Week in Review

PUBLIC SAFETY

Members of Piecemakers face charges in court

Three members of a Costa Mesa Christian sect appeared in court Monday on criminal charges of operating a restaurant without a proper permit and of blocking a health inspection.

The Piecemakers, a Christian group that operates a craft store and restaurant at 1720 Adams Ave. in Costa Mesa, remained defiant, vowing that they would continue to serve food in the Country Store tea room.

Seven members of the Piecemakers were arrested when they refused county health inspectors entrance during a court-ordered inspection Oct. 26.

The district attorney’s office filed charges against four members Monday. The Piecemakers’ 84-year-old founder, Marie Kolasinski, is charged with operating a food business without the necessary permit, refusing admittance to inspectors, and obstructing health inspectors.

* Police arrested a man believed to be the “Big Nose Bandit” early Friday in a Costa Mesa motel.

Amir Hossein Saadat, 28, was arrested at the Vagabond Motel in the 3200 block of Harbor Boulevard. He had been staying there with his father, Hosseinali Saadat, 57, police said.

Amir Hossein Saadat’s father was arrested and is being held on $250,000 bail at Orange County Jail. Police believe Hosseinali Saadat was trying to conceal his son, said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Bill Hartford.

Amir Hossein Saadat is believed to have robbed more than 20 banks in Southern California since June 2, including three in Newport Beach.

COSTA MESA

Mayor calls for city police to enforce immigration laws

Mayor Allan Mansoor on Wednesday announced a plan to have city police trained by U.S. Immigration and Customs officials to enforce immigration law during their normal duties. The City Council is set to consider the plan Tuesday.

If the proposal is approved, Costa Mesa police officers would be able to check the immigration status of people who are suspected of other crimes, such as traffic violations. If the suspects are determined to be in the U.S. illegally, police could hold them and turn them over to immigration officials.

The proposal already has the community sharply divided. Supporters say it will make the city safer and help address immigration violations. Opponents think it will drive a wedge between police and the city’s Latino community.

NEWPORT BEACH

Homeowners may be told to restore flattened sand dune

The California Coastal Commission announced Monday that it may order five West Newport homeowners to hire a biologist to restore a sand dune the homeowners allegedly had flattened in April.

The dune, on a city-owned beach between Sonora and Olive streets, was a protected habitat for plants and endangered birds.

When someone leveled the dune around April 17, Newport Beach police investigated and determined the five homeowners had paid a contractor’s employee to smooth out the sand to improve their ocean views, according to the Coastal Commission.

The homeowners could be asked to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to have the dune restored. They have until Dec. 12 to respond to the commission, which will likely take up the issue at a January meeting.

* Family and friends of former Newport Beach resident Christopher Wills gathered at Pacific View Chapel to honor the former two-sport athlete at Corona del Mar High School.

Wills died Nov. 14 in Dallas at the age of 28. The cause of his death is still under investigation.

Speakers described Wills as a driven student, a dedicated friend and a hard-working employee. By the time of his death, he had earned the position of senior vice president at his company.

* The Newport Beach Sister City Assn. welcomed dignitaries from Antibes, France, for a weeklong trip. It marked the 15th anniversary of the sister city relationship between the two cities.

Among the activities planned were trips to Fashion Island and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, and a welcome ceremony at Newport Beach City Hall.

BUSINESS

Report: Office space near John Wayne 8% vacant

Office space in Orange County is a hot commodity, according to a market forecast released last week.

Commercial rents have risen nearly 13% in the past year in the vicinity of John Wayne Airport, according to the data from the 2005 Casden Office and Industrial Market Forecast for Southern California released by USC’s Lusk Center for Real Estate.

For the first time in four years, the airport district posted single-digit vacancy rates of 8%.

Steady job growth and a booming real estate market are among the forces in play, said the director of the Casden Forecast, which analyzes economic data for the Los Angeles County, Orange County and Inland Empire office and industrial markets.

EDUCATION

District maps out search for next superintendent

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District started the long trek toward finding a new superintendent Monday, as the school board held a special meeting to plan the search for Robert Barbot’s replacement. During the meeting, led by the California School Boards Assn., the board members decided to advertise the position within the month and have Barbot’s successor appointed by June.

Dick Loveall, the director of executive search services for the association, said he expected between 30 and 40 candidates for the job -- in part because of the district’s reputation, which has grown throughout the state.

The base salary for the next superintendent will be $235,000, nearly twice what Barbot made when he was hired in 1998.

* Newport Harbor High School held a dodgeball tournament Thursday to benefit Lucas Campanaro, a freshman who has cancer. The event, organized by the student government, sold 583 tickets and netted thousands of dollars for Lucas’ treatment.

* A dozen students from the Tolerance Among People club at Corona del Mar High School visited College Park Elementary School on Friday to hand out backpacks containing school supplies and to read stories to first-graders. The event was part of a Volunteer Center Orange County program, in which colleges, businesses and other groups visit disadvantaged schools at Christmastime. Corona del Mar was the first Orange County high school to participate.

“It’s something that I believe the public wants to see done, and it’s something that needs to be done. Illegal immigration is something that needs to be addressed at all levels.”

-- Allan Mansoor, Costa Mesa mayor, after he proposed that the City Council require police officers to enforce federal immigration law

“We’re at capacity, so any time something is added, we have to look at something else that we may not do.... I do have questions about whether these new duties will cause us to be concerned about our response times and allow us to follow up in an expeditious manner on claims and crime reports.”

-- John Hensley, Costa Mesa police chief, on the plan

“He touched thousands of lives because he was full of love.”

-- Nancy Baldwin, mother of Jason Baldwin, who was killed in a small plane crash of Dana Point last month, as she and her husband, Jim Baldwin, welcomed mourning friends and family to her son’s funeral

“It’s too valuable of an asset and there’s too much monetary payback for doing these sorts of things. A better view in Newport Beach is often a six-figure addition to value.”

-- John Heffernan, Newport Beach mayor, who suggested the city establish fines for people who destroy public property, such as the dunes in West Newport that homeowners have been accused of removing

“I have to be very diplomatic. When we started the Iraq War, I was caught in between the two sides. In a sister-city relationship, we go above and beyond the politics.”

-- Marie Atkins, vice president of the Newport Beach Sister City Assn., on translating conversations between Newport Beach residents and those from sister city Antibes, France

“We’re seeing businesses starting to lease office space rather than wait. Businesses are hiring and making future investments.”

-- Delores Conway, director of the Casden Forecast, citing steady job growth, the tourism industry and a solid real estate market as reasons for high office occupancy