Mailbag: ‘Team Newport’ is bringing Costa Mesa-style politics to town

Good morning, Newport Beach! Time to wake up and smell the coffee — er, tea, I mean.

Yes, for anyone who attended Tuesday’s City Council meeting, or may be viewing it online, you were given a glimpse of life in Newport Beach in the future, courtesy of Councilman Scott Peotter and the now-infamous “Team Newport.”

This is just the beginning of what will be years of more and more of this kind of thing, costing the city dearly in time, litigation and goodwill. So get out the checkbook now for all of the legal fees coming our way.

And for those who enjoyed what has taken place in Costa Mesa over the years, fasten your seat belts for what is coming to Newport Beach. The LGBT community was the first to be thrown under the bus.

Just ask the employees of Costa Mesa about how things have gone for them, even those who believed they were protected by collective-bargaining agreements. Anyone can read the tea leaves (pun intended).

You thought “Team Newport” was elected to save you money. Turns out they are more interested in saving your soul with a touch of social commentary and personal animus on the side. Thrown in at no extra charge, of course.

Newport Beach, we apparently got exactly what we wanted in electing “Team Newport.” Tell me, what was it again?

Thomas J. Peterson

Newport Beach

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Public office has limits

The conflating of Councilman Scott Peotter’s right to free speech and use of the city seal misses the point. The councilman’s right to disseminate his notion of God’s views, vis-a-vis gay marriage, has boundaries.

He can shout it from his rooftop, but not from mine. Similarly, he cannot drape his peculiar take on God’s will in our city seal.

Ralph Sims

Newport Beach

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Setting priorities eases the mind

Perhaps the three most important concepts in the real estate business are: “Location, location, location.” Perhaps the three most important concepts in the mental organization business are: “Priorities, priorities, priorities.”

The idea is it’s a really important concept. But the problem is not usually, “Are priorities important?” but rather, “How do I decide what the priority is?”

As with so many important questions, like — the origin of the universe, the nature of gravity, and the best way to grill a steak, there probably is no best answer.

But here are several ways of walking yourself through the decision process that may help make things a little less complicated:

• Blue-Skying: If you could have anything you wanted, what would it be? Sometimes completely opening up your options helps to identify what goals are important to you.

• Facing Anxiety: Sometimes the “confusion” people experience in trying to sort through priorities happens because when they think of something critical they need to do, they start to get nervous.

• A-B-C’ing: There’s an old priority classification scheme of A-B-C. “A” means it’s a really important activity – directly relevant to your goals. “B” means it’s in between — you could do it or not. And “C” means it’s, well, it’s just for fun. What do people usually do first? Cs, of course! Classifying things this way reminds us that it’s easy to get stuck in the Cs and Bs, and encourages us to deal with those critical A items on our to-do list.

•The Obvious: Well, maybe this is the place to start!

Dr. Steve Davidson

Newport Beach