Brian Bilbray Apologizes to Mira Mesa

On Monday evening, June 4, the Mira Mesa Town Council hosted congressman Brian Bilbray, who fielded questions from residents in attendance for the monthly council meeting.

Bilbray opened the 40-minute Q&A session with an apology to the Mira Mesa community for having to wait so long for the Jonas Salk Elementary School to be built. He said that the system let them down; that the federal government has been putting off approval for completion. He said he is now proposing a bill that will give the feds 90 days to make a decision on the school.

In response to the wide variety of questions posed, Bilbray segued with anecdotes such as, "When I was mayor... When I was county supervisor... When I was a lifeguard... My daughter's battle with cancer... My wife's confrontation with a thief in our condo laundry room..."

At the end of the session, a person in the back of the room commented that Bilbray didn't answer one question with a direct answer — but he actually did answer one, when a woman preceded her question with the insistence that she be provided either a yes or no answer.

Bilbray at some point commented that the only thing that works in D.C. are the meter maids. When Bilbray was asked why he (and others) vote for bills they haven't read, he eventually came to the point that a 2700-page document is impossible to read in its entirety due to time constraints.

Bilbray said that the system just treats symptoms of problems rather than addressing the issues themselves; that the government likes evolutionary change, not radical change.