Corona del Mar Today: Nancy Gardner finds life after the council ‘freeing’

Nancy Gardner has spent the last eight years representing Corona del Mar residents on the Newport Beach City Council.

Eight years of 7:30 a.m. Business Improvement District meetings, Corona del Mar Residents Assn. meetings, committee meetings, study sessions, council meetings, one-on-one meetings, ribbon cuttings, mayor’s dinners, groundbreaking ceremonies, walking tours, dedications and more.

Gardner, who was termed-out, will now revert to being an environmental activist, watching meetings from home on television and avoiding the spotlight, she said in a recent interview.

“It’s funny,” she said. “Last weekend I was reviewing information for a meeting on the local coastal plan.… I could tell already a shift in my perspective. I went from being an advocate, representing Surfrider. As soon as I was on the council, I was not about to be an advocate … I represented the city. But I can already feel myself shifting back to advocate. It’s very freeing.”

Gardner, 72, was born in Newport Beach and moved to Shore Cliffs in 1953, when the town ended at Morning Canyon. She grew up in Corona del Mar, riding horses in what is now Cameo Highlands. She graduated from Newport Harbor High School and received her bachelor’s degree from USC and her master’s from UC Irvine.

She served as marketing director for Century 21 Real Estate Corp. and as the senior vice president for Butterfield Savings, according to her website.

Her interest in city government initially focused on water-quality issues related to her work with the Coastal/Bay Water Quality Citizens Advisory Committee and the Newport Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

Then she made a coffee date, and everything changed.

“When Debra Allen and Jan DeBay asked me for coffee eight years ago, I figured they wanted me to do something, but I wasn’t prepared for what that was — running for council,” Gardner wrote in her final monthly newsletter.

“I can’t say it was an idea that was instantly appealing. Council meetings? Yes. Committees? Sure. Interaction with residents? Of course. Social events? You mean, not sit home with my book? Go out to some affair to which I would not be invited except for my title? Uhhhhh ...”

Gardner ran and won that year, beating Dick Nichols with 57.1% of the votes. She was reelected four years later, when she ran unopposed.

“We felt that Corona del Mar was being under-represented on the council,” Allen said in an email. “We wanted to find the council candidate who would be responsive to the residents. She has fulfilled those hopes. She listens to the community and is very engaged.”

During her two-term tenure, Gardner was known for delivering one of the shortest State of the City speeches ever to the Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce after she was elected mayor in 2011.

“The state of the city is fine,” she said. “Any questions?”

After drawing laughs, she elaborated on parking and other issues. But she was known as someone who would cut to the chase, keep a meeting on point and speak her mind.

Gardner also was the council member who suggested removing the beach fire rings in 2009 — a suggestion that resulted in Newport Beach being caught in the middle of the clashing requirements of the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the California Coastal Commission.

“Who knows where it will end up,” she said. “In some ways, I’m sorry I started it.”

The devisive issue, she said, led to a long-time acquaintance refusing to acknowledge her in a shopping center parking lot.

But generally, she said, people have been friendly and appreciative, and she can point to more-gratifying results with other matters.

“The tree issue,” she said, referring to an overhaul of the city’s rules regarding the types of trees to be planted, where they should be planted and when they should be removed.

“I raised it again and again, and staff always had too much on its plate,” Gardner said. “We’re finally going to look at it, but I won’t be on council when it shows up.”

She also was the first council person to address rising sea levels and the threat to areas like Balboa Island. At first, colleagues didn’t want to discuss the topic because they didn’t want to discuss global warming.

“It was very gratifying for me that we could overlook philosophical differences and say, ‘This is a specific problem,’ and start looking for solutions,” Gardner said.

Becoming mayor, she said, was something she never cared about. “But then so many women came up to me and said, ‘We haven’t had a woman mayor in so long,’” she said.

The social aspects of being a mayor were not appealing, Gardner said, except when it came to the kids.

“If I said I was a council person, it didn’t mean anything to the average kid,” she said. “But a mayor means something, even if they don’t really understand what a mayor is. My granddaughter told her friend, ‘My grandmother is mayor,’ and her friend said, ‘You are so lucky!’ Neither knew what a mayor was, but they were impressed.”

Riding in the Balboa Island parade as mayor, with her granddaughter by her side, was a highlight of her tenure, she said. She also led two Mayor’s Walk events and a standup-paddle board event.

The four new incoming council members, she said, will have to adjust to the way the city works.

“There’s a tendency to think of the council meetings, to think of the big issues for getting the city on track,” she said. “But in many ways, that’s a small part of the job. There are so many meetings, city and community. There’s steady interaction with constituents. Maybe you don’t go in thinking how much of the rest of it there is. It doesn’t matter who you are — there’s a learning curve.”

For now, Gardner said, she won’t attend meetings, letting the new council members have the spotlight.

“I’ve been asked to join the boards of a few nonprofits,” she said. “I agreed to the Newport Bay Conservancy, and there are a couple others I’m following up on.”

In her final newsletter, published Dec. 2, Gardner said it was difficult to find the right words to sign off.

“I feel like there should be some socko finish, some memorable closing words, but I am not Shakespeare or Auden or even W.C. Fields, so let me just say to those of you for whom I didn’t leave soon enough … all right, already. I’m leaving,” she wrote.

“And for the rest of you, thank you for all of your support these eight years. We have disagreed at times but often found common ground, and together we have accomplished quite a lot.”

Corona del Mar Today appears Sundays in the Daily Pilot. Read daily updates at coronadelmartoday.com.