Time to start learning about City Council candidates

Geoff West

Are you happy with the condition of the Costa Mesa streets? Are you

satisfied with the fact that we have yet another year with a budget

deficit? Are you pleased that the current City Council managed to

squander your tax dollars on developer giveaways and lawsuit

settlements in amounts that might have otherwise balanced the budget?

Are you comfortable that, despite the best efforts of an outstanding

city staff, the leadership of this city seems to operate like a leaf

in a windstorm -- going wherever the strongest wind blows it? Well,

there are 12 people in town who are about to tell you they have a

better way. Yep, a dozen. That’s how many candidates we have for the

three seats open on the Costa Mesa City Council this fall. Yikes!

Among the hopefuls, we have a former mayor, a parks and recreation

commissioner, two incumbent councilmen, three planning commissioners

and five neophytes.

So, how does a concerned resident sort them out? How do you decide

which, if any, of this mob deserves your votes? Since it’s unlikely

that this fine newspaper will simply let me tell you how to cast your

votes, I guess you will have to make up your own minds. Toward that

end, for starters, I suppose you could look at the record of each

candidate.

We’re very fortunate that half of the candidates hold elective or

appointive positions and another has previously been a councilwoman

and mayor. They have provided us with a track record to help us

decide whether they are fit to be among those brave souls charged

with providing direction to this city for the next decade or more.

We have many opportunities to watch them in action -- or inaction,

as the case may be. We can look at their voting records, examine

their positions on issues and make judgments about their leadership

abilities based on their current and past performance. We can ask

ourselves, for example, which of the incumbent councilmen running

this time has an outstanding record of public service and has proven

his mettle by taking on tough issues and providing leadership?

Conversely, which one consistently shows up unprepared and has failed

to meet even the most minimal expectations while in office?

In the case of the planning commissioners, how much weight do we

give to the fact that two of them have proven, throughout their

tenure, that they understand the complexities of the issues before

them and also demonstrated leadership ability as they served as

chairperson of the commission? How do we weigh the qualifications of

the other, a recent appointee who has already shown us he is willing

to put the city’s interests before his own? Has his time on the

commission and his experience as a volunteer given him enough

background to entrust the future of the city to him and those who

support his views?

How do you view a former mayor who inexplicably managed to lose

her seat two years ago by failing to be among the top two

vote-getters?

Do a brief few months on the Parks and Recreation Commission

provide enough seasoning for a person running for City Council? Does

the narrow focus of that commission prepare a person sufficiently to

handle the tougher, more time-consuming tasks encountered by the City

Council?

Perhaps the best choices will be found among the five new people,

but how do we evaluate them with no other public service to assess?

How do we determine what they bring to the race beyond good

intentions?

I guess we just have to try to sort out their statements in the

avalanche of campaign literature that will soon begin to clog our

mailboxes and keep our fingers crossed, right? Or -- here’s a novel

idea -- we could start paying attention to all the candidates this

campaign season. We can attend the candidate forums, the first of

which will be at the Neighborhood Community Center on Park Avenue at

7 p.m. on Wednesday --to try to get a handle on each one of them.

We can watch those who already have positions in government to

hear what they have to say as they do their jobs -- to measure their

skills and evaluate their positions on critical issues. We can learn

as much as possible about all the candidates, including the new

folks, by reading interviews and listening to their public comments

-- to determine if they have the vision, leadership, intellectual

capacity and stamina to do the job.

We can investigate the public records, to see who provides

financial backing for them -- and who might also provide a

philosophical foundation for their views. We can try to determine if

each candidate has what it takes to form the alliances so necessary

to accomplish anything on the City Council. In the recent past, we’ve

heard too much whining about “only being one vote.”

We can exercise our rights as citizens of this country and

residents of this city by studying the candidates and the issues that

face them, so we can make the best choices possible and not let

anyone talk us out of making each vote count. After all, the only

thing at stake is the future of this city.

* GEOFF WEST is a resident of Costa Mesa.