Commissioner, activist enter race

Banning Ranch anti-development activist and Costa Mesa small businessman Chris Bunyan, and Planning Commissioner and Daily Pilot columnist Jim Righeimer announced Tuesday that they will run for Costa Mesa’s City Council, three days before the filing deadline.

With their declarations, the men became the eighth and ninth candidates to challenge for the three vacant seats on the council.

Also, Bill Sneen, business executive and husband of former Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board member Linda Sneen, became the first candidate to file his nomination papers. He is the only candidate officially on the November ballot so far.

One of the ways Bunyan has been most visible in the community is through his efforts to stop the owners of Banning Ranch, a 400-acre plot of land next to Costa Mesa, from putting more than 1,000 homes and a hotel on the property.

As an integral member of the Save the Banning Ranch Task Force, Bunyan has fought against the proposal, saying it would be a heavy burden on Costa Mesa because of the extra traffic it would cause on the 55 Freeway and nearby surface streets and the loss of open space that could be used for recreation by Costa Mesans.

This is Bunyan’s second attempt at securing a council seat. He had the lowest vote total of the six contenders for two seats in the 2006 general election with only 3% of the voter share.

“When I entered the race in 2006, absolutely nobody knew who I was. If you looked up ‘dark horse’ in the dictionary, you would have seen my name there,” Bunyan said.

After that election, though, Bunyan became more visibly active in the community. He received the Outstanding Community Leadership Award in 2007 from Leadership Tomorrow — an organization sponsored by the Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Irvine chambers of commerce that seeks to breed community leaders — for his activities with the Costa Mesa Library Foundation, the Costa Mesa Historic Preservation Committee, the Costa Mesa Cultural Arts Committee, the Westside Business Assn. and the Surfrider Foundation.

Because of this type of community involvement, Bunyan thinks he has a much better chance of winning a seat this time around.

Righeimer, who moved to Costa Mesa a couple of years ago, has never run for the council before. He was appointed to the Costa Mesa Planning Commission in 2007. In addition to serving on the commission, he is the campaign chairman for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who has represented Costa Mesa in Congress for almost two decades.

A real estate developer by trade, Righeimer’s main agenda is to encourage new development in the city. He said friction among council members has kept the council from uniting to achieve goals.

“There has been a lack of a big vision as to where the city should be. I don’t think the City Council gels together. I get along with everyone up on that dais,” Righeimer said.

Incumbents Mayor Eric Bever, and Councilwomen Katrina Foley and Linda Dixon have pulled papers to keep their seats as well as former Mayor Gary Monahan, Nicholas Moss and Lisa Reedy. Prospective candidates have until Friday to file their paperwork to be on the ballot in November.

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