Elections shuffle cities’ leader posts

New City Council members in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach will take their seats in early December, and that means two things: that each city will have a vacancy on one of its commissions and that the new councils will pick mayors for 2007.

Costa Mesa’s council meets first, on Dec. 5. Parks and recreation commission Chairwoman Wendy Leece, who was elected to one of two council seats, will be sworn in. But who will seek to become mayor is unclear because most council members were tight-lipped about whether they want the job.

Mayor Allan Mansoor, who took the most votes in this month’s election, has held the gavel for two years. He wouldn’t say whether he wants to remain mayor, but with Councilman Eric Bever remaining on the council and Leece holding the critical third seat, Mansoor maintains a majority that supports his agenda.

“I’m open to the council direction at this point,” Mansoor said. “I was happy to serve as mayor, but we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Bever has been mayor pro tempore, or a stand-in if the mayor is absent, for the last two years. He said this week that he’s interested in the mayor’s post, a ceremonial job that typically rotates among the five council members.

Councilwomen Linda Dixon and Katrina Foley, who often ended up on the losing side of 3-2 votes last year, both said they would serve as mayor if the rest of the council chose them.

Newport Beach’s new City Council will meet Dec. 11 to seat two new members and the three appointed incumbents who won their first election this month.

Mayor Don Webb, who won reelection unopposed, will give up the gavel — likely to Councilman Steve Rosansky, the current mayor pro tempore who holds the only one of seven seats that weren’t on the ballot this fall.

“I’ve let it be known that I want the job,” Rosansky said. “I don’t know of anybody else who’s going to challenge me for it.”

There could be several candidates for mayor pro tem. Councilman Ed Selich said he’s interested; Councilwoman Leslie Daigle said she’s not actively pursuing the post, but she has the most seniority after Webb and Rosansky; and Councilman Keith Curry is another possibility.

Once the new council is seated, it will have to replace councilman-elect Michael Henn on the planning commission.

In Costa Mesa, two parks commission terms aside from Leece’s will expire in February. Parks commissioner Byron De Arakal, who holds one of the expiring terms, said he won’t try to keep the seat.

He said it wouldn’t surprise him if the new council did major housecleaning on the commissions. After the 2004 election, the new council switched from a direct-appointment system to having the whole council vote on commission members, so those already on the commissions — including De Arakal — had to reapply.

“It seems to me that if you were going to take advantage of the mojo that you have, you may want to sweep those commissions out,” De Arakal said.

Two planning commission terms expire in February.

Dixon and Foley said they don’t see a need for major changes on the commissions, and Mansoor said it’s too early to talk about it.

“I’ve encouraged anyone who’s interested at all to apply,” he said. “I think it’s premature when I don’t even have a total list of people who are interested.”

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