Community Commentary:

Katrina Foley is my friend.

Jim Righeimer is my friend.

Hopefully, what I say next won’t change any of that.

I happened to be at the Costa Mesa City Council meeting on May 4, attending it with my class from Orange Coast College. They’ve been assigned to write about a council issue as their final project.

Lucky them, eh?

Righeimer and Foley were there as well. Foley in her role as super city councilwoman and Righeimer in his role as fairgrounds negotiating watchdog extraordinaire.

That’s where things went bad.

Foley, apparently, doesn’t think he’s so extraordinary and pounded away at Righeimer, claiming he had a conflict and had said some explosive things about blowing up the whole fair deal.

Righeimer, a city planning commissioner and former Daily Pilot columnist, later told me how upset he was that a private conversation turned so publicly ugly.

“Did you hear what your buddy said about me?” he asked.

Actually, I didn’t. I had already sneaked out of the meeting by then. But I heard all about it later.

But right now, none of that really matters to me.

What matters now is the future of the Orange County Fair is on the line and, well, “Can’t we all just get along?”

First, let me say I admire Foley immensely. She wasn’t born and raised in Costa Mesa, but you wouldn’t know it by talking to her. She loves her adopted hometown and works hard to make it better for the residents.

When I was a member of the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce board of directors, I attended lots of community events and shindigs. Foley is the one member of the council who I could count on being at most every one.

Like many of her council colleagues, she has plenty of other things she could do with her time. She has a thriving law practice and a young family. Being on the council doesn’t bring her much value, except to know she is helping the community she loves.

Agree with her politics or not, nobody can doubt Foley’s heart. I know I don’t.

I feel the same about Righeimer.

My relationship with “Riggy,” as many like to call him, dates back nearly two decades when I was a cub reporter and he was a cub real estate agent. We struck up a friendship that remains in place today.

I’ve known him to be a good family man and hard worker who will help anyone who needs it.

When he rolled into Costa Mesa a couple of years ago, I was then the editor of this fine paper. So we had lunch together to catch up.

At lunch, he told me about his family and how he had dealt with the tragic loss of his first daughter, Rebecca. He told me how he wound up in Costa Mesa after many long years in Fountain Valley.

Basically, his wife, Lene, found a house that she liked in Mesa Verde. As someone who is now living in a house his wife liked, I fully understood, as any married man would, why he bought the house.

What’s to argue after that?

At that lunch, he told me how he was approached to join the Planning Commission by members of the council majority. Not the other way around, as some have asserted.

I believed him then and believe him now.

And some also allege that he finagled his way into writing a column for the Daily Pilot as a way to propel him into city politics.

Let me put that goofy conspiracy theory to rest. I know because I’m the one who approached Righeimer to write the column.

And here’s why. For many years, I believed the Daily Pilot was lacking a strong conservative voice. Except for a few letter writers, some of the hyper-hysterical variety, we didn’t have a consistent voice on the right.

Righeimer, after much coaxing from me, was the only one I could hoodwink, er, persuade to take the job. And he didn’t do it for the money, either. I had to force him to file his invoices.

And while writing was not a natural thing for him in the beginning, I know he came to love the column. So much so, he confided in me that writing his column was more alluring than city politics. He struggled with his run for council because he knew he’d have to abandon the column.

Now does that sound like a bloodthirsty politician?

So let’s get back to the task at hand. Both Riggy and Foley love their adopted hometown. That’s why instead of spending free time with their families, they sit in council chambers with targets on them.

But now’s not the time for bickering. Now is the time to make sure that the residents of Costa Mesa and the county get the best deal to ensure the Orange County Fair stays right where it is.

Bury the hatchet, my friends. Take the high road and work for the best of this community. For too long this council and city government has been gripped in a deadlock of acrimony and distrust.

Saving the fairgrounds is the perfect time to start anew and break that deadlock and make some peace in the process.

TONY DODERO is the former editor of the Daily Pilot, freelance journalist and a communications professional. He can be reached at www.goaskyourdadblog.com.