Happy Birthday to Newport Beach!
Newport Beach has its 120th birthday in September 2026. The story of the city’s first 100 years has been told, but what about the last 20 years?
The Newport Beach Historical Society has the answer. The organization recruited four former mayors – Ed Selich, Nancy Gardner, Diane Dixon, and Joe Stapleton – to tell the tales of the past 20 years during a special event at the Harborside Banquet Room at the Balboa Pavilion on Wednesday, April 15.
The event was hosted by Don Webb, the 2006 Centennial Mayor and probably the only person to have walked every street in Newport Beach.
Between 2006 and 2026 there have been 20 mayors. Some, like Ed Selich, Diane Dixon, Keith Curry and Will O’Neil, served two terms (Selich served three terms). All will be remembered for their service to the city.
According to Mayor Webb, he reached out to the former mayors and asked them to fill out a questionnaire that talked about their time as a mayor and their time on the city council, and that as a basis for the talk.
Ed Selich covered 2006 to 2010, Nancy Gardner reviewed 2011 to 2015, Diane Dixon covered 2016 to 2020, and 2021 to 2025 was handled by the 2025 Mayor Joe Stapleton.
Ed Selich
Selich said he looked through the city council minutes for those five years to look for the significant things that, from his perspective, happened during that period of time.
“I looked at the council members that were elected in 2006, and I proclaimed that we were the Dream Team,” said Selich. “I did that because of the personalities of those of us that were elected, as well as the skill sets we had that were very complimentary. We all worked as a team, and I thought that we did a lot of great things for the city, and really worked as more of a corporate board of directors than a political body.”
Selich was appointed to the building committee for City Hall and became embroiled in a debate on the location of City Hall.
“We put together a building committee and a site review committee which consisted of people in the community. They came up with 15 sites. None of them worked out,” said Selich. “We started negotiating with the Irvine company on a site in the 500 block of Newport Center, and we were moving in that direction, but there was a movement to create the city hall in the park site on Avocado Street. At the same time, we started construction on the Santa Ana Heights fire station.”
Once Mayor Curry joined the council, Selich said he helped create a facilities financing plan.
The city also began the design elements of the OASIS Senior Center and started the Sunset Ridge Park project. After that came the designs for Marina Park.
“And then 2008 rolled around. We had to deal with the city hall in the park initiative,” said Selich. “It passed in February, and so at that point in time, even though the council had been divided on where the city hall should go, we came together and we put together design committees. We had a Citizens Committee that went out and solicited proposals from architects all around the world to design the City Hall. We had 51 proposals from all around the world, and the citizens committee selected five designs.”
Once a design was selected, the city moved ahead with the project. Other projects followed, including the Back Bay Science Center.
Then came the recession of 2009.
“We had to bite the bullet in our budget, probably one of the first times, and maybe the only time, the city has had to do this. But we really had to tighten our belt up. And one of the major things we had to do is defer a number of our capital projects, just to make sure that we could move on with a balanced budget.”
Other activities Selich mentioned: A charter update committee to do a major update to our city charter, and studies on raising the sea wall around Balboa Island.
Nancy Gardner
Gardner began by mentioning the city council “dream team” and how they functioned so well together.
“I think that the City Hall was a perfect example,” explained Grdner. “Four of us, when it came to council, voted no. I voted no because that whole area had been deeded open space in perpetuity, and I thought it was a terrible precedent that in Newport Beach in perpetuity meant less than 10 years. But they got on the ballot. They won, we lost, and it would have been a perfect opportunity for the four of us to say it’s your problem. But we didn’t. We immediately got together and said, ‘how can we make this the best project possible?’ And that’s when we began to expand it with the library expansion. I think the fact that we could disagree, as seven people always will, and yet, after every disagreement, just come right back together and get on with things.”
Gardner then focused on city finances and zeroed in on the pension fund liability.
“If we don’t get control of that, future councils are not going to be able to do anything, so we began the program to pay down that pension fund liability so the city would not have these horrific bills down the road. And we also took a firm we also took a firm stance with the city’s labor groups. I understand it’s more of a bromance now, but we had an arm’s length relationship. We wanted to do what was good in the long run for the city.”
Gardner then talked about making the city more efficient and at the same time effective. “We did some reorganization, and the overall effect was reduced staff by 13 percent but we did it without layoffs. We did it through attrition and buyouts, and we also made it more effective.”
“We also took back the Fourth of July,” added Gardner. “If you lived on the peninsula, at one point, people left town. It was just chaos. We said we’re going to put more resources into it. You’re welcome to come, but there are rules, and we are going to enforce them. And it became a family friendly holiday.”
Gardner also mentioned the John Wayne Airport settlement and the back bay dredging that occurred during the time period of 2006-2010.
Diane Dixon
Second District Assembly member Diane Dixon was elected to the City Council in 2014 and served until 2022. She was Mayor in 2016 and 2019. She flew in from Sacramento for the event.
“When I was elected in 2014, how fortunate we were to have had the dream team that proceeded me,” said Dixon. “They established the foundation for quality management and an excellent city staff. There was a legacy of good fiscal management that came from this dream team and thinking about how to build a contemporary, modern quality city, never losing sight of quality of life. It’s a factor that informed everything we did and continue to do”
Dixon also talked about the new City Hall and the fact that the budget ballooned from $40 million to $100 million, which caused displeasure with Newport Beach citizens. Dixon began holding a series of Town Meetings to have a dialogue with residents. She also helped mediate a dispute between Fritz Duda and Bob Olson, who were arguing over a city owned easement that ran between their two properties so Lido House Hotel could be built. She solved the dispute.
“I said we’ve got to get this hotel built, it’s important to the restoring, revitalizing and reinvigorating Balboa Peninsula, which indeed it has, as well as Lido village,” said Dixon. “I’m happy everything all turned out well. We were able to build a hotel and that’s been one of the greatest economic investments still today.”
In conclusion, said Dixon, “Newport Beach is unique because of the investment we all have in our properties. The pride that we have in our city is palpable. Serving all the people in Newport Beach for eight years, and being mayor twice, certainly was the greatest honor of my life. It’s the best job in the country, because the people are so grateful. They love their city. I’m grateful to serve the people to keep making this city the best it can be. I’m fighting the fight now in Sacramento, but I’m always fighting for Newport Beach.”
Joe Stapleton
Joe Stapleton served as Mayor in 2025 with the slogan of “Celebrate Newport.” He talked about the last five years including how the city navigated the challenges of the pandemic with virtual city council meetings.
“I joined the Chamber of Commerce when I was 24 years old, when I moved here from Arizona.,” recalled Stapleton. “I remember driving down MacArthur and thinking, what a unique place this is. And Newport Beach isn’t a world class city or utopia by accident. It’s because of all of you and these leaders and the legacy of leaders that came before us, and I’m just so honored to continue to be part of the fabric of community, protecting quality life for all of us.”
Stapleton mentioned various city council members and mayors that spearheaded projects that increased quality of life in Newport Beach. One of the most important issues he and others dealt with was homelessness.
“When I took office in 2022, we had 94 homeless in Newport Beach. Robin Grant, myself, Mayor Kleiman and a lot of others worked really hard to reduce that. I’m proud to stand in front of you today and say we have less than six homeless people,” said Stapleton. “Six homeless people the city of Newport Beach, an 85 percent reduction. It doesn’t mean we just arrested them all and put them in prison. The reality is we’re spending millions of dollars a year to give them the temporary and permanent shelter they need to get off the street. There’s no compassion for leaving somebody on the streets. We’re doing all we can as a community to make sure we get them the resources tools they need. If they don’t, if they refuse those services, we’re not going to just allow them to sleep on the streets. The reality is, when we do enforce our rules, they generally come back and thank us once they get the resources they need to get off the street.”
Stapleton said that when he was named mayor in 2025, for mayor Keith Curry told him “you don’t have to be good, but you have to show up.”
“So I showed up,” stated Stapleton. “I think I signed over 2,200 Letters. I did 85 proclamations and 500 certificates, and gave out three keys to the city. And I promised somebody years ago, if I ever became the mayor of Newport Beach, I will do the paddle for the Ben Carlson Foundation from Catalina Island to Newport, a 30-mile journey on a paddle board. And I did it, and we raised $450,000 for the Ben Carlson Foundation.”
“I spent all of last year celebrating the history, the people, the projects, the legacy of Newport Beach,” said Stapleton. “What the Historical Society is doing tonight is telling that story. The more we tell the story about the history of Newport, the more we’re going to preserve quality of life for all of us.”
For more information on the Newport Beach Historical Society, visit https://www.newportbeachhistorical.org.
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