City leaders get ‘touchy-feely’ in Newport-Mesa

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- Although residents disagree on whether the city even

needs a strategic plan, most say they want to be sure they -- and not the

City Council -- get the biggest voice if the so-called “visioning”

process begins.

“I think the idea is really good, as long as it’s really grass-roots

motivated -- a bottom-up move, not a top-down one,” said Robin Leffler, a

Mesa Verde resident. “Right now, it seems to be coming from the City

Council. But I think if it’s done in a way that it gets participation

from all segments of the community, if it’s inclusive and nobody gets

short shrift or discredited, it will be really productive.”

A council meeting Saturday -- which included a discussion of community

objectives and council members’ individual priorities, along with a

presentation about Laguna Beach’s own”visioning” effort -- could be the

first step in a long process to define the city’s future.

After the meeting, Mayor Libby Cowan and Councilwoman Linda Dixon said

they support creating a plan for the city’s future.

Councilwoman Karen Robinson said she thinks creating a vision for the

future is something the council should pursue but added that she needs

more community input to decide if residents want to put together a plan.

“This is not an inexpensive venture, so if we’re going forward, we

need input from all four corners of the community,” she said.

Laguna Beach representatives said they found that the price tag for

consultants ranged from $50,000 to $200,000.

They recommended Costa Mesa choose a consultant at about $100,000,

said City Manager Allan Roeder, who added that Costa Mesa has not yet

estimated the potential cost of the process.

Councilmen Gary Monahan and Chris Steel were unavailable for comment,

but all three councilwomen agreed they are willing to take a back seat to

other city residents.

“One of the things [Laguna Beach Mayor Paul Freeman] said is that this

is a community process and the council needs to walk away,” Dixon said.

“The community gives their input, and it’s not for council to decide

whether it’s right or wrong. I think that is a very important thing.”

Ernie Feeney, a Mesa North resident, said she does not favor spending

money to create a vision plan.

“It would be a much larger task here than in Laguna Beach, and my

feelings are that I don’t know why we are so concerned about visioning in

the future when we can’t even take care of the problems we have now and

that we’ve had for several years,” she said. “We live near the Filmore

slum, and we had a vision Saturday night. It was of graffiti. We don’t

need a Jetsons spacey-type vision. We need to solve problems now, and

that doesn’t take visioning, that takes getting in your car and driving

down the street.”

Feeney said she would support a citywide survey asking residents to

list the city’s best and worst characteristics.

She added that if the council approves a vision process, she will try

to ensure that participation from “outsiders,” or special-interest groups

based outside of the city, is prohibited.

Eleanor Egan, a Westside resident and chairwoman of the Westside

Improvement Assn., said strategic planning is essential to inform people

about the trade-offs in the city’s decisions.

“I think it’s really important for any city, but especially Costa

Mesa, to think about and decide what we are and what we’d like to

become,” she said. “I know some people are against it because it sounds

touchy-feely or think it is really very simple -- what we want to be is

beautiful and rich -- and some people want to focus only on blighted

areas. But the city is very diverse and is composed of very disparate

areas that don’t necessarily blend together. There are a zillion kinds of

questions we need to answer, and if we don’t decide for ourselves, other

people who don’t necessarily have our best interests at heart are going

to decide for us.”

The council is scheduled to discuss the issue again at its meeting at

6:30 p.m. Feb. 20 at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.