The Bell Curve:

Both Costa Mesa and Newport Beach city governments, looking desperately for ways to reduce expenses and still meet their obligations in a depressed economy, have overlooked one drain on public funds as foolhardy as it is costly. That would be the millions of dollars being paid out for administrative policies and actions that have led to the recent spate of lawsuits against both cities.

You don’t have to look further than Tuesday’s Daily Pilot for the most recent example. Newport Beach just got tapped for an extra $706,000 to go with the $1.2 million a jury granted Newport Beach police Sgt. Neil Harvey earlier in the year for internal discrimination that prevented his promotion. The extra 700 grand was to compensate Harvey’s attorneys for legitimate fees that might better have saved the jobs of a cadres of firefighters or police officers.

And this may be just the beginning. In the wings are two new actions against Newport Beach.

Recently retired police Lt. Steve Shulman, a veteran of 28 years and president of the union that represents police department managers (where a recent poll found that 70% supported a re-testing of their chief) is seeking damages of at least $100,000 for — he says — a “corrupt promotional process” about which he filed a grievance “that was judged by the people who violated the rules.”

And former Newport Beach firefighter Brett Smith has filed a claim for more than $1 million in earnings lost because his civil rights were allegedly violated when a job offer by the city was rescinded because he has a hearing problem.

The other half of Newport-Mesa isn’t immune to similar costly disputes. Costa Mesa is immersed in legal quicksand growing out of Mayor Allan Mansoor’s refusal to allow full public speaking time to a vocal citizen named Benito Acosta, who also goes by the name Coyotl Tezcatlipoca, who then raised loud objections in the council chambers and was physically ejected by police. When the county prosecutor rejected criminal charges filed against Acosta, the city chose to take the case on and had its knuckles rapped in expensive trips to a county court, then in both county and state appellate courts. Meanwhile, Acosta filed a counter lawsuit charging the city with denying his right to free speech. That case is pending with a good chance the city will lose more than attorney fees, which grow and grow.