Why Vote YES On Measure AA and NO on Measure BB

TRYING TO SAVE THE "JEWEL"
Measure AA on the Costa Mesa ballot was placed there by a dedicated group of volunteers obtaining more than 7,100 signatures of registered voters who joined those who wrote the initiative in their concerns about the future of Fairview Park - widely described as Costa Mesa's Jewel.

COUNCIL MAJORITY INTENT WAS CLEAR
The petition was circulated because of actions taken by the current City Council majority over the past nearly six years that implied a clear intention to turn this mostly natural park into something akin to a regional sports complex.

STACKED COMMITTEE
The Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee was created by the City Council and stacked with cronies who apparently followed the party line when creating a process to determine what should be considered for Fairview Park.  They crafted goals and a list of issues to consider.  The original 35-item list included things like hard-surface sports courts, playing fields and much, much more.  The meetings evolved from a couple dozen attendees to well over 100 in some of the later meetings.

DR. MEHREN RESIGNS IN DISGUST
The committee went about discussing the park, quadrant by quadrant, over many months.  The meetings were heavily-attended by concerned citizens and they saw the attempts by the stacked majority to manipulate the process.  Finally, in January of 2015 - not quite two years after the committee was created - the chairman of the group, Dr. Richard Mehren, described by many in the community as the "Father of Fairview Park", resigned in disgust and shortly thereafter the committee was placed on hiatus.

PETITIONS CIRCULATED AND QUALIFIED
Dr. Mehren and a group of dedicated volunteers, the Fairview Park Preservation Alliance, launched their petition drive and, earlier this year, submitted more than 7,100 signatures - more than enough to qualify for the ballot next Tuesday.  Their goal was to protect the park from what they perceived to be a focused effort by some in authority to violate the deed and add "facilities" of all kinds to the park venue.

COUNCIL CREATES CONFUSING MEASURE
The City Council majority, once again ignoring the will of the people and apparently unwilling to simply trust the voters and let this issue be decided in November with a Yes or No vote, cobbled together a bogus competing measure - Measure BB - to confuse the voters.  It implies that no sports fields would be permitted at Fairview Park, but is worded to permit many other kinds of facilities "normally expected in a park".  That left the gate wide open for development.  And, the City Council authorized the City to spend $8,500 on misleading mailers to support Measure BB.

THIS VIDEO TELLS THE STORY
The following video presentation does an excellent job of defining the issue and provides you all the reasons you need to vote YES on Measure AA and NO on Measure BB.

VOTE YES ON MEASURE AA - VOTE NO ON MEASURE BB