City Suspects Letters of Complaint Phony

The city of Newport Beach has received a slew of letters protesting its proposal to establish a special assessment district to charge property owners for burying power lines in West Balboa.

But city officials suspect they were all written by the same person and have asked police to investigate possible mail fraud.

“They all have a Santa Ana postmark, are all addressed with labels and were all mailed on either the 22nd or the 23rd” of this month, City Manager Kevin J. Murphy noted.

Since the opposition might have been fraudulent, the city approved creation of the assessment district, and work on the project will begin in the next few weeks.

The letters purportedly came from residents opposed to the project because they believe it is too expensive. But Murphy said the city was suspicious because no opposition had been voiced during more than three years of talking to residents about burying the lines along Balboa Boulevard between A and H streets.

In fact, the project was initiated by residents who circulated a petition to ask City Hall to bury the lines at their expense because they thought it would beautify Balboa Boulevard and enhance safety.