Consultant hired to help slide victims

Alicia Robinson

Former Newport Beach City Attorney Bob Burnham will lead efforts to

rebuild a Laguna Beach community destroyed Wednesday by a landslide

that displaced nearly two dozen families, Laguna city officials

announced Monday.

Burnham, who has lived in Laguna Beach for 25 years, retired

nearly a year ago after serving as Newport’s city attorney for more

than two decades.

He still acts as a legal consultant for Newport, but he’ll have

less time for that now. The city of Laguna Beach hired him to oversee

all aspects of landslide recovery efforts, including acting as a

liaison for displaced residents, working with government agencies to

get relief funds, and managing construction projects to buttress the

wrecked hillside and repair infrastructure, Laguna Beach Mayor

Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider said.

“He’s a Laguna resident, which I think is very important, because

he understands the community and will be particularly sensitive to

the way Laguna typically approaches problem solving,” she said. “I

think he’s worked on problem resolution before, [and] worked as a

community liaison before, so I think he’s very sensitive and that’s,

I think, critical in this situation.”

Late Monday, Burnham said he was still sorting out what all his

duties will be. He’ll be paid $50 an hour, and he expects a big

portion of his work will be working with the Federal Emergency

Management Agency and other organizations that are providing

assistance.

He praised the work of city police, fire fighters and building

officials as well as other cities that have offered help to residents

whose homes are uninhabitable.

“They took very good care of the victims,” Burnham said. “They

have just done an incredible job.”

Meanwhile, state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore is seeking state

permission for now homeless residents to stay in vacant homes at the

El Morro Village mobile home park.

The 22 families whose homes were deemed unsafe to inhabit have

been staying wherever they can -- in some cases other residents have

taken them in -- but they need somewhere to live for up to the next

three years, Pearson-Schneider said.

“People are saying these are millionaires. Well, they’re not

millionaires anymore because most of their assets were in their homes

and they don’t have a home anymore, and some of them don’t even have

the land that the home was on,” she said.

She pitched the idea of putting residents in homes at El Morro,

where about 26 trailers are vacant after some residents agreed to

stop fighting eviction by the state and leave. The state owns the El

Morro property and plans to turn it into public parkland but is still

battling in court to get residents out.

“You’ve got about two dozen people with a desperate need and two

dozen homes that have already been evacuated,” DeVore said. “It just

seems like a natural fit.”

DeVore was waiting to hear from California Resources Agency

Secretary Mike Chrisman about whether Laguna residents can settle in

at El Morro. The Assemblyman became popular with El Morro residents

in February when he introduced two bills to extend their leases, but

he pulled the plug on the bills in April, saying he couldn’t get

enough votes to pass them.

Residents at El Morro would welcome the landslide victims because

they also have suffered from natural disasters, El Morro Community

Assn. President Jeanette Miller said.

“We’re familiar with acts of nature because about 40 of our

residents were burned out in a valley fire 10 years ago Plus on the

beach side, people who have been there a long time have been washed

out twice,” Miller said.

About eight El Morro residents who have other homes have offered

to put up Laguna residents in need of housing for anywhere from a

week to a month, Miller said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.