Tony Dodero -- From the Newsroom

A short while ago, while surfing the Daily Pilot Web site some 300

miles away in the Mojave Desert, a well-known Costa Mesa exile happened

upon a story that left him brimming with bemusement.

Well, maybe he was more cranky than bemused.

That’s because he had just learned that Costa Mesa city leaders were

trying to preserve the Huscroft House, a worn-out Craftsman-style abode

from 1915. The house, moved here in 1954 from Santa Ana, is an integral

part of the city’s history, some say.

There currently is a push to have the city declare the house

historical and spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars it will take to

repair and restore it and maybe move it to Fairview Park for future

generations to see.

But it’s not the preservation of history that necessarily has our

exile seething. It’s the simple irony of it all.

You see our exile, the one and only Sid Soffer, can’t help but point

out that city leaders, by being in possession of the Huscroft House,

could well be violating the very same building codes they tried to send

him to the slammer for almost six years ago.

The city’s building code states “buildings or structures moved into or

within the jurisdiction shall comply with the provisions of this code for

a new building or structure.”

Soffer, a former journeyman carpenter, says that’s far from the truth

in the case of this house.

“If you had done that [taken possession of the house], you would be in

Vegas with me,” said the former Blue Beet and Steakhouse restaurant owner

from his Las Vegas home.

Costa Mesa City Manager Allan Roeder said the question of the Huscroft

House perhaps not being up to the city’s own code was raised recently by

Councilman Gary Monahan, who curiously was Soffer’s old restaurant

manager.

Roeder said his staff is looking into the code question and whether

the city is in compliance with itself. But he points out that there is a

certain illogical notion behind the whole matter of having a house be up

to code before it’s moved.

“Why you would bring it up to code just to pick it up and move it

doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Roeder said. “I can certainly understand it

having to be up to code before it is habitated or open to the public.”

Still, Soffer is probably more acquainted with Costa Mesa’s uniform

building code than most.

As some no doubt remember, Soffer took off for Sin City in June of

1995 with a $250,000 bounty on his head after he was convicted of

violating Costa Mesa’s building codes at his Bernard Street rental

property.

The convictions were part of a long-running saga between Soffer and

the city, mostly a dispute over several old Cadillacs that he stored at

his Arbor Street home and that neighbors had complained were a nuisance.

Those legal problems are the reason Soffer is now on the lam and has

been relegated to watching the city’s twists and turns from afar.

He logs on to the Daily Pilot’s Web site each day to catch up with

news from his hometown and, in turn, learn about things that simply amaze

him, like Chris Steel being elected to the council and the Huscroft

House’s general state of disrepair.

“I knew that the law says if a house was not up to code, you can

continue to use it as long as it is not unsafe,” Soffer said. “But when

that house was moved to Costa Mesa it did not come up to code.”

So, we’ll sit back and wait to see if the city is adhering to its own

building codes.

Meanwhile though, Soffer has this ominous little piece of advice.

“He who lives by the uniform building code, dies by the uniform

building code.”

TONY DODERO is the editor. His column appears on Mondays. If you have

story ideas or concerns about news coverage, please send messages either

via e-mail to tony.dodero@latimes.com or by phone at 949-574-4258.