Year in review: 2022 brought politics, public safety challenges and triumphant moments to coastal O.C.
As area residents today look forward to seeing what 2023 will bring, Daily Pilot staff have been reflecting on the year that’s coming to an end to assess which were the biggest local news stories of 2022 in our reporting area. Some of those were momentous enough that they might well impact the region for years to come, while others were more immediate in nature. Take a look back with us:
Council elections bring new faces to city halls
A consistent theme heard in candidate forums held for the local City Council election campaigns was a keen desire to keep the essence of the coastal cities just as they are today and to maintain as much local control as possible over issues such as housing density that the state has set mandates to meet.
With the exception of one race, the Nov. 8 general election seated several new faces on the various daises.
In Newport Beach, Joe Stapleton, Erik Weigand, Robyn Grant and Lauren Kleiman were elected from a field of eight candidates to serve alongside continuing council members Brad Avery, Will O’Neill and Noah Blom. The sole upset in the election was the voters’ ouster of incumbent Joy Brenner, a longtime council member in District 6. She lost to Kleiman, who most recently served the city as a planning commissioner. On Dec. 13, Blom was elected mayor by his council colleagues and O’Neill is now serving as mayor pro tem.
Seven candidates ran for three open seats on the Laguna Beach City Council, a panel that’s seen some rancor in recent years that came to a head as the election season built. Incumbent Sue Kempf kept her job, but voters turned out Peter Blake, who became known for a brash rudeness toward those with whom he disagreed. In addition to Kempf, voters selected Mark Orgill and Alex Rounaghi to serve alongside George Weiss and Bob Whalen, the latter of whom has been reseated as mayor.
Costa Mesa incumbent John Stephens, who faced former Orange County Supervisor and state Sen. John Moorlach, was returned by voters to serve again as that city’s mayor. In fact, it was a good year for Costa Mesa incumbents overall: Arliss Reynolds and Andrea Marr were also given the voters’ endorsement to keep their jobs, and Councilman Manuel Chavez ran unopposed. By a razor thin margin — 22 votes — the electorate gave the nod to council-supported Measure K, which will allow city officials to amend zoning codes and make room for needed housing.
Thirteen candidates threw their hats into the ring for one of three open seats on the Fountain Valley City Council, with incumbents Kim Constantine and Patrick Harper winning reelection and school board trustee Jim Cunneen taking the third seat. After the trio was sworn in this month, Constantine was elected mayor.
The most notable Nov. 8 election outcome in the area was the big shake-up on the Huntington Beach City Council. A coalition of four conservatives — Pat Burns, Casey McKeon, Tony Strickland and Gracey Van Der Mark — were the top vote-getters of 18 candidates vying for a seat at the table. The foursome took their places earlier this month and quickly took advantage of their majority to elect two of them, Strickland and Van Der Mark, as mayor and mayor pro tem, respectively.
It was a swift transfer of power on the seven-member panel, which in its previous configuration had been targeted by recall efforts earlier in the year. In short order the newly elected members approved several motions, all on a 4-3 vote:
• a retroactive raise for City Atty. Michael Gates (a fellow conservative who’d come under fire from the previous council majority);
• to substantially increase campaign contribution limits;
• to amend the city’s code enforcement process to bar anonymous complaints;
• to authorize Gates to challenge the city’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment numbers.
They also requested a CEQA review for the Great Pacific Air Show and voted to waive the attorney-client and closed session confidentiality privileges for meetings on an age-discrimination lawsuit that was against the city and Gates.
Further, on Dec. 20 the new council majority initiated moves to pull Huntington Beach out of the new Orange County Power Authority, on whose board their council colleague Dan Kalmick was previously seated. Such a move would come on the heels of the county Board of Supervisors making the same decision this month. But on Thursday of this week Strickland released a statement through the city saying the cost of leaving OCPA “in haste” would be too expensive for the municipality, so it remains to be seen how that matter will unfold.
Poseidon desalination plant stopped
After more than two decades of buildup, and although Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed the effort, the California Coastal Commission in May unanimously denied Poseidon Water a final permit to build a $1.4-billion water desalination plant in Huntington Beach.
Supporters of the project said ocean desalination is an inexhaustible, local supply for a region that imports much of its water from increasingly unreliable, distant sources. Opponents maintained the water is too costly, energy-intensive, bad for the environment and not needed because the Orange County Water District has a
large groundwater basin that is fortified with rainwater from storm runoff, Santa Ana River water, and the nation’s largest wastewater-to-groundwater system.
The 12-0 vote not to issue a permit followed an all-day meeting at the Hilton in Costa Mesa, featuring input from Poseidon representatives, Coastal Commission staff and dozens of individual commentators and groups.
Among the concerns raised was a report from a senior environmental scientist for the commission, Tom Luster, who told the commissioners the Poseidon project would kill marine life in about 275 million gallons of seawater per day.
“I cannot find a way to say that this kind of harm to marine life is acceptable through the Coastal Act,” Commissioner Dayna Bochco said. “It’s enormous … and it’s hard for me to accept that. As we all know, the ocean is under attack.”
Officer lost in police helicopter crash
On the night of Saturday, Feb. 19, a Huntington Beach police helicopter crash in Newport Harbor killed one officer, 44-year-old Nicholas Vella, and injured another. The injured officer, the pilot, had made a brief call to report that the helicopter was experiencing mechanical issues, before calling again to say that they were going to crash, officials reported.
The chopper was on a “disturbance fight call” that had come from Newport Beach, which contracts with Huntington Beach for aerial assistance as needed. The National Transportation Safety Board began its investigation of the cause of the crash, giving an estimated time of 12 to 18 months to complete its work.
Vella, who had once served as a police officer in Laguna Beach, was remembered by Huntington Beach Police Chief Eric Parra as “an officer that was truly dedicated to the job and was doing what he loved doing.”
Vella is survived by his wife, Kristi Tovar, and their teenage daughter, Dylan.
Several months after the crash, the HBPD announced the $7.3-million purchase of three MD-530F helicopters to replace its aging fleet.
Laguna blazes: ‘We no longer have a fire season, we have a fire year’
Amid unseasonably warm weather and gusty wind conditions, a brush fire dubbed the Emerald fire broke out at around 4 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 10 in north Laguna Beach, leading to the quickly organized evacuation of thousands of residents from their homes.
“We no longer have a fire season. We have a fire year,” Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy said. “This is supposed to be the middle of winter, and we’re anticipating 80- to 90-degree weather. Even though the hillsides are green, it doesn’t take but low humidity and wind to cause fires to occur.”
The fire, which scorched 154 acres, was met with full force and brought largely under control with no losses of property or lives.
The city of Laguna Beach in a July news release stated officials with the Fire Authority determined during the five-month investigation that sparks from electrical arcing most likely started the Emerald fire, fed by high wind speeds.
Significantly more devastating in terms of property loss was the Coastal fire in Laguna Niguel, neighboring Laguna Beach. Although the daytime temperature was moderate, there were intense winds and drought conditions when the blaze was reported by a man at the South Orange County Wastewater Authority’s Coastal Treatment Plant at 2:43 p.m. of Wednesday, May 11. He said the fire at that time was small, just 50 feet by 50 feet. Southern California Edison put out an initial report that night saying there had been “circuit activity” in the canyon at about the same time the fire broke out.
By the next morning it was being reported that 199 acres had been consumed.
Despite the efforts of crews and resources from Orange County, Laguna Beach, Los Angeles County, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Anaheim, more than 20 homes in Laguna Niguel were either destroyed or damaged.
Newport Beach apartment complex fire displaces 39 households
A four-alarm fire that scorched dozens of residences at the Promontory Point apartment complex along Pacific Coast Highway, between Bayview Drive and Jamboree Road in Newport Beach, was reported at about 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 11. It began in one apartment, then spread rapidly through a shared attic, officials said, and was believed to have been an electrical fire.
While the fire was put out by early afternoon, a total of 17 units were completely destroyed and others damaged; 39 households were displaced by the fire. The region was experiencing high temperatures and humidity levels due to Tropical Storm Kay that weekend, and firefighters were struggling to stay cool. Two of them were treated at a local hospital for heat-related issues.
Afterward, residents of the 520-unit complex stated they heard no alarms to alert them to the fire. One woman told a reporter that had it not been for a passing driver persistently honking the horn of a car she would not have realized a fire was underway that was threatening her apartment.
Just before Christmas Judy and Lou Candelaria, whose Promontory Point apartment had been destroyed in the fire, were surprised by friends and members of a Corona del Mar running group with a newly decorated home in the same complex.
“We heard no fire alarms, but we heard banging on the doors and people yelling and screaming,” Judy Candelaria said. “I said to Lou, ‘Oh my God, there must really be a party somewhere.’”
Coyote attacks girl on the sand at Huntington Beach
Although the Huntington Beach Police Department had been conducting increased coyote trapping efforts in the weeks leading up to this incident, a 2-year-old girl suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries in an attack by a coyote near the pier on a Thursday night in late April.
Officers were called at 9:45 p.m. to the beach north of the pier regarding reports of the attack and found the injured toddler, who was with her mother and her 3-year-old sister at the time. Efforts then began to find the offending coyote, one of two that were seen at the beach that night.
In September, attorneys for the mother of the girl who was bitten announced plans to sue the city of Huntington Beach during a news conference held in Pasadena.
A claim filed by Bree Anne Lee Thacker of Chino Hills on Aug. 31 alleges negligence by the city led to the injuries her child suffered on April 28. The girl was just a few steps away from her mother when a coyote knocked her down and bit her face, according to the attorneys.
“Why were no hazing teams, apparently, in the city deterring coyotes to prevent this type of injury to a little girl?” attorney Sam Soleimany asked during the news conference.
Thacker was unable to come to a resolution after filing her claim with the city and plans to proceed with a suit in January, Soleimany said Friday.
In related news, 43 coyote sightings were reported in an audit performed by volunteers in Huntington Beach between late summer and early November, according to the city’s police department spokeswoman, Jessica Cuchilla. Some have occurred near the intersections of Warner Avenue and Edwards Street as well as Brookhurst Street and Indianapolis Avenue.
OCMA opens in Costa Mesa, offers free entry for 10 years
Standing out in a list of upbeat news reported in 2022 was the grand, 24-hour Oct. 8 and 9 opening of the new $93-million Orange County Art Museum in the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa that drew more than 10,000 visitors.
During a ceremony before the weekend celebration got underway, OCMA chief executive Heidi Zuckerman reminded attendees that admission to the 53,000-square-foot museum will be free of charge for its first 10 years, courtesy of a donation from Lugano Diamonds of Newport Beach.
“I am so excited to welcome everyone to the new Orange County Museum of Art. By that, I mean welcome everyone, not just today, but every day,” Zuckerman said. “I am humbled by the public turnout to celebrate this weekend and the support of our donors and community in the lead up to the opening of our new home.”
From oil field to Randall Preserve, property to remain open space
Local conservationists were rewarded earlier this month for years of effort — boosted by a generous donation by Newport Beach residents Frank and Joan Randall — when the purchase of an oil field was completed that will allow it to be preserved as open space.
The Trust for Public Land and the Banning Ranch Conservancy worked for years to secure $97 million in public and private funding to buy the property from AERA Energy and Cherokee Investment Partners.
The 387-acre parcel, now called the Randall Preserve, is home to an estimated 100 acres of marshland, mudflats, riparian scrub and 67 acres of coastal sage scrub with critical habitats for endangered species like burrowing owls, fairy shrimp and peregrine falcons, according to a news release about the sale issued this month by the Trust for Public Land, California Natural Resources Agency, Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority and the Banning Ranch Conservancy.
The land will first enter a remediation phase, which involves the removal of existing oil infrastructure by AERA Energy and its partners over the next two to three years. Then it will become a public park and preserve under the stewardship of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority.
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