COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:Council majority defends decision

In a recent editorial, the Pilot criticized our recent efforts to communicate our concerns regarding illegal immigration and SB 1348 to our state and federal representatives.

According to the Pilot: “The letter doesn’t break any new ground in the nationwide debate over illegal immigration and what to do about it. It simply rehashes old arguments and ideas … “

From our perspective, we are breaking new ground, and also believe it is important to communicate that illegal immigration is negatively affecting us locally.

Costa Mesa is the only or among very few cities nationwide that currently has a dedicated ICE agent in its jail. The results of the first six months of the ICE agent’s service provide new and essential information which is relevant to the discussion of SB 1348. We feel that the removal of hundreds of criminals from our society is a positive step forward, not something to defend from a handful of vocal dissenters. The deportation of individuals who have committed crimes clearly demonstrates we are being accountable to our community by upholding the law, and that the existing law is not “broken” but simply needs to be upheld at all levels of government.

According to an article in the Pilot (“Six-month mark for jail checks,” June 2), Jim Hayes, Los Angeles field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, recently described our situation as follows: “Certainly I think if you talk to the people in Costa Mesa, what they were looking for was a solution to what they perceived and what now we would say — and I think rightly so — was a crisis,” he said. “I think this works better for them than any other program would.”

That comment clearly speaks to the relevance of our experience. Many of our elected federal officials remain undecided on the issue of SB 1348, and their vote is important to the outcome. We would be remiss in our duties if we did not communicate with them.

Regarding our letter to President Bush, the editorial concluded: “Now that it’s done, the council needs to get back to the business at hand and go to work on city issues … maybe then the council will do something that truly improves the quality of life of its residents. Now that would be something to write home about.”

While we are constantly working on important issues, this comment implies that our discussing and sending the letter was a waste of time, and that the council has somehow neglected our duties. The editor also implied we have not made any true improvements. This is an indication that the local press has not been paying the close attention we, the citizens of this fine city, should expect of our only hometown paper. In reality, we have taken consistent action to fulfill our “Improvement” promises to the community.

Regarding the claims of “wasted time,” we began our June 19 meeting at 5 p.m. and worked on many important issues, including the annual budget adoption for nearly six hours. The letter regarding SB 1348 (the Bush/ Kennedy/McCain amnesty bill) was the last item on the agenda, and independent of 30 minutes of public testimony, largely from out-of-town political commentators, the council spent roughly five minutes on the topic.

Spending a total of 35 minutes on a local issue of great concern to many of our residents, and which the local ICE director referred to as “a crisis,” is certainly a worthwhile use of council’s time. We believe the following actions demonstrate we have spent a significant amount of time on quality of life issues, and that we are committed to improving Costa Mesa’s quality of life:

1) We proposed the programs that have earned our planning and building departments statewide awards. We have helped our residential property owners with our annual fee waiver program, the Residential Remodeling Incentive Program, or RRIP, which inspired roughly $27 million in home improvements in the first two years. We also adopted three award-winning Westside overlay zones which are helping to kick-start Westside revitalization. The overlay approach to revitalization has been promoted and fostered by grassroots Improvers since 1999, and now it is making a difference;

2) We have nearly doubled the amount of residential street repaving, committed to nearly $30 million in major street reconstruction, including construction of turn lanes, bus turn-outs and turn pockets to keep traffic moving. The city is currently preparing to widen Newport Boulevard, and for the long term solution, we have asked Caltrans and OCTA to tunnel through-traffic lanes to remove the mind-numbing 55 Freeway cut-through traffic from our downtown and eastside streets. OCTA is in the process of conducting a feasibility study of the idea;

3) We have vastly expanded our anti-gang and anti-graffiti enforcement, having added two new officers and a probation officer to the gang unit. By also cooperating with the regional “Target” anti-gang coalition, we have assembled a very effective local anti-gang program. We have supported task forces to combat drunk driving, auto theft and prostitution, among others. We are working to combat the negative local effects of illegal immigration, and the ICE agent assigned to our jail continues to be effective on that front. In the past six months he has flagged 113 felons, 37 serious drug offenders, 12 burglars and 50 drunk drivers;

4) We are moving forward on new sports fields at the Fairview Developmental Center and working to secure the county property on Bristol Street for additional lit sports fields. We have focused on adding desired recreational infrastructure citywide, including a second skate park, Angel’s Playground for disabled kids, an expansion of Brentwood Park, and a variety of major improvements to both Fairview and TeWinkle parks.

We supported the ongoing master-planning process for NMUSD sites, which host much of our youth sports activity, to improve the efficiency and function of these sites. We have also committed to helping to retrofit the Bethel Tower senior housing facility with fire sprinklers, and extinguishers in every room, and have completed major upgrades to the senior center.

As was clearly demonstrated in November of last year, the majority of Costa Mesa voters understand: The Improver candidates all worked on the sidelines for many years to help improve our city, and now that we are serving on the council, we will continue to implement true improvement for all of Costa Mesa. We share the desire of all Costa Mesans to have a clean, safe and quiet city.

We also recognize Costa Mesa’s many fine qualities, and accordingly, we are committed to upholding our promise to help improve the entire city, and to seek and apply workable solutions to the issues we face. It would be appropriate for the Daily Pilot to join us in our broadly supported improvement efforts, rather than continuing its longstanding opposition. Would that really be too much to ask?