Civility Counts for Officials Too

To look on the bright side: If matters had really gotten out of hand at the Santa Ana City Council meeting one night last week, help was nearby. The council was assembled in the community room at police headquarters.

Accounts differ, but Councilmen Brett Franklin and Ted R. Moreno do agree there was physical contact between them in a hallway. Moreno described it as bumping shoulders. Franklin portrayed it as a “hockey check,” with Moreno throwing his right arm and hip into Franklin’s side.

To the maxim that all politics are local, one could add that all local politics gets the blood of participants stirring. But while passions can run high in politics, there’s no excuse for personal attacks, verbal or physical. There has to be at least a minimum level of civility.

The Franklin-Moreno brouhaha occurred after a heated argument about transforming a space in the city’s transportation center from a leased gift shop into a jobs center. Moreno was against it, but the other council members approved the change.

This is the sort of issue that local officials must deal with all the time. They need to be able to resolve differences through the art of compromise, not conflict.

After the dispute, the council meeting ended early and abruptly. One council member left in tears. Franklin vowed to seek criminal assault charges against Moreno and said he wanted a temporary restraining order. Those orders usually specify a minimum distance a person served must maintain from the one seeking the order. That’s apt to be a short distance at a council meeting. Franklin said Moreno needed psychiatric testing; Moreno said it was Franklin who had a screw loose.

Santa Ana police wisely decided they could not be in the position of investigating council members for conduct at a council meeting and referred the matter to the county district attorney’s office. Several people who attended the meeting, but who have opposed Moreno in the past, said Franklin’s version of what happened was the correct one.

With Santa Ana not short of problems to solve, the council has more important things to do than fight. Franklin is 36; Moreno is 30.

Time to act as grown-up elected representatives.