Date Conflict Delays O.C.’s Border Summit

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr. has postponed a November conference of California and Mexican mayors in Orange County to avoid a conflict with a similar meeting in Miami.

When Pulido organized the meeting, called Hands Across the Border, for Nov. 14 to 17, he was not aware of the Miami mayor’s Summit of the Americas scheduled for Nov. 17 to 19, said Jill Arthur, Pulido’s assistant.

Pulido decided it was best to postpone his meeting to Feb. 14 to 16, Arthur said.

“When the mayor learned that the Miami mayor is hosting a huge hemispheric summit and that some of the Mexican mayors we invited were having to make choices, he decided to defer our conference to the Miami mayor,” Arthur said.

Pulido expects to draw mayors, business leaders and financiers from Mexico and California in an effort to improve political and business ties across the border.

Relations between California and Mexico were strained, officials say, by the passage of Proposition 187, an attempt to deny public schooling and government services to illegal immigrants. As a result, California was perceived as anti-immigrant and Mexican leaders were unwilling to do business here.

Organizers hope the conference, which will be held in Irvine, Santa Ana, Long Beach and Anaheim, will encourage trade and integrate the two economies.