Mayor and Senator both deserve thanks

“Ask and ye shall receive,” they say. Sure, but it depends on who you ask.

When the water-logged soil underpinning Bluebird Canyon slipped last June 1, besieged city officials naturally thought first to ask for help from the government agencies that are charged with responding to natural disasters.

It seemed amazing at the time, and still does, that residents who were knocked out of bed when their homes fell off their foundations managed to escape with only minor bumps and bruises down a still-falling hillside.

That was surely more than a minor miracle. After the land settled a bit, and the entire Bluebird community was evacuated with no lives lost, planning for how to make the area whole again could begin.

It seemed a no-brainer. Land had slid, homes were destroyed, an entire small neighborhood was gone.

The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were duly contacted, and both sent their representatives out to survey the damage.

The state geologist determined that the damage was done much earlier that year, when record rainfall accumulated, causing a 100-foot-deep slip in the hilly area. Therefore, the damage could be covered by the federal disaster proclamation of January and February, which guaranteed assistance to local governments struggling to cope with fallout from the rains.

But federal officials demurred.

No, they said ? giving no explanation ? the Bluebird Canyon landslide did not emanate from two months of record rains. It’s your problem to fix it, they told city officials.

Making matters worse, the area had just lost its influential Congressman, Chris Cox, who had been appointed to head the Securities and Exchange Commission at a most unfortunate time. Cox was no longer in a position to bring the issue the attention it deserved on Capitol Hill. His chair was empty.

Facing a restoration bill of $10 million or more, Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider ? a staunch Republican ? took it upon herself to make a personal plea to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat.

Feinstein not only listened, she came out to survey the damage personally, and by all accounts took a hands-on approach to seeing that the right thing was done.

Feinstein broke the logjam, and the city will now receive what it needs to restore the area and make it safe for the future.

Feinstein has earned herself new fans in Republican circles in Laguna Beach, and she probably deserves a key to the city.

Just as Feinstein deserves a big thank-you, Pearson-Schneider should be also be applauded for taking the issue to the right person.

It not only pays to know people in high places ? it pays to ask.