Going for a second term after 22-year wait for his first

Deirdre Newman

The rabid, anti-communist sentiment in the 1950s permeated the world

that Chris Steel grew up in, permanently shaping his political

outlook on life.

He remembers watching the Joe McCarthy hearings on TV as a child

and witnessing anti-communist fervor in his neighborhood and school.

“Joe was my kind of idol,” Steel said. “That was the big thing.”

Steel’s conservative values were embedded young, and he hasn’t

wavered. The incumbent city councilman is running for reelection in

November and is sticking to his core goals of trying to improve the

city’s environment, schools, security, property values and fiscal

integrity.

“What I’m trying to do [on the council] is not being

accomplished,” Steel said. “If I win, I’m not sure I will have two

more votes to do what I want to do.”

And one of them is his familiar refrain of eliminating charities,

like Save Our Selves, from the Westside.

“That charity is a major problem for why the Westside has an image

problem,” Steel said. “They’re doing what everyone should be doing in

the moral, scriptural sense, but it’s incompatible with good schools,

low crime and [high] property values because of conditions resulting

from them being here.”

He suggests removing Save Our Selves and the Soup Kitchen, another

Westside charity, from the city and having them relocate to central

Orange County “so everyone can benefit.”

Steel was born in Pittsburgh and came to Costa Mesa in 1972. He

has worked as an educational, political and financial consultant and

as an East Coast admissions representative for Hiram Scott College in

Nebraska. In 1969, he was assigned to California to oversee the

college’s western admissions program.

His first attempt at getting a seat on the council dais was in

1978. He proceeded to run every two years except 1988 and 1990.

Twenty-two years after his first effort, he was finally elected.

Four years ago, he spent only $26,000 and did his own mailings.

“I’m my own campaign manager,” Steel said.

On his campaign statement finance form, he declared that he will

spend less then $1,000 and receive less than $1,000 in donations as

well. One donation he did accept was for $125 from the Manufactured

Housing Educational Trust, a Laguna Hills organization that

represents owners of mobile-home parks in various issues relating to

the parks.

“They said, ‘We agree with you on rent control,’” he said. “Since

[they] agree with me and not vice versa, I’ll cash it.”

Another goal he has been frustrated with not being able to

accomplish is the job center, a place on the Westside where day

laborers congregate and wait for people to hire them. He wanted to

get rid of the job center, or at least limit it to day workers and

businesses from Costa Mesa. But that didn’t fly with the rest of the

council.

“No other city, not even Santa Ana, has one,” Steel said. “It’s

well-run, but no one wants to talk about these problems because they

don’t want to be depicted as racist.”

Slumlords are another target Steel would like to see the city

address more forcefully.

“We should do whatever it takes legally to expose slumlords,” he

said.

Despite what people may think about him, Steel wants it known that

he does not harbor any racist feelings.

“Discrimination or racism is not in my background,” he said. “It’s

not in my head, not in my heart. It’s not in my heritage. Intolerance

is growing in the electorate as a result of the City Council’s

ignoring current conditions.”