Spanish ad draws Costa Mesa resident’s ire

Lolita Harper

City-sponsored bilingual communication efforts were called into

question at Monday’s City Council meeting after a resident said he

was shocked to turn on his local cable station to a Spanish

advertisement.

Resident Paul Bunney inquired about a commercial he saw on Channel

74 -- a city-designated channel on AT&T; Broadband -- that advertised

Costa Mesa’s tire recycling program in Spanish.

“I was surprised to turn on my city channel and see an ad in

Spanish,” Bunney said. “I thought I was on the wrong channel.”

Bunney asked the council whether it was city policy to advertise

in a foreign language.

“I thought this was an American nation where people who come to

our country are supposed to speak English,” he said.

City Manager Alan Roeder told Bunney there was no outlined city

policy regarding bilingual notices but that Costa Mesa frequently

printed and offered information in both English and Spanish.

Councilwoman Libby Cowan said she was “appalled” that residents

would even question that some city announcements are in Spanish,

given the large Latino population in the city.

The 2000 census found Costa Mesa to be nearly 32% Latino, and a

1997 survey reported that residents of the city’s Westside are 44%

Latino.

“I think it is important and an obligation for us to do whatever

we can to fully communicate with all of our residents,” Cowan said.

Resident Cindy Brenneman, president of Mesa Verde Community Inc.

homeowners’ association, said she wished the gap between the two

cultures was less vast. A City Council candidate forum that her

association hosted two weeks ago drew hundreds of residents yet

attracted few, if any, Latinos, she said.

In hindsight, Brenneman said, she wished she could have engaged

more of the Latino population.

“I am at a loss,” she said. “We are all supposed to be working

toward better quality of life issues. There has got to be a way to do

some better networking in the community.”

Private notices in different languages are fine, but when it comes

to public money funding bilingual materials, there is a line that

needs to be drawn, residents said.

Janice Davidson, a Westside advocate and member of the city’s

Human Relations Committee, said Costa Mesa effectively communicates

with its Latino residents but ignores large populations of Vietnamese

and Cambodian immigrants. If the extra effort is made for one group,

why not others? she asked.

Resident Bob Graham agreed, saying a line had to be drawn

somewhere.

“If I had my way, we would all speak another language as well as

English,” Graham said. “But we have to have something standard in

which we can all communicate. We cannot go down the track where

everybody gets what they want.”

Issues about bilingual communication sponsored by the city were

also prevalent in debates on a day laborer solicitation law passed in

March.

The new law allows Costa Mesa business owners to post signs --

provided by the city -- on their property prohibiting the

solicitation of work. Once the sign is posted, police can arrest

violators without the owners formally pressing charges, which was the

hurdle in previous battles against solicitors.

In its original version, the city ordinance required the signs to

be in English and Spanish, since many of the alleged solicitors were

Latino, officials said. Many residents and some council members

bucked at the notion of bilingual signs being mandated.

The council ultimately decided to make Spanish signs optional.