COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:An opportunity to build consensus

The election’s over. The dust is settling. Those who backed the winners in the Nov. 7 Costa Mesa City Council race are heralding their “mandate.” Those who didn’t are stating flatly that a fraction of a percent more than half the votes cast doesn’t remotely resemble a mandate. I’ve read virtually all that’s been written by the supporters of both sides in the last month or so, and there’s one take on this whole issue that I’ve yet to see or hear expressed, except by me. So here goes.

Memo to the new City Council majority: You can be against illegal immigration and also be against a boorish, ham-fisted, condescending and authoritarian effort to deal with it. I’ve yet to speak with anyone who’s for allowing an unimpeded flow of illegal immigrants to enter our country. That includes members of the Return to Reason group and council candidates Mike Scheafer and Bruce Garlich. Even Rep. Sonny Bono, that paragon of critical thinking, when asked about the illegal immigration issue was reported to have said, “It’s illegal, isn’t it?”

This isn’t a conservative versus liberal issue, or Republican versus Democrat. For me it’s a good governance issue. There are accepted methods for council members to propose action items they champion, and one of them isn’t springing a plan for a vote before city staff, the city manager, the police chief and the public has had a chance to weigh in on the matter, and then ramming it down our collective throats without further discussion or planning. That’s the way this whole mess first saw the light of day in December 2005. And that’s why it caused such a rift in our community and generated far too much negative publicity both locally and around the world.

Maybe Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s decision to station a federal agent in the jail to check arrestees’ immigration status will defuse this issue. Then again, maybe it won’t. And maybe the new council majority will reform and proceed to conduct itself in the future as a consensus-building, deliberative and thoughtful body that’s considerate of everyone’s opinions and willing to listen intently to all sides before rendering its decisions.

And then again, maybe it won’t.