Rain, Youth's Pain And "Your Neighbor's" Brain

Here are a few things to mull over this weekend. It's supposed to rain, so you'll just be sitting around, longing for football games, anyhow.

On Monday the new Planning Commission will be seated, including "improver" Sam Clark and carpetbagger Jim Righeimer. I wonder if Dana Rohrabacker will show up for the festivities? The highlight of that event will be the ceremony acknowledging the contributions of Bill Perkins and Bruce Garlich during their six years on the commission. Looking at the agenda report, the new commission will have it's hands full that evening. I find myself wondering if one loyal "improver" will show up at the meeting after being rejected three times by our young jailer/mayor for a spot on the commission. The carpetbagger got his seat when the music finally stopped.

Tuesday brings us the City Council study session in which the Youth in Government program, quashed last month by the council, has a chance for resurrection. You will recall that the mayor, in fit of pique, led the vote to "receive and file" the plan because he hadn't had a chance to provide "input". Alicia Robinson in the Daily Pilot recently reported that, curiously, none of the council members had provided any questions to be answered in the study session. During the council meeting in which the program was effectively trash-canned, Rubber Stamp Leece protested that it hadn't been her intent as, Parks and Recreation Commission Chair when this program was discussed last April, to have the program launched before the council had a chance to address it.

My review of the proceedings revealed a very different picture. She was all a'twitter about it and couldn't wait to second Mark Harris' motion, "to support the City funding and the implementation of a Youth in Government Program for the next fiscal year, and to have staff work with the School District to ensure that students who participate in this program are credited hours towards community service requirement for graduation" That was the extent of the motion. No other comments were made before or after the vote implying that it was their intent to recommend to the City Council any action on this issue. Subsequently, the City Council approved the budget, which included the modest amount of $3,800 for this program.

If our young jailer/mayor honestly wanted to provide "input" on this issue, he had the gestation period of a human embryo during which to provide it. I don't know, maybe it takes that long for an idea to evolve in his cranium. This is just a sham, of course. Katrina Foley initiated this plan, and the New Majority has demonstrated that they will crush the hopes of the children and the seniors in this community if necessary to prohibit Foley from getting credit for anything. Such is the pitiful condition of leadership in Costa Mesa these days.

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In the meantime, that bozo over at the CM Press - a guy who very much resembles my theoretical character, Your Neighbor - spent his week creating more fiction for his acolytes. He ripped the school district and the city for the poor showing by three Costa Mesa schools, blaming - you guessed it - illegal immigrants! Of course, that's all part of his scheme to rid our city of anyone with a Latin-sounding name. His solution to the shortage of playing fields is to plow under a handful of apartment buildings in the city where - you guessed it again - Latinos live, to make more fields.

He chided the council about their lack of effort to "market" Costa Mesa to developers. He suggested the city wine and dine potential developers and used an exceptionally obnoxious illustration to make his point.

He repeatedly pumped Camp Pendleton as a venue for a new airport to take the pressure off John Wayne Airport. ( I agree with that, by the way) With this country in the midst of a nasty war, it's unlikely the federal government will unload any portion of their primary Marine training base for an airport.

He assailed the process of doling out Community Development Block Grant funds to charities. You will recall that he "resigned" from the 3R Committee, the body charged by the council to assess and recommend to the council recipients for such funds, last year in the run-up to the campaign. It is assumed that he bailed out at that time just to take pressure off our young jailer/mayor because of his association with this guy. If he had his way, not a single charity in town would receive those funds because they encourage the presence of undesirables - you know, those folks who can't afford to live here - the hungry, elderly and, here we go again, Latinos.

Perhaps his most bizarre suggestion was, once again, to dredge out part of the Santa Ana River to make a "harbor" for Costa Mesa. It's a truly weird suggestion, since we don't have a way to access it. However, that's our guy - fabricating issues as he goes along.

I suspect he'll be spending at least part of his weekend preparing the play book for the council study session and the next meeting in two weeks. Without him to show the way the New Majority would be lost - or so he thinks.

Enjoy the rain.