It’s always a surprise for the first-time visitor: set next to Newport Harbor High School, across the street from condos and apartments, off a busy stretch of 16^th Street near Dover, is the Environmental Nature Center – a 3.5-acre oasis of verdant calm, shaded by oaks, with nature’s music provided by a running stream, accessed by trails and fronted on the street side by a sleek new display center with offices and meeting rooms.

Begun in 1972 as an environmental education center, the ENC has seen thousands of kids pass through over the years and currently offers an array of programs and classes targeted mostly at youngsters.

Lori Whalen is director of education at the ENC and has been an energetic guiding light for both the center and for the many children who have learned about nature, ecology and themselves through the classes she has organized and taught.

Whalen was interviewed by Editor Roger Bloom.

1. What is the mission of the Environmental Nature Center?

To provide quality education through hands-on experience with nature.

2. What is “nature deficit disorder”?

“Nature deficit disorder” put simply is our children’s lack of a relationship to nature and the environment.  It’s a term coined by Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods. Today’s children have forsaken the outdoors for a seat in front of the TV or computer – sometimes that’s because their parents are afraid of letting them play outside, and sometimes it’s because there just isn’t anywhere local to play.  This has resulted in an abundance of overweight children, many of whom have attention disorders and depression.  It’s easily remedied, though, with doses of time outside in a local park, nature center, or even your own backyard!  Nature is everywhere.  We ALL need to unplug now and then to reduce stress and fuel our creativity.

3. What is the one thing you want kids to take away from a visit to the ENC?

It’s not all that important to me that they learn specific vocabulary, or what a particular plant is called.  I want them to walk away with increased respect for Nature.  I want them to begin to start noticing things that they would normally ignore – or even avoid - like insects buzzing around plants.  Why are they there?  What are they doing?  Why are they important?  The reason I work at the ENC is to introduce people to Nature so that when Nature is threatened they will care and do something about it.

4. What are the main features of the new ENC building?

The Environmental Nature Center's new learning facility was awarded Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council – that’s a really big deal.  The award is the highest designation available to buildings that demonstrate energy efficiency and sustainability. The building is the first in Orange County to achieve the distinction and one of fewer than 100 buildings worldwide to receive the designation.

One of the main features is the 70-foot photovoltaic array – we make ALL of the energy we need and MORE!  Of course I love the native plant landscaping in front – all of the plants are local to Orange County.  They provide habitat for animals and require very little water – we don’t even have irrigation!  The daylighting is very pleasant – I prefer natural light to fluorescents any day.   Everything you see when you walk in comes from recycled, regional and rapidly renewable materials.  My absolute FAVORITE feature, though, might surprise you. I just LOVE the natural ventilation.  We have louvers in the walls that open up to let the breeze through.  It’s like being outside all day long! 

Folks can learn more about the Green Building by attending one of our Green Building Tours.  The next one is on October 20, at 6:30PM.  RSVP’s required:  949-645-8489.

5. Beck or Jack Johnson?

You know if I had to choose I’d choose Beck, but I’m not a huge fan of either!  I like all kinds of music and one of my favorites right now is a folk band called The Mammals.  Unfortunately they are currently in “hibernation” – but check out their website: www.themammals.net

6. What are the advantages of using California native plants in landscaping?

Native plants provide habitat for animals, reduce your water usage, eliminate the need for pesticides and fertilizers and are relatively low maintenance. Southern California is a global biodiversity “hotspot.” Orange County is “a hotspot within a hotspot”, with more native plant species per square mile than Yosemite National Park.  Orange County has 806 species of native vascular plants – there are more than enough landscape quality species to choose from.  A local non-profit, Back to Natives, provides native landscape design services with proceeds going toward habitat restoration projects in local wild places.  Their website:  www.backtonatives.org

7. Have you noticed any change or evolution in the public’s environmental attitudes in recent years?

I tend to surround myself with “green” people, but I do think that the average Orange County citizen has become more aware of their ecological footprint.  People are beginning to realize that it’s not all that difficult to make lifestyle changes that are good for the planet AND healthier for their family.  The farmer’s markets are packed with people seeking out locally grown organic food.  I’ve noticed more and more people ditching their cars and walking or riding their bikes to run errands.  SO many people are bringing canvass bags to the grocery store and almost everyone I see at the gym has a re-usable water bottle!

8. What is your favorite plant? Why?

It’s a tie between two very different plants:  a Coast Live Oak tree (Quercus agrifolia) and Chalk dudleya (Dudleya pulverulenta).  I love Coast Live Oaks, our locally native oak, because they provide habitat for so many animals –and because they are so majestic!  If you’ve never hiked it, take the Oak Trail Loop at Caspers Wilderness Park in San Juan Capistrano to see some fabulous old specimens. 

I love the chalk dudleya because it is so beautiful!  Hummingbirds love the flowers; and it can live with little to no water in the crack of a cliff! Just look a this baby: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_643x6raRSws/TF38xR2xyNI/AAAAAAAAB7U/8mR14iMtUUc/s1600/IMG_3258.JPG.

9. What programs are you looking at for the future at the ENC?

Personally I’ve been enjoying the evening yoga classes.  It’s so peaceful after we close the gates and spread out our mats.  The sky is our ceiling, the trees and flowers are our walls, and the birdcalls are our music!

We’re currently in the midst of Summer Nature Camp, but our school programs will start up again soon.  You’ll see busloads of kids here each morning, and scout groups just about every afternoon.  Naturalist Meghan is planning some fun programs for home school children and Naturalist Leslie is planning some interesting nighttime programs, like Full Moon Walks and something she calls “Stories Under the Stars.”  Check our website for upcoming events:  www.encenter.org.

10. What did you have for lunch yesterday?

Soup I made using carrots, cauliflower and corn that came in my box of fresh produce from Farm Fresh to You!  Farm Fresh to You delivers locally grown organic produce right to your front door!  Check it out: www.farmfreshtoyou.com.

Dr. Andrew WeilTrue Food Kitchen restaurant opened this week in Fashion Island. The restaurant specializes in using locally-sourced ingredients and emphasizes vegetables, whole grains and proteins without sacrificing flavor. It was developed by Sam Fox of Fox Restaurant Concepts and Dr. Andrew Weil, a best-selling healthy-living author and a pioneer in the field of “integrative medicine.” Dr. Weil is the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, a columnist for Prevention magazine and Time magazine, as well as a recurring guest on “Larry King Live,” “Oprah” and the “Today” show. Dr. Weil emphasizes integrating conventional and complementary medicine practices in one’s life to optimize the body’s natural healing power. He was interviewed  by Christopher Trela and Stasha Surdyke,

1. You have a successful True Food Kitchen in Phoenix. What brought you to Newport Beach?

Sam Fox always wanted to open a restaurant in California, but True Food Kitchen is the first concept he felt could work here. He is very good at finding appropriate restaurant locations, and it was this specific location (in Fashion Island), as well as being in Newport Beach, that seemed like the perfect place for True Food. It felt right to do this here. The people in this area have a similar mindset, although I do think this restaurant would work almost anywhere. Our goal is to bring this kind of food to people throughout the country. At our Phoenix restaurant, visiting diners ask me when there will be one in Buffalo or Houston or Boulder.

2. What is your goal with this restaurant?

My main goal is to show people that there is no opposition between food that is delicious and food that is good for you. That is the hardest battle I fight with patients. They think that eating healthy means giving up what you like, and that’s absolutely not true. This food is in accordance with cutting-edge nutritional research, it is my philosophy of an anti-inflammatory diet. It is absolutely delicious. It’s been so successful and appeals to people of all ages. We’ve hit on something that has not been done before.

3. Can you explain the anti-inflammatory diet?

It’s a tweaking of the Mediterranean and Asian diets. A few years ago I published a book called “Healthy Aging,” which contains the latest thinking about age-related disease, which is heart disease, cancer, brain disease like Alzheimer’s. If you follow an anti-inflammatory diet, you’re killing all the birds with one stone. This is the way of eating that is going to allow people to live long and well. People who live this way, who are active, their weight will normalize without thinking about calories or fat. It’s the way people in the healthiest parts of the world eat. Mediterranean and Asian cultures have a low rate of age-related diseases

4. What are the ingredients of this diet?

Olive oil, lots of high-quality fruits and vegetables, whole grains, as opposed to products made from pulverized grains, relatively low use of sugar, no processed, refined or manufactured foods, and lots of fish, especially oily fish. Those are some of the basic principles.

5. How does that differ in terms of its application to the American diet?

The American diet is off in so many directions. I am a very good cook, so a lot of the recipes at True Food are mine. I like to dine out, but there are not many places I can eat because there is often very little on the menu that fits my requirements. Also, when I eat out, most of the time the food is not as good as I can make at home--I don’t feel good after I eat it. True Food has the kind of food I like and I feel good after eating it. Most of the restaurants I have visited, that advertise themselves as healthy, are either weird like raw food restaurants, or they serve boring and non-interesting food. It’s not good food, and for many people it reinforces the idea that healthy food is not pleasurable. However, at our Phoenix location a lot of people eat there four or five times a week.

6. For the people who cannot afford to dine out or come to your restaurant five times a week, what can you offer them in terms of things they can do for their own diet?

In Phoenix we have classes in food preparation. The American Cancer Society has held regular classes on weekends and we give out recipes for the food. Here in Newport we have a demonstration area. I want to get people eating this way at home. I want to give this out to the public. This food is not complicated to make—it’s simple. One of my objections to most restaurants is that the food is too gussied up. I like really bold flavors and food that is simple in terms of the number of ingredients, and I think a lot of these dishes are easy to make at home.

7. Are there specific menu items you developed for the Newport Beach location?

We do have some and we’ll be doing more and more of that. Coming from
Phoenix, this is like coming to the Garden of Eden in terms of the quality and variety of produce and seafood we can get. We will have a lot of specials and local things that we cannot do in Phoenix. Already on this menu we have created 12 to 13 new dishes, and we will continue to do that.

8. Your beverages also follow the healthy concept?

We have a real emphasis on organic and sustainable wines and spirits. We have created a number of very novel drinks, both alcoholic and non- alcoholic. This will be an innovative bar experience for diners.

9. Your motto is great tasting, globally inspired cuisine that nourishes the body, mind and spirit. How does the concept of the restaurant fulfill the mind and spirit aspect?

The ambiance, the way the food looks, all of it provides an experience that is nourishing on a lot of levels. We also used sustainable and organic materials in the construction of the restaurant. Some of it was my insistence that we had to do this.

10. What is your long term goal?

I want to see this concept of a True Food nation grow. We want to start a movement in this direction that will eventually change not only eating habits in America, but the way restaurants work so we can bring more and more people along in this direction. We want this to be an educational center, as well as a restaurant. We’ll have speakers regularly, I will be here frequently. We are working on a book which will be more than a cookbook—it will be a story of the restaurant and include a lot of recipes. We might eventually do a large takeout business. We have talked about having school lunches prepared that people could pick up in the morning. But overall, it is urgent that we change American eating habits. I have tried to do that in my writings and speaking, but I wanted to put it into action in a restaurant. I think there is a chance of having this be a major influence on the American diet.

Read Christopher's and Stasha's review of True Food Kitchen here.

Tonight, the Balboa Bay Club & Resort will host the 15^th annual Great Gentlemen’s Smoker and Lobster Clambake, a evening of great cigars, great food and camaraderie on the club’s bayfront beach. The smoker is one of the landmark events of the year in Newport Beach, and an innovation of General Manager Henry Scheilein. Scheilein himself is something of a local landmark, a longtime, internationally renowned hotelier with a reputation for meticulous guest service. Scheilein was interviewed for this week’s 10 Questions by editor Roger Bloom.

1. You are credited with creating the smoker as an event. How did that idea come to you and develop?

That was a very unique situation.

I’ve been smoking cigars since I was 20. I worked on a cruise ship in the 1930s. The first time we went to Havana the guys took me to a bar, and I watched the guys all grabbing cigars out of a box on the bar there. I asked and they said, “Well it’s like peanuts, they’re free.” So I tried one and loved it.

I took over the Ritz Carlton in Boston and was having diner with the outgoing general manager and after dinner I lit up a cigar and a couple of the old ladies gave me a dirty look. So I asked, “Is that not the right thing to do I the dining room?” And he said some ladies don’t like it.

Now the dining room was on first floor and the ladies’ tea lounge was on first floor. On our way out, I asked the outgoing GM, “What are you doing with the tea lounge at night?” He said, “We’ve never figured out what to do with it at night.” A nd it hit me, I’m going to turn it into a cigar lounge.

So we got some prominent Bostonians together, and invited them to a black-tie event in the lounge. We didn’t call it the tea lounge. That was the first smoker. And it’s been an annual tradition there since 1983.

Here in Newport Beach, we do it on the beach. That’s the only place we can do it.

2. What was your best guest experience at a hotel or resort that wasn’t yours?

In 1950 my first job as waiter was in Switzerland at the Grand Hotel Victoria, in Interlaken. I worked real hard. It’s a very tough trade, let me tell you. When I was managing the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel, I wrote and said I started training at your hotel and am planning a trip with family and would like to show them where it all started, and I reserved a room. When we checked in, they put us in the presidential suite with a magnificent view of the mountains, and they went all-out to make us happy. It really surprised me that they’d do that for a former employee!

3. I imagine in your career you’ve met many famous guests. What “celebrity” guest did you most enjoy meeting or spending time with? Why?

There are two I really enjoyed and both were Americans. First was John Wayne and second was Ronald Reagan.

I met John Wayne in Hawaii when he as filming “Donovan’s Reef.” He stayed at the Hilton where I was the restaurant manager. He came into the dining room every  day, and I got to know him.

I met Ronald Reagan while I was at the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel. He was a real first-class guy, just a great human being. I wish had him now.

4. You have been in the hospitality business for some 60 years. What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in the industry?

That’s simple to answer. It has become mass production. When I started, a hotel that had 100 rooms was considered big. They called them grand hotels. Today 100 rooms is nothing. I just stayed at the MGM Grand – it has 8,000 rooms. The personal touch has gone by the wayside. It’s all numbers, numbers, numbers. When you deal with those numbers, can’t get into the little touches. It’s the same everywhere, though. Look at the airlines. I used to love to fly, but it’s like riding a bus now.

5. What was the most unusual or amusing situation you’ve ever encountered as a hotel/resort employee or general manager?

Remember Mao Zedong and the Red Guards? I was a manager at the Hong Kong Hilton in the ’60s. On the flagpole we had the British, US and Hong Kong flags. On day, there were several thousand communist demonstrators in front, demanding we lower the flags, the imperialist flags. The ringleader met with our general manager. We had a very cool general manager.  He looked at his watch, and it was about a quarter to 5, and he said, “OK, we’ll lower the flags in 15 minutes.” They were happy. But what they didn’t know was that every night at 5 we lowered the flags. The next day they tried it again, but the Hong Kong government was ready. They brought the Gurkhas in, the tough professional soldiers from the Himalayas, and they pulled their knives out and emptied the square in 10 minutes.

6. What are your favorite wines?

The wines I like to drink on a regular basis, rather than on special occasions when you tend to go a little overboard, are Alsatian gewürztraminer, and for the reds, Argentine malbec. And, of course, I love the California wines.

7. Will you be smoking any Cubans tonight?

I sure hope so. They’re still illegal you know, but if someone slips me one I won’t turn it down.

8. As a youngster, you wanted to be a chef. What changed your mind?

My dad was pastry chef and very good one. I thought I wanted to be pastry chef, too. He talked me out of it. He said, “You do all the work and the ‘pretty boys’ – he meant the waiters and maitre d’ - get all the tips, all the money.” He said, “Go out front and make the money!”

9. What do you do to relax?

That’s easy. I kayak at 6 a.m. off Lido Island. In the evening I ride my bike in the Back Bay. In the evening, I smoke cigars and sip cognac.

10. If you could snap your fingers and have one thing different about the Balboa Bay Club, what would it be?

We have a lovely hotel here with everything you could possibly want, even a full-size basketball court. Only thing is sometimes I think we’re on the wrong side of the bay. What I’d like would be to be on the beachfront and in addition to the bay, have a nice, wide, white sand beach.

Marshall Duffield - known universally as Duffy – is hardly the type of guy you expect to see at the center of a cultural phenomenon.

There’s no bling, no trash talk, no reality TV show, no viral videos, no sordid scandals. Just a soft-spoken and unpretentious lifetime Newport Beach resident of the boomer generation, wearing shorts and flip-flops.

But Duffy – OK, he does have the single-name thing going – is almost solely responsible for a quiet revolution in bayshore living: the electric boat.

As a member of the city’s Harbor Commission, he’s also at the center of the current controversy over the proposed rezoning of bayfront commercial property that was rejected by the Planning Commission last week.

Here he talks about how he came up with the electric boat, his father – Marshall Duffield Sr., a legendary USC quarterback, real estate developer and philanthropist – and the future of Newport Harbor and of Duffy Boats. He was interviewed by Editor Roger Bloom.

1. How did you come up with the idea for electric boats?

My friend suggested it to me while I was detained in my room by my parents for using our bay boat and not putting gas in it for them to use.  The night before we had a great evening on a bay cruise with our dates and of course left the boat a mess.  My buddy just said out of the blue  “Why don’t you make your Dad’s bay boat with an electric motor in it instead of a gas engine”?  Next day we bought a golf cart and a month later it was in the boat.  Worked great.

2. Where else are Duffy Boats popular besides Newport Beach?

Newport remains the most populated waterway with 2,400 Duffys. However, we have lots of Duffys in Huntington Harbour, Alamitos Bay, Oxnard, Coronado Cays, and Foster City. In the US there are over 1,000 electric-ONLY lakes that have our non-traditional boats called the DuffyCat and the M160. After that we have a few here and there all over the world in the weirdest places you could ever think of. 

3. How many boats do you personally own, what type are they and what are their names?

I am a partner in a restored 1965 56-foot Bertam sportfishing boat, and then we have an old man’s FARR 40 called a FARR 395 sailboat, and of course a Duffy 22.  

4. What is your favorite Duffy Boat name?

There are too many good ones like Wattka Tonic, Die Sparkenfarter, and ES (Electric Ship, instead of SS, Steam Ship) EverReady.  We find it impossible to name our own Duffy with anything clever.  How do they keep coming up with new ones?

5. Why did you move your production facilities to Adelanto?

The Air Quality Management District of Southern California would not give me  VOC (volatile organic chemicals) credits to grow even though they stand for clean air and promote our type of non-polluting transportation. Ironically, the Mohave Desert AQMD welcomed us and helped us figure out how to expand.

6. As a harbor commissioner and business owner, what do you think should be done to retain and encourage marine-oriented businesses in the Harbor?

The City Council has to stop being wishy-washy regarding enforcing the Coastal Plan, which provides clear direction to maintain the marine and recreational use of the waterfront. As long as they interpret the zoning like they have over the years it will continue to fail. Also, enforcement of the zoning laws must be done annually instead of on a complaint basis. We are left with very few opportunities on the bayfront for commercial use so it’s crucial to do it right so we can maintain the character of our harbor.  

7. What is your favorite memory of your father? 

That’s a hard one.  He passed away 20 years ago this year. I am very proud of all the things he accomplished with his family, sports and business. He was a big part of stopping the Coastal Freeway that would have divided our city and changed it forever.   Along with a couple of his buddies, he started the Hoag Hospital 552 Club and the Bing Crosby Pro Am at Newport Country Club, which is now the Toshiba event.  Of course he was always a quick thinker and as a little kid he once comforted me in the car after losing to UCLA by saying, “if we don’t let them beat us once in a while they won’t want to play us anymore.”  

8. As a business owner on Mariner's Mile, what would you like to see done to revitalize that area?

I believe an overall plan must be developed that incorporates many different commercial businesses with specific direction in terms of size and compatibility. The City must incentivize the property owners to stimulate them if a grand plan is ever to get off the ground. Today, we are seeing the beginning of a derby of sorts as to who gets to put residential on the bay and who doesn’t. That’s just going to “chop” up the waterfront property and profit a few instead of a great many.   

9. What is the future of Duffy Boats?

We are developing a new model about every six months to appeal to a wider range of buyers. A cool project underway is a low wake patrol and fireboat that is both electric and diesel powered. Officers could then speed to the rescue without damaging boats, docks and shoreline. When on patrol around the waterfront by using electric power you reduce carbon emissions by tons and keep the water clean. Also we are building a 15-foot shore boat (looks like an inflatable ) that will have a top speed of 20 miles per hour running on electricity, with the same low-wake hull shape.

10. What is your favorite movie with boats in it? 

“Caddyshack.” The scene ends with the boat sinking and the guy yells out,  “Hey, you scratched my anchor!” Still makes me laugh. 

It seems City Manager David Kiff is always on the move. If he’s not going from one meeting to another at City Hall, he’s power walking the Peninsula or competing in a half-triathlon. Editor Roger Bloom caught up with him this week for 10 Questions.

You were named city manager last September, and you’ve already had a very busy first year, with the austerity budget and naming a new police chief. What’s on your plate from now to September? 

Hiring a fire chief, watching our budget, and addressing looming public pension challenges with our labor groups.  The Civic Center project continues to move along, with more elements of the project going out to bid this fall.  And a half-ironman triathlon next week.

On the budget, you managed to eliminate a deficit of about eight million without dipping into reserves. Some are asking why that couldn’t have been done before this year. Were past budgets bloated? 

Yes and no.  Yes in that I think Newport has always been a place where we have been able to do some things that other cities could not afford to do – supporting non-profits, waiving fees, and more.  While these didn’t seem like frivolous at the time, they certainly are things that could be handled differently or not at all in light of our reduced budget.  The changes will be subtle, but since we eliminated staff and operating funds, we won’t be as nimble. Plus the tough economic times aren’t over - there’s more work to do. 

Where do you walk on your lunch hours? 

Tuesday is actually lunchtime yoga.  Thursday is an “urban scramble” where others join me and we find every stair, park jungle gym, or hillside around (usually near Newport Heights) to climb or crawl or crunch.  Friday is usually a fast walk around either Lido Isle or down to 10^th Street and back on Ocean Front Walk.  All done by 1 p.m.  It’s a great stress-buster.

We have heard the statistic that Newport Beach has the most employees per capita of any city in the county. Is that so? And are you overstaffed?  My numbers don’t show that, but we’re certainly close to the top.  But be wary of that statistic – it’s convenient and easy to calculate, but is it meaningful?  For example, Newport Beach is what I call a “full-service +” city.  The City government here provides police, fire, lifeguards, water and sewer, trash collection and more.  We have eight miles of beaches to maintain.  Tidepools to protect.  A library that draws thousands from outside of town.  We’re divided by a bay – making fire response times challenging.  Plus, Newport Beach is popular – one weekend day can find 100,000 people added to our year-round population of 86,000.

If we compared ourselves to a contract city like, say, Lake Forest, their city employees-per-capita number is way lower.  Residents there still have a boatload of staff paid by taxpayers, doing what we do in Newport Beach, but those staffers have a different seal on their shirt.  Lake Forest has no fire department, but the OC Fire Authority certainly takes Lake Forest property tax dollars to pay firefighter salaries.  Lake Forest has no city libraries, but the county’s library system is funded by Lake Forest’s tax dollars to hire public librarians. 

Here we have it wrapped into one bundle with one City Council overseeing one organization with direct community oversight.  City government in Newport Beach administers several things that special tax-funded districts do in other towns.  We also, completely and uniquely in Orange County, have residential trash picked up by city employees – and people in Newport don’t get charged for this like, say, Waste Management would charge people in South Orange County.  This is pretty complex place we run here.  All of that said, we always need to look at staffing to get it right. 

Who do you go to for advice? 

My Magic 8 ball.  When it fails me, I’ll kick around ideas with other city managers in the region, with some really great department heads here at the city, and with each of our City Council members (they’re sharp folks, each with a different expertise).  There are also about 30-40 people in the community (residents, business owners) that I know who care about specific issues, so I’ll check in with them.  I still talk with my former boss, Marian Bergeson, about certain state things that impact us.

It seems the city has been paying more attention to Mariner’s Mile in recent months. What is your vision for that area in 10 years?  It’s the Council’s and the public’s vision that matters.  That vision is for a place where marine-oriented services, recreation, restaurants, and high-end auto dealers all prosper there together.  And, where traffic (cars, walkers, cyclists) all move smoothly through and within it. It’s also important to retain that certain nautical feel that it has.

Some have compared the $120 million Newport Beach city hall project with Laguna Niguel’s $25 million city hall project and questioned the cost disparity.  Is Newport Beach spending too much on its new city hall? 

You can ask that again when the construction bids are submitted this fall – that’s when the actual cost is set.  In the meantime, know that the City Hall part of the project is estimated at about $55-60 million.  It’s a glass and steel building with a LEED “Silver” designation. That type of construction costs more than concrete tilt-up – but it should also reduce utility costs in the long run.  About 240 employees will work there – Laguna Niguel’s city government is about 60 people (see my full-service versus contract city explanation, above).  And don’t forget, our project includes the park, the parking structure, the excavation to keep the buildings below the view plane, and the library expansion.  It will be more than an office building. This truly will be a place that our whole community can use and enjoy.

I have to ask: Team Edward or Team Jacob? 

Not being a Twi-Hard, I will pretend you asked me about Team Woody or Team Buzz.  Woody, definitely.   My favorite part about being City Manager is restating questions to answer them the way I want.   Council doesn’t always buy that, though.

How is the harbor dredging effort coming?  

Well.  For the first time ever, there are harbor dredging funds in the President’s budget, and the City Council will soon adopt the environmental work for dredging the Rhine Channel.  Both projects could be well underway within months.  The timing is critical because we may have a place at the Port of Long Beach to safely dispose of the more contaminated sediment.  This is a once-in-a-lifetime project, and we’re well positioned to do it. 

What is your favorite breakfast?  Woody’s Diner’s Peninsula Omelet.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner, doesn’t matter.  We vegetarians are

low maintenance.