Sounding Board -- CHET P. GROSKREUTZ

I attended the Costa Mesa City Council meeting on Monday, Aug. 6.

My purpose in attending was to respond to the rezoning issue that we

had received a letter about from the city of Costa Mesa asking for

comments from the residents of Santa Ana Heights, where I have lived for

more than 22 years.

Instead of accepting our comments and listening to the residents’

issues, Mayor Libby Cowan announced that she did not want to hear

anything about the annexation of Santa Ana Heights in the comments.

The whole issue of a proposed rezoning application has everything to

do with the annexation of the area and the mayor cannot tell us what we

can and cannot say in a public forum. In fact, the mayor should listen

more and talk less and she might hear better when the community speaks.

Since when does an elected official have the right to censor public

comments? The fact is that everything that the city of Costa Mesa is

doing regarding the annexation of Santa Ana Heights is against the will

of the overwhelming majority of the residents there. We have sent three

sets of petitions to the city in the course of this process opposing the

city’s attempt to annex us and all three sets have been ignored.

Cowan said something in the meeting to the effect that a petition

means that people in the community were willing to go out and get their

issue heard, implying that she supports the petition process. I wonder

why she has ignored our petition efforts to have Costa Mesa stop the

annexation process and to release Santa Ana Heights from the sphere of

influence of Costa Mesa?

Cowan has been the leader in an effort to annex us and her fellow

council members Linda Dixon and Karen Robinson have joined her futile

effort to try to annex the area against the will of the people of our

community. Only council members Chris Steel and Gary Monahan have agreed

to let us alone and not proceed with the city’s annexation of Santa Ana

Heights.

It is time for Cowan, Dixon and Robinson to stop the annexation

process and stop wasting taxpayers’ money on a process we have already

said three times by petition that we will vote against and defeat. They

can do this easily by withdrawing their application for annexation, but

maybe politics are preventing them from acting as responsible public

servants.

Eventually, the annexation of our community by Costa Mesa will be put

to a vote and we will finally be heard and we will defeat this annexation

attempt.

It’s time that Cowan, Dixon and Robinson stop this annexation process

now. Don’t waste any more of the taxpayers’ money. Don’t waste any more

of city staff time. Stop this annexation now before you waste more time

and money on a losing effort.

* CHET P. GROSKREUTZ is a Santa Ana Heights resident.