A look back at 2003

Dec. 26, 2003 12 AM PT

Jury finds Councilman Baglin not guilty

1Councilman Wayne Baglin stuck to his guns and his attorney shot

down the prosecuting attorney’s charges that Baglin had broken the

law when he took a commission for brokering a real estate deal with

the city.

A jury of eight women and five men found Baglin not guilty of

violating state code 1090, which prohibits elected officials from

profiting from a contract with the agency they represent.

Baglin had maintained for two years that he was entitled to take

the $36,000 commission from clients he represented in the sale of

their Third Street property to the city, even though he was in office

at the time

“I felt I had earned it,” Baglin told the jury.

Baglin was his own best witness.

The councilman said he didn’t know the city was still interested

in buying the property when he ran for office in November 2000,

because the last show of interest was in May of that year. He signed

a contract with the property owners on Jan. 19, 2001, about 1 1/2

months after he took office.

Baglin never made a secret of representing Dorothy and Edgar

Hatfield in the transaction. He also never voted on the acquisition

of their property by the city, which would have been a violation of

the state Political Reform Act, totally separate from 1090-1097

violations, which deal with money changing hands. Defense attorney

Michael Molfetta told the jury that Baglin thought the city was going

to use eminent domain to acquire the Hatfield property, which would

make it legal for him to accept a commission.

Eminent domain is the procedure by which a governing body can

obtain a property whether or not the owner is willing to sell.

Molfetta said city officials lied in their testimony that Baglin

was warned about the potential of conflict of interest violations and

that he knew the city no longer planned to gain title to the property

through eminent domain. Assistant District Atty. Jeffrey Winter

contended in his closing arguments that Baglin may have earned the

commission, but taking it was a crime. Representing his clients in

the sale of property to the city was not a violation of state code

1090-1097, but accepting a check was.

“On Feb. 6, Mr. Baglin learned that the city was not going forth

with eminent domain,” Winter told the jury. “Twenty days later, he

takes a check for $36,000, cashes it and keeps it.”

-- Barbara Diamond

Eight-year old murder case closed

2A jury in Orange County convicted a man in December for murdering

a Baskin-Robbins owner and attempting to murder her husband in 1995.

Santa Ana resident Gilbert Garcia, 32, faces life in prison after

a jury of nine women and three men found him guilty of killing

53-year-old Simindokht Roshdieh during a failed robbery.

Capt. Danell Adams said a dark cloud was lifted from the

department following the verdict, but that it took so long because

authorities wanted to be absolutely certain they had the right man.

The lengthy investigation included the arrest of a man shortly

after the crime that several witnesses, including Roshdieh’s husband,

Firooz, positively identified as the killer. A closer look into a

Tustin robbery committed the same night led police to release the

first suspect about a month after the murder.

Laguna Beach police arrested Garcia in 2001 after a database of

gang members’ tattoos matched Garcia’s with those of the man on a

surveillance tape. Garcia was already serving a 25 years to life

sentence for carjacking.

-- Mike Swanson

Yard moves closer to ACT V

3The City Council voted 3-2 in December to spend $5 million to

relocate the corporation yard from City Hall to Act V and the county

gave them the go-ahead.

Although the ACT V parcel is owned by the city, it is in the

county’s jurisdiction because the city never annexed it -- a bone of

contention for opponents of the relocation project.

The approved plan calls for two buildings, totaling 20,000 square

feet, storage and service for 102 vehicles and work space for 86

employees, screened by landscaping; parking for 190 public vehicles

-- 170 without supervision, also screened by landscaping; and a bus

stop and turnaround for festival trams.

Assistant City Manager John Pietig proposed, at the Dec. 5 City

Council meeting, funding for the relocation from a hodgepodge of

sources: $600,000 that had been earmarked for public parking in South

Laguna; estimated profit of $2.46 million from the sale of lots in

North Laguna that now house the city’s nursery and assorted vehicles;

$900,000 from the Orange County Transportation Authority; $300,000

from the city’s Capital Improvement Fund and $500,000 from the

general fund.

The council approval came before City Manager Ken Frank made his

dire mid-year budget report at the Dec. 16 meeting and before the

council tapped city funds and project appropriations to pay off the

$8.1 million Treasure Island Park debt.

ACT V was purchased from the Irvine Co. with the notion of moving

the corporation yard. The City Council approved a project in the late

1990s, a plan was drawn, a coastal development permit issued by the

county and some preliminary work was done on the site. Then the

council rescinded its approval.

Mayor Cheryl Kinsman never gave up on the project and got the

third vote she needed to revive it when Elizabeth Pearson, who sat

with Kinsman on the Planning Commission and the Village Entrance Task

Force, was elected to the council in 2002.

The county Planning Commission and the city’s Design Review Board

approved the project. The Board of Supervisors denied an appeal of

the commission’s approval filed by the Laguna Canyon Conservancy.

Kinsman and Pearson testified in favor of the project at the

supervisors’ hearing on Dec. 16. Councilman Steve Dicterow, who also

supports the relocation, did not attend. .

“I wasn’t surprised by the denial,” said Carolyn Wood, president

of the conservancy. “But it doesn’t mean we are going to roll over

and play dead.”

Councilwoman Toni Iseman said she would be surprised if the

California Coastal Commission didn’t review the project because of

the commission’s parking requirements at ACT V for the Festival

Season. Calculations of parking spaces vary.

Iseman and Councilman Wayne Baglin have consistently voted against

the project.

Other projects, including sewer repairs, might also be doomed by

the costs of the relocation, according to Baglin.

“This is a faucet that we cannot turn off and it will drain the

city,” he said.

Laguna Greenbelt Inc. and Village Laguna also oppose the

relocation, deeming it detrimental to open space and the Laguna Coast

Wilderness Park.

-- Barbara Diamond

Montage Resort and Spa opens in Laguna

4This year Laguna Beach saw the completion of the Montage Resort

and Spa. The development was a long-time controversy in the city, but

on Feb. 22 the upscale resort opened its doors and welcomed people to

Treasure Island Park.

The Montage Resort traveled a bumpy road to completion when crews

broke ground in October 2000. The Montage Hotels and Resorts and the

Athens Group purchased the project formerly known as the Laguna Beach

Colony Hotel in June 2002.

The 30-acre site was purchased for $190 million and then renamed

the Montage Resort and Spa, Laguna Beach.

The principle amount the city paid for the park was $8,707,000.

Because the resort was fronting the money the city is paying

interest. As of Dec. 18, when the city paid off the money, it paid

$950,000 in interest.

City Manager Ken Frank estimates that the resort will bring in 2.5

to 3 million in bed tax.

The 262-room resort has brought some jobs to Laguna with 550

people working behind the scenes.

Having public art was a requirement for the resort. Four works of

public art by noted regional artists were commissioned and are on

display throughout the resort: a porcelain-tiled wall mural depicting

sea life by Dora De Larios; an ornate bronze sculpture of a

California landscape by Terry Thornsley; an in-laid Pate de verre

style glass work by John Barber; and two bronze sculptors of mythical

creatures by Cheryl Ekstrom.

The controversy continues in issues of parking in the area

especially during peak tourist season in the summer.

-- Suzie Harrison

Proposed cuts threatened schools

5Laguna Beach Unified School District had to issue preliminary

pink slips to more than 50 district staff members in response to

former Gov. Gray Davis proposed budget cuts in March.

The district had to be prepared for the worst-case scenario in

which the school district budget would decrease from $22,887,521 to

$16,453,253.

Davis had proposed a $126,000,000 cut to basic aid school

districts like Laguna Beach’s. Basic-aid districts receive most their

revenue from local property taxes.

However, the state Legislature unanimously rejected Davis’

proposal, which would have cut $6 million from Laguna’s school

budget.

Supt. Theresa Daem and the board continued to hope the “equitable

case” scenario they had proposed, which would involve budget

reductions but the fewest final layoff notices, would make up for

Davis’ proposed budget.

The Laguna Beach school board passed an interim school budget that

allowed it to rescind layoff notices in March. If it had not made

that decision, each person who received a notice would have been

forced to wait until May 14 to see if they were still employed. May

15 was the scheduled deadline to cancel layoff notices.

Gov. Davis ultimately decided to treat basic-aid districts more

equitable, which resulted in a budget that was $4 million more than

the interim budget passed by the school board.

-- Suzie Harrison

Worker rescues child from ocean

6A 26-year-old construction worker took some time off work April

2, sprinting down a steep bluff to pull a drowning 4-year-old girl

from the ocean off Crescent Bay Beach.

Ben Bonin of Capistrano Beach then successfully administered CPR,

something he’d never done before, but had seen on television several

times.

Bonin noticed a woman and her two children out on some rocks at

Crescent Bay Beach while he worked on an ocean-front home in the

morning. He looked away for a minute, then looked back and saw the

woman and only one child on the rocks. She was waving her arms, and

Bonin hit the sand, shedding clothing along the way.

Serena Guadalupe of Henderson, Nev., was blue and not breathing

when Bonin pulled her from the ocean, but she was happy and alert in

the hospital later that day.

The City Council honored Bonin at the following week’s meeting for

his heroic action.

-- Mike Swanson

Hospital officials contemplate moving

7South Coast Medical Center officials hold out little hope that

the hospital will stay in Laguna Beach.

Hospital spokespeople said in October that the community that

built the hospital is too small to support it and too isolated to

draw the number of outside patients needed to make up the difference.

“It takes 100,000 exclusive people and about 300,000 in a broader

community to support a hospital,” said Gary Irish, center chief

executive officer. “South Coast Medical Center had 84,000 visits in

2002, about 16,000 by Laguna Beach residents.”

It was the city’s isolated location that led a concerned community

to acquire the land in the 1950s and raise the funds to build the

not-for-profit hospital here. Residents and community activists

rallied to the cause in response to the death of a wounded police

officer who failed to survive a long ambulance ride to the nearest

hospital.

Hospital officials claim the state mandated earthquake safety

updates to the facility make the move almost inevitable.

“The bottom line is that we don’t have the $72 million and if we

did, it doesn’t pencil out,” said Joe Orsak, president of the

hospital’s fund-raising foundation.

Plans to move have been discussed in-house for more than a year,

but only lately became public. CEO Irish said in October that no

formal decision had been made.

Orsak asked for the community’s understanding of the hospital’s

position.

“I do not think the council would ever support a move,” said

then-Mayor Toni Iseman. “Too many creative, talented successful

people who live in and love Laguna know how much the hospital means

to this community. It would be like an amputation.”

-- Barbara Diamond

Memories of 1993 linger

8Some are bitter, some are sweet.

It takes only a whiff of smoke or the sound of the Santa Ana winds

rustling in the eucalyptus trees to bring back memories of Oct. 27,

1993.

Memories were perhaps even more vivid this year, the 10th

anniversary of the firestorm that destroyed or damaged more than 400

homes in Laguna Beach and Emerald Bay.

Not a soul in town was untouched by the fire. But some of the

memories are actually sweet -- tales of heroics and tenderness

abound.

The experiences and the memories gave Laguna a special empathy for

the victims of the fires that devastated Southern California this

past October. And Laguna was quick to offer assistance.

“We can identify,” said David Horne, whose Laguna Beach home was

destroyed in 1993. “The main message is: It’s going to be

overwhelming, but it’s doable.”

Even before the 2003 fires were under control, City Manager Ken

Frank had organized an outreach group to meet with San Bernardino

city and county officials to pass on what they had learned from

Laguna’s firestorm.

The group included Ed Sauls, president of the Laguna Beach Relief

and Resource Center, which grew out of the 1993 Fire Relief Coalition. Sauls was among the organizers of community groups that

sprang into action, raising funds and accepting donations of

clothing, toys and household goods to tide over the victims of the

latest holocaust, as others had come to the aid of Laguna in 1993.

Horne said the fire victims have to take it a little bit at a

time.

“It’s not fun but, believe it or not, I think people come out of

it stronger,” said Horne, founder of the Laguna Beach Red Flag Patrol

that watches for the first signs of brush fire on high risk days.

“They shouldn’t get discouraged. Just keep looking at the main goal

of moving back into a rebuilt home.”

-- Barbara Diamond

Election donation increases rescinded

9Councilman Steve Dicterow bowed to the will of the people when he

withdrew support from an increase in individual campaign donation

limits that he had sponsored.

“I have found in the last month absolutely no support for my

position,” Dicterow said at the Nov. 4 City Council meeting.

Dicterow had proposed at the Oct. 7 meeting an increase in

donation limits and a decrease in the voluntary spending pledge

limit. He said the $250 limit in place made donation collection too

time consuming and reporting it too onerous.

Councilwomen Elizabeth Pearson and Cheryl Kinsman supported him.

According to Dicterow, virtually everyone else in town opposed the

hike to $750 from the previous $250. There had been talk of a

referendum.

“There was an unprecedented lack of support,” Dicterow said.

“People who normally oppose me were opposed to my position. People

who normally support me were opposed to my position.”

The council unanimously voted to reduce the limit to $310, which

reflected a consumer price index increase of $60 over the $250 limit

put in place in 1994. Then-Mayor Toni Iseman, who voted against the

increase, suggested the new limit.

Future increases will be based on the index for Los Angeles and

Orange Counties as of Jan. 1 of each odd year.

Linda Brown, co-chair of the Laguna Beach branch of the League of

Women Voters, was among the most outspoken of the critics of the

increase and one of the first to publicly thank Dicterow for his

turnabout.

The league branch was the primary sponsor of the 1994 donation

limit.

Dicterow said he hadn’t changed his belief that the donation limit

was too low, but he didn’t want to be the kind of elected official

who does not listen to the electorate.

A companion proposal by Dicterow to lower the voluntary spending

pledge from $30,000 to $15,000 was not rescinded. Critics of that

change claim that no one will sign the pledge, which benefits those

who have no intention of limiting their spending.

-- Barbara Diamond

Groups gain docent programs

10The volunteer docents descended upon three of Laguna Beach’s

A look back at 2003

More on this Subject