Hefty Price For City Hall

How rich is Newport Beach?

I know some very wealthy people call Newport home, but is the city so flush with cash that, when it comes to capital expenses, total cost is lost in the equation?

I am referring to the largest capital expenditure the city will incur this decade: building a new city hall. The number being batted around town is $50 million. No study, no report, just an out-of-the-air guess.

My antenna always goes up when I see a large government project proposed.

Call me cynical, but why is it that whenever a capital project is proposed, some members of our local government always say, "This is what we need"? They should ask how much it costs, if the city can afford it and if there's a better use for the money.

The supposed need always overwhelms the question of cost.

In making any large capital decision, whether it's a Fortune 500 company, your immediate family, or, say, the city of Newport Beach, you should always ask yourself several questions: Do we need it? What do we have (cash, assets, land)? What do we owe (bonds, loans, pension obligations)? What will we have left after the fact?

If, after asking those questions, the proposal seems affordable and logical, only then should we be asking where to put it, what design to use and what color to paint it.

Let's, for argument's sake, acknowledge that a new city hall is needed. Call me a cheap, unsophisticated hayseed from the Midwest, but why would the city consider not using the surplus land it owns? Specifically, a 12-acre vacant lot at MacArthur Boulevard and San Miguel Drive.

Let's see, the land needed for a city hall is 3 acres. At the asking price of about $7 million an acre, the cost for the land alone would be $21 million.

Even in Newport Beach, $21 million is real money. But let's not stop here.

The land is next to the city library. How novel, a city library next to a city hall. If you haven't seen the library from the road, you are not supposed to; it was dug into the hill, not exactly inexpensive construction either. But what the heck? You wouldn't want to affect the view of a few homes. It's just taxpayers' money.

But wait one minute. Previous City Councils said the land should be a park. Oh, I forgot. We still have 9 acres left for a park, and with a city hall next door we might even have people to use it.

Given the choice, previous councils might have saved 3 acres had they known a new city hall might be needed.

Let's be real. Twenty-one million dollars is a lot of hard-earned money from the people of Newport Beach.

There is an old real estate axiom: When someone makes an offer and you don't take it, you just bought it for that price.

Let's just say we already had a 9-acre park and 3 additional acres becomes available for $21 million. Would you pay that much for the additional land?

If Newport doesn't use the land for a new city hall, its taxpayers and leaders just paid a steep price.