The problem with pursuing El Toro...

The problem with pursuing El Toro

Tuesday, the Daily Pilot ran a series of letters to the editor

critical of the City Council in general and Norma Glover and me

specifically. The authors of the letters make a very perceptive

observation that some of us longtime supporters of a commercial

airport at El Toro may need to further ponder.

The letter writers come to the conclusion that if there is an El

Toro airport, the need to extend the flight limitations at John Wayne

Airport would not be as urgent. Now that is down right brilliant.

Unfortunately, the voters in Orange County, the Orange County

Board of Supervisors, the Superior Court of the State of California

and the United States Department of the Navy failed to take this into

consideration when they decided there would be no airport at El Toro.

DENNIS O’NEIL

Newport Beach City Council

Help needed to pass Measure A on Tuesday

On June 6, 2000, the voters in the Costa Mesa and Newport Beach

wisely approved Measure A, our local $110-million school bond

designed to repair our aging facilities. The amount of the bond was

based on a facilities master plan, which detailed over $147 million

of repairs. The state of California, at that time, was committed to

paying for the price differential between needed repairs and our

local financing.

State school repair funds have now fallen short, and the only way

our school district can get that promised money is by passage of

Proposition 47 on the November ballot. Either we pass Proposition 47

and get the money to repair our schools, or about one-third of the

projects on the facilities master plan will be cut.

It is rare that a state bond measure can hit so close to home. The

gym at TeWinkle Middle School, for example, will be cut without

Proposition 47 funding.

The Corona del Mar zone (Corona del Mar High, Andersen, Eastbluff,

Harbor View, Lincoln, and Newport Coast schools) principals and

PTA/PFO presidents, along with the Harbor Council PTA, urge you to

vote yes on Proposition 47. It is the only way our schools can be

rebuilt the way that Measure A was presented. Let’s hold the state

accountable. Please go to the polls and vote this Tuesday.

JILL MONEY

Corona del Mar zone PTA chair

Term limits do not always apply

The Daily Pilot recently endorsed Gary Monahan for another term,

and he is actively campaigning for re-election.

What the Pilot didn’t mention, and Monahan never mentions, is that

the new term that he wants to have would be his third term, something

that a Costa Mesa term limit ordinance denies everyone else. Monahan

particularly doesn’t want anyone to know that although he supports

term limits, and voted for the term limits ordinance, he made sure

that it wouldn’t apply to him when he voted for it.

Does Costa Mesa really need another politician who believes that

the law shouldn’t apply to him, only to others? Do we really need

another politician who thinks that he is indispensable. Do we really

need another politician who hides his record?

I don’t happen to believe that term limits make any sense. We can

always limit the term of any elected official by not voting him or

her back into office. And when a politician is such a hypocrite as to

pretend to support term limits while quietly making sure that they

don’t apply to him, we should apply the old-fashioned kind of term

limits. Besides, now we know that Monahan was the beneficiary of a

phony telephone poll intended to hurt another candidate and even

reported the cost of it as a campaign contribution.

When a so-called citizen politician turns into the other kind,

it’s time to get rid of him. There just doesn’t seem to be any reason

left to think that Gary Monahan has anything more to offer to Costa

Mesa.

JIM TOLEDANO

Costa Mesa

* Jim Toledano is a former head of the Democratic Party of Orange

County.

Foley is right choice

right now, not later

It is a puzzle to me that you say of Katrina Foley that she has

focused on Costa Mesa’s future. You also wrote: “Foley brings a

committed, intelligent and innovative perspective to City Hall, and

residents are fortunate that she is in a position to make changes and

direct the course of the city.” And then you tell us to wait for two

years for her to serve on the City Council. Why would you ask us to

wait for what we need now? Why not Mayor Linda Dixon and Foley? If

Costa Mesa is to change for the better, these are certainly the

leaders we need.

Furthermore, I am puzzled that you “disagree often with Wendy

Leece and her views,” yet suggest we vote for her and cite as her

qualifications the courage of her convictions and that she is a voice

for “ultra-conservative views, a voice that with [challenger Tom]

Egan would cease to exist.” For that very reason, I strongly support

Tom Egan as an intelligent alternative to Leece (whose children do

not attend Newport-Mesa public schools except during political

campaigns).

I’d rather see another vote for excellence in education than one

that serves as a thorn in the side of those trying to deal with

pressing problems within the school system, those urgent problems

that need serious, relevant people working to solve them.

CHARLOTTE ALEXANDER

Eastside

Time, perhaps, to put limits on term limits

Interestingly, the Daily Pilot has primarily endorsed incumbents

for the various local offices. This includes some elected officials

seeking third and fourth terms.

In the early 1990s, term limits were touted as the answer to

government problems from the local to the state to the national

level. In 1994, the city of Costa Mesa enacted a limit on the number

of City Council terms a person could serve.

It was determined by the city’s attorneys that the law would only

apply to council terms that commenced after the law was enacted.

Thus, only City Council terms commencing in 1996 or later counted

toward the maximum two terms permitted.

Since that time, only two have sought election to a third term on

the Costa Mesa City Council. Both were big supporters of term limits

in 1994. One of them was Gary Monahan.

SANDRA GENIS

Costa Mesa

* Sandra Genis is a former Costa Mesa mayor.