CAMPBELL SOUP: Among those mulling a 1994...

CAMPBELL SOUP: Among those mulling a 1994 bid for the Newport Beach City Council: LaVonne Campbell, married to the city’s former embattled Police Chief Arb Campbell, who retired amid a departmental sexual-harassment scandal. . . . LaVonne Campbell, herself a police officer until she retired this year after 21 years with the department, is eyeing the seat of incumbent John W. Hedges. . . . She was out of town, but her husband says it’s a possibility. “She has given it some thought but has made no decisions,” Arb Campbell says, “but we are not saying no.”

NEW FRAME: Mountain bike pioneer Richard Cunningham is switching gears. . . . The Anaheim Hills resident, who has designed bikes for Japanese giant Nishiki, plans to sell his Placentia-based Mantis Bicycles Inc. to concentrate on his new job as editor of Mountain Bike Action, a national magazine. . . . “I’ve gone through all the fun part” of the evolution in mountain bike design, Cunningham says. “I started to think that maybe it was time for a change.”

NO REST: As a professional mediator, Barry J. Hammond works daily to find common ground in complicated and expensive disputes. But now the Irvine council member is embroiled in one of the county’s most fractious tug-of-wars: what to do with the El Toro Marine base. . . . And with neighboring Irvine in the thick of the dispute, mediator Hammond finds himself with another challenge. “It’s like you are always at work,” he says, “except the pay is not as good.”

TABLE MANNERS: Sunset magazine offers helpful hints in its September issue for people interested in sampling Little Saigon’s “hot, tropical and delicately spiced food.”. . . Diners are advised to try the chrysanthemum tea and to bring along cash because many restaurants don’t accept credit cards. But don’t wag a finger to get your food server’s attention, the magazine advises, because “the Vietnamese call their animals this way.”