Group thinking works for council

Here’s some advice for the new council in Costa Mesa to consider.

Stop going backward.

Or even worse, stop going back and forth.

Two years ago, the council decided in its wisdom to do away with

the group-think selection process for planning commissioners and

instead gave each council member one appointee.

The plan hasn’t been a bad one when you consider the results.

New council members Katrina Foley and Eric Bever were appointees,

as was Bruce Garlich, who came within a whisper of being elected to

the council himself.

It seems the council doesn’t do a bad job of picking future

leaders.

But earlier this month, the new council decided to go back to the

old way of doing things and choose appointees to city commissions by

a vote of the entire council rather than one member selecting his or

her preferred candidate.

So why go backward and scuttle that process?

The proponents of the group-think process say their procedures

will avoid cronyism.

Nobody wants that, of course, but what is necessarily wrong with

individual council members picking appointees who share their values

and views?

Here’s what we had to say about it in February of 2003, when the

council changed the process then:

“The change to direct appointment will solve a nagging problem in

Costa Mesa: disagreement between the Planning Commission and the City

Council.

Lately, too much time has been taken up with re-hearings and

overturning votes.

Having planners and council members on the same page will

eliminate this -- and if it doesn’t, then a simple firing will do the

job.

The change also will hold council members -- and indirectly,

voters -- more accountable. If a council members’ appointee is doing

a terrible job, it will be easy to point the finger at the right

place.

Political heat can be put to council members to make changes

happen.

Cronyism, in other words, works in residents’ favor by bringing

the deals out from the back rooms. We’ll know who’s with whom.

We believe the process was fine, but, obviously, we don’t make

city policy.

Our next suggestion then is that the council continue to appoint

planning commissioners who have the potential to be council leaders.

The two we recommend are Garlich and Mirna Burciaga.

Garlich’s close election proves that the electorate has great

faith in the decisions he’s already made on the Planning Commission,

and he deserves more chances.

Burciaga, who had a good showing in her first run for council in

November, has done a good job on the Parks and Recreation Commission,

and as a vocal member of the Latino and business community. We

believe hers is a voice that needs to be heard.

We urge the council to put both Garlich and Burciaga high on the

list of appointees.

In our way of thinking, that would be one big step forward.