Riggy Drops A Bomb

RIGGY, THE MAD BOMBER
At the Costa Mesa Planning Commission meeting Monday night Chairman Jim Righeimer dropped a little fiscal bombshell for those few in attendance and watching at home.

PLANNING REVENUE DOWN TWO-THIRDS!
During his comments section he mentioned that Building Permit revenue had been running consistently around $25 million each quarter for the past several years. He then told us that, for the first quarter of 2009, those revenues were $8 million! Yikes! That gives us just a taste the kind of issues the City Council will be dealing with at their study session Tuesday afternoon and evening.

EXPECTING A FULL HOUSE TUESDAY AFTERNOON
In light of the critical nature of the budget this year I expect that Conference Room 1A will be packed for the study session. Typically, only 15 minutes total is set aside for public comments in study sessions, regardless the number of speakers. That might get complicated... I guess we'll find out..


NO SECOND PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING IN JUNE
Riggy mentioned that, because there is no work for them to do, there will not be a second Planning Commission meeting in June. The next meeting will be on July 13th. He also mentioned that consideration is being given to holding only one Planning Commission meeting each month - like the Parks and Recreation Commission - due to the sparsity of items to be heard by them. Sadly, this is a real sign of the times...

NEW TIME BEGINNING IN JULY
And thanks to Riggy for reminding us - and specifically me by name - to set our VCRs and Tivos to record that meeting at the new start time of 6:00 p.m. instead of the traditional 6:30.