MAILBAG - Oct. 28, 2006

Daigle has been a gem for Newport Beach, Eastbluff

Being a resident and president of the Eastbluff Homeowners Assn., I need to let everybody know that Newport Beach City Councilwoman Leslie Daigle is a gem in Newport Beach. She has been involved in correcting many of the past flaws around Eastbluff, creating a safer environment for our children.

No less than five important Eastbluff issues came up this past year and Daigle shined. We have less traffic; no traffic signal; a drop-off area for students; crossing guards; and a city councilwoman who listens to our concerns and reacts.

Several months ago, our homeowners met to discuss the Newport Beach general plan. Daigle was asked to show up and answer some questions. She showed up and brought a city planner, a general planner, a newspaper reporter, a city liaison, a Greenlighter and more. There were more people to answer all our questions than residents from Eastbluff. Daigle then took our concerns and brought them to the City Council.

Daigle cares about our concerns, and I appreciate having her represent our neighborhood.

By the way, if you want to talk to Daigle, call her. She will answer. Leslie Daigle is the answer.

JIM WYSOPAL

Newport Beach

Immigration enforcement at county jail will be enoughThe sub-headline to your article on approval of the Orange County Sheriff’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement proposal in the Oct. 18 issue is grossly mistaken. It suggests Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor’s proposal was reasonable because something just like it got approved by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the county board of supervisors.

Mansoor proposed to have Costa Mesa cops do immigration-status checks on all suspected foreign nationals who come in contact with the police. The compromise resolution Councilman Gary Monahan proposed, and the council passed 3 to 2, limited training to the gang unit, special investigations team, jailers and detectives, and it limited enforcement to people suspected of aggravated felonies. The county program approved bears almost no resemblance to either Mansoor’s original proposal or Monahan’s compromise.

The county program calls for immigration enforcement training and enforcement only at the jail. According to the sheriff’s report to the board of supervisors, 100% of all foreign nationals booked into the jail will now be screened.

I support the approved county program as do most of the Costa Mesans I know. Screening in the jail makes sense. It should not disrupt normal police operations or degrade police-community communication and cooperation. Until the border is secure, I’m not sure it will have a significant effect on public safety, and I’m still concerned about local government doing a job the federal government is supposed to do, but on balance the county program seems like a reasonable and positive step.

Now what should this mean for Costa Mesa? If all the foreign nationals booked into the county jail are going to be screened for possible deportation, why should Costa Mesa have a redundant program in our jail? That would be a waste of money and scarce police resources.

Suspects stay in our jail no more than 48 hours. All of those suspected of committing aggravated felonies are then booked into the county jail where they will be screened by county and immigration enforcement officers.

If Mansoor, Councilman Eric Bever or Monahan come back to the council with a proposal to duplicate what the sheriff will be doing, it will show they are only interested in wasteful political grandstanding. If they persist with their plan to have immigration training for the gang unit, special enforcement team, jailers and detectives, it will only confirm that they are all about politics, not public safety.

CHRIS BLANK

Costa Mesa