ON THE TOWN:Political flub, leadership flaw

The easy argument for the seating fiasco at the Costa Mesa City Council is to dismiss it all as a schoolyard scrap.

But the saga of who sits where is no minor issue. It is, in fact, a perfect metaphor for the failed leadership of Mayor Allan Mansoor and his majority partners, Wendy Leece and Eric Bever.

First, it is important to remember that the person acting as mayor in the city of Costa Mesa has as much ability to change anything of substance as do I. The position is ceremonial. The mayor leads meetings and acts as the city’s chief ambassador, and that’s about it.

The only way that the mayor can get anything done of note is to have a majority on the council, which Mansoor does.

Most important, however, is the real issue in the seating discussion, which is that the city is experiencing a crisis in leadership.

The seating issue has exposed Mansoor for what he would claim he is not: a one-issue candidate. But if you ask 10 randomly selected voters where he stands on issues other than illegal immigration, you’ll probably get blank stares.

Mansoor got elected largely on his firm stance on illegal immigration. He would be the new sheriff in town and would run all of them out by sundown. But to do so, he assured us, he would not pick on those who committed only minor infractions, only those who are suspected of big crimes.

That position deteriorated quickly when a bicyclist was arrested and prepared for deportation. Instead of making a statement distancing himself from the issue or reaching out to the city’s Latino community to assure them that he had nothing to do with the arrest, he supported it.

That’s as deep as he gets.

Mansoor has fumbled on the allocation of parks, on the stop and start of a youth-in-government panel, and on development by supporting a massive residential complex without providing affordable housing for teachers, police and firefighters.

Take away the emotional issue of illegal immigration and you have someone who cannot seem to look years ahead, a crucial quality in a city leader. What is important to this mayor is his agenda, and so far, it’s not adding up to very much.

After illegal immigration, there is no substance, only rhetoric. As Gertrude Stein once said of Oakland, “There is no there there.”

A true leader who wanted seats arranged would have, as I wrote last time, built in a win for the opposition, if only to spare Costa Mesans the spectacle of musical chairs.

A shrewd leader would have taken a step back from the situation and had the following discussion with Linda Dixon:

“Linda, I want you and Wendy to switch seats. Now, the way I look at it, if you don’t agree right now, there are two ways we can do this. I can ask you in public to switch. If you decline, I’ll get the matter put on the agenda and we’ll all vote on it. As you know, I’ll win the vote because Eric and Wendy will go along with whatever I say on every issue. Or, you can offer in the next meeting to switch seats with Wendy using the excuse that it’s better for her to sit next to City Manager Allan Roeder. But either way, you’ll be switching seats. Now, which will it be?”

Instead, Mansoor created a public relations nightmare for himself — the media fun and games has already begun — and has risked setting up Dixon as a martyr, as someone who is being bullied — which she is.

In the end, Mansoor will get his way. Dixon and Leece will switch seats, and that will be that, except for one thing. This issue will follow the mayor for a very long time. And for that, I suppose, I should thank the mayor for finally revealing himself.