EDUCATION OCC president announces he’ll retire at...

EDUCATION

OCC president announces he’ll retire at month’s end

Orange Coast College President Gene Farrell announced last week

that he plans to retire at the end of the month.

The 68-year-old, who has worked for the Coast Community College

District for 34 years, helped the college put together a plan for

growth and renovation during his nearly three years as the top dog on

campus.

* Coast Community College District officials plan to interview the

cream of a crop of 44 applicants who want to fill the trustee

position left vacant when Paul Berger died in January.

The interviews will take place March 18 and will include the five

favorites of the remaining four board members. The candidates will

make a two- to three-minute presentation at the meeting and then take

questions from the board.

* Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger drew supporters and protesters on a

stop at a Santa Ana restaurant last week.

Schwarzenegger came to the Red Robin on Sunflower Avenue to

collect signatures for his ballot initiatives. Some, including

members of the UC Irvine Conservative Student Union, were happy to

oblige. Others, including parents and educators from Newport-Mesa

Unified School District, protested his education policies.

POLITICS

Funds from El Morro washed DeVore’s way

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who last month proposed two bills that

would allow the residents of El Morro Village to remain in their

beachside trailer homes, received thousands of dollars in campaign

contributions from the community’s residents.

DeVore’s campaign finance chief also is on the board of the

company that handles the leases and loaned DeVore money during last

year’s campaign. DeVore still owes him more than $28,000.

DeVore denied any unseemly connection, saying his plan to get more

money from the homes, rather than spend money to turn the area into a

campground, was consistent with his fiscally conservative beliefs.

“People support candidates who agree with their stances,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s 50 bucks, 100 bucks or 100,000 bucks; my

position was set before I got money from these people.”

* Costa Mesa residents can add second stories to their homes if

the top floors line up with the first, the City Council decided.

That’s a change from a previous rule that the second floor had to

have a larger setback from the side of the property.

The old rule had been meant to prevent buildings from appearing

too massive, but it unintentionally kept builders from being able to

use lower-floor foundation walls in their construction.

Councilwomen Linda Dixon and Katrina Foley opposed the measure

because they wanted more time to study the setback change.

* The Costa Mesa Planning Commission approved rezoning a 21-acre

property to build a massive retail complex featuring furniture and

housewares stores. The South Coast Home Furnishings Center will be

built on Hyland Avenue between South Coast Drive and Sunflower

Avenue.

The 312,540-square-foot facility will replace a former State Farm

Insurance office building that has been vacant since 2004. Furniture

manufacturers’ showrooms will anchor the development, which will also

include home decor stores, office supply vendors and other retail

uses.

The City Council still must approve the rezoning, to be done by

Birtcher Development of Laguna Niguel.

BUSINESS

Market shuts doors

after quarter century

After 25 years of serving residents of the Balboa Peninsula, the

2W Market closed up shop last week.

Wes and Flori Hseih did not want to shut down their business but

lost the lease on their Balboa Boulevard business. The couple opened

the store in 1979, just a few months after emigrating from Taiwan.

The worst part about shutting the doors was leaving their longtime

customers, Flori Hseih said.

* Officials with both South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island were

reserving judgment last week about possible effects from an announced

merger between Federated Department Stores Inc. and May Department

Stores Co.

Federated owns Macy’s at South Coast Plaza and Bloomingdale’s at

Fashion Island, and May owns Robinsons-May at both centers.

There is talk that Robinsons-May stores eventually will close,

which would leave both centers with a large store to fill.