Letters to the Editor: Councilman Allan Mansoor should take a leave of absence until state resolves residency issue

I am a 16-year resident of Costa Mesa. I am writing to voice my concern about the new information regarding Councilman Allan Mansoor’s residency (“Legal complaint questions Costa Mesa Councilman Allan Mansoor’s residency”). I urge Mayor Sandra Genis and the council to urge Mansoor to take an unpaid leave of absence until this legal issue is reviewed and resolved with the state attorney general’s office.

I assure you that this is nothing personal or some kind of manufactured political attack. Mansoor has been nothing but cordial to me personally. Rather, this is about the fact that he may not have complied with the rule of law — a council person must reside within the city they govern during their term. Our leaders are not above the law.

There is a saying, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” Where I come from, that means that you do whatever you need to do to get whatever is most important to you. If the most important thing to you happens to be to maintain a council seat, you do whatever you need to do to comply by living in that city.

This is a case where there was simply not the will to maintain the council seat. Mansoor perhaps had other priorities — perhaps it was a will to save money while on the apartment hunt, perhaps it was a will to keep his family more comfortable, living with extended family, during a transition.

These are all completely noble, humane reasons to move out of the district — many of us would have made the same choice. It is completely understandable for family or finances to come first. However, a law-abiding person would resign their council seat once it was clear that they were no longer living in the city.

For example, Isabelle Kerins, my former neighbor, recently resigned graciously from her Planning Commission seat once it was clear that she had sold her primary home and no longer resided full-time on our street. Mansoor should do the same.

Furthermore, if he has indeed been voting while not a resident for months, this potentially opens the city up to serious litigation. It is simply too big of a risk to allow him to vote on any items moving forward. This is a very serious allegation and needs to be resolved.

Leah Ersoylu

Costa Mesa

Editor’s note: A version of this letter was addressed to the City Council and republished, with editing, by the Daily Pilot with the author’s permission.

Opposition to ‘sanctuary’ is ungodly

Citizens of Costa Mesa buy and consume vegetables and fruits that are picked by thousands of undocumented farm laborers. In addition, citizens of Costa Mesa have undocumented workers maintaining their lawns and landscaping. Many others hire undocumented nannies.

Being declared a sanctuary state has nothing to do with preventing ICE from arresting an undocumented person who has committed a crime, but that we have to search out and arrest undocumented persons who continue to serve us in back-breaking labor that many of us would not survive, and for pay which we would consider beneath us, is simply inhumane.

And for a people that swears allegiance to the nation “under God,” disagreeing with California’s sanctuary policy is contrary to the identity of the “God” that was intended when that phrase was added to our Pledge of Allegiance in 1954.

Dennis Okholm

Costa Mesa

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