Mailbag - July 9, 2002

The Daily Pilot editorial of April 28 was sympathetic to Dave Morley’s

non-permitted garage conversion and was a fair solution for his dilemma,

but it shed no light on solving the long-term “code violations” problem

in Costa Mesa (“Let converted Westside bedroom remain intact”). If Morley

is allowed to keep his illegal bedroom just because he didn’t build it,

should the city allow the many other owners of non-permitted bedrooms,

kitchens, apartments, etc.. to keep them just because the code violations

existed before they purchased their property?

Should the next code violator caught get to keep his “bootleg” work or

have to correct it? Since there are no permits on record for these

violations, it is quite difficult to prove when the non-permitted work

was completed. Where should the city draw the line?

There are probably many new owners of older properties in Costa Mesa

who are not aware they have non-permitted construction. Some code

violations may be 50-plus years old, so many of the sellers of those

properties didn’t know about them either. The city could propose a

moratorium on all bootleg construction completed after, say Sept. 1. That

way, property owners would have until then to get “grandfathered” permits

for their non-permitted construction. That isn’t likely to happen.

The city could implement an inspection program similar to Newport

Beach’s. All property there must be inspected by code officers before it

is sold. That way, the seller has to correct the non-permitted work, or

else the buyer is well aware he is going to have code violation problems

with the city. In that way, no owner could be “surprised” to find out he

has non-permitted construction at a later date. Costa Mesa has talked

about such a program. Maybe now is the time to implement it and stop

punishing truly innocent property owners such as Morley.

MICHAEL STEINER

Costa Mesa

Newport traffic officials do city a great service

Sometimes we forget to take our hats off to the traffic department in

Newport Beach for keeping our traffic flowing smoothly and safely through

our city.

During frequent drives from Newport to other Orange County cities, we

all notice how often we are unnecessarily stopped at lights and how

frustrating it can be to go short distances.

Newport’s good planning comes from the traffic engineering department

at City Hall. Traffic engineer Richard Edmonson and his team must

maintain a vision for the whole city. In addition, at the police station

is the Newport Beach Division of Motor Officers, which includes traffic

investigation and area parking.

Recently, I noted that an intersection on Dover Drive had become

unsafe. Ron Valdercamp, the police officer on call, was gracious and took

the time to drive out to see the problem that same day. He called back

immediately and assured me he would follow through.

Behind the scenes, the “traffic” personnel do a great job in their

integrated effort to ensure that traffic flows smoothly and our

intersections are as safe as possible.

They deserve our thanks.

MIMI GLUECK

Newport Beach

AT&T; should assist customers or lose them

In the fall of 2001, AT&T; Broadband took over a fairly well-run

company, Media One, and immediately ran it incompetently. I tried to get

some sort of service from them. Finally, after several months of

incompetent and unreliable service, the largest communication company in

the world was able to regain the competency of those that it had

purchased.

The only reason that I kept this inept service was my e-mail address.

Then the company proved that its computer ineptness was surpassed by its

legal incompetence when it sent letters stating that it didn’t have the

right to keep and use Media One addresses. The company’s next move was

o7 attbi.netf7 -- oops wrong, then o7 attbi.comf7 . The company

couldn’t even figure that out. I still have people asking me what my

address is.

AT&T;’s total incompetence reflects its feeling for its customers

(remember those that provide the cash flow). Our inconvenience doesn’t

seem to matter to the company’s “big picture.” I fully realize that my

business is like a grain of sand on the beach and will not affect AT&T.;

But enough grains of sand can eliminate a beach.

The company’s answering machines, lack of customer service and lack of

consideration for what makes its customers’ lives easier should be a

great benefit to AT&T;’s competition.

J. SANDBAR ORR

Costa Mesa