FAIR GAME:Moving forward after the elections

Hopefully you’ve missed me. I’ve missed you.

Following the elections last month, I’ve sort of sat back and dissected what’s happened in our cities.

Let’s start with Costa Mesa. The people have spoken, and their support of Mayor Allan Mansoor and former school board member and parks and recreation Commissioner Wendy Leece came through loud and clear.

I’m not going to make any bones about it. We as a newspaper didn’t support the Mansoor-Leece slate.

Some people, including one of my biggest critics, Martin H. Millard, have chastised me and us for not only missing this year’s slate, but also for not picking Mansoor in his first run or Chris Steel before him.

If endorsing were only so easy. In the endorsement process we’re not attempting to pick the winners, as they do in a horse race. We’re looking for candidates who we feel will best serve our community. We make our choice and put it in print for all to see. People either like it and accept it, or dislike it and criticize us.

We then must live with our selections. It’s often painful, but it’s a job newspapers are responsible for.

So does that mean we don’t like Mansoor and Leece? Quite the contrary.

I respect Mansoor and was happy that he was elected mayor of Costa Mesa for a second term. In my mind, given the council make-up, he was far and away the best choice.

And I’m intent on working on the relationship between us, the newspaper, and Mansoor and Leece. In fact, today we have lunch to begin building that process.

My hope is that we can get on the same path, to represent and to report to the community.

Leece comes from a newspaper family and understands the role of the newspaper. In the past, in her service with the school board and the parks and recreation commission, she’s never shied away from talking with our news staff. In fact, I would say Leece has, in many ways, been a friend of the paper over the years.

I also believe that she is open to people’s ideas and thoughts.

Mansoor, on the other hand, hasn’t always appreciated what our pages have reported. We’ve been critical of some of his decisions in the past, primarily as they related to illegal immigrants and the understanding of his opinions.

But as I said earlier, the people have spoken, and we as a newspaper need to make certain that, in our reporting moving forward, we allow Mansoor’s voice to be heard clearly.

For example, we recently reported on an illegal immigrant felon arrested in Costa Mesa. Our one source for comment was Councilwoman Katrina Foley, who certainly is a capable spokesperson for city issues. However, in this situation we should have first gone to Mansoor and gotten his comments. It was an issue he’s championed, and he deserved to be at least the first voice to comment on the arrest.

We’ve talked about it in the newsroom and will correct this in future reporting.

In Newport Beach, I would say that the election went pretty much as I expected it to.

I was probably most vocal in that election with the so-called dirty politics of Dave Ellis and Councilwoman Leslie Daigle. Ellis is a political consultant who has helped several local candidates win office, though his campaign tactics have raised questions in the past.

As we do in this business, we report and comment and then move ahead.

Following the election, Daigle and I met soon afterward to go over any issues we had to resolve. She was gracious in her handling of the situation. I hope that the result will be that Daigle becomes a better representative for her community.

One observation from the campaign. Following my column criticizing her, she put her head down and walked precincts, met with people and listened to their thoughts and ideas.

Meanwhile, Dave Ellis and I are meeting next week for lunch. There’s no question that Ellis knows how to get people elected. I’ve just disagreed at times with the method.

Next steps for Newport Beach are expected to be Councilman Steve Rosansky moving to the big chair as mayor. He now becomes the seasoned veteran.

I hope both councils are able to work effectively together moving forward. There’s lots to be done.