Senior Center Ad Hoc Committee and School Resource Officers

SENIOR CENTER AD HOC COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS
Tonight the Costa Mesa City Council will, once again, address Gary Monahan's proposal of an ad hoc committee to review operations of the Costa Mesa Senior Center preparatory to the renewal of it's contract with the city later this year. And, of course, this issue is the final item on the agenda tonight. Under normal circumstances, this would mean that most seniors wouldn't be able to stay up to attend the meeting nor watch it on Costa Mesa TV, Channel 24. Tonight might be different because the agenda appears to be short.. we'll see.

MAY BE DELAYED
Theoretically, the appointments to the committee will be made at this meeting, although I understand the Senior Center Board has requested a continuance to a future date. I don't know if that will fly, since there seems to have been plenty of time to get their ducks in order on this issue.

WENDY'S WITCH HUNT, PART TWO?
As I've stated before, I really hope this doesn't turn out to be a continuation of Wendy Leece's witch hunt at the Senior Center. Leece, who lacks the judgment one hopes for in an elected official, has allowed the unfounded complaints by a couple malcontents at the center to force a full-blown investigation into every nook and cranny of Senior Center operations. And that was before Monahan's proposal for the ad hoc committee.

OVER-REACHING HER AUTHORITY
In addition, she has taken upon herself authority she doesn't have by permitting activities at the center that are well beyond her purview. This has caused no small degree of unrest among the staff members and members of the center.

THE SENIOR BOARD NEEDS TO STEP UP
In my view, the Senior Corporation Board needs to take a much stronger stand on this issue. It's clear from documents presented recently that they provide a much higher level of service to our seniors than ANY other such facility around - including those operated by the municipalities themselves. They've made the financial documents available for review and, to my knowledge, no irregularities have been identified.

COUNCIL MAJORITY - SMALL PEOPLE IN BIG JOBS
If the vindictive and short-sighted nitwits of the City Council majority think they can do a better job of running the Senior Center in these very difficult fiscal times, perhaps the Board should just step back and let them try it. In my opinion, the seniors of this city are getting much more bang for our buck than would be the case if the city were to take it over... but that's just my opinion.

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SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS TO DISAPPEAR?
Rumor has it that the current financial crisis under which our municipalities and school districts are operating may cause funding for a couple School Resource Officers to disappear in June. That would be tragic.

SRO'S ARE ESSENTIAL TO GANG PROGRAMS
Based on many comments by folks in the know, the SROs perform an essential service in gang prevention and - more importantly - intervention. I certainly hope that these rumors are unfounded and, if they turn out to be true, that some way of continuing to fund these positions can be identified.

COUNCIL MAJORITY DOESN'T GET IT!
No one doubts that our community has a gang problem, but the current council majority has already made know their displeasure for any program that is one of intervention. The Neanderthal views of the majority seems to be that enforcement is the only program worth funding - contrary to the most authoritative information available that tells us intervention is critical to making any serious inroads into gangs in our city.