REBUTTAL -- Gary Proctor

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the

results.”

-- Mark Twain

In response to your editorial (“It’s a tough job councilmen, but you

need to do it,” Dec. 16) opposing a councilperson’s choice to hire a

staff even at his own expense, I would ask that you reflect on your

assumption that the “hired help [will] take constituent calls, research

problems and, ultimately, make the tough decisions.”

Let me respectfully respond to your editorial as to why I employed a

highly educated assistant who I will pay out of my own pocket a sum far

greater than what I will earn as a councilman. For 17 years I have

represented the citizens of Orange County as an airport commissioner at

John Wayne Airport. I did that job with a totally hands-on methodology

and with the assistance of people I would employ, without reimbursement,

to make sure I had access to an unbiased source of information as I

formulated and made my own decisions.

Throughout this campaign, I repeatedly heard that the citizens of

Newport Beach believed that moneyed interest or developers exercised too

much influence over public policy in Newport Beach. The passage of

Measure S solidified the strength of that perception. Representative

government needs to be accessible to all citizens, and it requires the

elected official be knowledgeable of current issues, the history of those

issues, and to anticipate future problems so as to be proactive in

finding solutions. I feel honored to sit with a City Council that I

believe will be accessible and listen to its citizens, and we all have

different approaches on how we prepare for debate on issues and remain

accessible to the citizens.

I promised in my campaign to use a collaborative approach to

leadership and to engage many stakeholders in seeking solutions to

problems. Specifically, this includes the uncustomary commitment to my

predecessor, Councilwoman Jan Debay, by keeping her involved in assisting

my work on several unfinished projects. Further, I have committed to have

regular study sessions with our district activists and leaders to help

identify problems and collectively pursue solutions. I am committed to

establish, again at my own expense, a personal Web page with interactive

feedback to keep our citizens advised of my activities.

I have listed, and re-list here, my home phone: (949) 645- 7420,

office phone: (714) 547-5853, e-mail: [email protected], and

the 800 number I have established so I can be reached at no expense to

our citizens, (800) 325-7976.

My intention and commitment is to be a “hands on” councilperson, which

has characterized my membership on the John Wayne Airport Commission and

the El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission. To fulfill these commitments, I

am seeking important information from a variety of sources, and I am

spending my personal money funding a support team. I am not, as you

suggested in your editorial, delegating my responsibilities. On the

contrary, I intend to cast a broad net to maximize input and carry out my

City Council responsibilities in an informed, intelligent and

professional manner.

I would only hope that you would give me an opportunity to implement

this vision of a broad-based collaborative approach and then, if I fail,

criticize me. But please, don’t criticize my beginning efforts on the

false premise that a staff is designed to relieve one of obligations as

opposed to the truth, that it will allow me to do a better job to that

which I was elected. Then you could comport with Mark Twain’s suggestion

of “looking at the result.”

* GARY PROCTOR was elected to the Newport Beach City Council last

month.