Venezia: Boycott of councilman’s bar personalizes politics

Skosh Monahan’s steakhouse and Irish pub was hopping Sunday night as Costa Mesa Mayor Steve Mensinger and Planning Commissioner Jim Fitzpatrick celebrated their birthdays with family and friends.

Mensinger turned 53 and Fitzpatrick the big 5-0.

Mensinger originally planned on a quiet, family dinner at the Pacific Club but opted to show support for Councilman Gary Monahan’s establishment instead because of a recently called boycott of the business.

Now this isn’t the first time that people who disagree with Monahan’s policies on the council have tried to hurt his business.

In 2006, groups opposed to the city’s stand on immigration called for one.

And 2011 saw another after the city issued massive layoff notices and an employee committed suicide by jumping off the roof of City Hall.

None seemed to have hurt the councilman’s business in the long run, probably because those who don’t like his politics don’t patronize his restaurant anyway. But here we go again.

If you’re not in the loop on this latest dish, it all started end of December.

Resident Chris McEvoy created a “Boycott Skosh Monahan’s, Stop the Over Development” Facebook page.

On Dec. 31 he wrote, “Anyone who is displeased with the huge amount of high density development in Costa Mesa, I beg stop going to his restaurant until he establishes a voting record of opposition to these quality of life reducing projects.”

McEvoy says Monahan broke his campaign promise to reduce traffic and backs this up by posting a copy of an old campaign mailer that clearly states the councilman pledged “traffic reduction.”

Somewhere along the way Monahan “got lost,” says McEvoy, who hopes this boycott will encourage the councilman to change his pro-development stand.

“I lose a lot of sleep thinking about my city and how it’s being trashed,” McEvoy says.

The last time I looked at the Facebook boycott page it had 24 followers.

About now you’re probably thinking this boycott thing is kind of lame. I do too.

And when I say that to McEvoy, he agrees, though he says he’s surprised at all the attention it’s getting.

“These guys are making a bigger deal out of this than it is,” he says.

Mess with someone’s livelihood and it is a big deal, says Monahan.

On Sunday morning, he and Mensinger went on the KOCI talk radio show “Sunday Brunch with Tom Johnson and Lynn Selich” to discuss it.

The conversation struck a chord with Selich, whose husband is Newport Beach Mayor Ed Selich.

“Being a community leader is not for the faint of heart, and controversies like this one affect one’s whole family,” she tells me.

Lynn Selich believes that political disagreements taken to a personal level are “unsavory.” Monahan has six kids to feed.

Just this past November, Monahan talked with me about how his politics had affected his business over the years, which is why I decided to check out the Mensinger-Fitzpatrick shindig on Sunday.

I chatted with the birthday boys, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer and his wife, Lene, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) and his wife, Rhonda, Orange County Water District Board member Steve Sheldon and former council candidate Lee Ramos.

Sheldon compares McEvoy’s tactic to those of the Cold War, calling the boycott “stupid.”

Mensinger says such strategies always backfire.

“Everybody has the right to say what they want to say, but to destroy someone’s business who gives their time to the community, it’s just wrong,” the mayor says.

Over the past few years, Costa Mesa politics has certainly pushed controversy to uncomfortable levels, but is this manner of protesting now doing the same?

What are reasonable limits?

And will good people in the community be discouraged from running for office?

I don’t believe the boycott will make a dent in Monahan’s business and neither does McEvoy. In fact he tells me he thinks it’s actually helping it.

Monahan says he’s was never that busy on a Sunday night until last weekend.

I asked McEvoy if he felt that attacking the livelihood of someone who has a family to support was the right approach.

“I know this is a very unpopular thing, and I feel badly,” he says, “but how many businesses have they crushed in Costa Mesa through development that have never come back? So here’s a taste of your own medicine.”

Yes, 2015 should be another interesting year.