“It’s expensive to run for office in Newport Beach, and we need to adjust the limits to accommodate the type of campaigning necessary to communicate to the voters,” Curry said. “We want to have a campaign system where candidates raise money from a broad range of citizens, rather than depend on independent expenditures from one or two wealthy individuals or groups.”
Jack Croul, former chairman of the paint manufacturing giant Behr, pumped about $250,000 into the independent expenditure committee Taxpayers for Safer Neighborhoods for mailers, signs and phone polling in support of Curry’s challenger, local political watchdog Dolores Otting, in the November election.
Curry also hopes to close a loophole in city law that could allow City Council members to get around term limits by resigning early, only to run again for a third term.
Newport voters approved limiting council members to two consecutive, four-year terms in 1992, but the ordinance contains vague wording that could allow council members to get around the law by resigning on the eve of political filing deadlines, then running for office again.
Curry said he did not have any local politicians in mind while pondering the reforms, but wants the laws cleaned up purely on principle.
“I don’t think that’s what the voters intended — think we need to fix this loophole now rather than wait for a lawsuit involving a specific candidate,” Curry said.
BILL ON CONTRACTS IS OPPOSED BY LEAGUE
A new bill making its way through the various committees of the California legislature in hopes of a vote in the near future would make it more difficult for cities that declare bankruptcy to renegotiate contracts with their police, firefighters and staffers.
