Roasting Foley Plus The Invisible Bever

POLITICAL BY-PRODUCT
One of the interesting by-products of the recent musical chairs game played by the Costa Mesa City Council in which former mayor Allan Mansoor's pal, Eric (short fuse) Bever, was hoisted onto the throne by Mansoor and Wendy Leece is that much ado is being made by the majority's supporters concerning the whereabouts of councilwoman Katrina Foley during that meeting.

ROASTING FOLEY
The Daily Pilot blog has been white hot with criticism of her for being absent from the meeting, even though her presence would have had no effect on the outcome of that election. The die was cast before the meeting, with Mansoor nominating Bever and their echo, Leece, guaranteed to go along with the ploy.

PRIORITIES IN ORDER
Of course, Foley - fulfilling her most important duties as a wife and mother - was on a winter vacation with her teacher husband and school-age boys. The election of officers was placed on the agenda after her vacation was planned and paid for. She did what any of us would have done - particularly since her vote wouldn't have mattered anyhow - and proceeded with her vacation.

"GAPS" STINK UP THE BLOGS
That didn't matter to those gutless anonymous posters (GAPS), whose putrid prose infects the Daily Pilot blog with their mindless pontificating. Anyone watching realizes that this is pure political posturing to continue their drumbeat of anti-Foley rhetoric, which will doubtless continue from now until the first week of November. Much, if not most, of the rants on the Daily Pilot blog are the handiwork of one guy - the same guy who, using his blog, began attacking Foley the day after the election in 2006. He recognizes that Foley is one of the few people with enough intellectual horsepower and inclination to stand toe-to-toe with him as they debate the proper direction for our city in the future.

WHERE'S BEVER?
In the meantime, our new mayor managed to be a no-show at an important event recognizing several Costa Mesa Police Officers just a couple days after his election. In fact, Foley - home, but still on vacation - was the only council member to attend the packed-house meeting in the council chambers. If Bever misses events like this, one wonders just what he thinks is important in our city. Even our ex-mayor and current mayor pro tem - the young jailer Allan Mansoor - was absent. Of course, he was probably at home, pounding out blog entries on the Daily Pilot blogs now that he has the time. Clearly, his priorities continue to be askew.

FOLEY SUPPORTS CMPD AND VICE VERSA
It's no wonder that the rank and file among the CMPD have lined up in the past to support Foley and those candidates she endorsed. The officers care about her because she obviously cares about them and the outstanding job they do making our streets safer. The alleged "law and order" slate of Mansoor, Bever and Leece talk the talk but don't walk the walk. It's easy to understand why Mansoor acts this way - he's demonstrated in the past that he's completely out of step with his law enforcement brethren and their leadership. One can only assume that Bever is just too politically inept to understand the importance of establishing and maintaining a good working relationship with our public safety officers. Ignoring this celebration does not bode well for that relationship.

THE JESTER ON THE THRONE
As I said immediately after Bever was elected, the next few months are going to be very interesting in Costa Mesa. We now have as mayor a man who thinks clever one-liners are more important that good policy. He thinks it's appropriate to threaten business owners with eminent domain, then laughs about it, saying he was only joking. That business owner promptly sold his business and severed all ties with our city. Can you blame him? Is that what Bever wants? Will he use the sledgehammer of eminent domain again with other business owners that don't choose to have their rights abridged?

WATCH YOUR BACK!
I've warned you in the past that the current majority - guided by those self-anointed "improvers" that form their core constituency - are willing to play fast and loose with the rules and more than willing to trample individual rights along the way. Watch your back!