Some weeks ago, I got a colorful brochure in the mail that I thought
at first was another collection of pirated pictures of the Great Park.
But it turned out to be both more interesting and closer to home. It
described -- and solicited attendance to -- a series of public workshops
designed to tell the Newport Beach City Council what local residents
consider the most important issues for the council to address in revising
the city's general plan that is due this year for a make-over.
This seemed to me a reasonable use of democratic procedures, and,
perhaps, a kind of institutionalized platform for the old American
pastime of complaining, so I put the brochure in my check-out file and
promptly -- as often happens with that file -- forgot it. The brochure
popped up by accident the other day, and I was startled to see that half
of the scheduled eight workshops had already taken place. Seeking a
source to tell me how well the locals were responding to this
opportunity, I discovered that I was having breakfast on Monday with the
head honcho of this resident effort, my friend Robert Shelton.
So he filled me in, and I can report that workshop attendance has been
even better than expected, sessions are lively -- and not very many
surprises have turned up so far in the results. But a ton of information
growing out of these meetings will be processed to arrive at changes in
the general plan.
A little background first. This effort was launched publicly in
January at a city-sponsored Community Vision Festival. Some 400 locals
attended and were immersed in all sorts of interactive displays where
they could express opinions on a variety of questions that culminated in
writing a brief vision statement for the city. They were also asked if
they would like to be involved in a residents advisory committee. Some
250 participants said they would. A steering committee pared the list to
a more workable 38, and Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway asked Shelton to
chair it. Shelton's qualifications for this job would more than fill the
rest of this column. They started when he became city manager of Newport
Beach in 1956, carried through well more than a dozen major civic service
roles that won him Newport Beach Citizen of the Year in 1980 and continue
today with his leadership in the Environmental Nature Center.
He stresses the effort to represent divergent views and locales on the
committee. "It was very important that there would be no
underrepresentation on this committee and that we could achieve a real
