First, let me give a quick hat-tip to Interim City Manager Cecilia Gallardo Daly, who quietly delivered on a resident (and Council) request last week: she got the City Council agenda out a full week in advance.

Unfortunately, the advanced warning might not amount to much this time. And that’s because, unlike typical meetings, most of the exciting bits have been happening outside the four corners of the agenda.

I am referring, of course, first and foremost to the official reveal that former city manager Lori Ann Farrell Harrison is suing Costa Mesa and making some colorful allegations against both Mayor John Stephens and other members of the City Council along the way. While the City Council will get a chance to talk about it — the closed session agenda features an item about that litigation, as well as another item discussing the process to appoint a new permanent city manager — the public probably won’t hear much about it unless it is addressed in public comments. Which it might, given that the situation hit the local mainstream press late last night.

But I am very confident that another off-agenda issue will be raised by the public. These flyers have been posted all over social media as well as in hardcopy around town.

Before we dive into what that discussion might look like, it’s worth noting that there are plenty of juicy on-agenda items:

• I am pretty confident that Council Member Arlis Reynolds will pull the Consent Calendar item discussing the City’s safety requests (demands?) along Newport Boulevard, which has been vexing the city with crashes, pedestrian/bicyclist injuries, and general unpleasantness for a long time.
• Two big housing items are up for discussion, too: the 1,000+ unit “Hive Live” development is seeking a continuance to the next planning commission meeting, and the proposed 40-unit condo development on Victoria that was recently rejected by the Planning Commission will try its luck at the City Council instead.
• Residents on Cabrillo Street are asking for a residential parking permit zone and that might spark an interesting conversation about the parking permit program in general, which has gotten off to a rocky start.
• And finally, Council Member Reynolds has brought forward a general discussion of Randall Preserve, a large oil-field-turned-nature-park located on Costa Mesa’s Western border.

In normal times, I would be happy to dwell on any and all of these delightfully local items.

But we are not in normal times.

The Elephant in the Room: ICE Raids in Costa Mesa

As I’ve written about here and you’ve no doubt seen elsewhere, the Trump Administration has been pursuing a strategy of spectacular enforcement when it comes to federal immigration laws. While the primary target appears to be Los Angeles, Orange County has been in the crosshairs as well.

Costa Mesa has not been spared. A couple of weeks ago, the local Lions Club Fish Fry had markedly lower attendance than previous years, which organizers attributed in part to low Latino turnout. ““ICE was two blocks away at 19th and Newport, and we didn’t know what they were gearing up for, but we were on the lookout,” the Daily Pilot quoted Lions Club President Cabot Harvey about the situation. “I spoke to several Latino families who told me the same thing — people were just too afraid to come.”

Needless to say I’m not surprised that activists are gearing up to demand City Hall address this issue. And I really do think this will be the issue of the night, overshadowing even the bombshell accusations in the Farrell Harrison petition.

Sadly, I fear what they are asking for is alternately (1) not in the power of the City to grant, (2) a great way to get the City in hot water with the Feds, or (3) just not a good idea. Referring to the stated demands in the poster above:

• Demanding that the CMPD not collaborate with ICE is fine, except the city has basically already said as much when Mayor John Stephens and Mayor Pro Tem Manuel Chavez put out their joint statement on ICE protests a few weeks ago. This is simply a reaffirmation of the Tenth Amendment non-commandeering principle embedded in the U.S. Constitution.
• Banning Federal law enforcement from wearing masks and identifying themselves, on the other hand, would run (in my view) smash into the Supremacy Clause of the same Constitution. There is already plenty of Federal law on point describing how Federal officers are to conduct field operations. Given that the Constitution explicitly states that Federal law preempts state and local law in areas where the Federal government has exclusive jurisdiction, and given that immigration is almost certainly one of those areas of exclusive jurisdiction, I am skeptical the city would prevail here. Besides, the State of California is already having a go at it. So, personally, I think we should let Newsom spend state funds trying to make this idea stick before we commit our sparse city funds to our own attempt.
• Notifying the public of ICE actions in advance has already been tested in Santa Ana — and the idea was slapped down hard by the Trump Administration, who promised to pursue criminal charges against city officials if they went down that road. So that seems like a bad idea.

The last two requests — “support legal defense and rapid response” and “mutual aid” — have the general problem of asking the city to spend money when that’s something it’s a bit short on at the moment. But at least they have the benefit of having some local precedent. Santa Ana just started a $100,000 fund to address some of the economic harms caused by ICE raids, and so far, there haven’t been any legal issues raised with that.

But it’s worth noting that Santa Ana has little to lose. It is already a “Sanctuary City” and, therefore, it is at the top of the Trump Administration’s scrutiny list no matter what it does. Costa Mesa, on the other hand, which its much smaller budget and clout, has avoided the proverbial Eye of Sauron so far.

And why shouldn’t it? I’m sure the Trump Administration is beyond reproach when it comes to immigration enforcement.

It’s a perfect policy.

And because I’m so supportive, here are a few things I would not recommend the city consider:

I would not urge the City Council to read, review, and consider the letter signed by local Republican law makers Diane Dixon and Laurie Davies highlighting the economic harms being caused by indiscriminate ICE raids in Orange County, which unhelpfully provides a bipartisan way to frame a critique of Trump Administration policy.

I would not recommend that the City gather and document as much information as possible about the economic, social and cultural impacts directly or indirectly attributed to ICE sweeps. I would not ask the Costa Mesa Police Department to investigate whether calls from majority-Hispanic neighborhoods have increased or decreased. I would not look into city services to see if fewer Latino residents were accessing them. I would not reach out to major businesses (and sales tax generators) such as Home Depot and Northgate Market to ascertain how their businesses have been impacted. And I certainly would not loudly and publicly communicate the City’s findings to its State and Federal representatives.

I would not reach out to the City’s nonprofit partners, including but not limited to Trellis International, Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, and SOY, to ask what specific struggles they are having as organizations, what difficulties they are seeing in the communities they serve, and how the city could best support them.

And I absolutely would not double-down on ensuring all city communications and services can be accessed remotely and in Spanish. It would be really foolish to include in this effort Costa Mesa 311 and the YouTube subtitles on Costa Mesa City Council meetings. And I would not reaffirm the city’s commitment to ensuring multiple ways to interact with the city, including via Zoom meetings, in light of recent conversations to the contrary.

See, the idea is to make it clear that we, as a city, really are as coldly rational as Federal policy — as cold as ice.

Let’s close the door and leave the world behind.