I come from the Adam Probolsky school on the issue of self-promotion but regardless this little saga deserves some mention here.

     In 2007, Newport Beach’s Bill Ficker, an architect and winner of The America’s Cup, the most prestigious regatta and match in the sport of sailing,  teamed with local philanthropist Jack Croul and former State Senator Marion Bergeson, and their friend Ron Hendrickson, to advance a plan to place the new Newport Beach City Hall building in a very logical location: an empty lot near Fashion Island right next to the Main City Library.

     But the majority of the City Council didn’t like the idea.  They seemed to want the City Hall at a nearby bus station.  So Ficker and Company decided to go directly to the people with an initiative campaign.  They hired Scott Taylor to do the campaign for them (whose office is nearby Ficker’s in Newport Beach) and Scott recommended me to do the lawyering.

     So I wrote a pretty straightforward proposed charter amendment.  It had a number of clauses to it, and it was carefully drafted, but its purpose was very clear: any new City Hall needed to be on this particular piece of property next to the Library.  We printed up some initiative petitions and got the ball rolling,

     But this also started the meat grinders in Newport Beach political circles.  Environmentalists like Alan Beek became outraged that the City would lose "open space," and be subject to a disruption of transportation flows.   A member or two of the City Council cried out about "all the flaws" in the charter amendment.

     Despite all the hormonal disturbance brought on by the proposed charter amendment, over 15,000 residents of Newport Beach signed the Petition and it qualified for the ballot in February, 2008.  The charter amendment survived a "pre-election" court challenge by Beek, and was enacted by a vote of about 53% to 47% over heavy opposition by Beek’s environs and the majority of the City Council.

     But a vote of the people was not good enough to settle the issue for the opponents.   Beek launched a post-election court challenge to "Measure B," as it came to be known.  He lost.  Beek then appealed the case to the California Court of Appeals.   He lost.  And then he filed his Petition for Review with the California Supreme Court.  Yesterday (my wife’s birthday) the Supreme Court rendered its judgment on Beek’s appeal.   He lost again.  

     To get one charter amendment enacted with finality in Newport Beach took Ficker and Company six legal steps: 1) qualify the initiative; 2) win the initiative campaign; 3) win four separate court battles.   Such is justice in America.

     We owe a lot to the Bill Ficker’s of the world, who have an idea that government might not like and stick to it and win.   This is the essence of a free society.  We also should respect that Beek was able to hang in there to advance his losing arguments, although the legal expenses that must be absorbed by taxpayers for his efforts aren’t so welcome.

     And I’m very pleased I had an opportunity to write a law that was actually upheld all the way to the Supreme Court, a not-so-common opportunity for an election lawyer.  (My Adam Probolsky moment.)

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.