Blame game starts campaign season

Lolita Harper

It was the shot heard ‘round City Hall.

Proof of an embattled City Council campaign season was evident

Monday night as Westside candidate Allan Mansoor opened fire,

publicly accusing Mayor Linda Dixon of keeping information from

residents about a proposed health clinic at Rea Elementary School.

During the general comment portion of the City Council meeting,

Mansoor asked Dixon to explain why at the previous council meeting

she told audience members she had no knowledge of a proposed free

health center being planned for the Westside.

At a Newport-Mesa Unified School District board meeting July 23,

trustees Jim Ferryman and Dana Black said they had broached the

subject with the mayor.

Dixon said Monday that clarification was needed but adamantly

denied trying to hide anything from her constituents.

“I do not read minds,” Dixon said about school district’s plans to

add a clinic to the school grounds. “I did not know about it. It was

not on an agenda.”

Dixon, who serves with Councilwoman Karen Robinson as the City

Council liaisons to the Newport-Mesa school board, said trustees

never discussed the possibility of a free clinic at Rea Elementary

School during formal meetings designed to increase communication and

collaboration between the two governing bodies.

Dixon said she did not recall a conversation with Ferryman. If the

subject had been broached at all, it was in a hurried and vague

conversation with Black in which the trustee merely mentioned “a

clinic, “ Dixon said. The mayor said she assumed Black was referring

to another health facility.

Black said Tuesday that her conversation with Dixon was rushed but

stood by the fact that she was trying to give the mayor a heads-up

about the proposed facility. Black said she had no formal information

to share with Dixon but wanted to at least make a call.

“We were on cell phones, and I started to tell her and she cut me

off, saying she knew all about it,” Black said.

Ferryman could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Westside residents, including Mansoor, have voiced loud opposition

to a partnership between the Children’s Hospital of Orange County and

the school board to bring an affordable medical clinic to the

elementary school campus. The center calls for a 4,800-square-foot

building to replace the existing Healthy Start facility next to the

school.

As planned, the center would handle about 9,000 doctor visits

annually by its third year. CHOC would lease the building from the

district for $12 a year and fund the program with $1 million from

Proposition 10, the 1998 initiative that collects money from the sale

of tobacco products for early childhood development programs across

the state.

Opponents say a medical facility does not belong in a residential

area and charge the facility would bring intolerable amounts of

outsiders and traffic noise. Some of the most vocal opponents have

said school board trustees were trying to sneak the clinic under the

noses of residents by not inviting community input.

Mansoor said it was Dixon’s responsibility as the leader of the

council to stay involved.

“You should be aware of what is going on,” he told Dixon.

Robinson, the other liaison to the school board, defended Dixon,

saying the issue was never formally discussed at any of the

collaborative meetings.

“The Rea school project was never [an item on the agenda] and was

never discussed with either of us,” Robinson said.

Contrary to her accusers’ theory, Dixon said her position on the

clinic is the same as theirs: The clinic does not belong in the

middle of a neighborhood.

“I believe in their good intentions, but given what I know now

about it, it seems to be incompatible,” Dixon said.

A medical clinic is a commercial use, Dixon said, and does not

belong in the middle of a residential neighborhood. It would require

a change in zoning, a use permit and even a change to the city’s

master plan -- all of which would require public input.

Dixon said she encouraged trustees to hold community meetings and

survey the neighbors before pushing the project through.

“Whether they take my advice or not is another issue,” Dixon said.

Robinson also encouraged residents to attend the Aug. 27 school

board meeting, when the item is up for a vote, saying they need to

persuade trustees not council members.

“They are the school board; they can do this if they want,” said

Robinson, who was referring to the fact that school sites are state

property and are subject to different land-use conditions than other

city developments.

City Manager Allan Roeder confirmed that in most instances schools

are exempt from city jurisdiction, but this case is different.

Because the school district is leasing the space to CHOC for a use

that is not educational, it may fall under the city’s scope.