Council majority not communicating well

I paid a visit to City Hall on Tuesday to reserve a park for my daughter’s third birthday party. Seeing as how I have not attended City Council meetings for some time now, I took the opportunity to view the posted agenda for our fair city’s council meeting Tuesday night. I cannot begin to express my befuddlement over the council’s absolute silliness.

The last two items on the agenda, introduced by Mayor Allan Mansoor and Councilwoman Wendy Leece, seethe with hypocrisy and ignorance.

The first, introduced by the mayor, requests that Costa Mesa be declared a “Rule of Law” city pertaining to, presumably, compliance and enforcement of, presumably, state and federal immigration laws. The next item, introduced by Leece, and without irony, calls for suspending the implementation of California state law, pertaining to reducing pollution.

First, the solid conservative majority on the council must get their stories straight. Are we a city compliant with state and federal law, or not? Or does this council think so highly of themselves that they can proudly trumpet the laws that suit their political agenda and publicly oppose those that don’t?

Secondly, the proposal by Leece threatens to stop efforts to slow polluting by our state. I assume the mention of global warming in the bill’s name is the source of this opposition.

Assuming, for the sake of argument, global warming, and man’s role it, as junk science, this still is a willful ignorance of the effects of our pollution upon ourselves. Cancer and asthma rates, dwindling drinking water and the fact that Orange County’s eastern mountains are no longer viewable from more than a few miles away are all effects of the use of fossil fuels.

The ugly fact is that pollution from the burning of fossil fuels hurts our welfare, produces early deaths, drives up the cost of health care and makes our region uglier. These things harm our economy as much as any regulation to stop them. And let’s not forget that long after lawsuits and payouts have been settled in the Gulf coast’s most recent oil spill disaster, the real blame lies with our voracious appetite for fossil fuels.

Again, it has been a while since I stopped in on city hall to listen to the wind blow. I’m disappointed that the same insincere, ignorant, dogmatic diatribe is still prevailing.

Joshua Boyle

Costa Mesa

Crash is another point of personal responsibility

I am writing to thank Paul C. Cain for taking the words/thoughts that I had after reading the original story (“Sounding Off: We need more details in crash lawsuit,” May 12). When I read the original article (“Claim: Family wants $5M,” May 7), I was so angry at the absolute waste of time and ink put into even including, what should be considered a frivolous lawsuit, in the paper at all.

Our society is so litigious it seems that anyone who thinks that they have even a remote chance of winning a lawsuit and benefiting financially, file the most absurd cases. The one in question really takes the cake. Yeah, where was the family (especially the father) when this 18-year-old kid decides to buy a Ferrari. Are you kidding me?! The worst part is that the kid (and, again the father is to blame) obviously had no respect for the car or the public, as he decided to gas the vehicle and lose control and fly it over the median. I believe a slower Volkswagen would have been a much better choice rather than a Ferrari. But, it’s all for naught now.

To have the gall to sue the city for not having engineered higher dividers, and to add insult to injury by calling out our city’s extremely professional and dedicated police, fire, paramedics — good God! The family is really very lucky that their 18-year-old Ferrari-wielding out of control driver didn’t take out a couple of innocent drivers/passengers/kids in cars or on bikes traveling in the opposite direction. But, no, it’s let’s find a good PI lawyer (a.k.a. ambulance chaser) and put a price tag of $5 million on the deceased kid’s head, which, in my opinion, is impossible to value to begin with.

I am hoping that the judge (let’s hope that the city does not settle out of court) throws the case out immediately for what it is, a complete and an utter waste of time. It’s filings such as this that will take this country down. Unless we as law-abiding, tax-paying citizens can put an end to these cases, we can only expect more and more of the same.

Bob Sinclair II

Newport Beach

Society columnist got history wrong

It is too bad that B.W. Cook in his frothy column about the Orange County Museum of Art and the Art of Dining neglected to do his homework, and mischaracterized earlier incarnations of the museum as “Traditionalist” (“The Crowd: Arts community unites at Island Hotel,” May 15). It is ironic that the very people the event honored formed the backbone of the collection and philosophy from the moment of its founding.

Never, never was the collection of the formerly named Newport Harbor Art Museum based on “coastal plein air oils and a dabble of contemporary.” Is he getting OCMA confused with Laguna Museum’s beginnings? Quite the opposite, from its inception, the collection focused on California contemporary artists. And indeed, many of the prints from Gemini G.E.L. graced its walls.

Joan Margol