2016 in review: Eventful election and Trump-related dust-ups are among top stories of Costa Mesa’s year
A shift in the balance of power at City Hall, sweeping new rules approved at the ballot box, the dedication of a veterans museum, two Donald Trump-related controversies, a death sentence for one of the city’s most notorious criminals … 2016 had a bit of everything in Costa Mesa.
Here are some the top local stories from the past year, listed in chronological order:
Progress and a setback at fairgrounds
In March, the OC Fair & Event Center broke ground on a project to develop a veterans museum at the county fairgrounds. About eight months later, on Veterans Day, officials dedicated the new Heroes Hall.
The museum, in a former Army barracks that veterans and preservationists had lobbied to save from demolition, will offer year-round educational programs, performances and rotating exhibitions starting in February.
However, another fairgrounds project ran into trouble. An artistic memorial dedicated to agricultural workers remains closed to the public due to structural issues. The Daily Pilot reported in June that the “Table of Dignity” needed to be renovated to ensure it is structurally sound.
The Fair Board in September approved paying a Sacramento-based group $27,500 to come up with renovation plans and in December OK’d spending an additional $250,000 toward fixing the memorial.
The Fair Board approved the memorial concept in 2013 with an initial budget of $90,000.
Water and sanitary districts spar over merger idea
An April 22 letter from the Mesa Water District to the Costa Mesa Sanitary District touched off an ongoing war of words over the possibility of consolidating the agencies’ operations.
For much of the year, the districts sparred over whether such a union would bring operational or financial benefits to ratepayers. Mesa Water commissioned a study that concluded a merger could result in millions of dollars in one-time and annual savings, though the sanitary district strongly disputes those findings.
The battle made its way to the Nov. 8 ballot in the form of Measure TT, an advisory measure that passed with almost 55% of the vote. Mesa Water officials say they will continue to explore a merger, while sanitary district officials say they’re open to talking about how the districts can work together, but not about consolidation.
Vandalism mars protest after Trump rally
An evening that began with a campaign rally for presidential candidate Donald Trump at the OC Fair & Event Center ended in chaos as protesters spilled onto nearby streets, damaging police vehicles and snarling traffic.
The melee following the April 28 event at the Pacific Amphitheatre resulted in 17 arrests and prompted the Orange County Fair Board to adopt new policies to better manage and plan high-profile events.
The eventual president-elect’s campaign cut a $15,655 check to Costa Mesa City Hall to cover some of the costs of policing the rally.
Costa Mesa double-murderer sentenced to death
In September, an Orange County Superior Court judge affirmed a death sentence handed down by a jury in January for convicted double-murderer Daniel Wozniak.
Wozniak, 32, a community theater actor from Costa Mesa, was convicted in December 2015 of killing Sam Herr, 26, and his friend Juri “Julie” Kibuishi, 23, and carrying out a gruesome cover-up attempt that included beheading Herr’s body and staging Kibuishi’s body to look as though Herr had sexually assaulted her.
Wozniak carried out the slayings in May 2010 in an attempt to steal $62,000 that Herr had saved from his military service in Afghanistan. Wozniak is now in San Quentin State Prison.
PI in local spying case pleads guilty to 4 counts
Christopher Lanzillo, 46, a private investigator from Lake Arrowhead who prosecutors allege was trying to dig up dirt on three Costa Mesa council members during the city’s contentious 2012 election pleaded guilty in September to four felony counts related to the case.
Lanzillo admitted to two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime of unlawful use of an electronic tracking device, one count of false imprisonment by deceit and one count of conspiracy to commit a crime of falsely reporting a crime to an agency, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.
The counts stemmed from accusations that he illegally tracked then-Councilman Steve Mensinger and a lawyer and submitted a false drunk-driving report against Councilman Jim Righeimer. Prosecutors contend Lanzillo was trying to dig up dirt on Mensinger, Righeimer and then-Councilman Gary Monahan, who were feuding with Costa Mesa’s police union in the months before the November 2012 election.
A separate civil lawsuit filed by Mensinger and Righeimer against Lanzillo, the police association and its law firm at the time, alleging they harassed and intimidated them, is ongoing.
Sober-living homes continue to be an issue
In October, applications from sober-living home operators seeking permits necessary to comply with city ordinances restricting how close such facilities can be to one another began appearing regularly on Planning Commission agendas.
Many of the applications that went before the commission were delayed. In December, the City Council halted the reviews with the intent of evaluating the regulations, which have come under legal fire.
One legal battle ended in April when sober-living operator Solid Landings Behavioral Health agreed to shut down all of its local live-in facilities.
A separate lawsuit alleging that the city’s restrictions discriminate against recovering drug and alcohol addicts is ongoing.
Man accused of beating another to death outside condo complex
Ivan Chernev Dimov, 51, was charged with beating 53-year-old Kyle Avila to death with a hammer-hatchet Nov. 2 outside the Costa Mesa condominium complex where Dimov lived.
Avila was found dead in a parking area next to the Monticello complex in the 2300 block of Vanguard Way.
Dimov, who neighbors said is married with three children, has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge and remains in custody at Orange County Jail with bail set at $1 million.
City Council majority changes hands
Voters on Nov. 8 upended the balance of power on the City Council — ending more than five years of dominance by a voting bloc made up of Councilman Jim Righeimer and former members Gary Monahan, who was termed out of office, and Steve Mensinger, who lost his reelection bid.
Newly elected Councilman John Stephens and reelected member Sandy Genis, who is now mayor pro tem, are expected to form a new voting majority along with Mayor Katrina Foley.
Councilman Allan Mansoor won the third available seat in November’s election.
Genis and Stephens campaigned on similar platforms this year, with particular focus on public safety and restoring civility and cooperation at City Hall.
Mansoor has said he wants to revitalize blighted properties, particularly motels, and continue street repairs and improvements.
Voters pass growth, marijuana and Fairview Park measures
Costa Mesa voters in November approved by wide margins a pair of ballot measures that will give residents the ability to approve or deny some development projects in town or changes proposed for Fairview Park.
Measure Y requires voter approval of development projects that entail a general plan amendment or zoning change and would add 40 or more dwelling units or 10,000 or more square feet of commercial space on top of what already exists.
Measure AA requires voters’ OK for several changes that could be proposed at Fairview Park, such as extending its operating hours, installing additional lighting or building permanent structures. Maintenance, preservation and restoration work would not be subject to a public vote.
Also passing was the city-sponsored Measure X, which will allow businesses that research, test, process and manufacture some medical marijuana products to open in the industrial and manufacturing zone north of South Coast Drive and west of Harbor Boulevard.
City to move to district-based council elections
Future City Council elections will be held by districts after voters approved the move in November.
The adopted plan will increase the number of council members from five to seven. It will split Costa Mesa into six voting districts covering different parts of the city, with residents in each district electing one council member from that area to represent them. The plan also calls for the mayor to be elected by citywide vote.
Spurring the shift was the threat of a lawsuit alleging that the city’s traditional at-large voting system, in which all council members are elected by citywide vote, dilutes the ability of Latino residents to elect their preferred candidates.
City’s battles with motels continue
The Costa Mesa Motor Inn, a Harbor Boulevard motel derided by some as a hotbed for transients and illegal activity and defended by others as a last-resort source of lower-cost housing in the city, officially closed in November.
The motel’s owner hopes to eventually demolish the structure and replace it with 224 high-end apartments. But that project is tied up pending the outcome of a lawsuit by affordable-housing advocates and some former motel residents.
In April, the city filed a public-nuisance complaint in Orange County Superior Court aimed at forcing either the closure or cleanup of the New Harbor Inn, another motel on Harbor. The motel’s owners countered with a federal lawsuit alleging that the city has discriminated against them and their tenants and that efforts to close the motel violate their constitutional and civil rights.
Both cases are ongoing.
OCC professor’s anti-Trump comments stir controversy
Orange Coast College professor Olga Perez Stable Cox was recorded in class days after the Nov. 8 presidential election calling Donald Trump’s victory “an act of terrorism.”
A student secretly recorded Cox on video apparently referring to Trump as a “white supremacist” and Vice President-elect Mike Pence as “one of the most anti-gay humans in the country.”
The video went viral online, sparked on-campus demonstrations for and against the professor in December and resulted in fierce email and social media attacks against her and even threats of violence.
On Nov. 30, Seal Beach attorney Shawn Steel filed a complaint to college President Dennis Harkins on behalf of the Orange Coast College Republicans club over Cox’s “hate speech and bullying tactics.”
Staff writers Alex Chan and Hannah Fry contributed to this report.
Twitter: @LukeMMoney
