Council votes, 5-2, to replace City Hall

Andrew Edwards

Plans to replace Newport Beach’s City Hall moved a step forward, when

a majority of the City Council voted to rebuild the city’s civic

center at the conclusion of a meeting that began Tuesday night and

ended Wednesday morning.

The decision cleared the way for more detailed plans to be

completed on what was presented as the least costly of three options

for a new civic center.

The design, which would replace 90% of the existing City Hall and

build a new fire station, a parking garage and a community center,

would come with a $41.5-million price tag, said Roger Torriero of

consulting firm Griffin Structures, which prepared the three design

plans.

The other two plans would have retained more of the existing City

Hall, though the projected costs for those proposals were higher.

Before the vote, Mayor Steve Bromberg and Councilman Tod Ridgeway

elaborated their opposition to putting the multi-million-dollar

project on a ballot. Many audience members who stayed until the end

of the meeting advocated putting the proposal before the public, but

Bromberg insisted Newport residents had already entrusted council

members to make a decision when members were elected.

“We’re the ones you guys put in, OK? You didn’t put the other guys

in, and the other guys are the ones who are saying everything we did

is wrong,” Bromberg said.

Ridgeway voiced similar views when he alleged opponents of a new

City Hall would resort to negative campaigning before any vote.

“You will tell half-truths, and you will go the negative side,” he

said.

A citizens group, Newporters for Responsible Government, was

formed recently to seek a public vote on the City Hall proposal.

Group member John Buttolph said Wednesday that he thought he detected

some arrogance in council members’ opposition to a public vote.

However, he anticipated Bromberg and Ridgeway’s position since he

views the two councilmen as unsympathetic to Measure S, the

Greenlight law that mandates public votes on projects that would

exceed zoning restrictions.

“I’m not surprised that they would resist the call for a public

vote,” Buttolph said.

During the meeting, Buttolph and frequent City Council observer

Dolores Otting stated their displeasure that the council did not

consider options beyond the civic center’s current home on the Balboa

Peninsula. Otting expressed her preference to move city functions to

office space at the Newport Technology Center, and Buttolph said the

three designs considered did not offer any real choice. He compared

the situation to a Monty Python sketch about a cafe, patronized by

Vikings, that only serves Spam.

“We’ve got choices of Spam. We didn’t get real choices,” Buttolph

said.

Councilmen John Heffernan and Dick Nichols both voted against the

proposal. Heffernan said Balboa Peninsula is not accessible enough to

residents in south Newport. Bromberg responded that a sense of

tradition influenced recommendations to keep the civic center in its

current location.

Torriero told the council he expected to make a budget

presentation on the more detailed plan in September.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624.