A banner day for city hall gadflies

M.H. Millard

An article about banners in the city refers to me as a “council

gadfly” (“Banner will stay through season,” Wednesday). My dictionary

defines gadfly as a “usually intentionally annoying person who

stimulates or provokes others especially by irritating criticism.” In

the public mind, the term often conveys the picture of an individual

who shows up at meetings, perhaps wearing a pyramid hat, to rant and

rave about something that the person is fixated on or to criticize

just about everything just to be critical. It even conjures up a

picture of someone who is talking to the wonderful space brothers.

Although I do volunteer a lot of my time both officially (on

official city committees) and unofficially to help make Costa Mesa a

nicer place, I may not fit the popular definition of the term gadfly.

Let me explain.

Just before the City Council election about four years ago, a

number of us in the city, who felt the city was on the wrong track,

decided to see if we could help make Costa Mesa a nicer place to

live. Our method was to become active in the community and to closely

watch what was being done in our local government and to offer our

suggestions where and when appropriate. I believe most of these

activists would probably agree with me that government is of, by and

for the people. It is not them and us. We are part of it and we need

to stay engaged and we need to participate. The political process is

a contact sport. One either takes the field to try to move things in

the right direction or one is left to whine after the fact about how

“powerless” citizens are.

Improvement-minded residents then looked for political candidates

who shared our view that Costa Mesa should be a nicer place. We first

helped one person, who virtually no one thought was electable, get

elected. Two years later we did the same thing again. Along the way,

many of these improvement-minded residents (including me) volunteered

their time for various city committees and in many other ways, time

permitting, consciously worked for a better city.

Of course, trying to help the city be nicer isn’t just a one shot

deal. Every time the City Council meets, something important about

this city is discussed and decided upon. It behooves residents to

attend these meetings and to speak out on various important issues if

they want to help shape our city. Those who don’t participate may not

know what the City Council is doing and may be surprised by what has

been done. For example, many residents seemed to wake up one day a

few months ago and the 1901 Newport project had been passed by the

City Council. Suddenly, some residents started complaining that the

City Council had somehow sneaked something by these residents.

Nonsense. I knew about the project more than a year before it was

passed and frequently spoke about it. These other residents could

have also known had they simply been taking part in making this a

nicer city.

I spoke to a resident the other day who was complaining about

various problems in his neighborhood. He went on and on about this or

that and how the city doesn’t do anything and how he was fed up and

that he had seen these problems for a long time.

I finally asked him if he had ever attended a City Council

meeting. He hadn’t. I asked if he could name even one City Council

member. He couldn’t. I then pointed out that he lived about a street

away from a City Council member.

I suspect there are too many residents standing out there howling

at the moon instead of trying to solve problems. The most relevant

government is city government. It is where residents can really make

a difference. Sometimes when you try to make things nicer you are

called names such as gadfly. That’s just part of the political dance.

Some don’t want to see the city improved and others have various

political agendas and biases or have different ideas about what is

best for the city. Some will try to stop you from speaking out with

name-calling. If you’re so timid that you can be intimidated by a

little name calling, then perhaps you shouldn’t take part in local

government.

The story got it right about my comments on the proposed banner

ordinance. While everyone was focusing on banners, per se, the

Administrative Services, Department/Parks and Recreation Division

slipped a definition of “athletic field” into the ordinance that now

makes virtually every piece of ground owned, leased or used by the

city into an athletic field. The lawn in front of City Hall even

seems to come under the definition of an athletic field. This overly

broad definition may spell trouble for those who want quiet,

attractive residential neighborhoods. Under this proposed ordinance,

the city can pack sports into every schoolyard and park in the city

along with large banners hanging off the fences. And, many of those

playing these sports may not even be from Costa Mesa. If nongadflies

suddenly find that they have sports events of all types, including

semi-professional soccer games played by those from distant cities,

in the park next door, and if these nongadflies look out their

windows and see large commercial banners instead of trees, they

shouldn’t whine. It’ll be too late. They should have been gadflies

when they had a chance to change the outcome.

* M.H. MILLARD is a Costa Mesa resident.