Letters to the Editor: Newport City Council clashes illustrate the problem with district representation system

Re: “Newport councilman uses city email to encourage residents to vote colleagues out of office over city manager flap”: Councilman Jeff Herdman commented in an email that Mayor Marshall Duffield “cares nothing about his constituents. I have had to step in several times to help out his constituents.” This shows a flaw in our district-based approach.

We all vote for the Newport Beach City Council, and we are all constituents of each council member. It takes a council majority to pass legislation and major initiatives, such as seawalls, development and zoning, traffic patterns, Mariners Park, etc.

Of course, it’s natural for a council member to have a strong interest in the area where she or he lives, however, they must be familiar with issues across the city.

Further, the current district-based candidacy system restricts the pipeline of eligible candidates, and thus our choices for council members.

Laura Curran

Newport Beach

Distinguish between candidates and their PACs

While I completely agree with Eberhard Neutz’s letter (“Baugh and Rohrabacher both engage in negative campaigning”), an important distinction must be drawn between mailings directly from the candidate’s campaign and those from Political Action Committees (PACs) or special interests.

The latest mailer we received on Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s behalf was from the right-wing Howard Ahmanson/Fieldstead & Co. It played up the fact that Rohrabacher was not politically correct (very Trump-like), implying that honesty, ethics, reason and avoidance of insensitive and offensive behavior are being kicked to the curb in favor of taking on opponents as he sees fit.

Ironically, this also applies to Rohrabacher’s constituents who have accused him of doing nothing for their benefit over the last 30 years. This attitude defines Rohrabacher’s own campaign tactics and bodes ill for those hoping for better representation.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach

Annual race causes traffic problems

The OC Marathon race has become too large for our city. It’s time to eliminate this event. It makes it very inconvenient for all except the runners, and they don’t give a hoot.

One really terrible area was the traffic control unit at Merrimac Way and Harbor Boulevard. The patrol people had absolutely no consideration for the traffic backed up to past Wilson Street to the south and past Baker Street on the north. Very inconsiderate for residents and visitors.

Plus, who pays for all the extra help and props? Sure hope none of my tax money is used.

I say cancel it!

Wayne Searcey

Costa Mesa

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