THE WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL(File photo).
The political uproar now raging across Westminster is getting hotter and louder. It all started – more or less – with a decision by the city council majority – Mayor Tri Ta and councilmembers Chi Charlie Nguyen and Kimberly Ho – to allow an item to be placed on the council agenda only if a majority approves.
What’s followed is a series of thrusts and parries. Recall procedures have been launched against those three, answered by similar moves against the minority: Tai Do and Sergio Contreras. So now the entire council could be removed from office and replaced by … who knows whom?
- photos of family members – including children – of a leader of the first recall movement (against the council majority) were circulated in the Vietnamese community in a move which some considered an intimidation tactic.
- both sides have taken to radio interviews, criticizing the other.
- code enforcement complaints have been made against some the homes of first recall leaders. Photos circulated on social media don’t seem to support the complaints about lawns and landscaping.
- some on each side are resorting to the standard fallback position in recent Westminster politics: the other side is communist, or at least a pawn of the communists. Alternately, the other side is – if not communist – using communistic-style approaches to political power.
One post we saw recently suggested that the other side was “supporting the VC,” a reference to the Viet Cong. That’s the communist guerilla movement in South Vietnam that went out of business in 1975 when the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) conquered the south.
How long will local politicians keep refighting the war? For as long as it’s effective. But that may not last much longer. The younger generation has been thoroughly Americanized. It looks forward, not backward.
In a city – like others – beset by homelessness, sky-high rental costs, budget problems and other challenges, it might be nice for politics and elections to focus on solving problems rather than the events of nearly a half-century ago.
Whither thou goest, Willowick?
The potential “billion-dollar development” of the Willowick Golf Course is moving forward. As you probably know, this is a 101.5-acre site owned by the City of Garden Grove but within the city limits of Santa Ana.
According to Lisa Kim, community and economic development director for Garden Grove, the cities are jointly examining the proposals on what to do with the land. The top two or three will be invited to make presentations at a future study session meeting of the two city councils, possibly in late August.
Previous “visioning exercises” have suggested three options: a stadium, a mixed-use campus, and an agricultural/low density project. However, the final result could be some combination of those, or something entirely different.