‘Like a bad drug trip’: Which version of Newport council’s meeting will fly?

Allusions to hallucinogenic drug use, flying fictional creatures and a dead rock ‘n’ roll icon peppered the debate Tuesday night among council members and Newport Beach City Hall staff over the wording of minutes from the previous meeting.

Approving the minutes is traditionally a routine item, often swiftly passed with unanimous approval at the beginning of each City Council meeting with little or no discussion.

But the approval of the minutes taken from the Jan. 13 meeting, where the council voted 5 to 2 to bring wood-burning fire rings back to the city’s beaches, strayed away from the habitually polite, politically correct style of council meetings gone by.

“This is like a bad drug trip,” Councilman Tony Petros said of the discrepancy between the minutes, and Councilman Scott Peotter’s motion to bring back 30, wood-burning fire rings.

The contentious debate was sparked by the addition of wording to Peotter’s motion that made it sound like the council had voted on a permanent fire-ring plan, which could eventually scatter 60 fire rings throughout the city’s beaches.

Peotter’s motion did not mention a 60-ring permanent plan. Instead, he motioned to approve an interim plan, which brought 30 rings back to Corona del Mar State Beach and the Balboa Pier, according to the tape of the last meeting.

However, the minutes were written to include that a permanent, 60-ring plan, as discussed during the meeting, had also been approved by a 5 to 2 vote of the council.

The permanent plan, as written in the minutes, would return 60 wood-burning rings to the community with 18 at Big Corona, 26 at the Balboa Pier, nine north of the Newport Pier and seven at Newport Dunes.

Petros, who voted with the majority on the fire-ring issue, said he never would have done so if he thought the motion included the permanent plan.

The city has not completed the proper outreach or environmental impact reports for him to make a decision about bringing back 60 rings, he said.

The rest of the council members who cast votes in favor of Peotter’s motion said they understood the action would include the 60- and 30-ring plans.

The roughly 23-minute debate pitted Councilman Keith Curry and Petros against Peotter and Councilman Kevin Muldoon. The council ultimately voted 5 to 2 to approve the minutes without alteration. Petros and Curry dissented.

“I don’t think this is a ‘wood-gate,’” Muldoon said. “There’s no mistrust here. It’s an open forum. It’s almost insulting to suggest there’s a scandal.”

Council meeting minutes are not expected to be an exact transcript of the meeting, Mayor Ed Selich said in an interview Wednesday.

“I thought it was unnecessary to bring it up,” he said.

A representative for Newport Dunes said the organization is undecided whether it wants fire rings in its area of the beach. Newport Dunes would have to sign off on the plan before the city could place the rings on its property.

Curry and several members of the public brought forth concern that the minutes did not accurately reflect Peotter’s motion.

Expanding the scope of Peotter’s motion, seemingly behind the back of the public questions the integrity of the City Council and its processes, Curry argued.

“The minutes are not an exercise in fiction writing,” he said. “They are not a vehicle to put words in the mouths of the inarticulate. They are not a means to expand the authority of actions taken after the fact in private, outside meetings, away from the council.”

Staff said because the council discussed both the interim and permanent plan after the motion was made, they altered the minutes to include both arrangements. The City Council has final approval of the minutes.

“The City Council determines what happened at the meeting, what the minutes reflect,” said City Attorney Aaron Harp. “That’s what the council policy says.”

Petros questioned the extent of the council’s power.

“So if I suggested, Mr. Harp, that a unicorn flew in the chambers and circled around followed by Elvis, would that be OK in the minutes?” he asked.

“If you can get four votes,” Harp said.