A tale of two days in our cities

TONY DODERO

Tuesday night, Igal Israel stared into the cable-access camera and

told those watching to get up off their seats and come on down to

Costa Mesa City Hall.

And the funny thing was, that’s exactly what I had done.

Starting this week, my plan is to write about community meetings

and events and other ideas inspired by our readers and local leaders.

So my first stop was Costa Mesa City Hall for the twice-monthly

City Council meeting.

I learned I need to get out more, and I ran into some familiar

faces.

Police Chief John Hensley and Fire Chief Jim Ellis were there,

probably giving the council some moral support. I also spotted

Planning Commissioner Bruce Garlich and local activists Cindy

Brenneman, Judith Berry and Paul Bunney.

The meeting started off on a nice note, as they all do.

There was a prayer from the Pastor Martin Benzoni from St. John

the Baptist Church.

I recognized the good father as the priest who recently tried to

put a salve on a small wound that festered at the church’s parochial

school when 18 parents requested that two kindergarten boys be tossed

from the classroom after it was learned they were the adopted sons of

two gay men.

Then there was a cheery speech from Rhiannon Gudde, who along with

fellow Aussie Joel Anderson was the first of two students to take

part in a student exchange program with Costa Mesa’s sister city Down

Under, Wyndham, a small town near Melbourne, Australia.

But the cheeriness didn’t last long, as it was time for public

comments.

During this public-speaking portion of the meeting, it struck me

that if Israel has his way and more and more people come down and

take part in this verbal free-for-all, they might be yelling at empty

seats.

You see, there is only so much abuse people can take, even city

officials.

Israel was there to threaten the council and city officials with

lawsuits and the like because of the way they are treating him and

his parents.

The city has hit his parents’ business, Bengal Industries on

Newport Boulevard, with code violations in connection with the

storage of autos and other material on the property.

Israel, who has teamed up with fugitive property owner Sid Soffer,

contends the city’s law is null and void. The city says he’s reading

the law wrong.

Either way, he didn’t let the moment pass without taking a few

pretty beefy shots at the council.

But Israel wasn’t alone. Taking the podium also to fire away at

the council was regular critic and letter-to-the-editor-writer Martin

H. Millard, who warned the council that it needs to act fast because

the city has had a 30% drop in the number of white people in town.

He was followed by some folks from the west side of Santa Ana

Heights, who were downright offensive in their remarks about Costa

Mesa and the idea that the city would annex their unincorporated edge

of town.

One lady, whose name I didn’t catch, even said “ew,” when

describing her experience as a Costa Mesa resident years ago.

I wondered if these naysayers ever venture to South Coast Plaza or

the Performing Arts Center or Triangle Square, or Metro Pointe or

Orange Coast College, or Fairview Park or the Orange County Fair --

all Costa Mesa venues.

In my hunt for a place to live last year, I basically got locked

out of the market in Costa Mesa, which has beautiful neighborhoods in

Mesa Verde, College Park, Mesa del Mar and the Eastside, to name a

few. Even the Freedom Homes on the Westside of town are enjoying a

resurgence as the housing market continues to soar.

I just don’t understand how this city could be equated with

something so terrible to be a part of.

Still, should Costa Mesa officials force people to become part of

the town if they don’t want to? No. But they also need to be watchful

and make sure the border along Newport Beach is contiguous.

Of course, we all know it will be a long time before the Santa Ana

Heights issue is ever resolved.

Finally, I thought of both Berry and Bunney, who seem to bristle

at the idea that the council should arrive at a consensus on

anything. Bunney even scolded the Pilot for suggesting that the

council members need to get along.

It was as if they were saying to the council, we like having you

as a punching bag.

Hopefully, the council members have thick enough skin to take it

and won’t start leaving the dais right after the invocation.

The next day was a whole different scene as I attended the

memorial services for former Corona del Mar High journalism teacher

and union leader Linda Mook, who died of cancer on Dec. 30.

The services at the high school’s auditorium were filled with

administrators, teachers and students past and present in addition to

Mook’s friends and family.

There were lots of tears, but even more laughter as friends and

colleagues shared a litany of anecdotes that gave those of us who

didn’t know her as well a fairly clear snapshot of what this

strong-willed lady was all about.

Those who shared their memories were Newport-Mesa Supt. Robert

Barbot, Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers President Jim Rogers,

California Federation of Teachers President Mary Bergan, Newport Mesa

Federation of Teachers executive board member Jo Ann Copp, Carol

Hallenbeck, past president of the South California Journalism

Educators Assn., Cindy Means of the California State Educators Assn.,

Maya Decker, co-founder of Newport Mesa Federation of Teachers, Dana

Black, Newport-Mesa school board member and former Corona del Mar

Principal, Dennis Evans.

At the end of his talk, Rogers, who spoke fondly of working in the

trenches with Mook on union negotiations, said this to her husband

Harland and daughter Katie: “I just want to thank you from the bottom

of my heart for sharing her with us,” he said. “Particularly with

me.”

I met Mook a couple of times in my years at the Pilot, but hearing

about her stories and her love for journalism just made me regret

that I didn’t get to know her well.

“She could help her students accomplish anything,” said Loren

Krause, a former student who worked on the yearbook staff at Corona

del Mar when Mook was running it.

For me, the funniest story came while Means was talking. She used

the following quote that she credited to Newport-Mesa administrator

Lori McCune:

“If there weren’t unions in heaven before, there are now.”