Nine Council Candidates Face Canyon and Open-Space Questions at Conservancy Forum
The Laguna Canyon Conservancy put all nine City Council hopefuls on the record on conservation, wildfire, and funding Sept. 28; the full recording went public Oct. 1.
All nine qualified Laguna Beach City Council candidates took the same stage Monday, Sept. 28, for an evening of environmental questions hosted by the Laguna Canyon Conservancy at Bridge Hall at Neighborhood Congregational Church. The event ran from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., with the panel from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., and the full 1-hour-49-minute recording was released to the public on Oct. 1.
The Conservancy framed the evening around each candidate's environmental contributions and views on protecting open space, particularly in Laguna Canyon. The published notice listed Nick Aronoff, Edward Bayuk, Joy Berry, Ashley Cintas, Sue Kempf, Karen Martin, Mark Orgill, Laura Parisi and Alex Rounaghi, and all nine participated.
Moderators Mary Fegraus and Bob Borthwick led the discussion through nine topic rounds: first impressions of the drive through Laguna Canyon; regional conservation and the Natural Community Conservation Plan; acquiring additional undeveloped parcels, especially the inner greenbelt inside city limits; tree preservation and the Ocean Avenue streetscape project; the Irvine-Laguna Wildlife Corridor connecting Cleveland National Forest and Laguna Coast Wilderness Park; invasive plants and partnerships with Caltrans, OC Parks and other agencies; balancing wildfire fuel modification with protecting native habitat; enrolling city-owned open space in the Nature Reserve of Orange County; and building county, state and nonprofit partnerships, including grants, bonds and dedicated budget sources. Responses were generally limited to one minute, with two-minute closing statements and randomized speaking order.
The video was published by Intellatech Media and Marketing, which also released a separate 21-minute, 32-second closing-statements edit. Its published description reads: "Monday, September 28th, Laguna Canyon Conservancy presented a panel of city council candidates. Nick Aronoff, Edward Bayuk, Joy Berry, Ashley Cintas, Sue Kempf, Karen Martin, Mark Orgill, Laura Parisi, and Alex Rounaghi were asked to describe their individual environmental contributions and personal views on how to preserve and protect open space, particularly in Laguna Canyon."
Local civic news site So Laguna has indexed 79 timestamped candidate answers and the nine closing statements, checked against the recording on Oct. 2. Its notes are worth reading before relying on the text: the transcripts come from automatic English captions, so names, figures and technical terms may be misheard; the early regional-conservation round lacks its prompt and two candidates' responses in the available captions; and candidate assertions about city finances, projects and technology are presented as their statements, not independently verified findings.
The forum calendar keeps moving. The South Laguna Civic Association hosts the next candidate forum Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 6 p.m., with doors at 5:30 p.m., at the Laguna Beach Community Recreation Center, the former St. Catherine's School. Recordings and summaries from earlier forums, including the Greater Laguna Beach GOP forum on Sept. 23 and the KXFM forum on Sept. 8, are also available for voters comparing answers across rooms.
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