Charities’ harm to city a forum topic

Deepa Bharath

Whether the charities that serve the community are actually

“magnets” for illegal immigrants and people living beyond the city’s

limits was one of several hot topics City Council candidates debated

at a forum Wednesday night.

Allan Mansoor, who during the campaign has repeatedly stressed

that charities act as magnets for nonresidents, suggested that the

city no longer financially support the organizations.

“I believe charities should be privately funded,” he said. “They

have more accountability that way.”

Mansoor added that the city has been misdirecting its funds to

charitable operations instead of attending to more immediate needs,

such as cleaning up neighborhoods, fixing streets and striving for

better law enforcement. He said programs such as the Job Center in

Lion’s Park have attracted “people out of jail” to city neighborhoods

and have contributed to the loitering problem.

Mayor Linda Dixon pointed out that she does not look at the Job

Center as a charity but as a city-run program.

“The City Council can make certain and have meetings with

directors [of the charities] and encourage them to be respectful in

the community,” she said.

Other candidates agreed that most problems relating to charities

are mostly “management issues.”

“The true magnets are absentee slumlords who don’t reinvest in the

community,” said Katrina Foley, who chairs the Planning Commission.

In response to a question about the growing Latino population in

the city, Planning Commissioner Bill Perkins said “Costa Mesa

shouldn’t be recognized as Eastside or Westside, it should be one

Costa Mesa for all.”

“Being bilingual is good,” he said. “Putting Spanish on TV is

good. We should encourage children to learn a second language.”

Councilman Gary Monahan said the City Council “must treat

everybody with dignity.”

“I have the same concerns for everybody,” he said. “I want all our

lives to be better.”

Dixon said she would like to see more involvement from the Latino

community. She noted there was a Latino-focused forum last week and

said the community as a whole is reaching out to the Latino

population.

Candidates also responded to a question relating to their plans

for Costa Mesa’s Westside.

Foley said the biggest problem is that “the city failed to invest

in its own property and failed to address the concerns of its

citizens.”

“Citizens there are pitted against one another and they are

blaming each other for their problems,” she said.

Foley said she would like to see a large community center and

grocery store on 19th Street, which she referred to as the “gateway

to the Westside.”

Mansoor returned to his focus on charities, saying they are the

biggest problem on the Westside and attract the wrong kind of people

to the neighborhood.

“Things go on around those charities,” he said. “There are

potholes on the streets and the medians are not landscaped.”

Perkins said the key is to “redevelop the Westside.”

“We need to work with the community,” he said. “We need to

reestablish the Fish Fry and encourage more after-school programs.”

Dixon said she would like to “see the Westside move forward.”

“We need to have more mixed-use housing and protect our downtown,”

she said.

Monahan said it is important that the community realize that the

City Council is working “for and with” residents, not against them.

“The staff should work with the community,” he said. “And as a

city, we need to keep our unique personality and character.”