Keith Curry is new mayor

Newly selected Newport Beach Mayor Keith Curry warned of a tough financial year ahead for the city after taking up the gavel from former Mayor Ed Selich on Tuesday night.

“In 2010, like no other year before, we will be measured on how we manage our city through the treacherous shoals of this ongoing financial crisis,” Curry said. “We as a city must be proactive in our response.”

The Newport Beach City Council unanimously voted to install Curry as the city’s new mayor.

Councilman Mike Henn will serve as mayor pro-tem.

The mayor’s seat rotates among council members on an annual basis.

Curry, who served as mayor pro tem for the past year, was widely expected to take up the title.

Selich accepted a small plaque to commemorate his two terms as mayor and moved to a new seat at the end of the council dais Tuesday night.

“I’m particularly proud of what we have accomplished over the past two years,” Selich said.

During Selich’s time as mayor, he oversaw the hiring of a new city manager, city attorney and city clerk.

Selich pursued an aggressive timetable for building a new multimillion-dollar civic center and park on Avocado Avenue.

He also helped negotiate a lucrative development agreement with the Irvine Co. for the North Newport Center Planned Community, which included about $43 million in development fees, road and park improvements, and other benefits for the city.

Newport Beach and Curry face a $5.8-million budget shortfall this year because of slumping sales and hotel tax revenues.

Curry has instructed city staff to prepare a report on how the city can maintain “financial sustainability” in its investment portfolio and budgeting, the new mayor said Tuesday.

He also said he would continue his efforts to quantify the city’s customer service performance by undertaking a citizen satisfaction survey next year.

During Curry’s three years as councilman for District 7, he has taken a lead role in analyzing the city’s finances.

Curry chairs the city’s finance committee, and, as a member of the facilities financing committee, helped develop a plan to build new city parks and other municipal facilities over the next 15 years.

Curry is a managing director of the financial advisory group Public Financial Management.

The new mayor holds a master’s degree in public administration, and a bachelor’s degree in political science and certificate in urban studies from Cal State Long Beach.

He and his wife, Pamela, have been married for more than 25 years. The couple have lived in Newport Beach for 15 years and have an adult daughter named Julia.