Letters to the Editor: City Council is overstepping its authority by using its subpoena powers in recall investigation

The Team Newport City Council put forward a consent calendar item giving itself the right to issue subpoenas to the residents and professionals involved in the recent recall effort of Councilman Scott Peotter. This is the first time in recent memory that this power has been used.

This is a blatant attempt to punish the residents to support the recall and a complete abuse of power. Thanks to Council members Diane Dixon and Jeff Herdman, who opposed this abuse.

All of us should be very concerned about the constitutional rights of Newport Beach residents and the utter waste of taxpayer dollars involved in this folly.

Team Newport members try with almost clownish posturing to show themselves as “conservative Republicans.” Ironically, they are going down as the worst of big government power abusers who are utterly in contempt of the constitutional rights of Newport residents.

Georgia Foell

Newport Beach

Gatherers are paid by the signature

I am amused at the responses to the Newport Beach City Council’s effort to root out election fraud in our city. The same people who hired outsiders to circulate Councilman Scott Peotter recall petitions and are crying foul over the city’s investigation are the ones who admitted to paying people for each signature. I support the City Council’s investigation to protect our local election system.

Pat Kenney

Newport Beach

No need to duplicate D.A.’s work

I agree with the opinions of Dudley Johnson and Lynn Swain expressed in letters in the Feb. 25 mailbag (“There’s no reason for Newport council to duplicate D.A.’s investigation” and “No reason for city to investigate recall”). The Orange County district attorney’s unbiased investigation into signature gathering during the recent recall election against Councilman Scott Peotter is the agency best suited for the job.

A duplicate investigation that the Newport Beach City Council recently approved would not only be a waste of taxpayers’ money but a decision that could appear by many to be politically motivated. I would think also that citizens might feel that such an investigation is a thinly veiled attempt by council members to discourage future recall efforts — thus depriving them of one of their constitutional rights.

Lynn Lorenz

Newport Beach

Gate will not deter park crime

I would like to know whose bright idea it was to put a gate on a very small local park at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Victoria Street. People will simply park on the street, taking up precious parking for tenants and homeowners who actually live on Pacific Avenue.

I have owned a townhome on Pacific Avenue for 20 years. Most people who park in the park’s parking lot after dark want to go to the bluff and smoke a joint or drink beers. That simply isn’t going to change by putting up a gate. People will simply park on the street.

The police will still need to patrol the park. In the meantime a security gate in a small local park like this doesn’t bode well for property values on Pacific Avenue. It screams: Warning, high crime area! Which isn’t the case at all.

A better solution would be to put up a sign stating that cars will be towed after dusk. Then have the police patrol the park on a regular basis, ticket cars that are there after dark and tow them. People will quickly get the message.

Steve Bachman

Costa Mesa

How about a Camp David Accord on gun violence?

Since President Trump praised the leaders of the National Rifle Assn. as “great patriots ... who love our country,” then he shouldn’t have any trouble inviting members of the rifle group to join 2nd Amendment and gun safety advocates to a weeklong summit on guns at Camp David. Who knows what they will come up with in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Florida?

Some say the NRA would not accept the president’s invitation, but I disagree. If then-President Carter could convince old warriors Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel to make peace at Camp David in 1978, then Trump can do the same thing now. The process of finding common ground between these three groups won’t be easy; still, I believe they owe it to the nation to try.

Denny Freidenrich

Laguna Beach

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