Jay Humphrey running again for Costa Mesa City Council

Two years after a razor-thin election left him on the outside looking in, longtime Costa Mesa resident Jay Humphrey said this week that he plans to again run for City Council in November.

The 69-year-old resident of the Mesa Verde neighborhood previously served on the council from 1990 to 1994 but suffered a narrow defeat in the 2014 election — falling 47 votes shy of now-Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer.

“It’s clear to me that I had an awful lot of very good and very dedicated volunteers, and they worked very hard to help me get elected,” said Humphrey, who has lived in Costa Mesa since 1978. “Unfortunately, we were just slightly shy of reaching our goal.”

He said his plan to change the result this time is to “work harder.”

Humphrey, a retired pharmaceutical distribution executive, is a member of Costa Mesans for Responsible Government and has served on the board of directors of the senior center.

He’s also working with another community organization, Costa Mesa First, to champion a growth-control initiative that would require some larger development proposals in the city to get approval from voters, not just the City Council. The measure also will be on November’s ballot.

“It allows Costa Mesans to actually vote on their own future, as opposed to a group of three council people,” Humphrey said when asked why he supports the effort.

Though he has specific issues he’d like to tackle if elected — including unsnarling local traffic, filling budgeted but vacant positions in the Costa Mesa police and fire departments and chipping away at the city’s unfundedpension liability — he said he also wants to bring a “lack of acrimony” to the council.

“I think the council majority has created an air in this city that is adversarial,” he said.

Humphrey pledged to “always have an ear to the residents of this community,” something he believes the current council majority — Righeimer, Mayor Steve Mensinger and Councilman Gary Monahan — doesn’t always do.

“If you’re not listening to the public, you are literally not doing your job,” Humphrey said. “I always like to think that I’m an ‘average Joe’ who kind of understands things, but there are 115,000 people in this city. And that sort of brainpower is so much greater than mine, no matter how you cut the mustard.”

Humphrey joins a field of council candidates that already includes fellow Mesa Verde resident John Stephens and Eastside resident Lee Ramos.

Three seats on the five-member council are up for grabs in this year’s election. Two are held by incumbents up for reelection — Mensinger and Councilwoman Sandy Genis.

Monahan is termed out of office.