HomeMy WebLinkAbout23 - Web Site LinksCITY OF NEWPORT BEACH
AGENDA ITEM NO. 23
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
FROM: Homer L. Bludau, City Manager
DATE: July 25, 2000
RE: WEB SITE LINKS
ISSUE
Should the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce be linked to the
Newport Beach web site when the Chamber displays its position on the
Greenlight Initiative on its Home page?
RECOMMENDATION
The decision of what links, if any, should the City allow to its web page, should
be a matter of policy. The City currently has no policy regarding web page
links. Until such a policy is formulated, the City Manager recommends not
allowing links containing a "political content."
The Chamber of Commerce's web site can be accessed through the City's web
site in two ways: 1) under the menu's "Links" category; or 2) more directly
under the menu listing the "Chamber of Commerce." Currently there are 18
links listed under the City's web page "Links" menu option. They are as follows:
Newport Beach Restaurants
Heal the Bay Beach Report
Orange County Museum of Art
Local Surf Report
E1 Toro Airport
County of Orange
Official U.S. City Web Site
Business Permits Made Easy
Orange Coast Association of Realtors
Tales of Balboa
Balboa Island Facts & Information
Childs Life
City Hall • 3300 Newport Boulevard • Post Office Box 1768 • Newport Beach, California 92659 -1768
Weather, Surf & Ski, Traffic Reports
Orange County Arts Net
The Irvine Company
Los Angeles Times
Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce
Marine Publications Company
There is no clear policy as to which links are added to the City's web page or
what subject matter is allowed. The City Manager believes this is a subject area
that should be developed into a Council policy. If Council agrees, that still
leaves the issue involving the Chamber's stated opposition to the Greenlight
Initiative. Council could take the following action regarding the issue:
1) "freeze" the current web page links until a Council - approved policy
is in place;
2) remove the Chamber's links until after the November election;
3) add a link for the Greenlight proponents in order to provide
balance for the issue.
Newport's Hot Links
O Newport Beach Restaurants
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Link to - "httpy /mmw, e/toromdp. org"
County of Orange
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Page 1 of 4
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Newport's Hot Links
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From: Philip Arst To: Homer Bludau
Homer Bludau:
City Manager
City of Newport Beach
3300 Newport Blvd.
Newport Beach, CA 92658 -8915
Dear Homer:
Date: 7 /12/00 Trme: 9:44:28 AM
Greenlight
PO Box 100
Balboa Island, CA 92662
July 12, 2000
This letter is to document our previous objections to the use of the city's web site by the Chamber of
Commerce to advance its political point of view.
Specifically, there is a direct link on the home page of the City's web site to the Chamber's web site.
This direct linkage implies the City's support of their political positions.
The Chamber's web site is heavily politicized. Currently it takes strong political positions a ainst
the resident's Greenlight "Protection From Traffic and Density" Initiative and for the unpopular
Dunes Hotel project. Previously the Chamber's web site took the political position that the City's
Traffic Phasing Ordinance must be weakened. At election time, they always endorse candidates,
including many member of the current city council.
It is notable that only three of the 27 cities in Orange County (Brea, Buena Park & Placentia,) with
web sites provide a direct link on their home page to their Chamber of Commerce. Clearly other
cities are more circumspect in lending their endorsements to this class of organization.
The Newport Harbor Chamber of Commerce is a politically active organization that takes political
positions opposing resident's interests on an ongoing basis. In order to maintain its impartiality, the
city should not provide a direct link on its web site home page to their web site. The link should be
removed immediately.
Additionally, since the Chamber's anti- Greenlight and anti - resident political messages have been
directly supported on the City's web site for a number of years, we request a compensating display.
We request that you list the Greenlight Web site (www.newportucenlig&.com) at the bottom of
your fist of major links i.e. City Council, Agendas, etc. on your home page for the period through
the November election.
Please advise us of your decision.
Sincerely,
(original signed)
Thomas Hyans
Initiative Proponent
CC: Newport Beach City Council
(original signed)
Philip Arst
Initiative Proponent
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JUL -12 -2000 10 :21 93% P.02
Newport Beach Article
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Webslte design,
development, and
Chamber Denounces Greenlight as
Fatally Flawed
At the regularly scheduled Board of
Directors meeting of the Newport Harbor
Area Chamber of Commerce Board of
Directors took a formal position of
opposition to the so- called "Greenlight"
initiative which will appear on the
November ballot. The initiative would
require a vote of the people for many
future projects within the city.
During recent months, the Chamber has
worked with various consultants in focus
groups which showed voters to not be in
support of the Greenlight Initiative once
they are aware of its actual implications.
Currently Newport Beach has the most
onerous traffic mitigation measures in
Orange County with its Traffic Phasing
Ordinance. Along with the focus groups the
Chamber polled over 600 registered voters
in phone interviews intended to determine
if people knew about the city's traffic relief
law and its goals intended to have
improvements in place before the
development occurs.
Additionally, the Chamber has also
conducted two separate mailings to the
30,000 registered voters in the city about
traffic conditions and the current Traffic
Phasing Ordinance. The survey results were
overwhelmingly in support of the Traffic
Phasing Ordinance with more than a 20%
return rate of which 82% were in favor of
keeping the Traffic Phasing Ordinance in
place. Also, the Chamber held two Traffic
Phasing Ordinance Forums which showed
support for the Traffic Phasing Ordinance as
an effective means to mitigating traffic in
the city.
Through these focus groups, interviews,
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http://www.newportbeach.com/nb—article.cftn?id=48 07/17/2000
Newport Beach Article
forums and surveys, the Chamber found
that the more that people are informed
about the Traffic Phasing Ordinance the
more they supported its goals and intent. It
also showed the more they found out about
the Greenlight initiative, the more they
disliked Greenlight's Implications. The
Chamber feels that the Greenlight Initiative
could dramatically change our city for the
worse well into the future. We feel strongly
that there are a number of key elements in
the Greenlight Initiative which are
tremendously negative to not only
business, but also the entire wellness of the
Newport Beach community as a whole.
The Chamber's Board of Directors voted
unanimously to oppose the Greenlight
Initiative for the fatally flawed reasons
stated below:
* The Greenlight initiative is poorly written
and conceived -- The initiative is poorly
written, confusing and ineffective. It will
not reduce traffic, produce new funding for
improvements or promote thoughtful
discussion about complex land use issues.
It simply requires all General Plan
Amendments to be voted on, once a certain
development threshold is reached in each
of the forty -nine statistical areas of the
city.
* The Greenlight initiative requires votes
on major AND minor projects -- The
initiative requires a citywide vote on very
small General Plan Amendments (such as a
new school gymnasium or a new fire
station) as well as large, complex General
Plan Amendments once a certain
development threshold is met. This means
voters will be faced with votes on dozens of
major AND minor development projects
every two years. There is no way that most
voters will give the same sort of careful
study and analysis to these issues our
elected and appointed representatives do.
Additionally, its ridiculous to require a
citywide vote on very small home
renovations or store improvements simply
because they require a General Plan
Amendment because their particular
threshold has been reached.
*The Greenlight initiative rejects
representative government and due
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11
Newport Beach Article
process -- The Newport Beach
Environmental Quality Affairs Committee,
Planning Commission and City Council
spend hundreds of hours every year
studying complex land use issues before
voting on these issues. The Greenlight
Initiative throws public hearings,
environmental study, plan revisions and
compromises out the window because
everything will still have to go to the ballot.
Greenlight replaces careful study and due
process with bias special interest group
mentality. This is no way to set complex
land use decisions in Newport Beach.
*The Greenlight Initiative prevents
renovations and improvements Greenlight
will prevent major renovations and
improvements -- like the renovations at
Fashion Island in the late 1980s -- because
no applicant will want to go through the
entire public planning process -- only to
face a uncertain electorate at the ballot
box. If Greenlight were in place in the
1980s the improvements to Fashion Island
would never have occurred -- and the city
would have lost millions in tax dollars and
In traffic improvements.
*The Greenlight Initiative would tie the City
Council's hands on John Wayne Airport- -
The Flight and noise limits at John Wayne
Airport expire in 2005. Greenlight ties the
city's hands on airport issues because it
takes land use authority around the airport
away from the council -- effectively ceding
this control to the county. This means that
Greenlight will make it EASIER for the
county to expand JWA in the future. No one
in Newport Beach wants this outcome.
*The Greenlight Initiative does not provide
any funding for traffic improvements- -
Greenlight does not provide ANY funds for
traffic improvements (it leaves taxpayers
on the hook for future improvements) and
does not set any clear policies or traffic
regulations for the city -- it simply requires
a public vote. Newport Beach currently has
the most restrictive traffic mitigation
program in the county which does provide
funding to relive traffic congestion in
effected areas. Greenlight will simply make
matters worse by not addressing the
problem of traffic whatsoever.
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Newport Beach Article
We hope that this has given the concerned
citizens of Newport Beach a good look at
the flaws and negative impact of the
proposed Greenlight Initiative. We are
urging and counting on our members to
spread the message that the Greenlight
Initiative will only hurt our beloved
Newport Beach well into the future.
— back to front page ,
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htip:// www. newportbeach .com/nb_article.cfm ?id =48 07/17/2000
Laura Bekeart Dietz "RECEIVED AFTER A ENDA
3535 E. Coast Hwy., # 180 PRINTED:"
Corona del Mar, CA 92625. ,_
(949) 721 -8035 R TE 1,. E d '`J "E. -
'00 JUL 25 All 39
OFFICE OF Ts'E CI - CLERr,
CI'i ^E P..WPORT BEACH
July 25, 2000
Dear Mayor Noyes:
This letter is in regard to tonight's agenda item, No. 23, dealing with
the city website. 1 would like to speak briefly tonight during the public
comment period dealing with the Issue of the city website and political
messages, as EQAC develops its own webpage. My position is that the
city has to be fair to both parties; that until a policy is officially in
place, that the chamber site be "delinked" until some date after the
November election. After all, the city website's intent Is not to be a
"political billboard" which takes positions one way or the other on
Issues or candidates before the voters.
At the same time, in commenting, it will give me an opportunity to
make reference to the role of Ill in the quest for balancing various
interests in the approval of any project, large or small. Also, it will give
me the opportunity to announce publicly that at the September 18th
meeting of EQAC the two initiatives will be presented and the public is
of course invited to this meeting and all of our other meetings.
I applaud you and your fellow members once again for your very
thoughtful approach on the Dunes project which is the most significant
to hit this community In many, many years. I hope to get some
answers to my recent questions dealing with the economics of the
project's financing, etc.
Thoughtful and conscientious deliberation is what the voters of the
city expect from their representatives. Stay the course. By doing the
right thing, the Council will get the right result.
Alts,