Newport Beach : Firm Schedules Speakers to Boost Ranks of Voters

To encourage employees to register to vote, a major Orange County company has scheduled a series of speakers during the noon hour this week, including Orange County Supervisor Bruce Nestande and backers and opponents of the Newport Center expansion plan.

Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co., which is headquartered in Newport Center, wishes to “inspire, encourage and coerce” employees to vote and get involved in their community, company spokesman Geno Effler said Monday. “Our chairman, Walter Gerken, believes very strongly in community involvement,” he explained.

Today Nestande, a candidate for California secretary of state, will speak to employees from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Pacific Mutual Building, 1700 Newport Center Drive, Effler said.

On Wednesday, Dennis Catron, vice chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, and John Hanna, chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party, will speak at noon to employees, Effler said.

The voter-registration drive will reach its grand finale on Friday when an opponent and a supporter of the Newport Center expansion plan face off. The $300-million plan by the Irvine Co. calls for several office buildings, town houses and hundreds of new shops on 518 acres in and around the Newport Center.

Alan Beek, leader of the community group Gridlock, which opposes the plan and has gathered more than 5,000 signatures to put it before the voters in a special election Nov. 25, and William Sicker, an architect favoring the expansion, will be the two speakers.