So how do you gain influence in Newport Beach political circles and keep jetpacking legal in Newport Harbor? If your Jetpack America President Dean O’Malley,
you spend a year trying to stop the misguided intentions of a small minority of Newport Beach residents who wanted to ban jetpacking from the city’s
world renown harbor.
So when the Daily Pilot newspaper, which is an Orange County community edition of the Los Angeles Times, publishes its annual 103 people in the area
who “made news and lent influence”, it’s no surprise O”Malley made the list this year. After a year of frequent city council meeting appearances and
an extensively covered fight with a small minority of Newport Beach homeowners, Jetpack America president Dean O’Malley earned a spot on the list,
coming in at #95.
In May, after months of flip-flop voting, the city council voted in favor of allowing one commercial jetpack operator in the the Turning Basin area
of Newport Harbor and in November the announcement was made after a Request for Proposal (RFP) process that Jetpack America had earned the spot, for
which several local and out-of-town businesses were vying.
