2 more locals to vie for dais

Two longtime Costa Mesa residents and community volunteers have added their names to the field of City Council hopefuls who have picked up official nomination forms for the November council election.

Lisa Reedy and Bill Sneen bring the count up to seven challengers for the three seats that will be vacated in the fall. As first-time candidates, they will face stiff competition from a field with a couple of multiterm council members, but they see the challenge as a welcome way to bring grassroots campaign organizing back to local politics.

“A lot of people are thinking it’s time for a change. There’s a lot of concern with the lack of civility on the dais right now. A lot of people think it gets in the way of doing business,” Reedy said.

Reedy, a lifetime Newport-Mesa resident, was in the city spotlight recently for her efforts to get the owner of a blighted shopping complex in her Mesa del Mar neighborhood to demolish the buildings, which had become a sanctuary for taggers and transients. As president of the community homeowners association, she rallied her neighbors and lobbied the council to force the developer to remove the buildings and commit to building homes on the plot of land as soon as possible.

Sneen is the marketing manager of a large food company and husband of former Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board Member Linda Sneen. Making himself available to answer residents’ concerns and talk about issues confronting the community on a frequent basis would be one of his top priorities, Sneen said.

Sneen was one of the founding board members of the Costa Mesa High School Foundation, which raises money for the school, and has served as the troop committee chairman for Costa Mesa Boy Scout Troop 711, where both of his sons earned Eagle Scout honors.

He was also a member of the Committee for Measure A, which granted funding for facility improvements for local schools.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.