IRVINE : Shifting Political Winds Apparent

With more than a dozen people in the audience waiting to support or oppose a boycott of coffee grown in El Salvador, the City Council sidestepped the issue this week by deciding it wasn’t a municipal matter.

After debating for 40 minutes late Tuesday night, the council agreed that it should stop its involvement in international affairs. Councilwoman Paula Werner dissented.

The proposed coffee boycott was suggested by a city commission created in 1989 to give the council advice on human rights issues. The panel advised the city to stop buying Salvadoran coffee to avoid supporting an oppressive government.

Instead of considering the boycott, the council told the committee not to make further human rights recommendations and work only on its other task of helping to reunite families with members trapped in countries with strict immigration policies.

The issue illustrates the shifting political climate in Irvine after last June’s election, in which then-Mayor Larry Agran and Councilman Cameron Cosgrove were defeated and Councilman Edward A. Dornan chose not to run again. Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan, who went from a lone dissenter on the former council to a member of the majority after the election, said that if the boycott had been suggested six months ago, the former council almost assuredly would have embraced it as a municipal matter.

But the complexity of events in El Salvador shows “the foolishness of involving municipal government in international affairs,” Councilman William A. (Art) Bloomer said.

“We’re all sitting here thinking we’re experts,” Councilman Barry J. Hammond agreed. “We don’t know the issues (in El Salvador). Sometimes I don’t think our State Department knows either.”

Werner said that because the city already takes a stand on other issues such as buying recycled paper and products that don’t deplete the ozone layer, the council should be receptive to considering the effects of buying certain brands of coffee.