Letters to the Editor: Dave Kiff is one of the best city managers in California

Newport Beach City Manager Dave Kiff will be retiring soon. Normally, his myriad fans would simply wish him well, but this is not a normal situation. Team Newport (Councilmen Will O’Neill, Kevin Muldoon and Scott Peotter and Mayor Marshall Duffield) are running him out of town, despite wide acknowledgment among his peers and the residents that he is one of the best city managers in California.

Our bay is no longer covered with green mats of algae because of his advocacy for clean water. We are proactively addressing our pension liability under his direction. His enormous depth of knowledge about the airport benefits everyone under the John Wayne flight plan, making his departure especially mourned by those concerned about flight noise.

Team Newport claims that Kiff is retiring of his own accord and vigorously denies that it has pushed him out, but his newly amended contract calls for severance pay.

Have you ever heard of a retiree getting severance pay? Of course not.

Council members Jeff Herdman, Brad Avery and Diane Dixon were left completely out of this power play and were apparently not even aware that Mr. Kiff’s contract was being discussed until it was a done deal.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Dixon presented Kiff’s description of events, confirming to me that he had been forced out.

This is a situation that can only lead to chaos. Newport Beach deserves better than this, but we may not get it.

It is time to clean house in Newport Beach, but not by removing Kiff. It is time for Team Newport to be swept from office and elect representatives who put city before self on the City Council. Character matters.

Susan Skinner

Newport Beach

Helicopter noise is unbearable

I am writing you this letter because I was awoken at 2:40 on a recent morning by a Huntington Beach police helicopter flying over my neighborhood. This was especially irritating because I was awoken the previous day at 2:35 a.m. and then again at 6 a.m. After the 6 a.m. flyover, the helicopter flew over my house one, two, three, four times. Then at 1:15 p.m. it flew over for the sixth time that day.

Then the helicopter flew over my house at 1:15 p.m., 1:22 p.m., 1:25 p.m.and again at 1:45 p.m. I left for a couple hours, then it flew over my house at 7:30 p.m. while my neighbors were trying to enjoy dinner on their porch. So in a 24-hour period the helicopter flew over my neighborhood at least 11 times.

The noise, congestion and oppression of police helicopters has degraded Newport Beach like nothing I’ve experienced since 1985. Beach ambience is being ruined.

This was a huge mistake: if there is just one thing the city should do it is to cancel the contract with the H.B. police department.

Donald Graham

Newport Beach

Condo proposal is too large for Newport

I try to stay current with developments proposed to my city, especially a major project like the Koll Center Residences. I oppose it in its current size. It’s three huge 13-story buildings. So dense, so massive, so imposing on other buildings. It also will add a large amount of traffic.

There is no way this project fits into the area for which its proposed. I would turn it down.

Jo Carol Hunter

Newport Beach

Save us from Allman, Nugent

I’m not a particularly religious person, but I do believe in living by the Golden Rule. With this thought in mind, I am begging religious leaders like Franklin Graham and Joel Osteen to help save our country from the likes of entertainer Ted Nugent and conservative commentator Jamie Allman.

If you have forgotten or didn’t know, Nugent recently called for Democrats, the media and academics to be shot like rabid coyotes, while Allman tweeted he wanted to assault Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg with “a hot poker.”

I believe it’s time the likes of Graham and Osteen clearly and emphatically speak out and say, “Enough is enough. Your comments are blasphemous, not to mention un-American.”

It’s time religious leaders put aside their personal political beliefs and help save this country. If they don’t, then I am afraid their Golden Rule will mean very little.

Denny Freidenrich

Laguna Beach

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