Published: May 27, 2010
Updated: 2:56 p.m.

Immigration stance may kill fairgrounds deal

By BRIAN JOSEPH and CINDY CARCAMO
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SACRAMENTO – For much of the past year, the Costa Mesa City Council has been focused on its dual goals of blocking development at the Orange County Fairgrounds and obstructing illegal immigration.

Its recent efforts on illegal immigration, however, may now have endangered the future of the fairgrounds.

Costa Mesa's recent efforts on illegal immigration may have endangered the future of the fairgrounds.

This month, Costa Mesa officials announced they had selected a private firm that they hope will ultimately join the city in buying the fairgrounds from the state.

Such a transaction would require approval from the state Legislature, but some Latino lawmakers are now threatening to block it after the City Council last week declared Costa Mesa a "Rule of Law City" where people who are in this country illegally are not welcome.

"The city government of Costa Mesa should not think that they can act with immunity as it relates to these matters," said State Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles , chairman of the California Latino Legislative Caucus. "We don't support that. We don't sanction that."

Cedillo said the 25-member Latino caucus has had informal discussions about blocking any fairground legislation in direct response to Costa Mesa's resolution.

Costa Mesa officials are now scrambling to move forward on the deal. They say they're disappointed by the possible block, saying that the Sacramento lawmakers are playing politics that will ultimately end up penalizing the public.

"It will be unfortunate if this is the reason why the city of Costa Mesa can't buy the fairgrounds," said Councilwoman Katrina Foley, who has helped lead the way on the fairgrounds deal. "It's all politics. That's all this is."

If the Legislature doesn't approve the deal, the state's only other option may very well be selling the fairgrounds to a private developer, and with the state facing a $19.1 billion deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears insistent on selling the property.


MAYOR STANDS BY RESOLUTION


The resolution came at the behest of Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor - a long-time opponent of illegal immigration who is currently running for State Assembly.

"So let me get this straight? They want to hold kids hostage and take away their ice cream and their fairgrounds for their own political gain against me? That is exactly what is wrong with Sacramento," Mansoor said. "If they kill the fairground sale for the city, that's exactly what they're doing."

The council voted 4-0 in favor of the resolution. Foley did not vote because she was absent.

"I just think that it's politics taking precedent over people and that's exactly...that's no different from what Mansoor is doing," Foley said.

She said the federal government – not cities – should tackle immigration issues.

She called the resolution "political grandstanding" on Mansoor's part.

"Is the timing good? Apparently not," she said. "But it wasn't my proposal. I didn't bring it forward."

Latino caucus members account for roughly 20 percent of both the State Assembly and State Senate, but Cedillo, the Latino caucus chair, noted that other lawmakers, like Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg, have come out in strong opposition to Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law and likely would support the caucus' opposition to Costa Mesa.

"We're concerned about Arizona and we can't be concerned about Arizona and look to Arizona and say we're not going to stand by idly as you violate people's constitutional rights and then turn a blind eye to Costa Mesa," Cedillo said. "And so we're very concerned. Violations of people's human rights and civil rights should be a concern for all people."

Three lawmakers who represent parts of Orange County are members of the Latino caucus: State Sen. Lou Correa , D-Santa Ana, and assemblymen Jose Solorio , D-Santa Ana, and Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia, who is the vice chairman of the Latino caucus. Mendoza didn't respond to multiple requests for comment, but both Correa and Solorio said they had some concerns about Costa Mesa's recent resolution.

"I remain supportive of Costa Mesa's efforts to buy the Orange County Fairgrounds," Solorio said in an email.

Earlier this year, he introduced a bill to stop the sale of the fairgrounds when it looked like the state might auction it to a private developer.

"In addition to my own concerns, I've heard from numerous legislators and residents throughout California that they are disappointed with Costa Mesa's past and current anti-immigrant resolutions," Solorio said. "At this point, it's up to the Governor's office to decide if they want to move forward with Costa Mesa's offer. If and when the Governor's office wants to partner with the Legislature on a bill to help sell the Orange County Fairgrounds, I have a bill ready to help."

Costa Mesa officials last met with representatives from the governor's office a week ago where they discussed how they had selected the firm Facilities Management West to contract with the city to operate the Orange County Fairgrounds.

The city is looking to purchase the 150-acre site from the state for $96 million and have an operator take on the debt services to protect taxpayers from the transaction. Facilities Management West would enter into exclusive negotiations for the operation of the fairgrounds.


DAMAGE CONTROL


Foley is in the process of playing damage control, contacting some of the Latino lawmakers, urging them to stay on course with the fairgrounds deal.

"If they are committed to the public process and public ownership model why would they derail it, especially when Mansoor is going to be gone soon," she said of his bid for Assembly.

At a Los Amigos meeting – made up of Latino leaders – Wednesday, group member Zeke Hernandez announced that he was in the process of also drafting a plan that would put pressure on Costa Mesa to reverse their course on illegal immigration. This included speaking with Latino legislators in Sacramento about the fairgrounds deal. Last week, Hernandez, president of the Santa Ana League of United Latin American Citizens Council, called for Costa Mesa residents to evacuate the city in response to the Rule of Law resolution.

Sen. Correa, for his part, said he'll be reviewing any proposed deal carefully. He acknowledged that "as an individual that feels some emotion" about immigration issues, Costa Mesa's declaration as a Rule of Law City will play a role in his analysis. But he added, "There are other factors that I'll be looking at as well."

"I have some questions (about) the new Costa Mesa deal and I'm going to be looking at the totality of the circumstances surrounding Costa Mesa, what the objectives are now of this new proposed plan," he said. "...Some of the council members told me that the reason they wanted to preserve it as a fairground (was so that it could be) open to all, that this was going to be a marketplace of products where all of my constituents would come and shop, all my taxpayers would come and shop. We'll see if that is in fact the case."

See Frank Mickadeit's column on the city's new Fairgrounds partners.

Staff writer Ellyn Pak contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7924 or ccarcamo@ocregister.com

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