Notable Quotables

“For him, it was the choice between being judged by a jury of 12 or

being carried by six people in his own funeral.”

-- Public Defender Dolores Yost, in her argument to the jury about why

defendant Ramadan Dokovic fired a gun that killed Miroslav Maric in the

parking lot of a Jack in the Box in Costa Mesa in May 2001

“We don’t want people opening up a sober-living home and then dealing

drugs out the back door. A lot of these places are run by former addicts,

and that is great; we just don’t want them run by current ones.”

-- Elizabeth Henderson, an assistant district attorney at the Harbor

Justice Center, on the certification process that aims to eradicate homes

that use the sober-living home moniker as a guise and run flop houses

“My heart instinct is not to see that happen. I’m just being

realistic. Not like my friends in Irvine who say, ‘Oh, we can just shove

it elsewhere.’ I’m saying, ‘Where do we shove it?”’-- Russell

Niewiarowski, president of the New Millennium Group, which is working to

get an alternate runway configuration plan for the closed El Toro Marine

base on the March ballot, on his idea to build an international airport

at Seal Beach or dramatically expand passenger capacity at John Wayne

Airport

“It’s strange that you have a woman arrested for murder post bond and

then she’s dead. Then someone else associated with her is dead. The best

way I can describe it is unusual.”

-- Costa Mesa Police Lt. Dale Birney, on the investigation into

possible links between a Newport Beach woman’s suicide, a man shot to

death in her apartment and another man found dead in a Costa Mesa hotel

room

“I’m pretty quiet except when it comes to the workplace. Then I’m very

talkative, especially when agenda reports are late. [City Manager] Allan

[Roeder] teases me about it. He tells me, ‘We still love you even though

you yell at us.”’

-- Former Costa Mesa Deputy City Clerk Mary Elliott, who retired

Friday, reflecting on her tough-guy reputation at City Hall

“If we spent thousands of dollars and then the ducks came back, we’d

look pretty foolish.”

-- Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff, on the city of Newport Beach’s

plan to possibly hire a private company that handles animal relocation to

find a legal and humane way to move ducks and mallards that frequent the

Grand Canal on Balboa Island

“This Memorial Day means that the abominable spirit called courage is

still active in the United States, as we continue to celebrate our

freedoms given all odds.”

-- Jane Draganza, a 50-year resident of Costa Mesa, on Monday being an

especially poignant holiday because of the Sept. 11 tragedy

“One of the things I think we accomplished a lot here is the school

environment is safe, accepting and respectful.”

-- Joe Fox, the outgoing principal of Middle College High School at

Orange Coast College, on his pride in the climate of tolerance at the

school