Group backs council hopefuls

A political action group upset with recent actions taken by the Costa Mesa City Council has announced its endorsements for the two vacant seats in the November election.

At the Return to Reason group’s kick-off party Saturday, members announced their support for planning Commissioner Bruce Garlich and former Councilman Mike Scheafer. Other council hopefuls are Mayor Allan Mansoor and parks Commissioner Wendy Leece.

Both said they were honored to be endorsed by Return to Reason a group made up of more than 50 former and current council and school board members, business owners and residents.

The bipartisan group includes Republicans and Democrats.

“I think the real voice of Costa Mesa has been silent too long, and it’s starting to be heard,” Garlich said.

Scheafer did not attend the Return to Reason party this weekend because he attended a family reunion in Oregon and visited his wife’s grandmother in the hospital.

“Some of the actions of our current council majority have divided portions of our community,” Scheafer said in a phone interview from San Francisco Monday.

He said if elected to the council he will “repair that damage.”

The damage to the city’s image he and the group’s members often refer to started in December when the City Council approved a plan to have city police trained in illegal immigration enforcement. Mansoor suggested the plan.

Mansoor said he thinks the projects Garlich approved as a commissioner will affect the quality of life in Costa Mesa.

He said Garlich voted in support of a high-density condominium project at 1901 Newport Blvd. and a Kohl’s department store.

“I know Wendy Leece will take a strong stand for the quality of life for the residents of Costa Mesa, and additionally Leece and myself are the only ones upholding federal immigration laws locally,” Mansoor said. “Garlich and Scheafer do not support that even though there were three illegal alien sex offenders that were recently arrested in Costa Mesa.”

The sex offenders Mansoor mentioned were arrested in a recent nationwide sweep conducted by federal immigration officers that netted 2,100 illegal immigrants.

Scheafer said the mayor should not be speaking for him without asking his opinion on the matter first.

“The mayor should let me speak for myself. He has no right speaking for me because he’s never asked my opinion,” Scheafer said.

Scheafer, the father of a police officer, said he is a strong law-enforcement advocate.

“I would never support anything that would let child molesters off the hook. As a parent and as a grandparent, I would never support anything like that,” he said.

Former Costa Mesa Mayor Joe Erickson, who is part of Return to Reason, said the group chose to endorse both men because they have a history of community involvement.

“Both are level-headed and will work hard for the future of the city. We felt that we needed to endorse candidates early in order to have momentum into the race,” Erickson said.

The group aims to get candidates elected to the council who will focus on the city’s immediate concerns, such as traffic and the need for athletic fields, he said.

Erickson, speaking for himself and not as a representative of the group, said there have been too many distractions lately in City Hall.

“I haven’t been pleased with the direction the city has been going,” Erickson said. “We don’t need distractions and outside groups from both sides of the immigration issue coming in telling us what to do.”dpt-18-schaefer-mug-CPhotoInfo8N1T1G8S20060718heft1hkfCredit: Caption: (LA)Mike Scheafer dpt-18-garlich-mug-CPhotoInfo8N1T1G8Q20060718hy38vxkfCredit: Caption: (LA)Bruce Garlich