The Council Majority Drops the Fiction of Looking and Multiple Sites

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 28, 2026

Contact: Cyrus Vong, cyrus@gerkenfornewport.com

Newport Beach, CA – The July 28 City Council meeting will be known as the date the city drops all pretense about “studying multiple sites” and makes significant financial commitments to move forward on the Civic Center Park location despite overwhelming public opposition.

The $1.5 million allocated for initial studies has morphed into a $12.45 million contract to design a police station/jail sited at the park. Buildings are designed for the place they are located, and it is wasteful to design before picking the site.

An additional $346,000 contract is being approved to prepare an Environmental Impact Report, once again just for the park site. No fiscally responsible government does an EIR for a site unless it is the chosen location.

The most offensive contract is for $315,000 to hire a public relations firm to convince residents they are wrong and to build support for the park idea. Given the park location will be a major issue in the election, it amounts to yet another expenditure of taxpayer dollars to support those incumbents like Lauren Kleiman and Erik Weigand who support putting the jail in the park.

Also on the agenda is a term sheet with the OCTA that compels the city of Newport Beach to fund the construction of a new transit center. This is without any decision as to the location, size, cost or operational viability of a new site. It is a blank check for more than $15 million driven by Lauren Kleiman’s efforts to free up the Santa Barbara St. location for high rise development. The city is already in a long-dated escrow for $11.5 million to buy a strip mall at the airport that is miles away from the destination of the 140,000 annual riders who use Avocado. This is a massive level of wasteful government spending being driven by the council majority.

Finally, the Police Station Advisory Committee eliminated funding and staff time to evaluate using the current site. After the vote, it was revealed that one of the citizen members, Tom Maloney, had been actively trying to block comments on Nextdoor by opponents of the park site. All applicants were quizzed about their ability to be impartial, and Mr. Maloney either misled the interview committee, or more likely was selected because of his support for the park site. He should resign. Councilmember Sara Weber was also caught blocking citizen comments as well.

The council majority is spending tens of millions of tax dollars to run roughshod over the will of our residents. We must change this in the next election.

- Dr. Andy Gerken, Candidate for Newport Beach City Council.

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