Commentary: Council faces tough choices on Museum House

Now that the people have overwhelmingly spoken, demanding that the question of Museum House be placed on the ballot, it is time to look at the alternatives available to Newport Beach City Council, the consequences arising from each option and hope, perhaps against reason, that thecouncil will do the right thing.

The council has, essentially, two options.

The first would be to vote to rescind the ordinance and kill the project. And, while such an action would show tremendous leadership and a strong commitment to carrying out the will of the people, given the politics involved, this would not seem to be the path that will be followed.

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The second is to put the matter to a vote, as demanded by the more than 13,000 people who signed the referendum petition, despite threats and misinformation spread by proponents of the project. Up to this point, the conversation has been solely about the positives and negatives of the development. Now that a vote is all but certain, it might make sense to discuss the fiscal implications inherent in such a vote.

The petitions submitted to the residents of Newport Beach consist of more than 1,100 pages, cost approximately $100 per petition to print and weigh more than than 10 pounds each. The obvious intent was to burden, intimidate and, ultimately dissuade, the petition-gathers from the exercise of their Constitutional rights. This tactic failed, and now the city will have to suffer the long-term consequences of their short-sighted actions.

California Elections Code Section 9238 requires that the ordinance, as adopted with thousands of unnecessary pages, be sent out to all 53,131 registered voters in Newport Beach. If my calculations are correct, the ballot pamphlet won’t even fit in most mailboxes and will clearly be an expensive endeavor. And vote-by-mail ballots, county servicing of petition verification, operation of polling places and vote tabulation have to be added to the costs.

Newport Beach City Council has a clear choice. It can continue to follow the dictates of its puppet masters, acknowledge its political debt to the developer, and reaffirm that its claimed adherence to fiscal conservatism is nothing more than political expediency. Or it can repeal the approval of this project and save the taxpayers from the financial quagmire that it is are responsible for creating.

And councilmembers need to remember that this time the voters, who will overwhelmingly vote in favor of the referendum, are paying attention.

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PHIL GREER ran for Newport Beach City Council in 2016.