COSTA MESA, NEWPORT BEACH : City Managers Say Services Must Be Cut

City managers from Newport Beach and Costa Mesa said services must be cut, even though their cities are better off than others with funds in Orange County’s bankrupt investment pool.

Newport Beach City Manager Kevin J. Murphy told about 35 residents Wednesday that he expects reductions in the Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol and Municipal Court.

Also, the city probably will lose a $110,000-a-year county subsidy for beach lifeguards--a program the county was in the process of phasing out anyway, over the protests of coastal cities.

Some services that affect both cities, notably jointly funded road improvements, will suffer as the county is forced to slash its budget by one-fourth to make up for bankruptcy losses, Murphy said.

Costa Mesa City Manager Allan L. Roeder told the audience that the county’s debt to cities may become a bargaining chip later in city efforts to annex county-owned enclaves like Santa Ana Heights.

“We’re already answering a lot of the (police, fire and maintenance) calls” under joint-service agreements, Roeder said.

The county has insisted on keeping all property and sales-tax revenue from unincorporated areas that cities want to annex, and that has been a major stumbling block to bringing them under the wing of cities, he said.

As to the county bankruptcy, both managers said that property values would sink and the entire county’s image as a place to do business would suffer.

“This situation doesn’t help either Newport or us get Bloomingdale’s” as a shopping center tenant, Roeder said.