Councilman has no answers for what his candidate would do

Mary Fewel

I was stunned by Councilman Alan Mansoor’s childish Pilot commentary,

“Daily Pilot endorsements not the right development,” on Oct. 7,

reacting to the Daily Pilot’s endorsements for the upcoming Cost Mesa

City Council election.

Here’s what I got out of his critique:

He would rather tear down the candidates endorsed by the Daily

Pilot than describe anything of substance done by his preferred

candidate, Eric Bever. Mansoor states he would like more support on

the council for the issues of traffic, development, the airport, the

CenterLine project and public safety. Why doesn’t he tell us what his

candidate has done on these issues? Or what his candidate has done on

any issue, including “leadership on cleaning up the Westside?”

Based on two pointed references in his letter, it appears that

Mansoor cares a great deal about what the residents of the Mesa Verde

neighborhood think. Why make that comment at all when disagreeing

with votes made by candidates endorsed by the Daily Pilot? Are the

feelings of other neighborhoods on these votes not as important? I

got that impression. But then, Mesa Verde has suddenly become more

important to Mansoor. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with living in

Mesa Verde -- what’s wrong is when someone elected to represent the

whole city expresses a bias toward one neighborhood in a public

letter.

No one agrees with every councilmember’s or planning

commissioner’s vote. I certainly didn’t support Mansoor’s vote last

year to recuse himself from the very controversial issue of the

Westside Redevelopment Project Area because he lived close to the

area. Instead of requesting that the area be modified so that he

didn’t have a conflict, he chose not to participate in a crucial

Westside discussion. I don’t see any leadership from Mansoor or his

candidate on Westside improvement.

By writing his childish letter to the Pilot, Mansoor has not

looked ahead. His candidate is unlikely to be elected, and some, if

not all of those endorsed by the Daily Pilot will be elected. Mansoor

seems to want to make it difficult to achieve what the Daily Pilot,

and many in the community, are seeking: a council that can get along

and make some real progress. Linda Dixon, Katrina Foley, Mike

Scheafer and Bruce Garlich all have those skills.

* MARY FEWEL is a resident of Costa Mesa.