The Choice is Clear

This year’s council race is supposedly feisty or contentious, but really the choices are simple and clear.

Diane Dixon refers to Rush Hill and his ballot pals Mike Toerge and Tim Brown, as the “Oer the Rush Hill Gang” because it pertains to their push to keep things the way they are. They all endorse each other and they all brag about keeping the “momentum” going, and it’s why they all share the same endorsements of the existing city council and most of its past members and mayors from the past 3 decades.

Yet they call us “group-thinking idealists” because we formed a team and they are “independent thinkers.” Go figure.

Let’s see what that “momentum” is that they want to keep going. The Taj-Ma-City-Hall overspending, Charcoal instead of wood in our fire rings, white concrete bunnies, $571 Million in long-term debt, deceptively worded ballot measures, pagan-idol-looking “art,” and union endorsements.

Diane Dixon, Duffy Duffield, Kevin Muldoon and me (Scott Peotter) make up Team Newport and are looking to think outside the box, or blow up the bunnies, so to speak. It is a shame that what was considered “common sense” is now berated as “ideological,” “innovative,” or “unproven” according to the Over the (Rush) Hill Gang.

Common sense is things like using wood in our beach fire pits, not borrowing from our grandchildren to pay for expenses like union pensions, or not borrowing against the Taj-Ma-City-Hall without going to the voters first. Had the council gone to the voters early on in the process, maybe they wouldn’t have gone 200 percent over budget.

So, if you want reform city hall instead of mortgaging it, cut spending, pay down long term debt, restore real wood in the fire rings, maintain the harbor, stop wasting taxpayer money on questionable “art,”and blow up the bunnies so to speak, then Team Newport is the one to do it.

Scott Peotter

Newport Beach