Mailbag: Council must listen to residents’ ideas, too

In expressing thankfulness for our Costa Mesa city employees, Geoff West masterfully summed up the situation for us (“Community Commentary: I’m thankful for our wronged city employees,” Nov. 23).

He laid out the winding path that led us to the pathetic place where our city now finds itself and reminded us of the steps along the way.

We can only imagine the effects of our intrepid City Council’s latest scheme to dump our organizational structure in order to make us a charter city — the disastrous results of this in the charter cities of Bell and Vernon should be setting off alarms all across town.

Most of the folks on the current City Council haven’t lived here very long and may not fully understand how much we appreciate our employees. The work they do contributes enormously to making Costa Mesa a great place to live.

Hopefully the council will begin to listen to those who attend meetings and express their ideas, even if those ideas don’t fit the script that Councilman Jim Righeimer, et al, want us to follow.

Melissa Sweet

Costa Mesa