Former Newport Beach Mayor Keith Curry served on the city council from 2006 to 2016 and spent 24 years advising public agencies nationwide on their finances, and he doesn’t mince words about where his city is headed. In this episode, Joanna Weiss and Whitney Gomez ask him why he joined eight other former mayors in warning that the current council majority has gone in the wrong direction. Curry walks through the fights shaping this fall’s election: Measure H and the battle over housing density, the 300-foot tower proposed for the current police station site, developer money on both sides of the ballot, Orange County GOP spending in nonpartisan council races, and the costly legal battle that pushed Measures P, Q, and R onto a separate mail-only special election (that has now been cancelled). Drawing on his public finance background, he also warns about what rising public safety contracts have done to neighboring cities’ budgets, and what that could mean for Newport Beach. If you’re trying to make sense of Newport’ Beach's political tumult this year, you came to the right place. Takeaways: Curry frames this as a “values election,” arguing that the council majority has broken with Newport Beach’s long-standing consensus on parks, open space, and opposition to high-rise development.He objects to plans to move the police station and jail into one of the city’s most heavily used parks, which he says would clear the current site for a proposed 300-foot apartment tower.He says the council has gone to court to block residents’ right to vote on initiatives on term limits, district elections, and transparency.He dismisses incumbents’ credit-taking for a 12% drop in crime, noting that crime is falling nationwide and fell 30% in Stanton.He argues that Orange County GOP involvement in nonpartisan council races writes off roughly half the city’s voters and alienates local Republicans from their own party.Curry describes Measure H as a way to reduce allowable housing and density, and says developers are funding both sides because each is protecting its own entitlements.He warns that public safety unions, which have now spent over $200,000 backing incumbents, want a friendly council when the police contract comes back up, after the current deal raised base wages 20%.Pointing to deficits in Irvine, Anaheim, Huntington Beach, and Santa Ana, he cautions that Newport Beach is not immune to budget strain from rising labor costs.He blames the council’s legal delays for forcing Measures P, Q, and R onto a separate mail-only special election, which he estimates will cost taxpayers about $2 million in election and legal fees (The special election in Newport Beach has been cancelled as of October 23, after we filmed this podcast).Curry supports the transparency and term-limit measures but opposes district elections, and urges voters to look past party labels and get their information directly from the candidates.#VitaminOC #NewportBeach #NewportBeachCA #OrangeCounty #OC #OCPolitics #NewportBeachPolitics #LocalPolitics #LocalElections #Election2026 #NewportBeachCityCouncil #CityCouncil #MeasureH #MeasureP #MeasureQ #MeasureR #OCVotes #VoteLocal #Civics #PublicFinance #HousingPolicy #Transparency #SoCalPolitics #PoliticsPodcast #LocalNewsMatters Follow us on Instagram @VitaminOCPodcast Watch us on YouTube @VitaminOCPodcast
