Opponents question Ficker’s single-mindedness about the site, arguing the land, which was once promised as a park, shouldn’t be thrown away when there are other viable locations for a city hall.
Measure B, which would amend the city charter to require the next city hall to be built next to the library, will go to a vote of the people Feb. 5. The measure has led to heated public battles in the editorial pages of the Daily Pilot and a lawsuit questioning the legality of the ballot initiative.
2Immigration
From January to December, immigration issues managed to persistently bubble to the top of the fold this political season.
Indeed, controversy started at the get-go of 2007, with Costa Mesa City Council members authorizing the placement of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in the city jail — vested with the powers of deporting any illegal immigrants under his purview. In the first year of the policy, 520 non-citizens were identified by the agent, and 360 deported. Of those deported, 12 were arrested in Costa Mesa again in 2007.
Local leaders took their politics to the national stage as well, with some Costa Mesa City Council members sending a letter to the White House, urging President Bush to enforce existing immigration laws and reject a Senate bill offering some such immigrants a path to citizenship.
“My concern is that the president is walking away from his duty and hasn’t been enforcing the existing laws,” Councilman Eric Bever said at the time.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher also had some words of his own for Bush’s immigration reform, saying the plan would “increase the overall flow of immigrants, both legal and illegal,” and described it as a “a declaration of war on America’s middle class.”
