Commentary: New City Council is hardly revolutionary

It is always a joy to observe the new City Council members as they take office and embark on their various concepts of public service.

We have always gone on the assumption that a new broom sweeps clean the remnants of bad government.

However, as Ross Perot once said, “The devil is in the details.”

Take the idea of allowing wood to be burned in the beach fire rings as an example. We hope this new ordinance restricts painted wood and wood that has been treated to be fire resistant, which creates a toxic creosote that may be harmful to the lungs, eyes and throat.

Anything can wind up in the fire rings, including clothing and plastic items. Hopefully, our code enforcement folks will be there 24/7, making sure nothing toxic is being burned. Additionally, onshore winds will be noted, so as not to endanger residents living within smoke range.

The second item is the concept of bunny banishment. Surely the sculptures should at least have the opportunity of being painted in rainbow colors, covered with childlike graffiti or sold on eBay before they are unceremoniously removed from the Civic Center grounds.

We have always supported moving the Ronald Reagan statue from Bonita Canyon Sports Park to the Civic Center grounds — right in the middle. And what about the John Wayne statue — shouldn’t that one be placed in the center of the bunny circle, just like Stonehenge in England?

We thought the new City Council majority was going to make monumental changes that would immediately affect the cost of government, such as leasing out half of the City Hall/Civic Center to private industry and downsizing city government in general.

We thought that the cost of government would go down and the new dock-tax schedule be rejected.

Sadly, we are only excited that our wonderful Newport Beach Police Chief Jay Johnson has been exonerated — he was dropped from a lawsuit filed by a former police dispatcher — and that many of our deserving Newport Beach Police Department members have been given their rightful upgrades and raises.

What about our fire guys too? They are certainly most deserving in that regard.

So we continue to look forward to the new broom that seems to be sweeping through City Hall.

And we hope our new City Council members start to get the idea about community service. Service to the community, in our opinion, means what is best for all the people and not just a chosen few from a particular group or power structure.

We also ask for fast-tracking approvals for Kobe Bryant’s building zoning. We really don’t need the national news covering something that might be considered bad press for Newport Beach.

RON and ANNA WINSHIP live in Corona del Mar.