PUBLIC SAFETY Cameras leave cities in the...

PUBLIC SAFETY

Cameras leave

cities in the red

Red-light cameras help reduce accidents, but the county needs to

give cities a better way to track how much money they bring in, a

grand jury report found last week.

The report looked at red light cameras in five Orange County

cities, including Costa Mesa, and found that, under current

accounting methods in the county, cities cannot tell how many tickets

the cameras are responsible for versus tickets written by officers in

the field.

Costa Mesa is under contract with a company that operates cameras

at 15 stops in four intersections in the city at a cost of $7,000

each per month. Currently, the city is issuing warnings, not the $336

tickets, at eight of those because of a court decision that found

they couldn’t have the cameras at Caltrans-operated intersections.

RELIGION

Armenian church

welcomes top leader

For the first time in its history, St. Mary Armenian Apostolic

Church welcomed its pontiff, the world leader of the Armenian

Apostolic Orthodox Church, to Costa Mesa.

His Holiness Karekin II, who was elected Supreme Patriarch and

Catholicos of All Armenians in 1999, had visited the Western Diocese

of the Armenian Church of North America in May 2001.

On this trip, he is visiting California parishes to bless

congregants and to visit the site of a future cathedral in Burbank.

Greeted by hundreds of St. Mary Church congregants who waved

American and Armenian flags and flanked by select Diocese

representatives, Karekin II walked down a red carpet and into the

sanctuary, where he took part in a special ceremony on Thursday

evening.

BUSINESS

El Matador gets

a new owner, again

A new owner stepped forward to buy Costa Mesa’s El Matador

restaurant for the second time in less than a month.

Greg McConaughy, who lives in Corona del Mar and owned a Costa

Mesa sports bar until last year, made a deal Wednesday to buy the

restaurant from the county Public Administrator/Public Guardian’s

office. He agreed to pay $535,000, the same amount Newport Beach

engineer Xavier Bengoechea bid in a May 19 auction. Bengoechea

decided to cancel the deal for unknown reasons.

McConaughy does not plan any major changes for the Newport

Boulevard restaurant. El Matador was founded in 1966 by Marcial

Gallardo Sr. Gallardo passed away in 2003, and his sons did not want

to lose the restaurant. Family issues led to the founder’s estate

being placed in the county’s hands in 2004.

POLITICS

Cox appears finally

to have sealed deal

Newport Beach Rep. Chris Cox on Thursday was tapped by President

Bush to head the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, which

regulates securities markets. Cox still must be confirmed by the

Senate, but candidates already have begun lining up as his potential

replacements in Congress.