What’s a guy to do when he’s stuck outside?

S.J. CAHN

When I arrived about a half-hour before Tuesday night’s Costa Mesa

City Council meeting, I was surprised to find pretty much the usual

suspects milling about or sitting, haphazardly dispersed, throughout

the council chamber.

Where were all the protesters?

I wasn’t alone in my reaction. There was plenty of talk of the

lack of expected crowds to hear debate about the city’s Job Center.

Three hundred seemed the average number people were expecting.

By about 6:35 p.m. -- or five minutes after the meeting should

have started -- groups of people began appearing in the chambers. As

the meeting got started about 10 minutes late, they all but filled

the seats in the 256-maximum- occupancy room.

Those assembled were treated to one light council moment, though

it came, admittedly, following a solemn one. Karl Ahlf, who was the

youngest council candidate last fall, finished up a moment of silence

to remember the passing of Pope John Paul II by thanking “all the

nice people” who voted for him.

It was only a few minutes later, at 6:49 p.m., when one of the

five police officers at the meeting told me I couldn’t keep standing

in the back of the room (where I’ve always stood in the past, at

times with members of city commissions) and would either have to find

a seat or go outside.

I wisely went outside where there already were about 25 people

milling about, a group that continued to grow past 50 before it

topped out at about 70 people. A couple handfuls or so alternately

paid attention to the television by the doors that broadcast the

meeting.

Depending on how you want to interpret the expectation of 300

people, the total got pretty close. Of course, inside there were

plenty of people who’d come to talk about parking along Walnut Street

near St. Joachim Church, a request by Costa Mesa United for money

from the city or a host of other issues. But, still, some 350 people

showed up, for one reason or another. And easily 100 were there

solely for the Job Center, from all sides of the debate. In the end,

an estimated 60 to 70 spoke.

What they had to say is reported elsewhere in today’s Pilot.

Here’s just a few things not reported that were going on at the

fringes of the meeting:

* Before the meeting (actually at about 6:25 p.m.), I notice an

empty silver carton in the trash right outside the council doors

that, at some point, contained 18 Coors Lights. I don’t know what it

means; it just seemed odd.

* A woman entering the chambers, after she passes an officer,

says, “I wonder why the police are here,” in a tone that makes it

perfectly clear she knows why there’s an unusual number of uniformed

officers.

* Midway through listening to the public-comment portion of the

meeting -- during which, and this is stressed plenty of times at the

meeting, people are supposed to talk only about items not on the

council’s agenda -- I come up with this suggestion for the council:

“Agendize” everything.

If someone comes up and talks about the city’s water supply, make

sure it’s on the next council agenda. If that same person returns and

talks about building a harbor below the Westside bluffs, get it on

the next agenda. And place them all at the end of the meeting. Pretty

soon, there won’t be anything for the council regulars to talk about

and you might get through with your business at hand before bedtime.

The weakness, of course, is that people could just stay to have

their say (not to mention that maybe the council would have to make

decisions on these items, but what is the city paying its new outside

legal counsel for it not to maneuver such waters?). If Chris Steel

were still on the council, I might even encourage his being appointed

to stay until any comments were heard.

* When I see the “Please Keep the Job Center and the heart open”

sign I wonder, briefly, if the council will reverse course on its

decision. I’m still very skeptical, and I, of course, turn out to be

wrong.

* As the council talks about Fairview Park and whether the federal

government might become too much of an entanglement, a circle of Job

Center supporters gather at the bottom of the stairs outside the

Council Chamber.

* I wonder: Are there any more frightening words in the English

language than: “If there’s anyone from the public who wishes to come

forward [to speak], they should do so.” I decide there aren’t.

* S.J. CAHN is the managing editor. He may be reached at (714)

966-4607 or by e-mail at s.j.cahn@latimes.com.