Editorial: City should air Eastside debate

Costa Mesa City Hall recently decided not to broadcast the Oct. 2 political forum sponsored by the Eastside Costa Mesa Neighbors’ Group. The city’s election counsel had concerns about dedicating public funds and city staff time toward political events or activities.

In the interest of political neutrality, the lawyer advised the city to not televise any political debate. But the city decided to honor its previous commitments to air the Feet to the Fire Forum, of which the Daily Pilot, Voice of OC and the Orange County Register are sponsors, as well as a debate put on by the homeowners in Mesa Verde.

The city had not yet made a formal commitment to the Eastside group.

The argument against using public funds for such purposes certainly warrants consideration, but that’s a conversation that would be better to have after this election cycle. Because the city already agreed to air the Feet to the Fire and Mesa Verde events, we’d like officials to reconsider the Eastsiders’ request as well. Why show two of three events when completing the trio would give voters a fuller view of the candidates? The more questions posed to would-be officeholders, the better informed the electorate.

It would seem to follow that Costa Mesa should finish out the schedule and then decide before the 2016 contest whether it should be involved in broadcasting debates at all. We think that as long as the city can afford this expenditure, it’s a reasonable use of public funds — mainly because the multitude of beliefs shared should ease concerns about neutrality. But residents may feel differently about how their money is spent, and they should be asked in the future how they feel.

That said, we’d argue the best thing to do this year is to record and air all three forums and then revisit the issue in two years.