parking structure at Lido Village that

is less than three tenths of a mile driving distance from City Hall

and have counted the cars parked there many times. Out of the 371

parking spaces I was lucky to find 120 cars parked there. How is this

new parking structure going to be any different? What is the return

to us, the residents, for this $45-million debt that will likely be

increased by cost overruns and interest and will probably double by

the time we pay it off?

If this is what we, the residents really want, then there are

empty buildings in Newport Beach that could service all of the above

and even a new police station, since we can rest assured that will be

in our horizon. However, since it appears that it is OK for our

children to go to school in trailers year after year, it should be OK

for our public servants.

Hold on to your wallets for we seem to be on a fast-track program

to get this project done. I just wish I knew who we were contracting

with since we started with Griffin Advisors, went onto Griffin

Holdings and now we are with Griffin Structures. I guess we like

playing the name game in Newport Beach, which is shades of Marina

Park.

* DOLORES OTTING is a longtime city activist who ran for the

council last fall.