Forum organizers aim for civil debate

Organizers of tonight’s Costa Mesa City Council candidates forum don’t want any heckling or name-calling, and they don’t want the event to be dominated by a single issue.

To that end, they plan to explain clearly the rules to the audience, they’ve scheduled the two-hour event down to the minute, and for the first time ever they’ve hired armed security guards to make sure no one gets unruly.

The forum, held by Mesa Verde Community Inc. — that neighborhood’s homeowners association — will be run like forums in previous years, including prepared questions for the candidates and questions from the audience, group President Darnell Wyrick said.

But one important difference this year is the hot-button topic of illegal immigration. At least one of the candidate questions will be about immigration, Wyrick said, but he wants candidates to talk about other issues also.

“We will control the mikes so that we don’t have any specific individual dominating the questions,” he said. “We don’t want this to turn into a speech or even someone filibustering from the podium.”

At previous forums, the organization has not used security guards, and Wyrick said the association board discussed whether it was the right course this time.

“We thought that it would send a message to people that we were expecting problems, and that’s not what we wanted to do,” he said.

But since a City Council majority voted in December to train police for immigration checks on serious felons, emotions have run high at City Council meetings, and marches, protests and counter-protests have been staged around the city.

Wyrick said he’s expecting a full house and wants to make sure there’s no unruly behavior.

Aside from immigration, other questions will likely touch on development in the city; the proposed 19th Street and Gisler-Garfield bridges; and other such major issues that have been floating around the city for some time.

The Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce also will hold a forum, but it won’t be until late October, chamber President Ed Fawcett said.

He doesn’t intend to let the chamber’s forum be solely occupied with immigration either.

“There are any number of issues that any viable candidate has to be conversant on,” he said. “If they’re qualified, they have to know the community, not just have one single issue in mind.”

The Costa Mesa Senior Center and the Orange County Congregation Community Organization expected to hold candidate forums, but representatives of those organizations said dates have not been set.