Costa Mesa’s Council Voids Alien Policy

The Costa Mesa City Council late Tuesday voted to make voluntary a controversial policy barring city funds to groups that aid illegal aliens, a surprise action that in effect kills the measure for at least a year.

The council voted 3 to 2, with council members Orville Amburgey and Ed Glasgow dissenting, to make compliance of the policy voluntary, prompting cheers from representatives of nonprofit groups who attended the meeting.

The anti-alien funding policy, believed to be the first of its kind in the state, had attracted national attention and provoked a storm of protest.

Both supporters and opponents had predicted the policy would change the way that nonprofit groups operate in Orange County.

City officials had delayed forwarding contracts to organizations that were awarded city funds until several questions about the policy were answered.

Council Couldn’t Agree

The council was scheduled to debate which nonprofit groups would be subject to the measure, but council members could not agree on how the policy was to be implemented. Mayor Peter F. Buffa instead proposed that current one-year contracts be awarded and that organizations be asked to comply voluntarily with the policy.

Buffa’s motion was backed by council members Mary Hornbuckle and Sandra L. Genis, who opposed the measure when the council voted last month to withhold money from any groups, with the exception of health clinics, that help or support illegal aliens. Buffa previously had joined with Amburgey and Glasgow in supporting the ordinance.

“The problem with passing policies that are ill-conceived is that they are virtually impossible to implement, and that is what we are seeing,” Hornbuckle said. “I will vote in favor of making this voluntary but would urge that we vote to rescind it entirely.”

Amburgey, however, argued that the motion would virtually scuttle the policy.

“If we pass this motion, we effectively have rescinded the policy,” Amburgey said. “To ask organizations to voluntarily invoke the policy if they desire will mean little or no compliance and is somewhat ridiculous.”

Social service workers applauded the vote. “This is a great victory,” said Jean Forbath, executive director of Share Our Selves, a nonprofit agency that gives food, clothing and health services to the poor. “I think the current policy is dead because agencies have let the council know we would not sign contracts that included the policy.”

Scott Mather, chairman of both the SOS board and the Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force, said: “I am very pleased, obviously. I agree it was an ill-conceived policy and when the city sat down and looked at it, it saw that it was an unworkable policy. I commend the city in reevaluating its position and hopefully, it will think through future policies and not subject us to this divisiveness.”

Juan Garcia, spokesman for Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, said: “It feels good that we got this at least. We have been opposing this measure since they first came out with it.”

Garcia’s group earlier had called on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to withhold community block-grant funding to the city and called for a meeting Sept. 11 to discuss the issue, he said.

As written, the measure had threatened funding for such diverse groups as the Boys and Girls Club, the Feedback Foundation, the Harbor Area Adult Day-Care Center and the Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter.

Critics warned that the policy would create confusion and would be impossible to enforce. Calls from service organizations seeking clarification of the policy have flooded City Hall, city officials said.

Among questions asked most often is whether the council really intended the policy to apply to all nonprofit organizations that receive city funding. That would include grants for cable television, cultural arts and public service. Questions were also raised about whether the policy exempts organizations that provide medical or dental services as a part of their programs.

Last month the city awarded $121,350 in Community Development Block Grant funds to 35 public service organizations.

Block grant funds are given to cities and local governments by HUD, which issues guidelines for how the money can be used.

Currently, HUD officials are reviewing the Costa Mesa policy to determine if it is constitutional and if it violates federal anti-discrimination rules. The agency, in a letter sent to the mayor on Friday, has advised the city not to apply the policy to groups receiving block grant funds pending a ruling on the issue. Council members were unaware of that letter during Tuesday night’s discussion.

Costa Mesa City Manager Allan Roeder has said the city would not challenge a HUD ruling against the policy.

PROJECT DROPPED

A proposal to build a halfway house in Costa Mesa was withdrawn. Part II, Page 5