Tonight, one final meeting for Bromberg

Alicia Robinson

Newport Beach Mayor Steve Bromberg will preside over his final

meeting as a member of the City Council tonight.

Bromberg is stepping down to become a judge in the Orange County

Superior Court, where he’ll be sworn in June 24.

After serving 4 1/2 years on the council, he leaves behind a

mixed audience of admirers and detractors.

Some council members just concentrate on their own districts, but

during his 1 1/2 terms as mayor, Bromberg focused on all areas of

the city, said Gay Wassall-Kelly, who lives on the Balboa Peninsula.

He helped bring the peninsula and Balboa Island together, and he

fostered improvements that “kind of brought the sparkle back to the

area,” she said.

Former Councilwoman Jean Watt, who represented the same council

district from 1988 to 1996, hasn’t agreed with Bromberg on everything

but praised his work to get the island a new fire station. Some

residents initially opposed the idea, but eventually the station was

built and its dedication in 1994 was the beginning of the island’s

parade, now an annual tradition.

“The important thing that’s been true of his service, from my

point of view, has been that Balboa Island has lots of issues and

he’s been good for them,” Watt said. “That sort of local service is

important.”

But Bromberg is not without his critics. Fellow Balboa Islander

Lee Gale said he helped get Bromberg elected but the councilman

hasn’t fulfilled a promise to fix potholes and other paving problems

in the area.

On top of that, Gale said, now Bromberg is supporting the building

of a new City Hall.

“The money could be spent much better for the streets and whatever

else we need,” Gale said. “I think he’s done a lousy job and he just

put the frosting on his cake, No. 1: [by] not keeping his word.”

Other residents have criticized Bromberg and the rest of the

council for pursuing a new City Hall and fire station that will cost

more than $40 million, and for planning to appoint a new council

member -- both issues some would like put to a public vote.

Despite that, Bromberg considers his biggest accomplishment

restoring the community’s trust in its elected officials.

“I think it was bringing a higher level of dignity to the City

Council, where I think more people trust their local government than

they did before, and I’d like to think I was a part of that,” he

said.

In one of his last actions as an elected city official, Bromberg

will put in his two cents on whether the next mayor should serve

until early December -- as council policy dictates -- or through the

next council election in November 2006.

The council likely won’t decide tonight how long the next mayor

will serve.

That won’t happen until at least June 21, when the council

appoints a new member, though the city attorney recommended the

council choose a mayor at its June 28 meeting.

Mayor Pro-tem Don Webb recently said he’s interested in being

mayor during the city’s centennial year, 2006, but has no preference

as to whether he starts in June or December. Although Bromberg won’t

talk about who he thinks should replace him on the council, he said

he would support a six-month mayor’s term that could be filled by

Councilman John Heffernan.

“I’ve tried to get Heffernan in a leadership role in the past, and

I think that a lot of his contrarian-isms are due to the fact that he

hasn’t been put in a leadership role,” Bromberg said.

Heffernan said he would like to be mayor, but the decision on who

fills the council vacancy is a more important one to him.

“I’m the most senior guy [on the council] other than Tod

Ridgeway,” Heffernan said. “A lot can be done. I just never have been

in a spot where people thought of me doing it, so I’m really focusing

more on the City Council vacancy than I am on the mayor.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.