MAILBAG - Nov. 3, 2006

Immigration proposal will do nothingCosta Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor and Wendy Leece are filling our mailboxes with glossy brochures assuring us that they “support Mayor Mansoor’s proposal to deport illegal aliens who commit major crimes” because this will keep Costa Mesa safe. What they don’t tell us is how spending Costa Mesa taxpayers’ dollars to train Costa Mesa Police officers to be immigration agents will get felony suspects deported or how that is going to make us safe. The truth of the matter is that the Mansoor-Leece proposal will do neither.

Costa Mesa police already arrest people who are suspected of having committed “major crimes” and turn them over to the criminal justice system to be dealt with there. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is now empowered to check the immigration status of the criminal suspects placed in their custody, so that noncitizens illegally in this country can be turned over to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement service.

Wasting hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars in order to duplicate training that Orange County sheriff’s deputies are already getting will not make us more safe. All it will do is squander money that Costa Mesa needs for parks, street repairs and all of the other things we expect a wise City Council to spend our scarce tax dollars on.

Unless Mansoor and Leece have something far more ugly in mind than they are willing to admit openly, the “Mansoor proposal” does nothing more than appeal to the unthinking fear and bigotry that has already embarrassed Costa Mesa in the eyes of the world.

JIM TOLEDANO

Costa Mesa

Take experience over new ideas for schoolsTo me, reviewing the list of candidates for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board is a no-brainer. I’ll take experience over new ideas in a heartbeat.

Can anyone identify the specific details that this new voice intends to bring to the school community? The incumbent board has provided steady leadership, educational continuity and fiscal responsibility while overseeing some extremely challenging times. Steady, proven leadership over “change” is what our school district truly needs.

RANDY SCHOLNICK

Corona del Mar

Measure X will preserve communityMeasure X is Greenlight II. The original Greenlight, passed by two-thirds of residents in 2000, achieved its purpose of limiting development by requiring a public vote on significant projects. There have been no lawsuits or expensive financial costs. The city’s updated plan for growth, Measure V, seeks to bypass Greenlight by bundling a developers’ wish list of projects into a single approval package, i.e. your vote on Nov. 7.

If Measure V is passed, a public vote on projects that would have been required under the original Greenlight will be lost forever. This is why Measure X is so vitally important.

The police and firefighters unions and the Chamber of Commerce are as anxious as the developers are for growth and have tried to confuse the public by pretending Measure V is a residents’ plan.

It is not. Selected residents were initially consulted, but the plan is not theirs. Measure V is plainly a developers’ plan commandeered by city staff and lavishly funded by business and local government interests. Measure V’s claims of reducing traffic are relative only to an outdated traffic study, not to what is on the streets today; the allowed increase in population guarantees a large increase in traffic congestion, construction and government employee benefits.

In addition, opponents of Measure X have also tried to confuse homeowners that their home remodeling or addition may be subject to a citywide vote. Again, simply not true. R1, R1.5 and R2 residential have always been and will continue to be exempt from a Greenlight vote.

Measure X is the true residents’ plan, drafted by the original Greenlight team and funded entirely by residents, with no business backing. Measure X seeks to restore Greenlight’s voting power to residents and slow the growth of development and sprawl, and ultimately preserve the quality and character of our special coastal community.

A yes vote on X on Tuesday will do just that.

TOM BILLINGS

Newport Beach

Measure X is more the residents’ planA man came to my door who was pro-Measure V. He had a convincing argument on the measure and spoke of it as if it was the residents’ plan.

I asked him were he lives. He said Fullerton.

I asked him if he was paid to go door to door, and he said he was.

Meanwhile, the people who are promoting Measure X are neighbors. It became clear to me at that moment which side I was on.

It made me mad enough to put a Measure X sign in my yard.

FRED FOURCHER

Corona Del Mar

No one should vote for dropout candidateA day or two ago we received by mail a campaign piece from the Newport Beach firefighters union that, among other things, advocated voting for Barbara Venezia for the District 4 City Council seat.

I find it inconceivable that the firefighters, or anyone else, would promote the candidacy of someone who had dropped out of the race and by so doing had obviously publicly indicated that she had lost all interest in serving on the City Council.

It just doesn’t make sense to promote such a candidate just because her name will still appear on the ballot due to printing deadlines.

JOHN CUNNINGHAM

Balboa Island