MAILBAG:

Ever since Allan Mansoor dropped his year-end bombshell by stating he was stepping down as mayor, the Internet has been white-hot with speculation, accusation and pontification.

The intensity of comments on the Daily Pilot blog and others has increased since Mansoor nominated pal Eric Bever as mayor and the majority — including Mansoor’s running mate last year, Wendy Leece — elected him. Linda Dixon went along for the ride in a show of harmony. When Bever, in his first official act, nominated Mansoor as mayor pro tem you could almost hear the eyebrows raising all around town.

The transparency of this “power sharing” arrangement was so overt that it was clear the majority didn’t really care if it looked suspicious.

Following that event more than a few people around town began to wonder about just how these moves were orchestrated, and speculation about Brown Act violations began to be heard.

The Brown Act was passed to ensure transparency in government — keep public policy from being decided behind locked doors in the proverbial smoke-filled rooms.

In this case, if a council majority discussed this decision privately before it was debated on the dais, that probably constituted a Brown Act violation.

I don’t know whether it was, but Bever has demonstrated a propensity to play fast and loose with those rules in the past, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this were yet another example.

Also of great interest was the way Councilwoman Katrina Foley was pilloried by the bloggers for her absence from the meeting on Jan. 2 at which the change of command took place.

Charges have ranged from malfeasance to disinterest, and all are bogus claims. Foley, probably the hardest-working council member on the dais, had arranged for a family ski vacation at a time when her husband — a teacher — and her school-age sons were on the winter break from school.

Mansoor’s announcement of his intention to abdicate his throne occurred after her arrangements had been made.

To criticize her being absent from this meeting is pure political posturing by the core supporters of the majority as part of their strategy to derail Foley’s run for reelection later this year.

It’s even more ludicrous because her vote would have been inconsequential.

Mansoor’s majority had the plan, and the votes. Managing Editor Brady Rhoades, in a commentary a couple weeks ago, discussed the level of vitriol currently being displayed on the Daily Pilot blog and implied that we hadn’t really seen the worst.

If that’s the case, I feel sorry for the editorial staff who must sort that stuff out and decide which comments are fit for public consumption.

If the items being displayed on the Mansoor abdication and Foley absence issues are examples, I think they need to tighten up the sieve a little.

And, more important, require some kind of registration so individuals may be held accountable for their comments.

The anonymous comments posted clearly permit the very worst side of people to be exhibited without accountability.

In my view, this only detracts from the debate of important issues and, as one commenter said, permit the rabble to control the discussion.

Without some kind of accountability — similar to that required when submitting this essay, for example — the Daily Pilot becomes the sponsor of what amounts to a spitting contest between anonymous cowards unwilling to take responsibility for their comments and those of us who willingly provide our views — and our names.

The liability issues remain the same, regardless the forum. The online readers of the Daily Pilot are entitled to better.

GEOFF WEST

Costa Mesa

Tim Salmon, former Angel, truly a swell guy

Having lived on the same street as Tim Salmon’s sometimes beach house in Newport Beach for the last 10 years, I had the pleasure of meeting him in August of last year.

In one of my daily treks to a Circle K, I was walking by his house when I saw this really tall guy in the garage and said to myself, “I bet that’s him.”

I proceeded to the store and told myself that if he were still in the garage on my way back, I would walk up to him and introduce myself as a neighbor.

Coming back I was surprised that he was still there in the garage, and I found myself walking into his garage and asking if he was in fact Tim Salmon.

His reply was, “I am.” I told him I was a neighbor, and he put out his hand to shake mine.

He told me he was getting ready to drive back to Arizona, where he lives most of the time because his four kids were getting ready to start school.

He also told me that he frequents his “beach house” in Newport quite often. When he retired from the Angels baseball team, it was said that he was one of the nicest people to play the game in a long time and that personally he was a class act.

I only spent a few minutes with him, but I got the impression that he is a person of character, one with high ideals and really a heck of a nice guy.

I mean, what other high-profiled sports figure would extend his hand to a guy off the street who meanders into his garage?

Bill Spitalnick

Newport Beach

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