MAILBAG - Aug. 14, 2006

Mayor Mansoor failed

leadership test — again

Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor has again shown his complete failure to be a leader of our city. Since when has the loss of a life been equated with declining property values, soup kitchens or a “welcome mat” to the wrong people? Since when has compassion not been a guiding principle of leadership? Thank you to Councilwoman Katrina Foley and Assistant City Manager Thomas Hatch for showing the true values of our city by visiting two grieving parents and expressing sympathy for the loss of their son.

Mansoor should have made a visit to the neighborhood impacted by this killing to assure them the city will take aggressive action to assure their safety. He should have given condolences to the family for the suffering they must be feeling at never seeing their son again. This would have been inspiring leadership.

Over and over, Mansoor fails the Leadership 101 class. For this reason and many others, I do not and will not support his continued presence on our council. The Return to Reason group seeking political change in our city has even greater validity based on Mansoor’s tasteless, thoughtless and outrageous response to the loss of a human life. I would be remiss if I did not speak out against this callous disregard for people.

KAREN L. MCGLINN

Costa Mesa

Greenlight will keep Newport as jewel in area

Greenlight ll maintains citizen involvement on the future direction of Newport Beach by giving them the alternate voice and vote to the heavily incumbent, developer-backed City Council.

In 2000, the residents earned an equal footing in the process that determines our quality of life, property values, traffic densities and all the elements that make Newport Beach the envy of Southern California and the region. Greenlight is not anti-growth, as some would have us believe, but rather it allows the residents to vote their view on the growth and development of the city by measuring each project individually based on its overall merit and the added value it brings to the community.

Evidence of this is the fact that the residents decided that they didn’t want another resort hotel on the bay front and thought a high-rise office complex near the airport was not in their best interest. If the voters believed these two projects had merit, they would have given them approval — plain and simple. Greenlight gave them the option.

To quote David Wilson, chief executive officer of Wilson Automotive Group, in an on-camera interview last month: “Greenlight did what it was supposed to do. It allowed the building of Newport Lexus at its new location and did not affect traffic the way the office tower building would have.” He goes on to say that “because of Greenlight allowing them to locate the dealership at its new location, the city of Newport Beach will receive $1 million per year in sales tax.” Greenlight created a win-win for everyone.

More than 8,000 registered voters signed the petition allowing Greenlight ll on the November ballot and it’s the only opportunity for the voters in Newport Beach to retain their vote on city projects. The general plan update takes away their right to vote on future projects because it consolidates and pre-approves all future developments under one package. The general plan update supersedes the previous general plan that allowed development amendments to be voted on under Greenlight. If the general plan update is passed, it will forever shelve Greenlight and allow all the pre-approved developments outlined in the update to go forward at the will of the city with no voter approval. At the last council meeting, the city conveniently forgot to mention this, and the residents need to know the consequences if the general plan update is approved.

Lastly, Newport Beach is at a dividing point in its future. The voters have been given the choice to retain our unique beach/bay environment, which gives them involvement and approval of carefully thought-out, purposeful-built developments or to give away their vote on a one-time basis for a consolidated set of developments under the general plan update that will add 25,000 more people, 112,000 additional daily car trips and 12,000 new housing units. The numbers the city cites are misleading and under careful scrutiny proven to be invalid. You can’t add more people, cars and residences and reduce traffic and density. I urge every resident to contact their respective council person and have them explain in detail how the city arrived at traffic reductions by adding more housing, cars and people.

Greenlight ll is going to get a lot of negative press in the weeks and months to come, but just remember it’s the only thing that allows the residents of Newport Beach a voice and vote from becoming another high-rise condo-apartment, built-out city like Irvine, Long Beach and Santa Monica.

PHIL DRACHMAN

Newport Beach