Costa Mesa councilman losing support

Deirdre Newman

While Councilman Allan Mansoor got elected in 2002 largely because of

voters who put Councilman Chris Steel on the dais in 2000, Mansoor

said Friday he will not support Steel in November.

Steel has not yet announced whether he will run for reelection.

Regardless, Mansoor has thrown his considerable incumbent clout

behind candidate and Planning Commissioner Eric Bever.

“I haven’t seen [Steel] show leadership on the issues that people

bring forward,” Mansoor said. “It’s more reactionary and talk than

any real substance.”

Steel could not be reached for comment Friday.

Mansoor said he favors Bever because he will conduct himself more

professionally on the dais than Steel has.

“I know he will be reliable on sticking to the issues, running a

sensible meeting and focusing on real solutions to improve the

Westside of town, focus on the spirit of the general plan and keep

traffic at a minimum,” Mansoor said. “And he’s gonna focus on

balancing the budget. He’s gonna focus on the responsibilities that

we expect from a council member.”

Westside activist Mike Berry, who supported Steel in 2000, said he

will not be supporting Steel in the fall.

“Every issue I have asked Chris to weigh in on, he voted the other

way,” Berry said.

Mansoor accuses Steel of flip-flopping on a lot of issues, and

Berry said Steel says one thing and then votes a different way on

many issues.

“If he’s going to be voting for something, then he prefaces that

with a long explanation of why he should vote some other way and then

he goes ahead and votes the way he was going to,” Berry said.

Steel is also hard to contact to discuss issues, Mansoor said.

“A lot of people have commented to me that it’s hard to get ahold

of him, and he calls late at night,” Mansoor said. “Eric has a very

responsible approach, and I have tremendous respect for that.”

Mansoor said he will help Bever any way he can during the

campaign. Bever could not be reached for comment.

Bever is one of six residents who has filed an intention to run

form, which does not guarantee they will run for the three open

council seats this fall.

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

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