STEVE SMITH -- What’s Up?

Our neighbors, Lucille and Norm Fricker, had the right idea. On

election night Tuesday, they went to opening night at the opera.

I, on the other hand, ate dinner with Cay and the kids and went to the

Sutton Place Hotel in Newport Beach to interview John Campbell, our new

state Assemblyman. At 10:15 p.m., I wandered over to the Daily Pilot

newsroom, where the crew was putting the finishing touches on the

Wednesday edition.

It was there that I learned of the defeats by the slow-growth forces

in Newport Beach. Measure S, the Greenlight initiative, was cruising to

victory while the developer-backed Measure T was placing a May Day call.

Incumbent City Councilman Tom Thomson was not only voted out, he came

in third and last -- a loss some attribute to his inconsistency on the

Greenlight issue. But these days, it’s hard to tell.

The Thomson loss is as hard to explain as is the victory by Chris

Steel in the Costa Mesa City Council race. Steel ran on his tired, old

xenophobic platform -- which I interpret to mean that everyone of Latino

descent on the West Side will have to show proof of citizenship in order

to breathe Costa Mesa air.

At the candidate forum on Nov. 1, Steel repeated his platform and

added, “It’s not racism.” An interesting comment, considering no one that

night mentioned anything about racism.

So, I’ll make it clear to Steel and anyone else who voted for him

because of this platform plank: my Spanish-speaking friends and neighbors

on the West Side are not the boogeyman and you’d better be careful about

how you proceed with this housecleaning, because it is a very dangerous

and very tricky road.

But if Steel does follow through on his campaign promise and propose

that the city check for legal residency status before someone can rent an

apartment or benefit from a local charity, I am going to insist that he

follow this road all the way until it ends. I am going to insist that he

visit every Costa Mesa restaurant and check the residency status of every

employee.

I am going to insist that he do the same with every construction

company doing business in the city and every janitorial service, too,

including the one that cleans his City Hall office every night.

Because he has proposed this plan for so long and has undoubtedly

talked to many local business leaders about it, I’m sure he knows they’ll

be just fine with the city checking all of their employees on a regular

basis and kicking out the people who don’t produce the proper

documentation. Then, I want Steel to go into Costa Mesa’s public school

classrooms and start checking kids.

I’m sure that Steel’s constituents will approve of the big, new

bureaucracy that will be created by all this checking and rechecking.

Perhaps Steel is one of those politicians who never saw a $14-million

budget surplus he couldn’t spend.

Steel would also do well to consider the ramifications of closing the

job center. This is one West Side resident who has very clear memories of

life before the job center, and if Steel believes that the police are

going to round up the day laborers who will resume flagging down trucks

on Placentia Avenue if the center is closed, he’d better improve his

memory or earmark money for a much larger police force.

At the forum, Steel also said that Costa Mesa’s crime rate was

“abnormally high.” I don’t know to what other city Steel was comparing

Costa Mesa, but I’d like him to repeat that statement to Police Chief

Dave Snowden and get his reaction. The fact is, Costa Mesa does not have

an abnormally high crime rate and if Steel wants to scare off new

business and investment by making such false, irresponsible declarations,

he’s off to a good start.

So, the first action I’d like Steel to take as a responsible member of

the City Council is retract that irresponsible statement so that we don’t

lose business to our neighbors in Irvine, Santa Ana or Huntington Beach

who will surely use it against us.

I’m sorry if I don’t give Chris Steel a honeymoon. There are a couple

things on which we agree, but I don’t care much for pot-stirring,

juvenile comments such as the one that claims that the council’s policies

are “driving legal residents out.” That’s hogwash unless he wants to

produce the proof.

And to Joel Faris, who lost the council race: Please come back and try

again next time. Any man who first introduces himself in a candidate

forum as a husband and father is my kind of man. But don’t blame me next

election night if I tag along with the Frickers to the opera.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer. Readers

can leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (949) 642-6086.