Newport Will Elect Two to Council : Election: Measure M, which would permit a 50-year lease renewal for the Balboa Bay Club, is expected to be one of the ballot’s most controversial issues.

Voters this November not only will select two City Council members but will indicate by their votes whether key waterfront parcels in the city should belong to the public or the private sector.

Measure M, which would allow the city to renew the Balboa Bay Club’s lease of public tidelands for 50 years, promises to be one of the most controversial issues on the ballot.

The ballot measure asks voters if the city charter should be amended to permit leases of city-owned property for terms as long as permitted by the state, which allows up to 66 years compared to the city’s limit of 25.

Passage of Measure M would give the council authority to negotiate longer leases on all city-owned properties, including the Balboa Bay Club, Beacon Bay and Marinapark.

Four of the six people seeking a seat on the City Council say they favor the 50-year lease sought by the Balboa Bay Club. Candidate Richard Banks said he is undecided, and incumbent Councilwoman Jean H. Watt said she would prefer that voters decide the lease terms.

Watt, who was elected to the council four years ago, is the only incumbent being challenged in November. Real estate broker Diane Coltrane and management consultant Robert C. Lewis are running against Watt for the District 5 seat, which covers the area from Balboa Island to Eastbluff.

Councilman John C. Cox Jr., a 12-year council veteran, is running unopposed for the District 7 seat, which covers the northern Corona del Mar area.

Banks and Planning Commissioner Jan Debay are fighting for the West Newport seat being vacated by Councilwoman Ruthelyn Plummer, who decided not to seek reelection after 12 years.

Coltrane, Lewis, Cox and Debay support the Balboa Bay Club’s request for a 50-year lease and some expansion of the club. Last year, the club’s proposal to eventually add 300 hotel rooms triggered such loud protests from neighboring residents that club officials withdrew the plans from city review. Club officials are expected to submit a revised plan sometime soon.

The club’s request for a 50-year lease has also been controversial, with council members and residents alike arguing that the private facility shouldn’t be allowed to operate on public land for that long. Some residents, such as Watt, say such a long lease should be approved by voters. Others say that the club should simply be torn down and that a public, bay-front park should be established on the property when the club’s current lease expires in 2011.

But club supporters argue that the club has been a good neighbor that allows community groups to use its facilities and that it deserves a 50-year lease to secure financing for improvements.

“It’s a revenue-producing property,” Lewis, a three-year resident, said. “A 50-year lease is a reasonable period of time for a substantial investment.”

Coltrane, a 12-year resident who once served on the Long Beach Economic Development Commission, agreed. “The Balboa Bay Club has been a beautiful asset for the city of Newport Beach, utilized by people from all over. They should have a 50-year lease to justify their expenditures.”

Another issue being debated among the candidates is whether the city should try to buy two large bay-front properties from the Irvine Co. for use as open space and parkland, a pet project of Watt’s.

Watt’s new residents’ group, the Newport Conservancy, is trying to raise roughly $90 million to buy the land from the Irvine Co. to save it from development. She has said she will ask the council to place a park bond or assessment district measure on a future ballot to help the citizens’ effort.

If the council rejects such an idea, the conservancy will pursue a citizens’ initiative, asking voters to approve an annual fee of about $60 per household to pay for the sites. Banks, a 12-year resident, and Lewis said they supported the idea of asking voters to tax themselves to buy the land. Lewis said he believes that a citywide assessment district would be too difficult to administer but that he could support a park bond issue.

But the others expressed opposition to council pursuit of such a measure and said it should be up the residents themselves to pursue an initiative if they want.

Debay said she was mainly concerned with the thousands of dollars it would cost the city to place a measure on the ballot.

“The city is in a dire economic situation,” Debay said, referring to the loss of certain city revenue from the state.

For that reason, Debay also supports the sale of vacant city-owned property at 4210 River Ave., where neighbors have planted trees and grass, and which has come to be called “People’s Park.”

In another ballot measure, the city is asking voters for permission to sell the lot and use the roughly $300,000 expected from the sale to help pay for a new public library near Newport Center. Watt and Lewis support keeping the property as a low-maintenance park, but Cox and Banks agree with Debay. Coltrane is undecided.

Debay also said she would like to see the city ease certain business regulations to help smaller businesses survive.

“I’d like the city to have a user-friendly attitude, maybe be more sympathetic to how hard it is to do business right now,” Debay said.

Banks said he supports such ideas as enterprise zones to help businesses, which he fears are moving from Newport to other cities, taking jobs and revenue with them.

“We’ve got some challenges ahead to revitalize Newport Beach’s budget and economy,” Banks said.

Lewis, meanwhile, said he has been unhappy with some of the council’s internal fiscal policy decisions, including a nearly $20,000 pay raise for former City Manager Robert Wynn six months before his retirement. Lewis also blamed the council for the theft of $1.8 million from city coffers by former utilities director Robert Dixon, who was convicted earlier this year of embezzlement.

Newport Beach City Council Candidates

DISTRICT 2

Richard Banks

Age: 56.

Occupation: Businessman.

Background: Twelve-year resident; master’s degree in business; former Navy photographer and intelligence officer.

Issues: Supports term limits for council members, specifically two consecutive four-year terms; supports council placement of park bond or assessment district measure on ballot to pay for purchase of Castaways and Newporter North; supports city sale of so-called “People’s Park” property at 4210 River Ave. and use of proceeds for new library; undecided about the Balboa Bay Club lease.

Jan Debay

Age: Not given.

Occupation: Businesswoman; city planning commissioner.

Background: Served on the Planning Commission for five years, former chairwoman of the city environmental quality affairs committee; past director of Airport Working Group; 13-year resident.

Issues: No stand on term limits but said she welcomes the ballot initiative; would not support placing a measure on the ballot for purchase of Castaways and Newporter North if an election would be too costly; favors 50-year lease for Balboa Bay Club and sale of People’s Park property.

DISTRICT 7

John C. Cox Jr.

Age: Not given.

Occupation: Incumbent; businessman.

Background: Elected to council in 1980; served as mayor in 1986; active in the effort to construct the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor.

Issues: Opposes term limits for council members; supports council placing park bond or assessment district measure on ballot for Castaways and Newporter North only if citizen support is sufficient; supports 50-year lease for Balboa Bay Club because the club needs it to secure financing; supports sale of People’s Park and use of proceeds for new library.

DISTRICT 5

Diane Coltrane

Age: Not given.

Occupation: Real estate broker.

Background: Served as vice chairwoman of Long Beach Economic Development Commission; was first woman Rotarian in Newport Beach; member of Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce; 12-year resident.

Issues: Supports two-term limit for council members; supports 50-year lease for Balboa Bay Club; would not support council placement of a ballot measure to buy Castaways and Newporter North; undecided on People’s Park issue.

Robert C. Lewis

Age: Not given.

Occupation: Certified management consultant.

Background: Founding executive director of management consulting firm in Los Angeles; Navy veteran; master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.

Issues: Supports term limits for council members; favors use of a park bond to buy Castaways and Newporter North; supports 50-year lease for Balboa Bay Club; supports keeping River Avenue property as a small, low-maintenance park.

Jean H. Watt

Age: 65.

Occupation: Incumbent.

Background: Elected to the council in 1988; founder of Stop Polluting Our Newport environmental group and the Newport Conservancy; Stanford University graduate.

Issues: Supports term limits for council members, specifically two consecutive four-year terms; supports putting Balboa Bay Club’s 50-year lease request to a public vote; supports council placement of park bond or assessment district measure on ballot for Castaways and Newporter North properties; supports keeping People’s Park.