Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Dave Kiff Named Newport Beach City Manager

DAVE KIFF WINS THE COMPETITION
Congratulations to Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff for being named to replace his boss, Homer Bludau, as the new City Manager in Newport Beach. Kiff was among many candidates from all across the country considered. His appointment as announced today by Mayor Ed Selich in a special City Council meeting at 3:43 p.m., following the closed session in which the council discussed the appointment and his contract.

IRONMAN KIFF
Why, you ask, did I use a half-naked photo of Kiff on this piece? Well, it seems Kiff is a serious athlete - a 4-time Ironman participant who, according to some reports, rides his bicycle to work from his home in Laguna Beach. As councilwoman Nancy Gardner put it, "We have the most fit City Manager anywhere!"

A GOOD CHOICE

From all reports, the appointment of Kiff as City Manager not only insures continuity on some very large, very special project - like the new City Hall, for example - but fills that position with a man held in high regard throughout the community.


CONGRATULATIONS TO DAVE KIFF

Again, Congratulations to Kiff and to the City of Newport Beach for this choice.

RACE FOR THE SCOOP
An interesting sidebar in this little drama was how quickly the news was presented to the public. The fledgling Newport Mesa Daily Voice, published by former Daily Piloteers Tom Johnson and Bill Lobdell, hooted early in the day that they would be first with the news of the appointment of the new City Manager.

THE PILOT WAS ALSO READY
The Daily Pilot was also poised to break this news promptly. So, here I sat with two browsers open and the streaming video of the council meeting playing, waiting to see which outlet would break the tape first.

THE WINNER IS... THE DAILY VOICE
As Ed Selich said the words at 3:43 p.m. the Daily Voice posted their announcement, HERE, with a nice bio on Kiff. The Daily Pilot posted their story about 10 minutes later, HERE.

LOBDELL HAD THE INSIDE TRACK

I suspect that, because Lobdell is also an Ironman competitor, he might have had the inside track on this story - it certainly looks like it.

COMPETITION IS GOOD FOR US ALL

Regardless, our communities are well-served by two organizations working hard to present the important news of the day to their readers. Competition is good for that business. Thanks to both for their attentiveness. The Orange County Register finished with the bronze medal in this race.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Bruce Krochman said...

Geoff,

I am quite sure that to some one or two people in the community, knowing ten minutes faster was of value. But frankly, I can't imagine any value added to the Voice by having scooped the Pilot by 600 seconds. OK, at some cocktail party/community event Lobbell will make a point of tweaking Rhoades about this, but that is likely the entire value in it.

8/18/2009 09:43:00 PM  
Blogger Tom Johnson said...

Thanks Bruce & Geoff for the recognition. We actually had the story confirmed at 10am this morning, but held our word until announcement time. The disturbing part for us was the Pilot on their initial post re-wound their clock by multiple minutes to give the perception that they beat the Voice. Lying and deception does not good earn trust in a community like this. We called Brady on it and he changed the time. So you ask what does 600 seconds mean? I guess you'd have to ask the Pilot.

8/18/2009 10:29:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is 600 seconds really a breaking news story between the Voice and the Pilot? Can't both news entities serve the community without fighting over who scooped who? Let's keep the battle of the bay between the kids in high school level not the adults in our newsrooms.

8/19/2009 11:35:00 AM  

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