Massaging The Budget, Massage Parlors and Caspa on Mansoor (so to speak)

It's the beginning of another new week and, with another Costs Mesa City Council meeting on Tuesday, it promises to be memorable.

COLLECTING FOR CIVIL CITATIONS
Right from the start tomorrow's meeting should be fun. The only public hearing schedule attempts to deal with deadbeats who have, for one reason or another, refused to pay fines for civil citations for municipal code violations. While $60,000 is involved, most if it deals with two properties in town. One in particular, 2256-2258 Orange Avenue, accounts for over $43,000 of the delinquent fines. The other, 1045 El Camino Drive, is for $7,175.00.

GRAPPLING WITH THE BUDGET CONTINUES
Item 2 under Old Business is titled, "Budget Management Strategy Implementation/Employee Salaries & Benefits". This attempts to implement concessions with certain employee bargaining units dealing with pay reductions and furloughs to help balance the Fiscal Year 2009/2010 budget.

FIREFIGHTER MOU
Perhaps the most interesting of these is item 2 (e) - the modified Memorandum of Understanding with the Costa Mesa Firefighters Association (CMFA). In a nutshell, the city presents to us to review a negotiation document which demonstrates how the association plans to help with the budget. I'm going to be very interested to see how our city council grapples with this information in an open public forum. The proposed MOU extends the length of time of the existing contract in exchange for some very serious concessions on the part of the city, including an increase in pay rate and a new arrangement on their retirement eligibility - 3% at 50, as opposed to the current 3% at 55.

CHANGING MASSAGE PARLOR MORATORIUM
Under New Business #1 the council will, once again, address their current urgency ordinance regarding a moratorium on massage parlors and new licensees. It seems, in our haste to slam the door on these activities at a recent meeting, we may have been in violations of Senate Bill 731, which prohibits putting restrictions on massage parlors that are more restrictive than other professional and personal service businesses.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE MORATORIUM
The staff recommends exempting two establishments from the moratorium and says it will return at the meeting on August 18th to discuss the extension of the moratorium.

WENDY WANTS TO CHOP PLANNING COMMISSION STIPEND
Perhaps the most fun will come at the end of the meeting when, under New Business #3, Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece proposes giving the Planning Commissioners a pay cut - from $400 per month regardless of how many meetings they attend - to $75.00 per meeting.

*****

CASPA, ORANGE JUICE & MANSOOR
Our old amigo, Dr. Humberto Caspa - former columnist for the Daily Pilot - has begun contributing blog entries on the Orange Juice Blog, a link for which is over there on the right of this page. In a recent entry last week, HERE, Caspa addresses our young jailer (is he still a jailer?)/mayor Allan Mansoor and his candidacy for the State Assembly seat currently held by Van Tran. In his piece Caspa makes some curious comments about Mansoor's sexual orientation - something I feel is completely irrelevant to his candidacy, with the possible exception that he has posted some very explicit negative comments regarding the gay lifestyle on a now-defunct Costa Mesa web site a few years ago. I have no idea if The Mayor has decided to "bat from the other side of the plate", so to speak, and really don't care. Contemplating that speculation does make me smile just a little bit, though.

Madame Sheriff and Audio Caspa

THE NEW SHERIFF
Well, on a split vote, 3-2, the Orange County Board of Supervisors have appointed retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Division Chief Sandra Hutchens as the next Sheriff of Orange County. The appointment is provisional, which is required by state law until psychological testing is completed.

Congratulations to Sheriff Hutchens. I was amused by the comments on the Red County/OC Blog following the appointment. Talk about sour grapes! They wanted Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters appointed in the worst way. Hmmm, maybe I should try to find a better description, huh? :-)

Actually, I don't understand the hub-bub about Hutchens appointment. Her background demonstrates excellence throughout her career. She's worked in a very large, very politically-charged environment and did well. We'll see if the "good old boys" here in Orange County try to sabotage her in the couple years before she must run for election in 2010.

CASPA ON RADIO
I had a chance to hear Humberto Caspa on the radio this morning as he spoke with Larry Mantle on KPCC, FM 89.3 discussing his book. The interview was informative, especially so when a caller who identified himself as "Robert", from the Westside of Costa Mesa told the audience that he didn't want a barrio in Costa Mesa. Very interesting and illustrative of the attitude of too many Costa Mesans. It was demonstrated very clearly on another local blog this morning.

As mentioned yesterday, he will continue his book signing tour with two appearances at Libreria Martinez in Santa Ana this month. The first event (English) will be Thursday, June 12th at 6:30 p.m. The second (Spanish) will be on Sunday, June 22nd at 1:30 p.m.

An Interesting Day In Costa Mesa

A few interesting things will happen here in our little neck of the woods over the next 24 hours.

TURNING NEIGHBOR AGAINST NEIGHBOR
Tonight, during its regularly scheduled meeting, the Costa Mesa Planning Commission will consider how to deal with the numerous bootleg buildings around our town. This pimple of an issue festered to a head recently when a neighbor on Costa Mesa Street was planning to remodel his home. His property included an outbuilding constructed in the 1960s without the benefit of permits. Apparently this is not the only such structure in our town. Big surprise!

Our city, established in 1953, was a collection of communities before it was incorporated. It was remote enough from the county seat in Santa Ana that, when a guy whose property backed up to a bit of agricultural land, decided he wanted to build a shed for his tractor or tools or his model train set he just built it.

Progress has created a whole new cadre of scofflaws - usually older folks who have lived in their home for 50 years or so. Now those folks are moving on - one way or another - and younger folks are buying those big lots with bootleg buildings tucked back into a corner hoping to build the home of their dreams. Unfortunately, they're going to have to deal with the building before building their castle.

Based on reading the staff report, it looks like you'll finally be able to get even with your neighbor - just call Code Enforcement and report a "problem" with your neighbor's outbuilding. They'll be over lickety-split to cite your offending neighbor and require him to "fix" the problem.

I find myself wondering if there are not many more important things for our municipal bureaucrats to be worrying about. You can "credit" carpetbagger Jim Righeimer for this one - he wants to make Costa Mesa look like Irvine and getting rid of the bootleg buildings is a good place for him to start.

CASPA'S BOOK TOUR
Dr. Humberto Caspa will appear on radio station KPCC (FM 89.3) with Larry Mantle Tuesday, June 10th at 10:30 a.m. to discuss his recent book, "Terror in the Latino Barrio: The Rise of the New Right in Local Government". He will also appear in person at two events at Libreria Martinez in Santa Ana this month. He will appear on June 12th at 6:30 p.m. (English) and on the June 22nd at 1:30 p.m. (Spanish).

NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN
It is assumed by those who are watching this situation closely that tomorrow, Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors will finally select a new Sheriff to replace the disgraced and indicted Mike Carona. The nearly 50 candidates have been distilled down to two - Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters and retired Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Division Chief Sandra Hutchens. This is going to be very interesting. Walters has the local profile while Hutchens has a resume and command experience in a very big department that was second to none among the candidates. Some folks in Santa Ana are already lining up to find a Latino replacement for Walters, feeling that the predominant demographic group - 75% of Santa Ana residents are Latino - has not been fairly served for the more than two decades Walters has been their top guy.

Caspa On The Radio and Mickadeit on White Supremacists

MEDIA DAY AT THE CAULDRON
The day is still young and it's already very interesting. First, I listened to Dr. Humberto Caspa speak about his book and his view of conditions in Costa Mesa during a fifteen minute interview this morning on KPFK radio, public radio in Southern California. In an unfortunate bit of programming, his fifteen minutes of fame, literally, followed a prolonged rant by a rabid Palestinian supporter. I'm not sure how many people hung around for Caspa's interview - besides me, that is.

CASPA NAMES NAMES - AND SPELLS THEM, TOO
Caspa had the opportunity to expand on the thesis of his recent book, "Terror in the Latino Barrio: The Rise of the New Right in Local Government". He emphasized the influence of one local activist, not only naming him, but spelling it for the audience to be sure they got it. I couldn't help but smile. You can hear Caspa's segment on KPFK HERE.

FRANK MICKADEIT TODAY
Then I grabbed my copy of the Orange County Register and began reading the headlines, looking for issues that interest me. I came across columnist Frank Mickadeit's contribution to the "Local" section of the newspaper - an entry entitled, "Racism, bullying top ADL agenda", HERE. I like Frank's work, which ranges from the politically relevant to flights of fancy, depending on his mood.

HITTING THE BRAKES
As I quickly scanned down the single column I came across the name of Costa Mesa Police Lieutenant Clay Epperson, so I jammed on the brakes, backed up and began reading more slowly from the top.

ADL ON WHITE SUPREMACIST GANGS
The focus of Mickadeit's column is a recent dinner hosted by the Anti-Defamation League in which the subject of white supremacists in Orange County was discussed. He quotes Kevin O'Grady, director of the local ADL office as saying, "Southern California does have more white supremacist activity than the rest of the U.S., and (within Southern California) Orange County has the most". Yikes!

EPPERSON HONORED
His mention of Lt. Epperson was in the context that he and Orange County probation officer Lowell Smith were honored because they, according to Mickadeit, "independently did groundbreaking work studying, documenting and suppressing white racist gangs".

PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER 1 DISCUSSED
Mickadeit goes on to discuss what he describes as the local gang of greatest concern, Public Enemy Number 1, about whom the ADL has produced a 12 page brochure. He mentions that Orange County is the hotbed of PEN1 activity and includes Costa Mesa as one of the four cities, along with Anaheim, Garden Grove and Huntington Beach, in which it is flourishing.

WHY?
Why do I mention Caspa's interview on the radio and Mickadeit's column on white supremacists in the same posting? Funny you should ask...

DENIAL AND RACISM
In our city there are those who deny the presence and influence of white gangs, focusing, instead on Latino gangs. Some of these same people - the guy mentioned by Caspa during his interview, for one - are also holocaust deniers. All credible law enforcement sources admit that white supremacist gangs - with their violence, drug manufacture/sale/use and their identity theft activities - are a big problem in our city. During a sweep 18 months ago, when nearly 60 white supremacists were snatched up throughout Orange County, a third of them - 20 - were apprehended at 17 locations in Costa Mesa. To this date our then-mayor, Orange County Deputy Sheriff Allan Mansoor, has never uttered a public comment about that sweep - a fact made even more difficult to understand because one of the reasons for the sweep was because those miscreants had put out "hits" on law enforcement personnel, including sheriff's deputies and prosecutors! How do we explain his silence on this issue when, at the same time, he was jumping up before the media every time a person of dark skin was arrested for any kind of crime? How do we interpret this curious double standard?

FORCING LATINOS OUT
Personally, I think the denial of the impact of white supremacist gangs in our city, coupled with the obsession about Latino gangs, is indicative of the influence one man has had on the leaders of our city. It's clear to me, and to Dr. Caspa based on his views presented in his book, that the emphasis on the Latinos among us is a racist effort to expunge men and women of color from our city.

A CAMPAIGN ISSUE, FOR SURE
This will be an issue during the upcoming campaign season, regardless who runs for City Council. Members of the current majority - Mayor Eric Bever, for example - and others that follow the drumbeat of intolerance in our city who chose to run for City Council, will be subjected to intensive interrogation on their position about race in our city throughout the campaign.

Gangs, Caspa on Radio, Local Bloggers and Tomorrow's Council Meeting

GANG ISSUE IN STUDY SESSION
Over the weekend I finally watched my tape of the Costa Mesa City Council Study Session from Tuesday, May 13th. I'm glad I did, because if I had relied on the "report" from one local blogger about the proceedings I'd have had a very different opinion of what occurred.

GOGERTY ON ENFORCEMENT
CMPD Captain Les Gogerty provided a brief overview of the current gang program in Costa Mesa - a program that focuses on enforcement since the council rejected an element that would have addressed the intervention/prevention segment a year ago.

INTERVENTION/PREVENTION PLANS PRESENTED
Deputy District Attorney Tracy Rinauro, whose full time job is working on gang intervention/prevention, did an excellent job of giving information on intervention activities in Anaheim and, quite recently, San Juan Capistrano. Many of those program elements she discussed sounded like they might be effectively used in our city.

SPARKS WERE A'FLYIN'
One thing is sure - Mayor Eric Bever and Councilwoman Katrina Foley continue to be flint and steel. The tension between them was palpable during the presentations by Gogerty and Rinauro. It was clear to me that Bever has no interest in doing more on the gang issue until results of the enforcement-only policy can be quantified. This is a typical response by him and his pals. Their solution to a gang problem is to rid our city of anyone who MIGHT become a gang member. You can translate that to mean anyone with brown skin. It was obvious that Bever was angry because Foley had requested the information that was presented to the council in the Study Session. It's one more example of how the so-called "improvers" want to control the information available to residents.

CASPA ON THE RADIO
Costa Mesa resident Dr. Humberto Caspa, author of the new, hot-off-the-presses book, "Terror in the Latino Barrio: The Rise of the New Right in Local Government", will be interviewed Wednesday morning, May 21st on radio station KPFK, 90.7 FM from 8-9 a.m. For those of you able to block off that hour Wednesday morning I suspect you'll find Dr. Caspa's comments of great interest.

LOCAL BLOGGER LOSING IT?
Speaking of local bloggers, I'm not quite sure what's going on over at the CM Press. I fear the poor guy who owns it may be showing signs of early dementia. Twice in the past month he has used duplicate numbers for his entries - number 330 and number 366 each had two separate entries using the same numbers. In the most recent edition of #366 he used a big chunk of his text to tell us all what a wonderful, interesting life he has had. I wonder if he did that as a memory jogger - because he's forgetting who he is these days.

WATCHING THE WATCHTOWER
New bloggers "Mr. & Mrs. John Smith" over at the CM Watchtower continue to post strange entries. Twice this month they've made claims of being the "Best Local Blog Around", yet provide no source for that acclaim. I have this mental image of them saying, "You're Number 1! No, you're Number 1!" I'm still not sure what their focus is - they seem to dislike almost everyone. Perhaps, as the campaign season approaches, we'll get a better idea of what they think will improve our city. I'm not sure just who these folks are, but I think I've got a good idea. More on that at a future date.

SPILLED "ORANGE JUICE"
And, over on the SantaAnaCentric Orange Juice! blog, the infighting continues. In a Herculean effort, they changed platforms over the past week or so. The new look is going to work, but it appears to be a much more labor-intensive effort. Time will tell. In the meantime, spats continue between their various contributors. Watching them argue back and forth, accusing each other of deleting comments and posts, makes me very happy that I'm a Lone Ranger here.

SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING TOMORROW
The City Council meeting Tuesday, May 20th, promises to be very special. Scheduled events include the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem by the All American Boys Chorus; presentation of Vanguard University's National Champion Women's Basketball Team; proclamations for both Killybrooke and Sonora schools for academic achievement and topped off by the recognition of city employees who reached 25 and 30 years of service. Whew! After that the remainder of the agenda will be boring with a capital "B".

Terror or "Error"?

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
As promised, over this past weekend I read Dr. Humberto Caspa's new book, "Terror in the Latino Barrio: The Rise of the New Right in Local Government". It's been 50 years since I've done a book report, so I'm not going to try to give you all the gory details. I'll just give you my opinion of the book. If you really want to try to find out if your name is in it you'll just have to shell out $17.00 or so at the local bookstore later this month or order it on Amazon. com.

NOT A GREAT BOOK - A GOOD BOOK
Let me start right off by telling you that in my opinion Dr. Caspa, whom I consider a friend, did not write a great book. He wrote a good book, full of authenticated facts, plenty of names, a pretty good time line of events and a lot of passionate opinion. He wrote a book that chronicles events in Costa Mesa over the past few years and draws conclusions from his analysis of those events. In most cases I agree with his conclusions.

LANGUAGE LEADS TO LEVITY
Unfortunately, although he holds a PhD, Dr. Caspa still has some difficulty with the nuances of the English language - don't we all? And, there are just enough typos and malapropisms sprinkled throughout the book to make his critics - particularly those of the Mensa persuasion - salivate about ways to use them to reject the premise of the book. That won't work, because his premise is rock-solid and amply documented.

DON'T FENCE ME IN
One example of an entry that brought a smile to my face is on page 76, where Dr. Caspa addresses the loitering day-workers at Lions Park. In his attempt to provide his readers with an image of Lions Park in their mind he includes the following description: "On one corner of the park, there is a barbed-wired baseball field on which city administrators organize softball and baseball tournaments." I'm sorry, but while this is no big deal in the grand scheme of things, the mental image of our kids playing softball in a field surrounded by barbed-wired cries out for comment. He, of course, probably meant "chain link fence", not barbed wire. I suspect you're smiling, too.

CRITICS WILL ATTACK
Dr. Caspa's critics will certainly try to refute some of his allegations - that's to be expected. He did a good job of documenting statements on which most of his opinions are based. There will be those who will attack his work as fiction - it's not. He headed off those critics with thorough documentation and attribution. Some will reject the title of the book, saying there is no "terror" in Costa Mesa. Those folks will likely not be members of the Latino community in our city, who today walk the streets very carefully for fear of unwarranted apprehension and deportation. This fear was exemplified by a young woman who raised her hand during Dr. Caspa's recent presentation at OCC to say that she never leaves her home without her green card for fear of being stopped for some minor infraction and summarily deported.

CHRONOLOGY IS THERE
Throughout the book Dr. Caspa attempts to provide the reader a chronology of events and introductions of main players in this little drama that we call Costa Mesa. He has done exhaustive research toward that end, all of which is footnoted for your reference. Quite honestly, while the information is there, I sometimes found the flow of the book a little herky-jerky.

NAMING NAMES
Dr. Caspa discusses the various organizations, groups and individuals that have come and gone in the quest to "improve" the Westside of our city. He names names, lists accomplishments and those events for which some of the players should receive credit or blame. Many of the names will be familiar to those who follow city politics - Mansoor, Bever, Leece, Monahan, Steel, Robinson, Davidson, Egan, Bunney, Elmore, Garlich, Scheafer, Dixon, Foley, Roeder, Morello, Turpit, Burciaga, Johnson, Dodero, Berry, Snowden, Hensley, Acosta... the list goes on and on. Heck, he even mentions me a couple times.

MANSOOR'S MUFF
Dr. Caspa discusses in detail the events of the past couple years, ever since Allan Mansoor attempted to deputize all Costa Mesa police officers as immigration screeners, including the unfortunate arrest of Benito Acosta. He does a good job of laying the groundwork so the reader can understand the evolution of events that set the stage for Mansoor's actions.

THE COMMON THREAD
The common thread throughout the book is the reference to one local activist and his pervasive influence on people and events in our city. This person has been called "Your Neighbor" on this blog and has named himself "Mr. U-Know-Who" on his own. Caspa makes very clear, unequivocal references to him by name throughout his book, pointing out in great detail what he perceives to be his unmistakable footprint on politics in this city for nearly a decade. Mr. U-Know-Who will not be a happy camper when he reads the book. That, alone, is enough to bring a smile to my face.

INTERESTING SIDEBAR
One interesting sidebar is that Mr. U-Know-Who implied in a very recent blog entry that he's upset with his hand-picked city council majority - he says they don't have the "gonads" to get the job done quickly enough - and indicated that he just might run for city council this year. He provided his list of goals should that happen. Apparently he feels HE has the testicular fortitude to get the job done. Many of us would relish having him in the race, but I doubt he has that equipment he seeks in others to do it.

WORTH READING?
Is Humberto Caspa's book worth reading? Absolutely! Much of what he says will come as no surprise to folks who have been following events in our city since the late 1990s. In fact, much of what Caspa says in his book has been chronicled on these pages since I launched A Bubbling Cauldron nearly three years ago - and before that in letters to the editor.

FACTS ARE FACTS
As I said, I agree with much of what Caspa says in his book - particularly his reference to the influence and impact of Mr. U-Know-Who on contemporary events in our city. Those of you who doubt such influence will have, in the form of Caspa's book, all the reference material you need to validate it as fact.

FIND IT AND READ IT
Buy the book or go to the local library and check it out. I'm sure there will be folks who deny Caspa's thesis. I'm looking forward to hearing what they have to say. This blog can be a forum for that discussion if they choose to avail themselves of it.

UNCOMMON COURAGE
I admire Humberto Caspa for having the passion and courage to write this book. It took uncommon courage, for a lot of reasons, to present this view at this time in our city. I think it is a chronicle of an important time in the evolution - some might say regression - of our city and should be required reading for all those seriously concerned about the future of Costa Mesa.

"Terror in the Latino Barrio"

HUMBERTO CASPA SPEAKS
Thursday evening nearly 100 people and representatives of a local Spanish language television station attended a presentation at Orange Coast College by Dr. Humberto Caspa, a professor at UCI and former Daily Pilot columnist, as he spoke about his new book, "Terror in the Latino Barrio: The Rise of the New Right in Local Government".


Photo courtesy of Daily Pilot

THE BOOK
The book, which I acquired following Dr. Caspa's presentation, is his account of the past couple of tumultuous years in Costa Mesa and the events and players he feels are responsible for the turmoil. He focuses on the events that led to an ICE agent being assigned to the Costa Mesa jail - the players and events that have created great unease within the nearly 37,000 member of Costa Mesa's Latino community.

AN OVERVIEW
I skimmed the book when I got home and will give it a more detailed reading over the weekend. Based on my cursory scan, I'd say he came pretty close to the mark when he describes people and events over the past decade or more in our city. He covered the so-called "improver movement" and some of the major players in that group. I'm sure of one thing - more than a few folks around town are going to be very uneasy if they read his work.

THE TARGETS
In a nutshell, Caspa targets "right-wing politicians" and identifies one specific person in our city as the nucleus of the anti-Latino sentiment that has been pervasive most of this decade. I didn't see that person, a local blogger of ill repute, in the audience, but one of his offspring stayed throughout the presentation and the Q&A session that followed - sitting in exactly the same location that his father sits in during City Council meetings.... must be in the genes.

TYPICAL RESPONSE
The guy in question has taken umbrage with the coverage of Caspa's book provided prior to the event by the Orange County Register's Yvette Cabrera. Ever the gracious guy, his most recent blog entry makes no bones about how he feels about her interpretation of the book - and her writing skills. He even discusses personal family matters in her life. He also, today, is critical of the administration at Orange Coast College for permitting Caspa to make a presentation about his book.

MORE TO FOLLOW
So, kudos to Dr. Caspa for his brave effort. I suspect this may not be the last we hear of his book. As I make my way through it I'll provide more feedback.

Newport Affirms City Hall In Park, Spits in Costa Mesa's Eye. Caspa Pokes Other Eye With Stick

The big news in the Newport-Mesa area last night came out of the Newport Beach City Council meeting.

NEWPORT BEACH COUNCIL AFFIRMS CITY HALL IN THE PARK
As reported by Briana Bailey in the Daily Pilot, HERE, the council voted unanimously to support the will of the people and move forward to build the new City Hall on that 12+ acre parcel adjacent to the Main Library. Despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the shrub-huggers, this was a good decision - one that made sense from so many standpoints that it was hard to see how any reasonable person could have opposed it. However, as we have seen over the past couple years, passion and reason are not usually found snuggled up together. The only remaining clinker in this scenario is activist Allan Beek's lawsuit. Hopefully, the well-intentioned Beek will see the light and drop the suit and save the city from having to spend some much-needed money on it. We'll see.

COUNCIL THUMBS NOSE AT COSTA MESA
All was not goodness and light, though. Bailey reports that the council, with a 6-1 vote, chose to ignore the recommendation of their City Manager, Homer Bludau, and decided to move forward with the annexation of the Santa Ana Country Club and some adjacent residential areas. By ignoring Bludau's advice, made quite clear in the last few days in an article by Bailey, HERE, the Newport Beach City Council effectively thumbed their collective noses at the Costa Mesa City Council at a time when it has appeared that there had been progress made in the relationship between the two bodies recently. I fear this new harmony has been blown out of the water.

BYRON'S WRONG, BUT HE'S RIGHT, TOO
My pal, Byron de Arakal, in his column that appears on the pages of the Daily Pilot this morning, HERE, was assuming too much when he projected a wiser vote in Newport last night. You can't really blame him, though. Bludau's recommendation was the right way to go. The council simply ignored it. The title applied to Byron's column by the editors, "Annexation to worsen Newport-Mesa rift", got it right. Even though Byron's assumption of the outcome was wrong, he nails the reasons why there must be harmony between the leaders of our two cities. There are just too many regional issues - Banning Ranch, John Wayne Airport Expansion, the 55 Freeway extension - that will require close cooperation between our two cities if there is to be any progress made on them.

LOOKING FOR STATESMEN
Having watched the Costa Mesa City Council majority in action for some time, I wouldn't be surprised if they chose to look for some way to get even with their counterparts in Newport Beach. That, of course, would be small-minded and petty - but not entirely unexpected of them. It's time for them to shake off this loss and get focused on the other battles to be fought on our behalf. I know it's almost too much to ask, but I'm looking for some glimmer of statesmanship - the maturity to move forward on important issues. In a campaign year, when our mayor is running for re-election and the "improvers" look to solidify their stranglehold on our city government, that seems like an unrealistic hope. We'll see.

HUMBERTO CASPA ADDS SALT TO THE WOUND
And then, in an unfortunate bit of timing, the Daily Pilot published a commentary by former columnist Humberto Caspa, HERE, that is guaranteed to pour salt in the wounds opened by the Newport Beach City Council's annexation vote. Caspa, long a critic of the current majority, and Allan Mansoor in particular, attempts to outline the path to power taken by Mansoor on his way to becoming an international media star who made our city a metaphor for anti-Latino actions. Yep, I can see a rebuttal being pounded out by Mansoor any time now.