Costa Mesa’s new leader -- surprise or set-up?

One of the biggest fears a journalist has is to wake up one

morning and find the story he or she just wrote is all wrong.

As a reporter, I regularly went through fits of paranoia worrying

about that. That’s why I’d often call sources late into the evening,

just to triple or quadruple check my facts, or my alleged facts.

Still, I’d shudder the first time the phone rang after a big

story, worried that the voice would say: “Nah, nah, nah, nah, you got

it wrong.”

Which brings me to Gary Monahan.

Many of you no doubt read a front page story in the Daily Pilot on

Nov. 30 “Monahan appears mayoral,” that all but crowned the longtime

councilman and local pub owner as the new mayor of Costa Mesa, an

appointment that in fact must come from his fellow council

colleagues.

The mayor post is largely ceremonial, as we all know. It doesn’t

offer up any extra perks, and it actually means having to be at lots

of ribbon cuttings and being quoted and kissing babies and all sorts

of schmoozy stuff.

As corny as that sounds some times, you have to admit it must be

pretty cool to walk around town and say, “Hi, I’m the mayor.”

So it was hardly breaking news when we reported what Monahan had

been saying openly to us and others about wanting the mayor’s job, a

gig he held for two consecutive years in 1998 and 1999.

And it seemed very plausible, seeing as how he swamped the

competition in the latest election by a good 3,000 votes, and was

holding the title of mayor pro tem -- a title that probably should be

called vice mayor or mayor in waiting.

We were so sure that Monahan was a shoo-in, that we sent our

reporter to the meeting but didn’t even plan a story for the next

day’s paper.

Also, the other choices didn’t seem to make sense.

Newcomer Allan Mansoor probably hasn’t even read a staff report

yet.

Libby Cowan had just done the mayor rotation prior to Linda Dixon

and didn’t really seem to enjoy herself.

Chris Steel, well, let’s just say naming him mayor would be an

interesting adventure.

Then there’s Karen Robinson, a woman who has already made her

intention of becoming a judge very well known and is so busy with her

day job that even getting her for an interview on the phone is a

challenge.

For example, she blocks out one hour a day from noon to 1 p.m. for

reporter calls.

Which means if a story breaks at 3 p.m., we are out of luck

getting her to respond. Not exactly mayor material, right?

Wrong.

Imagine the egg on our face Tuesday morning when we discovered

that not only was Monahan not the new mayor, but Robinson was now

solidly in charge.

In hindsight, we probably should have seen it coming.

Monahan did a good bit of slamming of his colleagues in the

aforementioned story, bemoaning the lack of preparedness and focus by

the council over the last year.

Hmmm. Maybe they didn’t like what he had to say.

And this quote from Chris Steel, who told us he thought he was of

mayoral timber also, really says it all.

“Gary is poised like he is going to be the next mayor, but that

has yet to be seen,” Steel said.

At that point, we should have started counting to three. If Steel

wasn’t a sure thing, who was Cowan and Robinson going to vote for?

That’s where we made a mistake. We didn’t ask them.

Two days after our story ran, though, they answered. It wasn’t a

pretty sight, from what I have been told, as the vote went down with

no discussion at all and no public input.

Monahan looked ashen and stunned. The whole thing had the feel of

a set-up.

“He got sandbagged,” one city council watcher confided to me.

Another told me he had it coming for his earlier comments about

his colleagues.

Cowan told the Daily Pilot that Robinson had called her looking

for her support. Steel never admitted to that, but he did nominate

her and then asked our reporter some questions that lead us to

believe he also had been working behind the scenes:

“Were you surprised?” Steel asked. “I like to surprise people.”

Which has some of us in the newsroom wondering about something

else.

How legal is that?

The Ralph M. Brown Act, governs local agencies and has strict

rules about elected officials making decisions outside of the public

arena.

So I went to grab my trusty “Reporter’s Handbook on Media Law,”

published by the California Newspaper Publishers Assn.

The handbook says it is a violation of the state law for elected

officials to call their fellow elected officials and secure votes

over the phone.

Here’s a passage from the handbook:

“Any use of direct communication, personal intermediaries or

technological devices [i.e. telephones] by a majority of the members

of the legislative body to develop a collective concurrence as to

action to be taken on an item by the legislative body is prohibited,”

it reads ... “For example, when the city attorney of Stockton

individually telephoned directors of the city’s redevelopment agency

and got their commitment to vote a certain way, the court ruled that

a meeting had occurred.”

So if Robinson called Cowan then Steel and they all made a deal

together, that could be technically a council meeting and in turn a

violation of state law, at least according to my handbook.

I posed the question to a 1st Amendment attorney and I’m hoping to

hear back from him soon. When I do, I’ll tell you what he said.

Meantime, you can imagine it may be a rocky few months at least

with a scorned Monahan sitting on the dais hoping for consensus on

some of his biggest campaign promises.

And the way this council works, we won’t be assuming anything

anymore.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. He can be reached at 949-574-4258 or

via e-mail at tony.dodero@latimes.com.