Public safety dominates at debate

FOR THE RECORD

The article “Public safety dominates at debate” in Thursday’s Daily Pilot wrongly identified the city commission on which Costa Mesa City Council candidate Wendy Leece serveds. She is on the city parks and recreation commission. The article also should have described the 1901 Newport developement as including condos.

COSTA MESA — Public safety in general, rather than illegal immigration specifically, was the recurring theme at Wednesday’s City Council candidates forum, the first of several before the November election.

All six of the candidates for two council seats, and about 200 residents, came to the event held by Mesa Verde Community Inc. at the Neighborhood Community Center.

Immigration did come up and was the subject of several audience questions, but none of the topics at the forum provoked anything stronger than bursts of applause and occasional laughter from the audience.

Bruce Garlich, a city planning commissioner, immediately brought up the staffing shortage on the city’s police force, which has about 17 unfilled positions, and said he would address that issue first if elected.

Other candidates agreed that they wanted to make Costa Mesa safer, but they diverged on how, which is where the immigration issue came in.

“If I have to be the first one up here to say it, I am opposed to the program that’s been voted on by the council majority” to train police for immigration enforcement, former Councilman Mike Scheafer said. “I believe it’s a waste of our overtaxed police force.”

But he turned out to be the only candidate to criticize the plan that strongly, though business owner Mirna Burciaga and author Chris Bunyan also opposed it. Garlich said he supported the plan’s intent but considers it premature.

Mayor Allan Mansoor and planning commissioner Wendy Leece, whose glossy fliers and yard signs stood side by side on tables at the back of the room, disagreed with Scheafer.

Mansoor repeated several times that the immigration enforcement plan voted in by the current council majority would only go after illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.

He received applause when he said, “It’s not going to take an officer out; it’s going to take a criminal out.”

Aside from immigration, the candidates’ positions on most issues sounded similar if not identical. None of them supported bridges on 19th Street or Gisler Avenue, and most candidates said they question the benefits of a pipeline through Costa Mesa from a seawater desalination plant proposed in Huntington Beach.

The forum was largely friendly, making a security guard at the side of the room unnecessary. But Garlich and Mansoor traded a few barbs on public safety, development and campaign finance.

One question read by moderator Peter Buffa asked whether accepting money from political action committees is ethical.

Garlich is supported by two such committees, but he quickly covered his flank by referring to an analysis that showed more than 90% of his campaign funds came from inside the city, compared with less than 50% of Mansoor’s.

Mansoor fired back, saying that taking political action committee money could create a conflict of interest for a council member.

“How much is this PAC giving and how much is this having an effect on a particular project — and you see the results back there with 1901 Newport,” he said, referring to an apartment development he opposed as too dense.

Other questions touched on libraries, athletic fields and child care. Three other organizations are planning candidate forums but have not yet set dates.

The election is Nov. 7.