Candidates for Newport Beach City Council Share Values at Forum

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.—Candidates for Newport Beach City Council discussed how they would address the city’s most pressing issues at a forum Aug. 18 hosted by the city’s chamber of commerce.

Lucy Dunn, the forum’s moderator and a former CEO of the Orange County Business Council, asked the candidates to quickly respond to questions regarding airport noise, sober-living homes, state-mandated housing quotas, homelessness, crime, and public employee wage increases. The candidates were in unanimous agreement on most of these issues.

Voters will decide in the November General Election who should take office. Though each councilor represents one of the city’s seven districts, they are elected through at-large voting, in which each voter can cast ballots for all council seats.

District 1

With incumbent Councilwoman Diane Dixon terming out this year, District 1—which encompasses the Balboa Peninsula and West Newport—is up for grabs.

In attendance at the forum to vie for the seat included entrepreneur and business owner Tom Miller.

Newport Beach City Council candidate Tom Miller speaks at the Newport Beach Public Library in Newport Beach, Calif., on Aug. 18, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Miller said when it comes to decision-making, it should be up to the constituents he would represent.

“I will treat you with the respect that you deserve,” Miller said at the forum. “This is about you having a voice and making a choice. And that’s the true definition of democracy.”

The other candidate, Joe Stapleton, is the co-founder and president of a local investment company and sits on the city’s finance committee.

He said he is running to “continue to serve the city that has been so great to each of us.”

Newport Beach City Council candidate Joe Stapleton speaks at the Newport Beach Public Library in Newport Beach, Calif., on Aug. 18, 2022. (John Fredricks/The

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