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Daily Pilot: 06.12.03
- Other Newport Beach council members questions the behavior of the
councilman and the Greenlight Committee that helped elect him.
June Casagrande, Daily Pilot
NEWPORT BEACH - The gloves came off, but in the end, nobody went for the KO.
Councilman Dick Nichols took it on the chin from fellow council members Tuesday
as colleagues railed him for telling planning commissioners last month that
"it looks like you're taking money for this one."
"What bothers me is that you don't get it," Councilman Gary Proctor
said. "You don't get the inappropriateness of how you sit on a body that
appoints planning commissioners, then you stand up in front of the Planning
Commission to speak, then you call up their decisions in front of the council."
Councilman John Heffernan said that Nichols' comment was damaging to planning commissioners.
"What you said carries more weight because you're an elected official," Heffernan
said. "It's like saying I saw you come out of the Four Seasons in the morning with a
redhead."
Nichols repeated his previous apology . "My simile was totally wrong," Nichols
said. "I did not mean to impugn anybody's reputation. I'm very sorry that this
happened."
But Nichols didn't stand alone. Eight residents spoke in his support, or at least in
support of dropping the matter.
"I think you have now made it clear that Mr. Nichols used poor judgment," said
resident Madelene Arakelian, a 2002 City Council candidate. "Give him another chance
to go forward and to realize what he's done."
The item on the council's agenda was whether the council should take any action either to
condemn Nichols' comment, to censure him or to create a code of conduct to govern
council members' behavior.
City Atty. Bob Burnham reported to council members that he did believe that Nichols'
comments amounted to an unfounded implication that someone had accepted a bribe. But
Burnham said his legal research supported Nichols' rights to make such comments at Planning
Commission meetings.
The discussion also included some criticism for Greenlight, the slow-growth movement in the
city. Heffernan, who was elected with the help of the Greenlight Committee, reported that
Greenlight leaders had asked him to defend Nichols, also a Greenlight-supported councilman.
"I patently refused to do so," Heffernan said.
Councilman Tod Ridgeway said that the whole controversy should reflect poorly on the local
political group.
"The Greenlight people are the ones who interviewed him as a candidate, endorsed the
candidate and financed the candidate," Ridgeway said. "I really question the people
who supported him."
In the end, as midnight approached, council members agreed that it was time to drop the matter.
They voted unanimously not to take any further action.
"I am content to end this evening and hope something good comes out of it," Mayor
Steve Bromberg said.
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