Foley

New Year’s resolutions are a lot like campaign promises — hard to keep. But like many people, local lawmakers are looking ahead to 2010 and what the coming year will bring. In 2010, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher vows to keep a close eye on his pocketbook. Rohrabacher said his New Year’s resolution this year is “to be as frugal with my own money as I am with the taxpayers’.” Rep. John Campbell never makes New Year’s resolutions, he said, because nobody ever keeps them, including himself.

The Costa Mesa City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night on a memorandum of understanding to place a joint bid with the county for the purchase of the Orange County Fairgrounds. But before the council took its 5-0 vote, Councilwoman Katrina Foley said that she was reluctantly supporting the county and city’s efforts for the bid. “I strongly believe that we as taxpayers shouldn’t use our money to buy our own property,” she said. Foley said the majority of the county’s state delegation members has been silent on the issue.

The UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans are gearing up for a huge battle Saturday. And as many in Orange County are aware, the county is SC fan territory. But the Bruins refuse to sit on the sidelines in this crosstown rivalry. So in the name of healthy competition, Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley, a UCLA alumna and a devout Bruins fan, helped her two young boys and their friends get back at their music teacher. Nick St. Royal, Sonora Elementary School’s music teacher and band director, is a die-hard Trojan fan. Foley said that on the first day of class, St. Royal told his students: “I graduated from the greatest university on the planet, do you know which one that is?

Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece and Councilwoman Katrina Foley want Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to cancel the state’s proposed sale of the Orange County Fairgrounds. The issue will be taken up at tonight’s City Council meeting. The two councilwomen are scheduled to make a joint presentation on the fairgrounds and will ask fellow council members to vote in favor of requesting that the governor cancel the proposed sale of the 150-acre site in Costa Mesa. “We are just requesting confirmation from the City Council that we are all acting unified so that everybody knows that we are united in our position, which is in the best interest for the city of Costa Mesa to cancel the sale,” Foley said.

Prominent Democrats in the Newport-Mesa area expressed sadness Wednesday over the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died Tuesday at 77. “It’s a great loss for our country,” said Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Katrina Foley. “He’s definitely an American patriot and somebody who worked tirelessly for the working class and for those who are less fortunate in our communities.” Foley added that Kennedy, who served in the Senate from 1962 until his death, was “someone I wish I could have met in life.

Costa Mesa took a step toward possibly displaying the motto “In God We Trust” in the city’s Council Chambers Tuesday night. Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece brought the issue to her council colleagues at a study session, asking them to consider inscribing the phrase in the chambers and characterizing the motto as a secular show of unity, rather than an endorsement of religion. “The intent is to encourage patriotism. It’s not religious; it’s a completely secular purpose,” Leece said.

Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece and Councilwoman Katrina Foley are hoping to change some minds on the council and reinstate several programs that were recently cut to chip away at the city’s projected multimillion-dollar deficit. Among the programs cut completely are a volunteer home and park renovation program, a series of six summer concerts in Fairview Park and a van that carries youth leaders, sports equipment and games to poor neighborhoods. The council also decided to stop contributing to high school grad nights and an exchange program that sends local kids to Australia, and it scaled back its contributions to city-run youth sports programs and a TeWinkle Middle School after-school program.