more than $3.8 million. decades prior, the facility was a lima bean farm owned by a swedish immigrant family who became prominent developers in orange county. government local a general law city, costa mesa has a council-manager form of government. in november 2016, voters approved changing the city council seats from at-large to six voting districts and a directly elected mayor, who acts as the chairperson for the council and head of the government. day to day, the city is run by a professional city manager and staff of approximately 460 full-time employees. management of the city and coordination of city services are provided by: needle exchange programs are prohibited in costa mesa. office officeholder city manager lori ann farrell harrison assistant city manager susan price city attorney kimberly hall barlow city clerk brenda green acting economic & development services director jennifer le finance director carol molina i.t. director steve ely public services director raja sethuraman parks and community services director jason minter fire chief dan stefano police chief ronald lawrence state and federal in the california state legislature, costa mesa is in the 37th senate district, represented by democrat dave min, and in the 73rd assembly district, represented by democrat cottie petrie-norris. in the united states house of representatives, costa mesa is in california's 47th congressional district, represented by democrat katie porter. costa mesa city vote by party in presidential elections year democratic republican third parties 2020 56.00% 29,804 41.44% 22,056 2.55% 1,358 2016 50.95% 21,528 40.75% 17,219 8.30% 3,507 2012 47.66% 18,414 48.60% 18,778 3.74% 1,443 2008 51.88% 20,542 45.32% 17,945 2.80% 1,107 2004 42.91% 16,442 55.55% 21,284 1.54% 590 2000 40.06% 13,733 54.13% 18,556 5.81% 1,990 1996 36.97% 11,949 50.16% 16,213 12.87% 4,161 1992 32.46% 12,702 40.02% 15,659 27.52% 10,769 1988 33.90% 11,849 64.47% 22,534 1.63% 571 1984 26.16% 8,908 72.39% 24,652 1.45% 493 1980 24.67% 7,796 63.38% 20,028 11.95% 3,775 1976 35.51% 9,805 62.16% 17,161 2.33% 643 politics according to the california secretary of state, as of february 10, 2019, costa mesa has 55,849 registered voters. of those, 17,920 (32.1%) are registered democrats, 17,900 (32.1%) are registered republicans, and 17,019 (30.5%) have declined to state a political party/are independents. until 2008, costa mesa was a republican stronghold in presidential elections. since 2008, costa mesa has mostly voted democratic in presidential elections, owing to the gop's shift towards cultural conservatism. in 2008, barack obama was the first democrat to carry costa mesa in decades, while republican nominee mitt romney carried the city by only 364 votes in the 2012 presidential election. costa mesa flipped back to democratic in 2016, voting for hillary clinton by a 10.2% margin, and for joe biden by a 14.6% margin in 2020. in 2008, costa mesa was one of four cities in orange county to vote against proposition 8 (along with aliso viejo, irvine, and laguna beach), a statewide ballot measure that banned same-sex marriages. education institutions of higher learning located in costa mesa include orange coast college, and vanguard university (affiliated with the assemblies of god). whittier law school was a former school. costa mesa has two public high schools, costa mesa high school and estancia high school. there are also two public middle schools; tewinkle middle school, which was named after costa mesa's first mayor, and costa mesa middle school which shares the same campus as costa mesa high school. costa mesa also has two alternative high schools that share the same campus, back bay high school and monte vista high school and another, coastline early college high school which is on its own facility. these are located in the newport-mesa unified school district. infrastructure transportation oc bus in costa mesa costa mesa is served by several bus lines of the orange county transportation authority (octa), but most transportation is by automobile. two freeways terminate here, state route 73 and state route 55 (also known as the costa mesa freeway). the san diego freeway, interstate 405, also runs through the city. civic center the 9.5 acre (38,000 m2) costa mesa civic center is located at 77 fair drive. city hall is a five-story building where the primary administrative functions of the city are conducted. also contained in the civic center complex are council chambers, the police facility, communications building and fire station no. 5. emergency services fire protection is provided by the costa mesa fire department. law enforcement is the responsibility of the costa mesa police department. emergency medical services are provided by the costa mesa fire department and care ambulance service. notable people see list of people from costa mesa, california sister city wyndham, australia