Next Up Newport/SPON Forum -My Answers

My answer: YES

My more complete answer: I am not an attorney, but I believe most regulation of travel on public streets is an area where the state Legislature has "occupied the field," so even charter cities can only implement customized local regulations to the extent allowed by the statewide laws.

The City Council held a study session on this topic on August 23, 2022, from which the staff PowerPoint has been posted. What staff claims are the limited available local regulatory options are listed on Slide 15.

I would favor additional regulation of the lower-powered e-bikes. I do not favor the state-allowed relaxation of restrictions on the higher powered-ones, or a licensing program which would be required of residents, but not of visitors.

In addition, fellow District 3 candidate Amy Peters suggested schools could restrict the classes of e-bikes they allow students to park on the school properties. If true, limiting those to lower-powered models would certainly seem something to explore.

My answer: YES

My more complete answer: I always believe public engagement is good.

The City's existing Mariner's Mile Strategic Vision and Design Framework was adopted in 2000 and is largely ignored.

In 2016-2017, City staff spent considerable time, money at effort on a new Mariners’ Mile Revitalization Master Plan, that was ultimately put on hold pending the more comprehensive General Plan Update that is only now beginning.

My answer: YES

My more complete answer: Fractional home ownership refers to a relatively new scheme for creating what are effectively timeshares or short term lodgings in areas where they would not otherwise be allowed. Typically, the title to a property is sold to eight unrelated owners under a condition that each (or their friends or relatives) will occupy the home for only limited periods during each year.

City staff had previously told the Council there was no way to prohibit this without invalidated more traditional forms of joint ownership (such as family trusts). But after further study, they announced at the Council's September 13, 2022, study session that other cities do indeed regulate fractionally-owned, limited occupancy homes as timeshares (which in Newport Beach are allowed only in commercial areas, such as resort hotels).

I support treating fractionally owned homes the same as timeshares, as, it appeared, did the whole existing Council.

My answer: I voted "NO"

My more complete answer: Measure B was the highly-flawed June 2022 ballot measure that proposed to reduce the number of Council districts from seven to six and make the Mayor a seventh directly-elected position with power to set the Council agenda.

One of the other candidates from District 3 seems to believe Measure B was an event that belongs "in the rearview mirror," and the community disagreements it generated should be forgotten as quickly as possible.

I do not agree.

Although I voted "No," I thought Measure B raised a number of questions that could and should be resolved through further discussion and policy making: see my discussion of this on my Issues page.

My answer: NO

My more complete answer: As described on the About page, my experience sailing in Newport Harbor is confined to a little family sabot sailed here, for pleasure only, in the 1950's.

Complete question: One of the sections of the NB General Plan Vision Statement reads: “We have a conservative growth strategy that emphasizes residents’ quality of life—a strategy that balances the needs of the various constituencies and that cherishes and nurtures our estuaries, harbor, beaches, open spaces, and natural resources”. Per the state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), the city of Newport Beach must plan for 4,845 affordable dwelling units in order to meet housing element requirements. How would you change the General Plan Vision Statement to align with RHNA requirements?

My answer: At its September 13, 2022, meeting, our current Council adopted a new General Plan Housing Element containing numerous policies written, not by the people, but by City staff as ordered by state Department of Housing and Community Development staff.

The existing General Plan Land Use Element, adopted in 2006, has a banner across the opening pages echoing the vision statement quoted above: "Primarily a Residential Community That Balances the Needs of Residents, Businesses, and Visitors, with a Conservative Growth Strategy."

The Council has appointed a General Plan Update Steering Committee whose first take is to recommend changes to the Land Use Element to make it compatible with the new Housing Element commitment to plan for 4,845 new dwelling units (roughly half of which need to be affordable). To express this new goal, the opening banner quoted above should be replaced with: "A RHNA-compliant community."

But as I said at the forum, I would resist any effort of the state to impose a new vision on us.

Complete question: What do you think is the biggest John Wayne Airport-related issue that impacts Newport Beach residents’ quality of life, and how should the city of Newport Beach address it?

My answer: The issue with the biggest impact on Newport Beach residents is aircraft noise, primarily from jets.

The number of scheduled commercial operations is limited by the Settlement Agreement, but there is no similar limit on unscheduled business and private jets. So the biggest threat is from ever-increased numbers of those, which currently number about half the number of scheduled commercial operations, and, mercifully, fly mostly during non-curfew hours.

The threat is increasing as a result of JWA's General Aviation Improvement Program, one of whose purposes is to make JWA more attractive for storage of business jets. Two things that can be done to limit the increase are to (1) change the definition of "small aircraft" that can be stored in certain areas and (2) resist any effort to establish a GA customs facility. The first involves a definition that currently qualifies an aircraft as "small" if it is under either a weight threshold or a wingspan threshold. It should require the plane to be under both thresholds. Building the latter would encourage curfew-hour departures and arrivals to foreign countries.

Complete question: The City of Newport Beach currently has an additional $15m surplus; how do you think this surplus should be allocated?

My answer: Newport Beach ends almost every year with a surplus. This is not the result of some kind of adroit cost-saving management, but rather simply a reflection of the City's practice of preparing a budget that purposefully underestimates the revenues and overestimates the expenses for the coming year.

That certainly seems a lot more responsible than the alternative, which would be to allow staff to spend more than they expect to come in during the year.

Nonetheless, regarding the "surplus" as a windfall burning a hole in the City's pocketbook seems an illusion to me, for I believe the City's longer-range financial planning assumes these will occur each year.

If there truly is a systematic, long-term excess of revenue over expenses, then I would agree with the fellow candidate who suggested the excess taxes or fees should be rebated to those paying them.

Complete question: If you’re on Next Door, you know that Newport Beach residents have been complaining recently about an uptick in crime – catalytic converter thefts, front porch package thefts, smash and grab purse thieves, etc. If you could sit down with our NB Police Chief, Jon Lewis, what would you suggest doing differently to help make Newport Beach a safer place to live?

My answer: First, I would be cautious about regarding Next Door postings as reflecting objective reality. And second, I would hope our Police Chief knows more about effective policing than I.

If there truly is a marked increase in crime, I think the Council should hold a public discussion at which it seeks not only the opinion of the Chief, but also of at least one independent expert.

Complete question: Some residents think the City prioritizes tourism at the expense of residents’ quality of life. What should be done to ensure the City maintains a balance between tourism and residents’ quality of life?

My answer: In my view, Newport Beach markets itself as a tourist destination, and the visitors do little or nothing to benefit the City's ordinary, fulltime residents. Instead, the visitors create traffic, infrastructure and safety demands that cost money. The City attempts to mitigate those impacts by levying a "transient occupancy tax" on hotel and other short term rentals (of 30 days or less).

For years, the hotel owners had a private, dues-funded marketing organization called the "Conference and Visitors Bureau." With dues drying up during an economic turn-down in the 1980's, the Bureau came to the Council asking it to increase the TOT and turn the increased revenue over to them. The Council agreed on a 4:3 vote. The Bureau subsequently dropped its dues and became a fully tax-dependent organization.

Now called "Visit Newport Beach" the City turns roughly $6 million a year of increased "bed tax" to it to market our city to tourists, and another roughly $4 million into a subset of it called the Tourism Business Improvement District to book business conferences into the major hotels (with many of the guests arriving by air through JWA).

Some candidates believe these expenditures are a great economic driver for the City. But for the average citizen, to the extent it generates more visitors than we would have without the marketing, I find it hard to believe those extra visitors do anything but create more expense.

I would try to reverse the 4:3 vote from the 1980's so as to end the visitor-marketing subsidy and also get the City out of the conference booking business.

Complete question: The City has taken an adversarial approach to their interactions with the California Coastal Commission. Do you think this is an effective stance, or should the City work more collaboratively with the Coastal Commission to achieve desired outcomes?

My answer: Newport Beach City Councils have traditionally demonized the Coastal Commission and other outside governmental agencies, questioning both their legitimacy and their competence. For about 10 years it authorized staff to hire, and paid a total of roughly $1 million to a lobbyist who presented City issues to the Commission, but ended up mostly irritating them and leaving many wondering why Newport Beach needed a lobbyist when other cities did not.

One particularly notable fiasco was the lobbyist's effort to take regulation of the harbor largely out of the Coastal Commission's hands by having the legislature declare our recreational harbor a commercial port.

I do not believe this adversarial stance has helped the City. Rather, I think Council members should try to recognize that other governmental agencies are trying to do what they see as their jobs with the same sincerity and ability as the City.

Cooperation, rather than confrontation, with the Coastal Commission will be particularly important in developing solutions to the existential threat the low-lying areas of Newport Beach face from sea level rise.

Complete question: If you are elected to City Council, do you plan to involve residents in the decision-making process, and if so, how will you involve residents?

My answer: Yes. As a resident who for 13 years has tried to influence the Council's decision-making process I very much believe in involving other residents in it.

For those who wish to be involved, I have numerous suggestions for making the City Council meetings more welcoming, including:

• Restoring them to a 7:00 p.m. starting hour, with options for remote participation

• Extending the time limit for comments to 5 minutes

• Allowing members of the public to pull "consent calendar" items for separate discussion

• Improving transparency of closed session discussions

• Holding town halls with a wider focus than for a single district

• and more

But at the same time I realize there are many who have neither the time or interest to become personally involved -- yet who are affected by the decisions the Council makes. Knowing what those residents want and do not want is a daunting task. I would like to restore the mailed newsletters and surveys soliciting their opinions that we had in the past.

My answer: "Many"

My more complete answer: I heard some candidates respond with estimates of as little as 20 hours a week. Unless they are incredibly accomplished speed readers, I find that a fantastic underestimate, for the agenda packets frequently run to over 1,000 pages.

Simply as a citizen watchdog, I frequently find myself researching City and City-related issues from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., with rarely a break. Add to that the need to respond to constituent questions, being a "good" and responsible City Council representative strikes me as more than a fulltime job. Which is why I see it as a job I am somewhat reluctantly volunteering to do for my fellow residents, rather than something I am actively lusting after.

My answer: "Aviation"

My more complete answer: One of the other candidates from District 3 answered "Planning." But our City Charter makes Council members ineligible for appointment to the Boards and Commissions the Charter creates.

I think that is a wise model if independent advice and recommendations are wanted.

However, the Council has created a number of Council-Citizen committees that not only have Council members as members, but force them on the committee as chair and vice chair. I do not think that is particularly good idea, but of those I would be uniquely qualified to serve on the Aviation Committee.

The Council also has some completely Council member subcommittees (only one of which, the Affordable Housing Task Force is a standing committee whose extremely rare meetings are open to the public) as well as appointments as the City representative on a array of outside groups. The complete list can be seen in the January agenda item where the newly-appointed Mayor makes recommendations to the full Council.

My answer: "my home"

My more complete answer: Council members are required to recuse themselves from decisions that could have a positive or negative impact on their personal finances different from that of the public in general, including such things as paving a street near their home. Even more broadly, the Council cannot award a contract in which any Council member has a personal interest.

Candidates for Council are required to list most of those potential conflicts on something called the FPPC Form 700.

My Form 700 is on file with the City Clerk and viewable online. A more accurate answer based on it would have been: "home & stocks."

Since I am retired, I would not have an professional relationships requiring recusal, although I might have a personal friendship with someone having business before the Council and would consider recusal in such a case to avoid the appearance of bias.

My answer: "my kitchen at home"

My more complete answer: I am a simple person with simple tastes. And I don't particularly like people waiting on me. So I prefer home-cooked food.

My answer: "Neither"

My more complete answer: I hope my answer was not misunderstood.

Having neither as a pet does not mean I dislike either or am unaware of the comfort and joy both bring to others.

I simply have no wish to take on the responsibility of caring for a dog or cat.

In addition, I have experienced enough people growing old and dying to not want to experience a beloved pet doing the same.