Initiative’s Supporters Accused of Petty Tactics

Norma J. Glover called it “juvenile.” Margit Motta called it “criminal.” Glover dismissed it. Motta went to the police.

These Newport Heights women already were split over Measure A, the referendum that will bring Newport Beach voters to the polls Tuesday to decide the fate of the Irvine Co.’s $300-million expansion plan for Newport Center.

Last weekend, the gulf widened over some last-minute campaign practices: a vehicle full of teen-agers who allegedly ripped down “Residents Say No on ‘A’ ” signs.

To Motta, the problem was not merely the theft and destruction of a handful of paper signs. Those in favor of the measure are running a $500,000 campaign; those against it are operating on a scant few thousand dollars, Motta said. To her, the theft was a symbol of the pettiness of politics, of David further handicapped in his fight against Goliath.

“We feel very helpless and disenfranchised because of this, because there are so few resources” Motta said. “We have nothing else, no resources except these little signs.”

The only thefts Glover knew of were of “Yes on ‘A’ ” banners, she said. In fact, Glover said her own banner was stolen twice during the campaign. She neither knew of youths taking signs from the opposition nor condoned it, she said.

“I think sign bashing is juvenile behavior no matter which side does it,” Glover said. “My sign’s been stolen, but I didn’t think it was worth calling the police for. This woman was caught up in the moment and continues to be.”

It all began Saturday morning, when Motta was visiting a neighbor. She said she looked out a window and saw a dark, four-wheel-drive vehicle with three young men and one young woman inside pull up to her home at the corner of Cliff Drive and Riverside Avenue. They headed for her blue-and-white “No on Measure A” campaign sign.

She yelled at the youths and they left. Moments later, as she drove out from behind her home, the youths returned. This time, she said she blocked their way.

“I rolled down my window and said, ‘With the $1 million that the other side has, they shouldn’t feel it necessary to do this,’ ” Motta, 47, recounted Sunday.

The vehicle and its occupants got away, but Motta pursued it for 20 minutes before she finally lost it, she said.

Police Summoned

Motta called police, who accompanied her to a campaign meeting at Glover’s home at the corner of Broad Street and Santa Ana Avenue. According to Glover, about 20 teen-agers were among a crowd of volunteers gathered to canvass the neighborhood in support of the measure.

“We tried to calm down the situation at the time,” Newport Beach Police Sgt. Trent Harris said.

No charges were pressed, and Motta’s sign was safe for the day. But it didn’t last through the night.

When she awoke Sunday morning, Motta said, the dozen “No on ‘A’ ” signs that had declared her neighbors’ opposition to the measure were gone. All that was left was a row of sticks, naked on the neighborhood lawns.

An angry Motta filed a crime report for the petty theft of a sign valued at $10. She even provided a license number of the vehicle full of youths she had chased the day before.

Police are investigating. They say they have “four possible suspects,” but would release no information Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, people on both sides of the issue continued to get out the word Sunday in advance of Tuesday’s special election.

Grass-Roots Opposition

At stake is the Irvine Co.’s expansion plan for Newport Center, which calls for several new office buildings, hundreds of new shops, town houses, cultural facilities and road improvements on 518 acres in and around the existing Fashion Island complex.

Gridlock, a grass-roots group opposing the expansion that petitioned successfully to have the issue placed on the ballot, argues that the development will create more traffic congestion and change the residential character of the city.

The Irvine Co. and other supporters of the expansion say the project will pay for $40 million in road improvements that will more than make up for any increase in traffic. Glover said she supports Measure A because of the cultural amenities that will be built along with the proposed high-rises. A teen center, cultural center with auditorium, health club and day-care facility are included in the construction package.

“I think it’s an opportunity,” Glover said. “Fifty years from now, when people walk into that auditorium, they won’t think about the signs taken down.”