ON THE TOWN:Costa Mesa in good hands, nonetheless

One of the benefits of waiting until the election dust has settled before making any comments is that you can comment on local reactions.

The drawback is that after waiting 11 days, it can be hard to come up with anything new to say. But I think I’ve solved that problem.

Many people who voted for Costa Mesa City Council candidates Allan Mansoor or Wendy Leece are probably concerned at this point that the city is in bad hands.

I can tell you that it is not.

First, although I strongly disagree with Mansoor on how to handle the city’s illegal immigrants, which includes the closing of the job center on 17th Street, the fact is that I agree with him on many other key issues.

And as I told him in April, I’m even still on the fence over a property tax to cover the cost of burying the city’s utility lines.

If nothing else, Mansoor is high on our list for opposing that ugly, useless, $500,000 bridge over Placentia Avenue.

So the first thing to remember here is that there isn’t a politician born with whom you are in complete agreement. I don’t care if, for example, you are a die-hard George Bush supporter, you’re probably not too thrilled with the way he is handling — or mishandling — something, whether it’s illegal immigration, the environment, education or something else.

Unfortunately, the illegal immigrant issue in Costa Mesa happens to be a king-sized controversy.

Mansoor’s running mate, Wendy Leece, also a future council member, is a good example of how this works.

During her years as a member of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board, I sided with Leece on nearly everything, particularly some school standards that we believed had fallen to dangerous levels.

But there was a huge issue on which we disagreed. So big, in fact, that it was the school board equivalent of the city’s illegal immigration issue.

That issue was Measure A, the tax that supported repairs to schools.

Leece supported it. I did not. My chief requirement was that the board show some accountability for the deferred maintenance that precipitated the need for the tax in the first place.

No board member chose to own any responsibility for the disrepair.

Leece as a city councilwoman, even as a part of the Mansoor majority, is not a bad thing.

Just as she did on the school board, Leece will come prepared to meetings and will do her homework.

From time to time, she will send her colleagues scrambling to look up some obscure but important line in a proposal that they may have missed.

And for those who like to think, Leece will provide many opportunities. You may not always agree with her, but you will understand that in our society, we have to make room for anyone to voice a view that is different from ours.

I can make the same claim about John Moorlach, our new county supervisor. I can name a couple of key issues on which I disagree with Moorlach, but I voted for him because he has the common sense and integrity we need in that position.

Wendy Leece will not lie, she will not fudge facts and if you ask her a direct question, you will get a direct answer.

The biggest disappointment in the City Council election is not that a Mansoor majority still rules the Costa Mesa roost, (the city will survive, trust me), it is that candidate Mike Scheafer was denied a seat.

That is baffling. Scheafer has a long list of substantial civic contributions and would have made the council an incredibly positive force.

I hope that Scheafer runs again in two years. In the meantime, I also hope that the City Council can find a place for him to make even more contributions. Someone please nominate him for a spot somewhere on a committee or commission — he will make you look really good.

So, here are congratulations to Wendy Leece and Allan Mansoor.

As outgoing editor S.J. Cahn pointed out after the election, their selection will give a few locals plenty to write about over the next four years.

Speaking of Cahn, here is a fond farewell to an excellent editor. Much of what goes into creating the news and editorial content of this newspaper are seemingly small decisions: Do we run that? If so, where?

Over time, however, those decisions leave a footprint in the community.

Cahn’s legacy will be a high standard of journalism and fairness, and he will be missed.