Utility plan loses in re-count

A ballot measure to underground utilities on Balboa Island failed by a narrow margin Tuesday night after a contentious re-count.

Balboa Island property owners voted 49.7% in favor of the $20-million assessment district and 50.3% voted against the multiyear project. The project, which would have cost island property owners an average of $16,000 apiece to do away with utility poles on the island, needed at least 50% voter approval to pass.

“I please ask to the city not hold it against the island as a whole for the actions of a few,” said Larry Kallestad, who supported underground utilities.

City officials have said the island could be broken into smaller pieces to underground utilities if the larger assessment district failed.

The re-count caused many opposed to the assessment district to cry foul after the measure failed by only a few votes the first time the ballots were counted, which was two weeks ago.

Councilwomen Nancy Gardner and Leslie Daigle both raised last-minute objections to the recount Tuesday, but were voted down, 2 to 4, by the rest of the council.

Councilman Don Webb was absent.

Gardner was met with applause in the Council Chambers when she called the re-count a “mistake.”

Daigle agreed.

“There’s no clear mandate to do this — it’s simply created its own controversy,” she said.

Several Balboa Island homeowner also urged the City Council to let the first tabulation of the ballots from two weeks ago stand, with a few residents threatening legal action against the city.

“I consider this a very underhanded type of situation,” island resident Lee Gail told the City Council before the re-count. “If you end up doing this again, you’re going to have the worst fight you’ve ever had in your whole life.”

Wearings yellow stickers emblazoned with the word “NO,” dozens of islanders opposed to the assessment district hung around the Council Chambers to observe the recount late Tuesday night.

Out of about 1,200 Balboa Island property owners, more than 1,000 returned ballots — 505 voted “no” and 501 voted “yes” in the first count.

The ballots are weighted to take into account the assessment for each parcel, so the first tally of the ballots broke down to about 52% opposed and 48% in favor.

An assessment engineer asked the city for permission to do a re-count because the balloting was so close.

The assessment district would have been the largest in the city’s history.

The city will have to eat about $770,000 in planning and engineering expenses relating to the project because the underground assessment district failed.

The expenses would have come out of the pockets of island residents had the assessment district passed.

Timeline

2004

About 60% of Balboa Island property owners petitioned the city to create an assessment district and underground utilities there.

Feb. 24, 2009

Balboa Island residents pack the Newport Beach City Council chambers to express emotions ranging from enthusiasm to outrage over the proposed assessment district.

April 28, 2009

The issue goes to a vote. An assessment district engineer asks for a recount of the ballots after the measure is defeated by a razor-thin margin.