New mayor needs to learn common...

New mayor needs to learn common sense

I agree with the Daily Pilot editorial, “Mayor must be there for

the city,” (Dec. 8) but have some serious doubts as to whether she is

the person who will be able to unify a Costa Mesa City Council that

has not been cohesive in the past.

I base that largely on the comment Mayor Karen Robinson made after

her surprising win of the mayoral seat. Councilman Gary Monahan was

actually the one next in line to be mayor, and I’m sure he was

shocked, disappointed and hurt that his fellow council people did not

give him the honor to which, by tradition, he was entitled.

How did Robinson handle the diplomacy of that sticky situation?

Her comment after being selected mayor was: “I am happy that the city

and its leaders can select people based on their qualifications,

which is what I think happened here.” Ouch!

Unless she quickly develops some common-sense “people” skills, I’d

say we are all in for a long year.

ANGELA GALLAGHER

Costa Mesa

Taylor’s campaign was upfront and well run

It is bad enough that Bonnie Agar wrote the Daily Pilot

complaining City Council candidates should stop “bellyaching” about

losing their races, but then to make the uneducated statement that

candidate Richard Taylor ran a poor campaign is really over the edge

(“Mailbag,” Dec. 22).

She has no idea what kind of a campaign Taylor waged, but I do. He

organized a committee of competent and proven leaders from our

community who donated an enormous amount of their time, met weekly

for months, and who steadily worked hard to put forth an honest and

compelling campaign.

Taylor walked the streets introducing himself and his goals. He

stood outside of supermarkets talking with all who would listen. He

had an army of volunteers who walked the streets with his campaign

literature.

What he did not have was an unethical consultant, unlimited

funding by out-of-town developers and underhanded tricks to play on

an unsuspecting public.

CATHY GRAMMER

Newport Beach

District attorney won’t take up council ethics

I don’t believe for one second that the Orange County district

attorney’s office, with its own lack of ethics and integrity issues

(currently under investigation by the states’ attorney general), can

or will do anything about the Newport Beach City Council’s lack of

ethics and integrity. To me, the real issue here is be careful whom

you vote into office and what happens when the majority of registered

voters don’t vote. Mark Petracca is correct: “It shows a profound

disregard for the integrity of the electoral process.”

What the residents of Newport Beach should be doing is attending

City Council meetings and e-mailing the council with their concerns

and issues. The City Council should immediately discuss and pass

Councilman John Heffernan’s conflict-of-interest policy.

BARBARA JOHNSON

Newport Coast

Hiring of Ellis displays lack of integrity

If Newport Beach City Councilman Gary Adams had given explicit

instructions to Dave Ellis to run a clean campaign, why did Ellis, a

businessman, spend his own money to prepare a phony phone message,

reserve a mailbox at a telemarketing service center and pay for the

distribution of messages in advance if there were no chance that

Adams would ever use it. It doesn’t ring true.

Why did Adams even hire Ellis, who was known to have used

deceptive tactics, including phony phone messages, in the previous

Bromberg campaign, if he wanted a squeaky-clean campaign?

The real issue is integrity in government. Serving on the City

Council requires high integrity, and the support of a dirty tactics

campaign should disqualify him from serving on the council.

Even if Adams had 90% of the vote, the fact that he engaged a

consultant known to have used deceptive tactics in the past shows

that he has no integrity. The messages did impact the election. Their

main purpose was to disgust the supporters of Greenlight so they

would stay away from voting. The phony phone messages did impact the

outcome of the election, and Adams should resign so a new election

can be held.

TOM BILLINGS

Newport Beach

* TOM BILLINGS is a new member of the Greenlight Steering

Committee.