Apology

COSTA MESA — Tim Vasin, president of the Costa Mesa Firefighters Assn., has demanded an apology from Councilman Eric Bever for insinuating that the union members are "tone-deaf" when it comes to reforming the city's ailing budget. "In the 13 years I have worked for the city of Costa Mesa I have never felt so insulted as a city employee as I have this last week," Vasin told the City Council during Tuesday's meeting. The association recently renegotiated its employee contract and was able to find more than $600,000 in savings over 12 months.

After helping take the debate on where to build Newport Beach's city hall up a few notches, Newport Beach City Councilman Keith Curry tried to bring it back down with a public apology. City officials have struggled for several years over a new City Hall location. The discussion has become increasingly strident in recent months, with council members split over two Avocado Avenue parcels less than a mile apart and a ballot measure in circulation to settle the question in February.

We Americans are generally a forgiving lot. If you offer up a sincere enough apology, we’re inclined to accept it. This is especially true in Southern California, where mistakes roll off the Hollywood assembly line with the regularity of sequels. So it comes as no surprise that UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake’s apology to a mutinous faculty apparently turned back a no-confidence vote from the educators after Drake hired, fired and then rehired Erwin Chemerinsky in a matter of weeks to be the founding dean of UCI’s law school.

MAXINE COHEN The scandal over the abuse of child parishioners by the clergy and employees of the Diocese of Orange has been all over the national news, in the Los Angeles Times and in this local paper. I read about the settlement in Saturday's Pilot, "Settlement reached in 87 diocese abuse suits." How relieved people were. There were "silent tears," "loud sobs" and the feeling "like 500 pounds had been lifted off my shoulders." No kidding. But what stood out for me the most was Joelle Casteix's statement about the personal apology from Bishop Tod Brown.

COSTA MESA — The Newport-Mesa Unified School District superintendent should act with dignity, treat everyone with respect and civility and serve as a model of the value of lifelong learning, according to the district's Superintendent Governance Standards. District rules also mandate that employees shall not post, submit or publish anything that can be construed as harassment or disparagement of others based on race, religion, gender and so forth. Depending on which school board member you talk to, Supt.

June Casagrande A sternly worded staff report lists four instances in which Councilman Dick Nichols is reported to have made derogatory statements about Mexicans, clears up a fifth alleged instance, offers an apology to people of Latino origin and gives council members the opportunity to officially call for Nichols' resignation and to strip him of his committee appointments. According to the report, which council members will consider on Tuesday, City Councilman Dick Nichols has implied that "Mexicans" deliberately get into automobile accidents to rip off wealthy white residents.

For a candidate who received just more than 1,600 votes to be embroiled in a controversy in a race in which the winner got more than 12,000 must seem silly to some. However, we must respond due to our name being bandied about with impunity. First of all, we never approved any Dave Ellis-generated phone bank calls in the days preceding the Newport Beach City Council election. We do not know Aaron Elder, Sound Media Group or any Brian Schwartz. [Editor's note: The spelling of the name or even the existence of Brian Schwartz, who supposedly made a call naming Ron Winship as the Greenlight candidate in District 4, has not been confirmed.

Let me see, wasn't it just a few weeks ago that Steve Smith smugly praised Arnold Schwarzenegger for asking his wife's OK to run for governor? Didn't he laud this show of respect for the actor's wife? Wasn't it a good example of family values? Now, with Schwarzenegger admitting to, and apologizing for, his unwanted touching of women, Smith tells his kids not to believe everything they read. How does Smith plan to explain this blatant disrespect for Maria Shriver and the couple's children?

One of the most gratifying things I did as a judge on the trial court in Orange County was helping people voluntarily resolve their disputes. Over the years I developed some insights into what helps increase the chances of a resolution, and what pushes people further apart. So since there are opportunities in everyone's life to help to resolve disputes, whether they are their own or those of others, I wanted to pass along to you some suggestions — and maybe in turn you can pass them along to your children.

Some years ago, I saw an old friend at a conference in an eastern city. He seemed somewhat reserved when I enthusiastically approached him, and eventually he informed me that many years previously, I had done or said something that offended him and he had spent these years angry with me. He even remembered precisely what I did, which I could not recall at all. I was astounded and apologized profusely. I had no idea of his hurt and had continued to hold him in high esteem. While I now believe the angst has healed, I gave it a great deal of thought afterward.

Frustrated with the audience's behavior at Tuesday's City Council meeting, Costa Mesa Mayor Eric Bever turned to a fellow council member and said, "I'm going to go home. This is bull [expletive]," a recording of the meeting shows. "The crowds' apparent lack of interest in orderly conduct of the meeting caused me some frustration and led to my aside to my peer," Bever wrote in an email Thursday. "I apologize if anyone found my comment offensive. " Bever, who is termed out in November, was reacting to a wave of boos and grumbles from the audience after he cut off a woman who was trying to argue her point to him after her allotted three minutes for public comment was up. "My comment to my peer was in response to the audience's displeasure with my desire to maintain decorum in the meeting," Bever wrote.

COSTA MESA — The Newport-Mesa Unified School District superintendent should act with dignity, treat everyone with respect and civility and serve as a model of the value of lifelong learning, according to the district's Superintendent Governance Standards. District rules also mandate that employees shall not post, submit or publish anything that can be construed as harassment or disparagement of others based on race, religion, gender and so forth. Depending on which school board member you talk to, Supt.

COSTA MESA — Tim Vasin, president of the Costa Mesa Firefighters Assn., has demanded an apology from Councilman Eric Bever for insinuating that the union members are "tone-deaf" when it comes to reforming the city's ailing budget. "In the 13 years I have worked for the city of Costa Mesa I have never felt so insulted as a city employee as I have this last week," Vasin told the City Council during Tuesday's meeting. The association recently renegotiated its employee contract and was able to find more than $600,000 in savings over 12 months.

One of the most gratifying things I did as a judge on the trial court in Orange County was helping people voluntarily resolve their disputes. Over the years I developed some insights into what helps increase the chances of a resolution, and what pushes people further apart. So since there are opportunities in everyone's life to help to resolve disputes, whether they are their own or those of others, I wanted to pass along to you some suggestions — and maybe in turn you can pass them along to your children.

COSTA MESA — A Costa Mesa man and his friend who successfully got the city to hand over police personnel records for their defense on resisting-arrest charges outside of a Newport Boulevard bar have pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in September. At their sentencing scheduled for Sept. 14, Patrick Donald Binder, 27, and his friend Michael McKee, 27, will have their misdemeanor convictions for resisting arrest from Costa Mesa police dropped if they stay out of trouble for the next 60 days and write a letter of apology to the city, said Binder's attorney, Lewis Crouse.

Convicted sex offenders are the editorial writer’s low-hanging fruit. Their actions have outraged the community. Everyone wants justice. All the editorialist has to do is show sufficient outrage, join in the community outcry and watch the water boil over. Today, we’ve decided to pick these easy apples because we, like the rest of Newport Beach and Orange County, are having a hard time accepting the latest chapter in the continuing and tragic saga of Greg Haidl, Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner.

Clearly not. In a number of instances when a Republican politician, sports figure, celebrity or other news person has made similar, and in many cases, considerably less offensive remarks, the same people now defending Harry Reid have demanded immediate resignation and in some cases contributed to the destruction of their careers. The hypocrisy and double standard here is breathtaking. U.S. Rep. John Campbell (R-Newport Beach) The fact it took so long for the American public to be made aware of Sen. Reid’s racially insensitive comments, and the lack of outrage by anyone but Republicans demonstrates the double-standard both by the media and liberal Democrats.

As part of a legal settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District will provide a written apology to a former Corona del Mar High School student who claims school officials did little to stop four varsity athletes from harassing her with homophobic and sexist taunts, attorneys in the case announced Wednesday. The school district also has agreed to provide training on gender issues to students and staff at Corona del Mar High School and other school administrators as part of the settlement.

Some years ago, I saw an old friend at a conference in an eastern city. He seemed somewhat reserved when I enthusiastically approached him, and eventually he informed me that many years previously, I had done or said something that offended him and he had spent these years angry with me. He even remembered precisely what I did, which I could not recall at all. I was astounded and apologized profusely. I had no idea of his hurt and had continued to hold him in high esteem. While I now believe the angst has healed, I gave it a great deal of thought afterward.

Just because you return what you stole, doesn’t mean you get to go free. Police are looking for three men who walked into Jack’s Surfboards Tuesday afternoon and grabbed eight watches, valued together at more than $2,185, from their display cases. Police said store employees watched the men put the watches into their bag and exit and get into a green Toyota Camry. When the suspects noticed they were being followed by an employee calling 911 and reading their license plate number, one of them got out of the car, walked up to the employee, apologized and returned the watches before leaving.