Predicting a somewhat calmer debate

BYRON DE ARAKAL

Somewhere in Costa Mesa, a Chamber of Commerce-led conclave of city

residents and business types is huddled up braining over any number

of solutions to retool and relocate the Costa Mesa Job Center.

There’s hand wringing going on among some Job Center antagonists

that Ed Fawcett -- the able president of the city’s chamber -- is the

wrong guy to be heading up the group. His vocal opposition to the

City Council’s decision to get out of the employment-facilitating

business and to ship the center to some other region of town stirs

worries that he’ll fudge on the council’s directive.

I don’t share the worry. Fawcett is a bright guy and certainly

understands the practical and political reality hanging over the Job

Center. I’m wagering that Fawcett and the panel will cook up

something that will satisfy the council.

One caveat to the group, however: If the city remains in any way

involved (which it shouldn’t), there must be a mechanism in place to

ensure that the employment transactions the center facilitates are

legal, that workers are adequately covered under workers’

compensation, and that the appropriate income and payroll taxes are

withheld.

That aside, whatever emerges at the other end of the process

(presumably sometime in August) will get the rubber glove exam from

the council and will be the subject again -- I’m sure -- of a molten

debate.

Remember that last time a cavalry of lawyers and boosters of the

Latino community attempted to brand the City Council’s move to nix

the Job Center as anti-Latino and anti-immigrant. And others who

supported the council’s position were tagged racists.

Next time around I’m not expecting to see the intellectually lazy

but nonetheless inflammatory rouse of racism. We have Vincente Fox,

president of Mexico, to thank for that.

Two Fridays ago, Fox blasted new U.S. immigration policies

extending a wall along the California-Mexico border and placing

tougher requirements on illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s

licenses. In his rant against U.S. policy, Fox argued that Mexican

immigrants do the work that not even blacks want to do.

Nice.

To his credit, Fox apologized, though not quickly and not until

Jesse Jackson showed up on the porch of his hacienda with a

Vince-we-need-to-talk look on his face. Nonetheless, Fox’s

race-tainted tongue stumble should not be lost on Job Center

advocates who may be tempted to club some council members as

anti-Latino. The race card doesn’t play well no matter where you sit

at the poker table.

Our last bit of business occurs in Newport Beach. Mayor Steve

Bromberg, the beach city’s second-term council member, received an

appointment to the bench of the Orange County Superior Court by Gov.

Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bromberg will resign his District 5 City

Council seat sometime in June. Bromberg’s gain -- which he deserves

-- is Newport’s loss.

But there’s a bit of Newport-Mesa deja vu in Bromberg’s

appointment. You’ll recall that in 2003, Karen Robinson -- then mayor

of Costa Mesa -- was appointed to be a judge on the Orange County

Superior Court by Gov. Gray Davis.

Is a trend emerging? I mean, Newport Beach City Councilman Tod

Ridgeway is a former Los Angeles County criminal defense attorney,

Councilman John Heffernan is a real estate lawyer, and Councilman

Steve Rosansky is also an attorney. Costa Mesa City Councilwoman

Katrina Foley is an employment and labor-law attorney.

Intriguing isn’t it? And also improbable.

* BYRON DE ARAKAL is a writer and public affairs consultant who

lives in Costa Mesa. Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily

Pilot hotline at (714) 966-4664 or contact him at

[email protected].