Costa Mesa voters are electing a new mayor in November, with current councilmembers Mike Buley and Loren Gameros vying for the city’s top post.
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Current mayor John Stephens is termed out and can’t run again. Buley, elected to the council in 2024, represents District 1. Gameros, elected in 2020, represents District 2.
The next mayor will likely need to help steer Costa Mesa through a litany of complex housing-related issues, including litigation over sober living homes, development of the sprawling Fairview Developmental Center project, as well as the administration of a housing plan that outlines how 11,760 new homes can be built by 2029.
Buley, an advocate for local control, has consistently criticized state housing mandates as unreasonable and flawed, particularly after the state sued the city in July for failing to meet its share of regional housing needs. A better approach to “solving the affordability problem,” he said in responding to an invitation to participate in The Orange County Register’s voter guide, is giving cities the authority and freedom to determine the amount and type of housing that can be reasonably built out to preserve the “character and quality of life” that residents want.
“Local officials have very limited independence in navigating the myriad of mandates and dictates imposed by Sacramento,” Buley said. “A better policy would allow cities to plan the number, location, and types of units. This would result in more building, more quickly.”
In a challenging budget environment, Buley said “the number one job” of an elected official is ensuring available funds are allocated to essential services such as infrastructure, streets and roads, water and waste, schools, parks and fields, as well as the police and fire departments.
He’d also work with local businesses and developers to boost community investments and generate tax revenue,” he said. “If businesses open quickly, needed tax revenue is generated, as well as building and business permitting and licensing fees.”
“A city council and city staff needs to be laser-beam focused on these bread-and-butter issues and less concerned about larger national issues that a local council has very little jurisdiction or control over,” Buley said.
Gameros is running on an affordability platform that prioritizes support for renters, first-time homebuyers and the local workforce, according to his campaign website.
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At an Oct. 15 candidate forum hosted by the Voice of OC, Gameros said he’d look into reopening a long-shuttered job training center and applying for workforce development program grants from the Department of Labor.
“I know how important it is to have a skilled trade,” Gameros said. “I would 100% support a day laborer center and I believe there’s a way that we can fund it.”
Regarding the Fairview Developmental Center project, which would bring up to 2,300 new homes to the city according to guidelines recently approved by the council, Gameros said he’ll make sure that the need for more housing does not compromise the quality of life for existing residents.
“We need to use the development as leverage to help the rest of the community,” he said. “We have to commit to building something that works and is cohesive with what we already have. We don’t want to impact traffic, our police and fire department, our schools. We want it to flow.”
Gameros also pledged to support law enforcement and keep streets safe, as well as protect community services like parks and recreation, childcare and public safety programs for all ages, according to his campaign. He did not respond to an invitation to participate in the voter guide.
The council will undergo big changes this year, with eight candidates vying for three seats vacated by Manuel Chavez, Andrea Marr and Arlis Reynolds, who are also termed out.
Read more from the candidates at ocregister.com/voter-guide.
Ballots may be returned by mail (must be postmarked by Nov. 3 and received within a week of Election Day) or to the OC Registrar of Voters’ drop boxes around town now, and the first vote centers will open for casting ballots in person on Oct. 24.
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