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Last night, councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem (vice-mayor) Brad Avery offered up by Dixon for mayor. O’Neill was re-nominated by incoming Councilman Mayor Blom. He gave solid reasons for re-electing O’Neill, but ultimately O’Neill declined. After Councilpeople Muldoon, Dixon, and Brenner spoke in favor of Avery (Brenner said she was going to support O’Neill until O’Neill declined), Avery was appointed by councilpeople as the new Mayor. Brenner, Duffy, Avery, O’Neill, Muldoon, Dixon all voted for Avery. Blom voted for O’Neill.
Blom’s independent streak was on-show last night, and needless to say, we are impressed that he is willing to come out of the gate and do what he believes is right, rather than simply “sticking to tradition”.
Kevin Muldoon was appointed by councilpeople as the new Mayor Pro Tem (basically, a “vice mayor”).
According to California State law (specifically, the Brown Act), these things cannot be decided behind closed doors and must be done in open, public discussion, but as has been the custom for decades in Newport Beach, only one person was nominated for Mayor Pro Tem (at least there was discussion on the Mayor this time– thanks to Noah Blom), everyone supported them, and there was virtually zero public discussion on the matter.
Regardless of the highly-suspected decades-long tradition of violating the Brown Act, congratulations to Newport Beach Mayor Brad Avery and Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Muldoon.
EDIT: Joy Brenner did oppose Muldoon. Our apologies for the inaccuracy.
Hopefully Avery uses his time in office to crack down on private organizations that are illegally funded by our diverted tax dollars earmarked for other things, the assaults on businesses by government which have severely escalated this year. I look forward to watching him gain even more knowledge about our city during his term as mayor, and seeing how he responds when he has the information to make tough decisions.
It’s not an easy job if you’re trying to make everyone happy. It’s only easy if you do the right thing, relentlessly… But don’t expect those decisions to be popular to the power structure.
