Keeping Costa Mesa as a safe community for families is a priority for Buley, and it starts with compassionate enforcement of the law.
“In 21 years, petty crime and homelessness went from virtually nonexistent to prevalent in our community,” Costa Mesa City Council candidate Michael Buley contended. “This issue isn’t being addressed properly, we’re only throwing money at it.”
Having lived in the neighborhood for over two decades, Buley has witnessed the effects of the crime and homelessness policies on Costa Mesa. When Proposition 47 was enacted in 2014, raising the threshold for a felony for shoplifting to $950, “they [took] away any consequences for shoplifting and petty crime. Surprise surprise, then you saw a proliferation of the criminal mindset and created safety issues.”
Voicing support for the recently announced ballot measure which aims to restrain repeat offenders, he maintained that enforcement was the key issue. “The message I’d like to send our law enforcement is we’re gonna give you the resources and ask you to enforce, even if it means ticketing and documenting these repeat offenders. We can at least send the message: we’re not open to this kind of crime in our community.”
He also sees problems with the administration of homelessness ordinances. With the recent Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, Buley feels the time is right for the city council to act. “My approach is a compassionate but tough love approach. We have the housing, so we steer the homeless to the beds that are available,” Buley explained.
He cited Project Homekey, the conversion of a Motel 6 into a homeless shelter that had been awarded over $10 million dollars in funding, whose rooms still aren’t full. “For those that are unwilling or unable, it’s not compassionate to leave them on the street. We have to enforce vagrancy laws, steer them to beds, or divert them to mental health programs with case workers.”
Budget control is another area of concern for him. He referenced looming Sacramento budget cuts, estimated $50 million over the next two fiscal years, which will impact the community. “Our basic quality of life expenses should not be impacted, so we’ll need fiscal discipline and to get serious about it at the city level.”
Buley speaks as someone who has no formal political experience, but having raised his three kids in the community, cares deeply to keep the area a great place to live. He has spent 31 years as a trial attorney, and joked that many would have a negative reaction to his career as a civil litigator. Practically, he reasoned, it equips him to read ordinances and statutes and gives him experience representing people.
Active community involvement over the years has taken him from coaching youth basketball to volunteering on his church’s finance committee and serving meals at the Southwest Community Center. These contributions over the years prompted his neighbors to ask him to run.
“I’ve been living here for 21 years, and I’m not a professional politician. I, like most people, have just been a member of the community who’s been generally aware and concerned with what’s going on,” he explained.
He has been gratified by the support he’s seen locally. Referring to his fresh batch of campaign yard signs, “If you drive up and down my street, the people who know me best, there’s not an empty yard out there. Our street leans Republican, but there are dyed-in-the-wool team blue members and just based on their knowledge of me personally they’re willing to support me and put signs up.”
While the city council positions are non-partisan, he asserted it was no secret that six of the seven city council members lean to the left, and the seat he’s running holds the sole conservative voice. “I don’t think there’s a sufficient balance of perspectives on the board,” he said, “Unfortunately what I see is what you hear to be the desires, the wishes, the policies coming out of Sacramento that pretty much get adopted wholesale with our current makeup of cour city council.”
He hopes to retain that balance, bring up issues he feels are unaddressed, and move forward with active solutions to keep the community safe.
