Costa Mesa considers pulling out of filming candidate forums

The Costa Mesa City Council will be considering a recommendation Tuesday for City Hall staff not to promote, broadcast or tape this coming year's council candidate debates, like those hosted by the Eastside Costa Mesa Neighbors' Group, pictured here in 2014.

Dec. 30, 2015 5:50 PM PT

Costa Mesa city staff may not be participating in filming or promoting any of the City Council candidate debates this year.

During its Jan. 5 meeting, the council will consider a recommendation not to use City Hall video production resources for the privately run events, or make footage of them available on the city’s website or public-access television station.

Staff and the city attorney’s office are suggesting the measure, with the intent of distancing themselves from the election process and becoming more politically neutral.

There was also the feeling, according to a city staff report, that “with the new technology available today, there are many alternatives and options available for city residents to view the various forums without involvement of city staff.”

Spokesman Tony Dodero said the city does not feel it is its role to get involved in the process.

“We don’t want to be in that position,” he said. “Our recommendation is that it’s better, because of the sensitive political nature of this upcoming election, that we stay out of it altogether.”

What City Hall did and did not film became an issue in 2014.

That August, city officials said they would not tape and air a candidate forum hosted by the Eastside Costa Mesa Neighbors’ Group. City Hall made that call at the advice of its special counsel in charge of election issues. Others accused the Eastside group of having its own bias against the council majority, led by then-Mayor Jim Righeimer.

City Hall did film Mesa Verde Community Inc.’s debate and the Feet to the Fire Forum, which the Daily Pilot sponsored with the Orange County Register and Voice of OC. At the time, city officials also said they worked those debates to honor their prior agreements to do so.

The Eastside group, they said, did not arrange far in advance to have their event taped.

Denise Moon, a director with the Eastside Costa Mesa Neighbors Group, said last year that City Hall’s decision not only seemed “biased, [but] they actually had to pay a lawyer to tell them that it was OK for them to do this.”

The forum “is not a political event,” she added. “It’s purely an opportunity for the candidates to speak.”