Letters to the Editor: As eight Newport Beach Citizens of the Year, we endorse Joy Brenner and Tim Stoaks

It has been our collective honor to serve as Citizens of the Year in Newport Beach. All of us share a love for our community and a deep appreciation for the values that make our city great.

We also share a concern about the direction of our city over the past four years and how the level of civil discourse has diminished since the introduction of machine politics to our community. We think a change is in order.

We are proud to support Tim Stoaks, who is running in District 3 and Joy Brenner, who is running in District 6. They are longtime residents with a history of community involvement. Both of them have contributed to making our city better through projects such as the OASIS Senior Center, the Santa Ana Heights fire station and horse trail, the Corona del Mar library and our new animal shelter. They have been with us in the fight to protect our city from the impacts of John Wayne Airport, and they are committed to address traffic and density issues that are reducing our quality of life.

The fundamental problem is that the City Council appears not to reflect our community values. Nor does it prioritize protecting our quality of life when it conflicts with certain special interests. This is reflected in a lack of respect shown to the community and our neighborhoods.

Perhaps the best example of this was the unfortunate way our highly respected city manager, Dave Kiff, was forced to retire early by the council majority. We don’t want to turn our city into Irvine, and we think you don’t either.

We believe Brenner and Stoaks will be council members who will respect the law, respect the views of Newport Beach residents and respect our community values.

The experiment with highly partisan, machine politics has been a failure. It’s time for a change. Please join us in supporting Stoaks in District 3 and Brenner in District 6. Together, we can restore Newport Beach. However we will fail if you do not vote!

Nancy and Jack Skinner

John and Elizabeth Starr

Scott Paulson

Evelyn Hart

Jean Watt

Rush Hill

Newport Beach

The writers are former Newport Beach Citizens of the Year.

Rohrabacher should debate Rouda at `Fire’ forum

I was looking forward to attending a Feet to the Fire forum in Costa Mesa on Sept. 22 featuring Democrat Harley Rouda and Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher.

Imagine my surprise and disappointment when I recently visited the Feet to the Fire website and learned that the F2F meeting had been canceled. F2F explained the reason was that Rohrabacher declined the invitation.

I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised. It seems that Rohrabacher is conspicuously absent whenever citizens of the 48th District want to hear his views and have him answer a few questions. The constituents of this congressional district need effective and fair representation, not Rohrabacher’s continued avoidance of the issues.

Larry Beard

Huntington Beach

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