Community Commentary:

Council members, we residents all appreciate your hard work. As former mayor for part of 2005, however, I believe the council should provide residents answers regarding the following important city business items:

1. In this heavily Republican voting community, do the voters approve the city extracting $5 million from Lennar Corporation for its planned 75 home developments adjacent to the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel? What about $45 million that the City Council is attempting to have The Irvine Company pay in exchange for granting it new development rights in Newport Center, which were part of our recently voter-approved new General Plan? Is that money better in city hands or left in the private sector? Who pays in the end? Once paid to the city, how does the city use that money to reduce the impact to the rest of us from those projects? What are those fees being paid for?

2. If the answer to Item 1 is “let the city take those fees,” then why was city staff excluded from negotiations with Lennar and The Irvine Company?

If the city were a private business, wouldn’t senior management be involved and use advisors to ensure market rates and terms?

During my recent years on the council, city staff was always part of negotiations. What has changed? Per the City Charter we have a "Council-Manager" form of government: The city manager shall be responsible for the proper administration of all affairs of the city.

3. Why did the City Council allocate spending of the $5 million Lennar fee without much, if any, public notice or public discussion as follows: $4.8 million for park development next to our Central Library and the balance to the Jamboree plus PCH Park? Does that snap judgment give residents much comfort that the money is better used in the city hands versus leaving it in the private sector? Much less the pending $45 million from The Irvine Company? Were any other pressing adjacent city needs even discussed, such as fixing the worsening traffic mess at Avocado, San Miguel and PCH intersections, which abuts the planned Central Library park site — and which intersection will be worsened by the Lennar and The Irvine Company’s projects? How many more people are impacted daily by that intersection versus how few will use these two park sites to which the $5 million was targeted?