Council picks turn up several surprises

Deirdre Newman

Three incumbents, a Westside improver and an unknown have been

appointed to the next Planning Commission.

On Tuesday, the City Council made its first selections for the

city’s commissions using the new individual appointment process it

chose Feb. 3.

Joel Faris, who ran for City Council in 2000, and Dennis DeMaio, a

lieutenant with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, will join

incumbents Katrina Foley, Bill Perkins and Bruce Garlich on the new

Planning Commission. Absent from the commission after 22 years is

veteran Walt Davenport.

Other surprises were the appointments of Byron de Arakal and Wendy

Leece to the Parks and Recreation Commission. They will join

incumbents Mark Harris and Kelly Feldman and new commissioner Jim

Fisler, a 30-year Costa Mesa resident and former City Council

candidate.

A NEW PROCESS

Earlier in the evening, the council members reaffirmed their

decision to individually appoint commissioners to serve at their

pleasure and decided to require a four-fifths vote of the council to

remove them.

Mayor Karen Robinson and Councilman Chris Steel dissented.

Robinson preferred a process that would require a three-fifths vote

to approve the appointments and four-fifths vote to remove the

commissioners. Steel, meanwhile, said he believes the process

“sacrifices diversity for the sake of expediency.”

While the majority of the council continued to insist that the

process would maintain a sense of independence on the commissions,

the decision continued to evoke charges of cronyism.

‘I’m disappointed,” former Mayor Sandra Genis said. “I think it’s

sowing the seeds of corruption for the future. I’d like the

commissioners to focus on their area of expertise as opposed to

politics.”

PLANNING COMMISSIONERS

Steel appointed DeMaio sight unseen, based on his resume and a

phone interview, Steel said. DeMaio has extensive experience in law

enforcement, dating back to 1973, and serves the sheriff’s department

as the police chief of Villa Park. He also shares collegiate ties to

Steel, having attended the University of Pittsburgh, which Steel and

his parents attended.

“He’s the most qualified in regards of everything -- his

experience in life, his background, his integrity,” Steel said.

DeMaio, who moved to Costa Mesa 17 years ago from Pittsburgh, said

he looks forward to contributing to his community.

Faris, whom Councilman Allan Mansoor appointed to the Planning

Commission, said he has no plans to run for City Council again at

this time. His goals for the Planning Commission include trying to

prevent what he considers past planning mistakes like putting

industry next to residential areas and “that outside interests do not

run roughshod over Costa Mesa residents.”

PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSIONERS

Councilman Gary Monahan appointed de Arakal, a former Daily Pilot

columnist now working for the Irvine Co. De Arakal said he was

interested in the Parks and Recreation Commission because his four

school-age children are active in youth sports. He also expressed a

desire to put his imprimatur on some of the major issues the

commission will work on in the next few years, such as the Fairview

Park Master Plan.

“People might think that Parks and Recreation is a marginal

organization that doesn’t do much, but from my perspective, it will

be a commission that will do some very important work in the next few

years,” de Arakal said. “I have a big interest in making sure the

Fairview Park Master Plan stays on track.”

De Arakal, who has known Monahan for about two-and-a-half years,

said he doesn’t feel beholden to the councilman for appointing him.

“I understand the people who had some reservations about the

process,” de Arakal said. “Gary knows me very well and he knows I’m

not beholden to anybody.”

Leece, appointed by Mansoor, served on the Newport-Mesa Unified

School Board for eight years and was often a lightening rod of

criticism for her conservative views.

RESIDENTIAL REACTION

The council decided that the public should comment on the

appointments before they announced them, causing ripples of

incredulity throughout the audience members who remained at 12:30

a.m.

“This is unbelievable,” Doug Sutton bellowed. “Why not at least

explain your reasoning so we can make valid comments?”

Monahan said he didn’t want an occasion that paid tribute to the

new commissioners to devolve into a mudslinging event.

“To give a forum to someone to blast their personal vendetta

against [an appointed commissioner] would have been very

inappropriate,” Monahan said. “Instead of being an honor bestowed, it

would have [been] somebody blasting that particular person as being

unqualified and God knows what else.”

Genis said it was too early to tell if the new process of

individual appointments would make the commissions more of a stepping

stone to get to the City Council than in the past.

“It depends on the council member,” Genis said. “On the one hand,

it could be a chance for someone to groom their successor, because we

do have term limits,” Genis said. “But it could also be the plum you

give someone to keep them from running for council when you don’t

want them to.”

The new commissioners will officially begin March 1, Monahan said.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa and may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.