Newport Beach : Economic Issues Panel to Be Formed

The City Council on Monday approved formation of a new committee to help make decisions on economic issues.

The 13-member Economic Development Committee is to be made up of the mayor, two council members, representatives from the Newport Harbor Area and Corona del Mar chambers of commerce, Newport-Mesa Assn. of Realtors, Business Industries Assn. and other business organizations, and two representatives from the public at large.

While applauding the City Council’s effort to include the business community on economic issues, Chamber of Commerce officials said a new committee was unnecessary.

“I see it as a duplication of what we already do,” Richard R. Luehrs, president of the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce, said at a council study session.

“Our membership is diverse and it comes from all over the city,” he said later, explaining that the chamber’s board of directors has representatives from Balboa Island to Corona del Mar. “Anyone representing the other groups on the committee will already be members of the chamber. But I’m delighted the city has the interest in a business committee like this.”

Councilman Phil Sansone said the members will be more representative of the city’s business community than the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce.

“No way do you represent . . . everyone,” he told Luehrs.

City Manager Kevin J. Murphy said the committee will deal mainly with the city’s business policies.

Duties will include reviewing the city’s economic development policies and making recommendations on how to attract and retain businesses in Newport Beach.

The business community is the only special interest group not represented in city government, according to Mayor Clarence J. Turner, who pushed for the formation of the new committee. “So, let’s step forward,” he said.

Committee members will be appointed at the council’s Jan. 25 meeting.