Mailbag: Campaign sign ordinances appear overly restrictive

Removing campaign signs is as restrictive as eliminating televised local candidate debates. Who wants to deny citizens information about candidates?

Not Costa Mesa’s city’s staff, apparently.

I do favor having campaign signs removed on Nov. 9, 2016, or having city’s staff set a charge to remove them.

“Campaign managers, pay up!”

During the 2014 election campaign, I saw three men get out of a pickup truck in front of Chick-fil-A on Harbor Boulevard. They proceeded to remove candidate Jay Humphrey’s signs, then put up their own! It was a testimony to me not to trust those men, or for whomever they were campaigning.

No doubt the Daily Pilot will have to explain why Election Day is the second Tuesday in November this year. It gave me a start when I opened my new 2016 calendar.

Happy, New Election Year. It’s starting with a bang!

Corinne Stover

Costa Mesa

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Time to turn the tide on Poseidon

Could the tide be turning against the proposed Poseidon desalination plant in Huntington Beach? Yet another red flag was raised to the myriad number of threats to our coastal environment posed by this development project.

It is not just the harm to marine life posed by the once-through cooling system, the discharge of concentrated brine and chemicals, and other negative impacts associated with the plant’s operation.

It is not just the significant negative impacts to the local infrastructure and the community with the construction of the massive water transmission pipeline through the southeast Huntington Beach area.

It is not just the significant energy costs associated with the project. It is not just the outrageous rip-off to water-rate payers with the deal being foisted upon us by the Orange County Water District.

It is not just the fact that the project’s location sits near an earthquake fault that would destroy transmission of the plant’s product and damage the plant itself. Now, we must worry about sea-level rise and big storms. The risks are mounting just like the powerful waves we’ve been experiencing.

What will it take to wake up the elected and appointed officials who hold the fate of this project in their hands? It will certainly take public outcry to offset the massive investments by partisan and business special interests to politicians who are all too willing to put “profits over people.” If the tide is to be turned, it is up to the citizenry to help turn it with waves of opposition. It needs to happen in 2016.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach