From the Newsroom -- Tony Dodero

Joel Faris hasn’t slept well lately.

What’s gnawing at this Westside family man is a particularly painful

moment at a Human Relations Committee meeting. You know, that committee

that is supposed to promote harmony and diversity and tolerance.

It was at this meeting in which he believes several activists with

their own agenda unfairly cast him as a racist. The allegations came

because of comments he has made on the Concerned Costa Mesa Citizens Web

site, comments that were taken out of context, he says.

As someone who has seen many of the postings of this Web site over the

past year and a half or so, I agree with Faris that he’s getting a bum

rap.

You see, for more than a year now, the Daily Pilot has been able to

view the daily banter that goes on at the Concerned Citizens of Costa

Mesa Web site, a bulletin-board style, electronic town meeting of sorts.

One of my former editors told me she thought someone at the Web site

actually registered us in the beginning, because none of us ever remember

doing so. We’ve been knocked off from time to time and then put back on,

but through it all, it’s made for some interesting and lively reading, I

must admit.

The commentary, by a litany of people such as council candidates, city

activists and even the husband of a planning commissioner, is mostly

harmless, some of it clever and jovial and almost all meant to inspire

improvements in Costa Mesa, especially the Westside.

Some of the web postings, however, are mean-spirited, argumentative

and caustic. And some, yes, could even be labeled as racist or

homophobic. For what it’s worth, in my estimation, Faris’ comments

certainly wouldn’t fit that qualification.

“I think I’m the perfect representative,” Faris told me the other day

on the phone, as we spoke of the Human Relations Committee. He

acknowledges that he is a conservative in his devout religious beliefs,

but he also says he is “liberal in many ways.”

“I’m very easy going,” he said. “I feel comfortable in any situation.

I’ve sat down with gang members to talk with them. I’ve sat down with

people smoking crack.”

Actually, I read on the Web site where Faris used that crack-smoking

example to show he is willing to talk with anyone to try and understand

their predicaments. Still, he took heat on the Web site for not turning

the drug users in to police rather than getting praise for trying to make

a difference.

That’s kind of how the Web site is. One person puts up a harmless post

or even an opposite point of view and is attacked by some of the more

strident members.

So when staff writer Lolita Harper reported last week of the blow up

at the city’s Human Relations Committee meeting in which three committee

members -- Faris, Jan Davidson and Allan Mansoor, who are also

contributors to the Web site -- were criticized for some of their

postings and viewpoints, I wasn’t too surprised.

There were times when I thought the comments on the site got out of

hand also and I was surprised that those postings that had clear racist

tones weren’t disavowed by those who know better.

Still, the human relations meeting in which Faris, Mansoor and

Davidson were attacked did smell more like a political hit than a clarion

call for peace and cultural harmony in Costa Mesa.

The main beef seems to come from members of the local gay and lesbian

community, who have a beef with Mansoor and his postings, some of which

cite studies or stories by a conservative Christian organization with a

decidedly anti-gay bent.

While Faris has hinted at a council run -- his final announcement has

not come yet -- Mansoor has made it no secret that he will indeed run for

City Council in November. You can bet that this is just the beginning of

the campaign against him.

Davidson, a cantankerous Web site poster, was a campaign manager for

Chris Steel, the controversial candidate who won a surprise victory in

November of 2000 after nine unsuccessful campaigns against city charities

and illegal immigration.

Steel’s favorite slogan on his literature that year: “We cannot

continue to medicate, domesticate and educate” illegal immigrants. With

two seats open, Steel’s opponents are going to do everything they can to

make sure he doesn’t have a majority on the council dais who agree with

his agenda.

I don’t know either Mansoor or Davidson, or what they really stand

for. But I do have at least a casual acquaintance with Faris and feel a

little guilty that maybe the Daily Pilot got him into this situation.

You see, when Faris ran for Costa Mesa City Council in 2000, the

members of the Pilot’s editorial board were impressed by his honesty and

his caring nature. We wrote in our endorsement editorial that we would

like to see him get more involved in city politics.

That’s why he wound up on the Human Relations Committee, which he was

attracted to because it took on meatier topics than say the library board

or something like that.

He acknowledged that he felt at odds with several members of the

committee right from the start, but I guess he didn’t realize the meat he

was looking for would get tossed at his head.

I’ve only met Faris a few times, though we have spoken by phone and

have exchanged e-mail quite a bit. I admire him and find him to be a

personable and honest man, and I don’t believe for a minute that racism

plays any part in his thinking.

I know this may sound cliche, but it would seem a little strange for a

man who some are calling racist to adopt young Latino boys as his sons

and spend his working hours teaching children in a Santa Ana elementary

school that he said has a population much like Costa Mesa’s Whittier

Elementary School, which is probably made up of 90% Latino children.

To top it off, he volunteers his off time in the summer to the

Westside’s Pomona Learning Center, to help those mostly Latino children.

“When it’s all said and done, I still live here and want to get along

with any of my neighbors,” Faris said of the brouhaha that has left him

agonized.

Isn’t that what a Human Relations Committee member is supposed to do?

Not just get along with those that think or believe the same way, whether

that’s coming from the left or right of the political spectrum.

Ask Joel Faris and he’ll tell you he wouldn’t live anywhere but the

Westside of Costa Mesa.

Believe me, I know there are plenty out there who want to blame all of

Costa Mesa’s woes on those of Latino descent. There are lots of

homophobes out there. They often call our newsroom and leave messages

with hateful and despicable remarks.

Still, it is a big mistake to lump all Westside improvement members

into the same category because, like in the case of Faris, it’s an ally

who could end up being hurt.

* 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 o7 tony.dodero@latimes.comf7 or by phone at (949)

574-4258.