Talk about building, and they will come

DOLORES OTTING

On Saturday, Griffin Structures held its first workshop in the City

Council chambers to discuss the potential for replacement and/or

remodeling of the existing City Hall. As I write this column,

Saturday is in the future, and I am hoping that a large number of

residents will have attended to voice their ideas. This is the

largest expenditure of public funds in the history of Newport Beach,

and one would have expected advertising to promote the event.

Unfortunately, this is not the case, and I wonder how you, the

residents, would even have known that the workshop was happening?

If you didn’t attend the workshop because you were unaware of it

even occurring, don’t blame yourselves. There was no advertising.

That’s $750,000 tax dollars spent so far and no advertising. The city

sent out two press releases that I was only able to find due to some

friends calling me -- not because they were visible enough to get any

real viewer attention. To put it bluntly, they were itsy-bitsy,

teeny-weeny. Remember the Visioning Festival with all of the

accompanying press, hype, full-page ads and even glossy mailers that

resulted in an extremely successful outreach with hundreds of

residents participating? I guess the lack of city tax dollars spent

on advertising can equate with the city not wanting us there?

How ironic that phase one of the City Hall renovation -- also

known as Facility and Needs Assessment -- was awarded to Griffin

Advisors on Jan. 8, 2002, exactly the same time that we had the

Visioning Festival occurring. If this was really a vision for how we

wanted to see Newport Beach in 25 years, then why wasn’t the City

Hall project included in the Visioning Process? Certainly a

$40-million project will have some relevance on our city’s future and

warranted its own dot -- maybe a purple one. At least we could have

been asked if we wanted a new City Hall and placed our purple dot on

one of the many maps that we had to choose from. But that wasn’t the

case; there were no purple dots and no mention of a City Hall.

I keep thinking back as to when this new City Hall business began.

Believe it or not, Councilman Don Webb was still our public works

director and brought this item to the council at a study session on

July 10, 2001. (For your information, the study sessions are the

meetings that occur between the hours of 4 and 6 p.m. The council

cannot vote on any items, because it is advertised as a “study

session” and not a council meeting.) The July 10 study session was

then continued to the July 24 study session, where they somehow gave

direction -- they being the council and then Mayor Gary Adams --

which resulted in staff going out for a request for qualification, a

request for proposal and a contract. The contract debuted at the Jan.

8, 2002 City Council meeting. It was consent calendar item No. 11 for

$155,000. It passed without even a whisper, and it has been

bulldozing its way into our wallets ever since.

So, historically, that is half of how we got here.

However, there are a couple of problems:

* In the staff report of Jan. 8, 2002, item 11 is somewhat

misleading to the public, as it states: “At the July 24, 2001 Newport

Beach City Council meeting, staff was directed to develop a scope of

services for a City Hall facility needs assessment.” It was not at

the City Council meeting, but at the study session. And then Adams

“suggested that staff prepare a report for a regular Council meeting

that recommends soliciting an RFP, gives staff recommendations for

the timeframe and updates the RFP.”

* We never got a purple dot -- we were never asked.

In closing -- kudos to the city clerk’s office for always being

courteous, respectful and having its files orderly and up to date!

The next workshop is scheduled for March 19, and the last one is

April 2. See you there.

God Bless our troops.

* DOLORES OTTING is a longtime city activist who ran for the

council last fall.