Locals of Varied Talents Sign Up for Civic Duty

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With her freshly minted master’s degree in public policy, Charity Morsey was not about to let fear gripping the national psyche get in her way and boarded a nearly empty plane three days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for a job interview with a senior White House science advisor.

Over lunch at a tapas bar, physicist Dr. Parney C. Albright pulled out a Montblanc pen to enumerate the duties he needed in a confidential assistant, from setting up a meeting with Israel’s prime minister to picking up his dry cleaning to standing in as his observer at a congressional committee hearing.

Hired by the science and technology undersecretary for what became Homeland Security, Morsey was on the ground floor as the department coordinated counter-terrorism work by 23 different federal agencies. One of her mentors pointed out the critical role of local police and fire personnel in grass-roots intelligence gathering.

“It’s the reason why I want to be involved; we need to do everything we can to help them out,” Morsey explained Tuesday, May 2, as the City Council named her to the city’s Emergency Disaster Preparedness Committee in a special meeting to resolve a slew of appointments of local residents to city advisory committees.

The nine-member EDP committee meets monthly and advises the council on how to prepare for an emergency or disaster. Two other newcomers as well as incumbents David Horne and Jerry O. Myers were also appointed to serve two-year terms on the committee.

Jason de Bretteville, a former federal prosecutor, now heads the white-collar criminal defense practice for a Newport Beach law firm. He said he recognizes the need to effectively balance the committee’s priorities to lessen risk from brush fires and ensure emergency access with residents competing concerns over the environment and convenience. Lynda Halligan Olsen, a former broadcaster who covered disasters, now works as a spokesman for a sheriff’s deputies association in Santa Ana.

With the exception of the emergency preparedness committee, council members unanimously returned all incumbents seeking reappointment to three other city advisory panels.

Only attorney Jane Fulton, who established the public interest law firm Seaside Legal in 2014, took advantage of face-time with council members during the committee interview process to lobby for a pet project.

Fulton, seeking reappointment to the seven-member Housing and Human Services Committee, urged elected officials to extend transit service to the city limit along El Toro Road. It’s there where many in the local work force crowd two and three families to a single unit renting for as much as $2,000 a month in the large apartment complex renamed Artisans Laguna Beach, Fulton said. “We don’t have a bus out there,” she said.

All who applied to serve on the housing committee were appointed unanimously by the council. Besides Fulton, they include newcomers Morris Skenderian, Cottie Petrie-Norris and Robert Reed as well as incumbents Jheri St. James and Faye Chapman.

Charity Morsey, who last month graduated from the Laguna Beach Police Department’s Citizen's Academy, was appointed to a city committee this week devoted to disaster preparation.
Charity Morsey, who last month graduated from the Laguna Beach Police Department’s Citizen’s Academy, was appointed to a city committee this week devoted to disaster preparation.

Arts Commission incumbents Michael Ervin, Pat Kollenda, Suzanne Mellor and Adam Schwerner also gained reappointment.

Commission Chair Donna Ballard spoke on behalf of the absent Schwerner, attending a showing of his work in Atlanta. “We would like to have him back,” said Ballard, pointing out his contacts “brought something extra to the Arts Commission” and supported a goal of raising the level of art in town.

Planning Commission incumbents Roger McErlane and Sue Whitin were also returned to their volunteer endeavors, meeting twice a month to review and evaluate policies and projects for compliance with the city’s general plan.

“We rely on you to get the details right,” said Council member Bob Whalen, a former planning commission member who pointed out the breadth and complexity of issues the panel confronts. To Whitin, the commission’s newest member, Council member Rob Zur Schmiede added, “You’ve hit the ground running and have been an asset to the commission from day one.”

Cathy Viviani, a self-described rookie, received an appointment alongside incumbents Karl Koski and Delano Dee Dinelly to the city’s Personnel Board, which reviews appeals by city employees of disciplinary matters. “It’s a credit to the council and staff that we don’t have much to do,” noted Koski, a former city manager in Temple City.

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