Candidates Concerned About Funding

The nine candidates in the Newport Beach City Council race share a concern that unless more money comes into the city’s treasury, Newport Beach won’t be able to keep its beaches clean, its harbor dredged or its streets safe.

The city has not entirely rebounded from the effects of recession, with both sales taxes and property taxes lower than before. Newport Beach also has seen its reserves dwindle--down to $3 million from a high of $18 million--to pay for a host of lawsuit settlements, including a $1.2-million sexual harassment suit against the Newport Beach Police Department.

“The city’s fiscal condition is the big issue,” said candidate Philip L. Arst, a 67-year-old businessman, “because it is driving everything else.”

Though the candidates disagree on how best to restore the city to financial health, all say a Newport Beach recovery won’t come through new taxes.

The only incumbent in the race, Councilwoman Janice A. Debay, 59, elected in 1992, said future council policies should follow those already in place--such as funding the Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau--to promote the city as a tourist destination.

“We need to work at attracting a lot of tourists because we get revenue from the visitors,” said Debay, adding that tourism promotion works for Newport Beach because it plays on the city’s most obvious resource--its beauty.

She would also work to revitalize some of the city’s older business districts such as Corona del Mar and the Balboa Peninsula to help bring in more sales tax revenue.

Others, however, would like to see the city focus on cutting the budget to improve its financial position.

Candidates John E. Noyes Jr. and Dolores A. Otting, who both own their own businesses, think the city could benefit from privatizing some city services. Noyes, 50, a small-businessman on Balboa Island, said he would look at landscaping and trash pickup as likely candidates.

Otting, 44, who owns a trash collection business, wants to privatize some small services such as payroll, but also wants to rein in the amount the city spends on people it hires from outside city government, especially consultants.

“We are constantly hiring consultants and paying them lots of money to do work for us,” Otting said.

Candidate Robert Schoonmaker, a 64-year-old retired engineer, said trimming the salaries of city employees, and attaching clauses to their contracts as a means to boost productivity, would significantly reduce city expenditures.

“The top 100 employees all have total compensation packages in excess of $92,000 and we are not talking department heads here,” said Schoonmaker. “It has gotten out of hand.”

The primary mission of any city, said candidate Barry E. Zanck, is to provide basic services such as roads and libraries and quality police protection. Newport Beach has gotten into trouble, he said, because it has gotten involved with too many projects that take it beyond the scope of what the city should be doing.

“Don’t get involved with projects you don’t belong in,” said Zanck, 41. “I am opposed to the silly projects like the Fountain Valley water project because it cost too much money.”

Newport Beach, which imports all its water, struck a deal with Fountain Valley in February to drill four water wells there. The project, a $20-million effort that includes construction of a reservoir, a pump station and a series of pipelines, will provide the city with its own water source.

According to the candidates, fixing the city’s finances is imperative to stave off future problems, such as worsening crime.

Candidate Diane Coltrane, a 64-year-old real estate broker, said she is making the crime issue her top priority.

“Fortunately, we are not a troubled city, but I think preventing crime is something Newport Beach must pay attention to,” Coltrane said.

Candidate Ralph Rodheim, 52, said though he is mainly concerned with establishing a program to recruit new businesses to the city, he also wants to ensure the criminal element is deterred from entering the city by maintaining a large police presence.

“I have zero tolerance for gangs,” said Rodheim, who is a businessman. “We cannot let that infiltrate Newport Beach.”

For candidate Tom Thomson, maintaining a low level of crime in Newport Beach is part of his plan to preserve and improve the quality of life in the city. In addition to crime prevention, Thomson said he wants to make sure the council remains vigilant that noise levels at John Wayne Airport are not exceeded.

Several of the candidates, including Noyes, Otting and Debay, all promise to host Town Hall meetings if elected to get the public more involved with city government.

Due to term limits, council members John C. Cox Jr., who served 16 years on the council, and Jean H. Watt, who served eight years, are not eligible for reelection.