Mayor wants another vote on Home Ranch money

Deirdre Newman

Parts of the city’s plan to have the Segerstrom family form two

foundations to distribute $2 million in education funds from the Home

Ranch project are not palatable to Mayor Karen Robinson.

So on Monday, Robinson will ask the council to reconsider its

decision.

On Jan. 21, the council voted 3-1, with Allan Mansoor dissenting,

to approve the creation of two educational foundations -- one for

Costa Mesa High School and one for Estancia High School and TeWinkle

Middle School. Robinson missed the vote because of a planned trip to

a mayor’s conference in Washington, D.C.

Robinson said she is asking for another consideration of the

matter for two reasons -- because she thinks the foundations should

be subject to the state’s open meeting laws and because she wants the

selection process for the directors to be open to the entire city.

“Since the funds made available under the development agreement

are to be used for public education, the opportunity to participate

in the decision-making process regarding the expenditure of those

funds must be open to all Costa Mesa residents,” Robinson said in her

application for the rehearing.

The Segerstrom family offered the $2 million years ago to sweeten

the deal for its massive project on the property bordered by the San

Diego Freeway, Fairview Road, Harbor Boulevard and Sunflower Avenue.

The foundations would include between five and 15 board members,

with the directors electing their successors. The foundations would

not have to adhere to the strict open meeting rules governing city

councils, passed under the state’s Brown Act, but their meetings

would have to be open to the public and publicized at the schools.

Meetings on legal issues and fund-raising could be held in closed

session.

Councilman Gary Monahan said the money was in limbo for so long

that he would just like to have the issue resolved once and for all.

“I’ll just have to wait and see what she has to say,” Monahan

said. “The issue’s getting old, so we should just get it over with.”