Community Commentary:

A recent article by Daily Pilot reporter Alan Blank (“Leece, Mansoor back conservative candidates,” Aug. 13) stated that I was endorsing Jim Righeimer, Gary Monahan and Eric Bever in the upcoming council election. That is 100% accurate, and I wholeheartedly endorse them.

However, he went on to say that the three of them “have been heavily involved in the Republican party” and that I “cited strong ties to the party as influence in my decision.”

That is completely inaccurate, and I said no such thing.

Righeimer has been involved with the party, but I do not know how Monahan or Bever have been “heavily involved” or involved at all.

Is this continued inaccurate reporting by the Pilot what we are to expect during this election season?

What I did say is that I support them because they oppose new taxes and support upholding our laws regarding illegal immigration. But it is so much more than that so here is the whole reason.

Back in 2002 and again in 2006, Costa Mesa voters gave me their support and I am grateful for that. At that time, my goal was to improve our quality of life and that remains my goal. We put more emphasis on repairing our broken streets, addressing traffic concerns, cracking down on vending trucks and illegal push carts that were causing noise and litter problems, addressing crime and illegal immigration, and finding new sports fields for a higher quality of life.

We still have work to do but since that time, we have heavily increased our level of street repair, cracked down on illegal vending, removed almost 800 criminals from our city through the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) program, and brought new sports fields online. Without the support of Bever and Monahan, we would not have the ICE program in our city today. During the 2006 election, the ICE issue was still pending and we did not have an ICE agent in our jail facility. When Wendy Leece won, it maintained the pro-enforcement, pro-improvement majority, and ICE put an agent in our jail.