Talking crossings over cup of coffee

I had coffee with John Heffernan a few days after he announced he was leaving the Newport Beach City Council. I was curious about what was unspoken in his resignation, and where his five years of often difficult service to the city had left him.

He talked easily and comfortably. No stunning exposures, but some thoughtful perceptions certainly worth pondering.

His service might be encapsulated by one story he told me. His Newport Beach neighborhood is adjacent to a green belt and a nature walk, heavily populated by children. He has long pursued construction of an improved crosswalk between them, using the same design installed years ago at nearby Andersen Elementary School.

Small job. No big deal.

And -- over the years -- also no improved crosswalk.

“We spent $80,000 for a traffic study for the whole neighborhood, but we never got a go-ahead for this 12-grand project, even though I repeatedly pressed for it while I was mayor,” he said -- not with bitterness but with resignation and wonder.

Somehow, that failed crosswalk symbolizes Heffernan’s five years of effort to integrate his method of looking at a broad assortment of facts, weighing them, making a decision, then getting on with action into a system that relies, instead, on multiple studies, conferences, schmoozing and consensus-building.

As a result, Heffernan has often been regarded as a chronic contrarian rather than a positive contributor to the process of governing. Thus differences, almost entirely of style, have led to deep frustration on both sides. That frustration took Heffernan to the edge of resigning during his first term and deciding to run for a second term only at the last possible minute.

Then last week, he told me, it came as almost a blinding light to him that he was taking precious time from a pair of sons -- one of whom was about to graduate from high school -- to continue serving a system which, it had become quite clear, would not allow him to be effective.

So he quit.

God knows he tried. But the fact is that for the past five years, we have been governed by a five-member City Council. (“They can all count to four very well,” Heffernan said.)

For quite different reasons, Heffernan and Councilman Dick Nichols have been outside the inner circle -- Nichols because he went public with his objections to “Mexicans” usurping the grassy knolls at Corona del Mar State Beach, and Heffernan because, well, because he’s Heffernan.

Nichols became a political leper after he refused to resign from the City Council, and he has simply been shunned.

Heffernan, on the other hand, appeared by intelligent observation and dogged perseverance to have won the respect of his associates. So he was thrown a bone that he turned into an impressive six-month run as mayor.

Then he was returned to his old role of trying to brush aside the amenities and cut to the chase, which were generally treated -- publicly, at least -- with familiar polite dismissal.

Deja vu, as Yogi Berra liked to say, all over again..

“If possible, I try to deal in specifics and the need to prioritize,” Heffernan told me. “I ask: What do we have to do, who has the expertise and authority to make decisions, and what is the most efficient and cost-effective way to achieve them?

“By contrast, the city hall approach is to make too many people a part of the process. This puts focus in the wrong place and dilutes the authority of elected council members to make decisions.

“Take all of the debate over a new city hall. We need to get bids. Real prices, not estimates, so we can make some decisions. And we also need to remember that most residents don’t much care where it is located or even if there is a new city hall if it’s going to carry a $50-million price tag. The reaction of residents who want to put this issue on a ballot shows that they don’t have confidence in the judgment of the council.”

And then there was the schmoozing question.

Said Heffernan, “I’m accustomed to reviewing alternatives, choosing the most efficient and practical one, telling people what to do, and then getting the job done. That style doesn’t work with staff people in city government. I know that if I had paid more attention to personal matters involving other council members and staff, I would have been more effective. That’s my fault. I took on this assignment, and I should have been prepared to give more time to the job for socializing at City Hall.

“In municipal government, there are people who set the tone and people who take the orders and execute them. In Newport Beach, the roles have been reversed. That happens when the council doesn’t understand or assert its role. The Newport council needs to begin setting the tone and governing instead of letting city staff take charge.”

He pointed to the airport issue as a matter of special and continuing concern for the residents of Newport -- and especially for his successor.

“Talks are going on right now between the city and the county about the fate of John Wayne when the present agreement expires,” he said. “The council -- which should be safeguarding our residents who bear the brunt of the airport impact -- is not represented directly in these talks. And staff -- which shouldn’t be -- is doing the negotiating for us. If I lived as directly under the flight path as you do, I’d be worried.”

I am.

The last time such negotiations took place, both the council and the staff were represented -- and we came out with more flights, more passengers, more gates and more noise -- for which the city congratulated itself afterward, a curious reaction to a dismal result.

This time, John Heffernan will be on the sidelines, watching his kids play basketball and helping to guide them to college.

“We like it better this way,” he said. “Now I’m not just around in spirit.”

As for the city, he said, “I’ve done my time there -- probably more than 3,500 hours over five years. Now I’m going to focus on something else, likely back in the nonprofit sector. I couldn’t get changes in the city system -- it wouldn’t even allow me a crosswalk -- but some good things were accomplished, and I certainly wish the person who takes my chair well.”

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column appears Thursdays.

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