Green starts with a prayer

Incoming Mayor Cathy Green kicked off her first meeting on Monday

with an invocation, a move some have been waiting years for and

others criticize as unconstitutional and divisive.

City watchdog Mark Bixby contends the prayer is an act of

exclusion rather than inclusion.

“Invocation proponents are fond of citing the religious roots of

our country’s founders,” Bixby said. “But they always neglect to

mention that many of those founders fled their homelands because

their governments had deemed certain religions to be acceptable and

others to be unacceptable. By choosing who gets to deliver the

reinstated invocation, this city will be going down the road of

implicitly deciding which religions are the acceptable religions.”

Green said the prayer, which was given by her father, Thomas

Clary, a bishop of the Free Catholic Church, was intended simply to

be uplifting, a way to start off on a positive note.

“I don’t see how saying prayers and thanking God for our blessing

and asking for guidance is exclusive,” Green said, adding that she

plans to work closely with the interfaith council to make the

invocation as pluralistic as possible.

Councilwoman Debbie Cook did away with the prayer when she took

office as mayor two years ago. Outgoing Mayor Connie Boardman chose

to leave it off the agenda again last year.

Cook contends the city runs the risk of intruding on people’s

beliefs by introducing prayer into the political arena.

“I believe so firmly that government should be inclusive rather

than exclusive, and there are so many ways that you can cross that

line,” Cook said. “I think we should go out of our way to make it

comfortable for all.”

During the invocation’s two-year absence, resident Debbie Borden,

or an occasional stand-in, has stood and said a prayer during public

comments.

Before the prayer, Boardman ended her mayoral term with the annual

state of the city address.

Boardman spent her final minutes in the mayor’s seat touting a

list of the past year’s accomplishments.

Storm drains installed along the coast to reduce ocean pollution

caused by urban runoff and two new sewer lift stations were on her

list as was the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa, which

opened in January, creating more than 350 new jobs. Construction

underway on the Bella Terra shopping center and Waterfront

residential housing were also on her list of the year’s

accomplishments.

Boardman also lauded the new sport’s complex, the Surf City credit

card and the cleanup of cancer-causing chemicals from nine

residential yards.

“Despite losing members of our staff, the city has continued to

provide a high level of service to our citizens,” Boardman said.

Before Boardman stepped down, Cook praised her tenure as mayor

with a quote by Martin Luther King Jr.

“Martin Luther King once said that ‘the measure of a man is not

where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he

stands at times of challenge and controversy,’” Cook said. “The mayor

is a target of so much controversy and challenge, and I have not seen

anyone stand taller than you in the moment of conflict and do it in

such a fair and thoughtful manner.”

Water district educates the community

Orange County Water District officials are embarking on a

countywide campaign to educate residents about the its new wastewater

treatment project.

The district is trying to educate as many parent teacher

associations, community organizations, religious groups, hospitals,

school boards, business and environmental associations as they can

about the Groundwater Replenishment System, which is under

construction and expected to be finished in 2007.

“We’re trying to really just reach out to everybody in the public

and everybody who lives in the north and central Orange County to let

them know what’s going on here,” water district spokeswoman Jenny

Wedge said.

So far, they have provided PowerPoint presentations to about 600

groups.

The system will take treated sewage water from the county’s

sanitation district and, using a micro-filtration system, reverse

osmosis and an ultraviolet light disinfection process, purify it to

levels that meet state and federal drinking water standards.

Half of the purified water will be pumped into the saltwater

intrusion barrier. The other half will be pumped through a 13-mile

pipeline to percolation ponds in Anaheim, where it will sink into

county aquifers and blend with the groundwater. The system will

produce enough water to provide for an additional 140,000 families in

the county.

“It meets our drinking water standards, it’s safe and high quality

and helps us meet our future drinking water needs,” Wedge said.

To schedule a presentation, call (949) 583-2621. For more

information on the groundwater replenishment system, log on to

https://www.gwrsystem.com.

Surf City’s concert band plays Christmas

The Huntington Beach Concert Band will present an evening of

traditional holiday songs at its annual holiday concert, on Dec. 14.

The 65-piece brass, wind and percussion ensemble will play a

selection of pieces including “A Canadian Brass Noel,” “Fantasy on

Coventry Carol,” “Home for Christmas,” “Christmas in Europe,” “A

White Christmas,” “A Sussex Carol” and “A Holiday Prism.” They will

also invite the audience to sing along to a medley of traditional

Christmas carols.

The Huntington Beach Concert Band is a self-supporting group that

exists on donations and membership funds. The band holds a dozen

concerts annually throughout Orange County and hosts the Summer

Concert Series in Huntington Beach Central Park.

The concert will be held at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 14 at the Huntington

Beach Central Library Theater, at 7111 Talbert Ave. For more

information, call (714) 891-6856 or (714) 963-3681.

Land Trust gets grant for restoration

The National Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded a grant just

shy of $20,000 to the Bolsa Chica Land Trust.

The money will be put toward restoring habitat at the Bolsa Chica

Mesa. The Land Trust, with the help of the Bolsa Chica Stewards, will

use the funding to enhance the four acres of coastal sage scrub

habitat, renovate the two information kiosks and upgrade existing

trails on the mesa to prevent erosion of the bluffs.

Flossie Horgan, executive director of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust,

described the Bolsa Chica Stewards as “the gardeners for the Land

Trust.”

“The money is going to go for their continued work on coastal sage

scrub habitat restoration,” Horgan said. “We’re extremely pleased

that we could get this federal grant.”

The Bolsa Chica Stewards have contributed as much as 17,000 hours

of work over the past seven years and planted more than 4,000

California native plants to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve.

To volunteer, contact Kelly Keller at (562) 920-4215 or come to

the Bolsa Chica parking lot at PCH and Warner any third Saturday of

the month at 9 a.m.