Dana Point Revels in Cityhood : Celebrants Toast New Municipality

A postcard ocean view provided a scenic backdrop Wednesday as more than 300 people crowded into a hilltop resort to celebrate Dana Point’s birth this week as Orange County’s 28th municipality.

The inaugural ceremony in a balloon-festooned ballroom at the Dana Point Resort became a veritable lovefest as members of the new City Council heaped accolades on their fellow citizens and people in the audience listened intently, some dabbing at misted eyes.

“Welcome to the city of Dana Point!” Councilwoman Eileen Krause shouted from a ballroom podium, to thunderous applause. “We did it!”

The jubilant residents sang along as a local high school choir belted out “America the Beautiful” and other patriotic renditions. After an hourlong ceremony, they then attended a reception at which revelers were invited to lift their champagne glasses in toast to the new city as a band played songs such as “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

The evening’s only glitch came in the unexpectedly high turnout. Dana Point Resort officials, who hosted the free event, said they had prepared for a crowd of 160 people.

But when more than twice that number showed up, many people could not squeeze into a small ballroom where the main ceremony was taking place. Many of those people crowded into a larger ballroom next door where the reception was held.

Amid the pomp and ceremony, the five-member council conducted a brief meeting at which they unanimously selected Councilwoman Judy Curreri to serve as the city’s first mayor and then named Councilman Bill Bamattre mayor pro tem.

The significance of the moment was not lost on the council members, who took turns at the podium to invoke the names of America’s founding fathers and commend Dana Point residents for a cityhood quest that began when John F. Kennedy was president.

“We celebrate an accomplishment of the community,” Bamattre said. “What we’re doing today is setting up a permanent institution that will outlive us.”

“Cityhood was the dream of many,” said Curreri. “ . . . Now we have arrived.”

Councilwoman Ingrid McGuire’s voice broke with emotion as her speech was interrupted several times by applause.

“I feel very proud,” McGuire said. “I pledge that I will serve to the best of my ability with honesty and justice.”

Councilman Mike Eggers, noting that Dana Point’s road to cityhood was long and difficult, recited this quotation from Thomas Jefferson to describe the city’s main challenge ahead:

“The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.”

Moves toward incorporation began as early as 1961 in Dana Point--named for 19th-Century author Richard Henry Dana Jr.--but did not succeed until this year. A milestone came when the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission, presented with a residents’ plan to incorporate just a 3-square-mile area known as Old Dana Point, added 1.5-square-mile Capistrano Beach and--in a move that angered adjoining Laguna Niguel--a 1.5-square-mile coastal strip that includes the 393-room Ritz-Carlton and the planned 1,126-room Monarch Beach resort.

These boundaries won voter support in an election on June 7.

Although the council members were officially sworn in Sunday when Dana Point effectively became a city, Orange County 5th District Supervisor Thomas F. Riley administered a ceremonial oath to each Wednesday.

On behalf of the city, Stan Cummings, Orange County Marine Institute director who served as master of ceremonies, accepted a number of proclamations and presentations from state officials, as well as from neighboring cities.

Among the dignitaries in attendance were the mayors of San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente and Mission Viejo, as well as Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), for whom Eggers is an aide.