Union Chief Appointed To Fair Board

JUST WHEN I NEEDED A SMILE
Just when you think there's not going to be anything to provide you with a little chuckle, something pops up that puts a BIG smile on your face.




BERARDINO ON THE FAIR BOARD?!
For example, today it was announced that Orange County Employee's Association General Manager Nick Berardino has been appointed to the Board of Directors for the Orange County Fair and Event Center by Governor Jerry Brown.

OH, BOY!
To say that this appointment changes the political demographic on the Fair Board would be the understatement of this new century in Orange County.

FAIR BOARD MEETINGS WILL BE FUN
With a smile on my face, I will say nothing more, except the Fair Board meetings have just become "must attend" events in the future. I also wonder what's going through the mind of Fair Board President David Ellis right about now. More smiles.

Independence Day Holiday Weekend Safety

A "NEW" HOLIDAY EXPERIENCE
This year the Independence Day Holiday will be a very different event than in previous years. This year we may have the perfect storm for calamity in our city.


I'M NOT A "SAFE AND SANE" FIREWORKS FAN...
Let's get this part out of the way first. While I love a good professional fireworks show, I am not a fan of so-called "safe and sane" fireworks. I've written about it for several years and my opinion has not changed. However, I realize I may be a minority of one in our city, and, with that in mind, I wanted to remind you of some facts about this holiday.

COSTA MESA PRESENTS A RARE OPPORTUNITY
Costa Mesa is one of the very few cities in Orange County that permits the sale and discharge of "safe and sane" fireworks. In years past that typically meant that you could purchase fireworks in the city and families could put an exclamation point on their neighborhood holiday celebrations by shooting off an array of fireworks - most of which were acquired at booths throughout the city that sold them to provide funding for a variety of organizations. Usually it was youth sports groups that were the beneficiaries.

EXTENDED CHAOS
This year, however, our city council changed the rules. Not surprisingly, they've decided to put the funding of youth groups before public safety - in a variety of ways. This year you can purchase fireworks from booths in Costa Mesa from Thursday, June 30th through Monday, July 4th. AND, you can also legally discharge them from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on July 2nd, 3rd and the 4th, which means an entire weekend of traumatized pets and sleepless nights.

IT'S GOING TO BE A WAR ZONE!
It also means that those folks who journeyed over to Pahrump, Nevada and other venues to purchase ILLEGAL fireworks are going to put their neighborhoods in jeopardy over the entire weekend. Heck, it's already started on the Eastside of town where I live.

SAFETY PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
The City has made available to you a Public Service Announcement on the city web site via streaming video, HERE, and on Costa Mesa TV, Channel 24 on Time Warner Cable and Channel 99 on ATT U-Verse, that will be instructive for those of you even thinking about possibly firing off illegal fireworks. It will also be useful for you to view if you and your neighbors are just going to shoot off those "safe and sane" products you bought to support your favorite youth sports program. Here's the play schedule for the CMTV presentation:



REDUCED PUBLIC SAFETY PRESENCE & NO A.B.L.E CHOPPER
Adding to the potential for chaos this weekend is the fact that 1) the Police Department is working with a severely reduced staff; 2) the Fire Department staff is stretched thin and 3) the A.B.L.E helicopters will make their last flights on Thursday, June 30th and will not be available to support our diminished public safety organizations over the weekend. Some of you planning to fire off ILLEGAL fireworks may cheer this situation, but if your actions cause the loss of life or property or the injury to anyone, I think you'll change your tune.

AN INJURED CHILD IS A BIG PRICE TO PAY
I hope you all will exercise good judgment when discharging fireworks this weekend. Even the "safe and sane" fireworks can be dangerous if mishandled. An injury to a child is a stiff price to pay for a little carelessness or inattentiveness. Please be safe this holiday. And, oh, yes...

AND NOW A FEW WORDS FROM "THE DUKE"

"Transparency" Times Two

Slow news day in the land of Newport-Mesa. Good thing, too.. I needed a rest from last week.



FIRST EDITION OF WEEKLY "E-BRIEFING"
Costa Mesa CEO Tom Hatch introduced another new feature of the "transparency" he promised us last March when he hired Bill Lobdell as Interim Communication Director. This is the "E-Briefing" - a feature that is supposed to appear each week and will discuss things going on in City Hall and elsewhere in Costa Mesa. You can read the first edition HERE and subscribe to it via the City Web Site under the "Email Notification" section on the lower right side of the Home Page. It looks to me as though this is going to be yet another helpful feature for any residents actually interested in current events and plans afoot.CITY COUNCIL COMPENSATION
Lobdell also sent out an announcement, also under the sub-title of "transparency", providing a copy of the City Council compensation in an easy-to-review format. I can't find a link to it on the City Web Site, so reproduced it below for those of you with eagle-eyes. One thing you'll notice is that they misspelled Gary Monahan's name... Just click on the image and it will increase in size so you can read it.REMINDER
I intend to use more video clips from city meetings in the future. In order to view them you need to download and install Silverlight software from Microsoft. Go to the Silverlight site, HERE, and download it and follow the instructions for your particular computer to install it. You'll be glad you did.

A.B.L.E. - End Of Watch

THE "EAGLE" HAS LANDED - PERMANENTLY
On Thursday, June 30, the final official flight of the AirBorne Law Enforcement (A.B.L.E.) helicopter, Eagle, will take place. On that date the Eagle will have its wings clipped and will be grounded forever. Effective July 1st the helicopter program that, in one form or another, has served the Newport-Mesa communities for more than four decades will simply cease to exist, de-funded by an ignorant City Council "Working Group" - Gary Monahan and Jim Righeimer - that hatched the scheme in private and convinced the other two members of the majority to go along with it.

MORE THAN FOUR DECADES OF SERVICE ENDS
The original local helicopter patrol program was founded by Costa Mesa in 1971. More than two decades later, following a tragic mid-air collision in 1987 between two helicopters - one from Costa Mesa and one from Newport Beach - that might have ended the helicopter program, A.B.L.E. was formed by Costa Mesa and Newport Beach in 1997 to provide a coordinated effort for air support of local public safety agencies. It became the model for all other local airborne law enforcement entities throughout the country.

24/7/365
A.B.L.E. has provided air-support service to the cities of Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Santa Ana seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. A.B.L.E. patrolled a diverse area which included commercial and residential areas, a state park, one of the nations busiest small craft harbors and 10 miles of coastline.

PATROL, FIRE SUPPRESSION AND RESCUE
In addition to providing patrol oversight and responding to calls for service. It trained annually, deploying lifeguards into the water from the helicopter and providing rapid transport for victims. It was equipped with a "Bambi Bucket", a 108 gallon fire suppression tool used to rapidly quench small fires before they became bigger ones. They've been essential tools in locating lost hikers and mountain bikers in the state park and other back-country areas.

THE MISSION STATEMENT
A.B.L.E.'s mission statement reads as follows: "The mission of Airborne Law Enforcement (ABLE) is to provide air support to our member public safety personnel and neighboring agencies. We will enhance the protection of public safety personnel and the security of our citizens with efficient, proactive air support. we are dedicated to accomplishing our mission in a safe and professional manner." Anyone paying attention for the past few decades will have to agree that, right up to the end, they've continued to meet that goal with courage, skill and professionalism.

DIMEL'S EXPLANATION OF A.B.L.E.
In March of 2011 Costa Mesa Police Officer and one of the senior A.B.L.E. pilots, Rob Dimel, wrote a commentary about the possible dissolution of A.B.L.E. in the Daily Pilot, HERE.

BARBARA'S BITS ON A.B.L.E.
In case you need another reminder of just what A.B.L.E. does, sit back for a couple minutes and enjoy this little recent video clip from Orange County Register columnist Barbara Venezia's "Barbara's Bits" archives. This will help you understand just what's been taken away from us by a guy intent on getting a boost up the political ladder.



NO LOGIC IN THE FABRICATED "BUDGET CRISIS"
The current Costa Mesa City Council, led by Righeimer, used their fabricated budget "crisis" as a sledgehammer to shut down the A.B.L.E. program and decided to do so effective the beginning of the new fiscal year, July 1st, even though the July 4th holiday is typically one of the times when the helicopters are called upon the most by police and fire agencies for support. This year, also demonstrating their lack of wisdom, the Costa Mesa City Council has chosen to pander to the youth sports community and is permitting the discharge of fireworks not just on the 4th, but on the 2nd and 3rd, as well. That would typically mean a greater demand for A.B.L.E. support over the entire holiday weekend.

PLENTY OF MONEY TO KEEP FLYING
Even though there is enough money - estimated at nearly $5 million - in the A.B.L.E. reserve accounts to fully fund all operations for at least two years, the council stubbornly refused to even consider extending this outstanding public safety service. In fact, Righeimer pointedly refused to even extend it four days, until July 5th - giving his pal, Steve Mensinger, a stern "NO!" when he asked him to do that at a recent council meeting. It is that kind of heels-dug-in thinking that is presently tearing this city apart and placing all residents and visitors in jeopardy.

FITZPATRICK TELLS YOU HOW IT IS
As each day passes it becomes more and more clear to me that there's much more at play here than simply trying to balance a budget. Righeimer very obviously has a very hard place in his heart for the Costa Mesa Police Department and any entity, like A.B.L.E., that's closely associated with it. He's apparently willing to put the public safety of all residents and visitors in jeopardy to satisfy whatever grudge he's carrying around with him. I assume it's because the CMPD actively campaigned against him last year. In fact, if you have any doubt about it, just listen to his lapdog, Planning Commissioner and member of the Sanitary District Board Jim Fitzpatrick, at the last council meeting. This pathetic man is still "hearing voices", and has not had an original thought pass his lips in the past couple years - ever since he became Sancho Panza to Steve Mensinger's Don Quixote. When he returned to his seat after this little speech I wanted to offer him a tissue to remove that brown stuff from his nose. NOTE: After much contemplation I decided to switch images. The other one offended too many readers. Such is life...




ADIOS, A.B.L.E.
So, defying all logic and good judgment, the A.B.L.E. program will soon be only a memory - part of the rich history of the City of Costa Mesa and a proud element of the public safety organizations that has protected us for more than four decades. Barring some miracle in the form of a private/public partnership or a regional helicopter program that will utilize our team intact, A.B.L.E. is done on Thursday. There are no words to adequately tell those folks who supported and protected us in that fine program all these years how I feel, so I'll just let Mariah Carey do it for me... hit it, girl.

Time For Some Contemplation

TEN DAYS OF DEEP BREATHING
Now that we have a budget and that drama is behind us for the time being, it's time to take a deep breath, pause for a few days and contemplate where this city goes from this point forward. We don't have another scheduled council meeting until July 5th - the day after the three-day orgy of fireworks promoted by a couple members of the city council to the detriment of the rest of us. Oops, there I go again.

WISDOM IMPARTED
My friend, Bruce Krochman, operates a blog called "Civil Thinking" on which he occasionally posts his views of our community. He doesn't post nearly frequently enough, but when he does, those entries are always worth a careful reading. On April 12th of this year - the same date, by the way, that recently-departed Interim Police Chief Steve Staveley presented CEO Tom Hatch with his ideas about how to structure the Police Department - Bruce published a little essay he titled, "My Little Corner of Paradise is Feeling More Like a War-Zone", which you can read HERE. I encourage you to do so, because it provides a pretty concise summary of events in the recent political history of our city from the last campaign until that date.

STOP "DISSIN'' AND LISTEN
Some members of our City Council have been dismissive and condescending with folks who rise to speak before them. Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer, in particular, apparently feels that those folks - who take the time to study issues and regularly attend council meetings - don't really represent the views of the majority of the residents of the city. He apparently feels that the absence of the other 110,000 residents means that he and this council must be doing a good job. He, of course, is wrong.

LISTEN TO YOUR NEIGHBOR'S VIEWS
Lest you think that all of those who rise to speak to the council are a bunch of lunatics or partisan political hacks - yes, there are a few of those - from time to time I'm going to give you a peek at what some of your neighbors have said to the council. Late last week I provided you with four video clips in one post to show you some of the concerned voices pleading with the council for the exercise of wisdom on the police department restructuring and the budget. If you had difficulty viewing those clips you may wish to update your browser and you may have to download Microsoft Silverlight, HERE. It's free and makes viewing those clips possible.

LEFFLER AND REEDY - VOICES OF REASON
Today, I present a couple more voices that spoke before the council on June 22nd. Both of these women, Robin Leffler and Lisa Reedy, are respected members of their individual communities - Leffler in Mesa Verde and Reedy in Mesa del Mar. Each have been officers in their respective homeowner's associations and Reedy has been a candidate for City Council in the recent past. Both study the issues and present their views with clarity and passion. These women are representative of the best among us. They are also among those voices consistently ignored by this current City Council as it doggedly slogs forward, attempting to re-make our city into the image held in the minds of politicians living outside our community. Take a few minutes to view their presentations before the city council and ask yourselves why these uncomplicated , respectful and sincere requests for consideration and moderation are being ignored.

ROBIN LEFFLER



LISA REEDY

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

PERFECT END TO A TOUGH WEEK
Ok, it's been a long week. Heck, the first two days would be a long week in anyone's book! So, rather than go on and on about the budget or the bogus police department restructuring and totally mess up your weekend, I'm going to leave you with a chuckle in the person of Costa Mesa resident Terry Koken. Here's his little tune, crooned to the City Council last Tuesday evening. There were lots of smiles in the auditorium when he finished - none of them from the dais. Enjoy...

PIG POLITICS
by Terry Koken

Jones & Mayer Bounces Staveley

JONES & MAYER FEELS THE HEAT...
In what must have been a case of the contractor bowing to pressure from the client, Jones & Mayer - the firm that provides contract legal services to the tune of at least $1 million annually based on recent numbers - tossed aside former Interim Police Chief Steve Staveley today.

...AND DUMPS THE CHIEF
In an article by Mike Reicher in the Daily Pilot today, HERE, Richard D. Jones - a partner at Jones & Mayer - was extremely critical of Staveley for his letter sent to the CMPD troops when he stepped away from his job on Monday. Staveley has been a long-time consultant with Jones & Mayer, which is how he ended up serving Costa Mesa twice as Interim Police Chief. They now apparently have severed all ties with Staveley

WHY? WE SUSPECT DOLLARS
We don't know exactly what kind of pressure was brought on Jones & Mayer in this situation, but I suspect officials from our city wanted his scalp for the way he characterized members of the council and their actions and likely made that point in terms any contractor would understand - dollars.


PERRY VALANTINE SETS THE TONE
Just to make things a little clearer, please know that there were many speakers at Tuesday's council meeting who were supportive of the Chief. Let's set the tone for that meeting. Here's the level-headed and persuasive Perry Valantine delivering a message to the council during public comments. Jim Righeimer rips the crowd, Monahan demands "professionalism" - oh, really?




GENIS READS STAVELEY
Very shortly thereafter former mayor Sandra Genis - who has never stopped being involved in civic issues and brings a tenacity and expertise that's rare in council chambers - felt moved to read the text of Staveley's letter to the troops:







CHAMNESS PRAISES "THE CHIEF"
Then Costa Mesa Police Association President Jason Chamness, apparently moved by Genis' recitation, stepped up to deliver what might have been a eulogy for Staveley - at least a eulogy for his professional career:




EPPERSON REQUESTS CALM DELIBERATION
Then retired Costa Mesa Police lieutenant Clay Epperson stepped to the microphone and provided further support for Staveley and asked the council to take the time to calmly deliberate their actions on the budget and the police restructuring:




WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE?
I could go on and on, but I'd burn your bandwidth with more video messages. Suffice it to say that Steve Staveley had it exactly right and the quicker the residents of this city realize that fact, the greater the chance we have of reining these clowns in before they totally destroy this city to enhance Righeimer's political profile.

New Chief Will Be An Outsider

HATCH THINNED THE HERD
City CEO Tom Hatch told the public last Tuesday evening that the herd had been thinned in the process of selecting a new Chief of Police, and that he would be conducting what will amount to the final round of interviews with the remaining few candidates. No number of candidates nor the identities were given of those who remain.

ALL CMPD CANDIDATES ARE OUT
Today sources close to the process confirmed that none of the four candidates from the Costa Mesa Police Department remain in the running. The four candidates from the CMPD who tossed their hats into the ring are Captain Les Gogerty, in charge of Field Operations; ABLE Commander Sergeant Tim Starn; Lieutenant Allen Huggins, in charge of Professional Standards and Lieutenant Tim Schennum, in charge of Logistical Services.

GOGERTY SEEMED RIGHT
From what I know of the four men, Gogerty's resume and experience seemed like a pretty darn good fit for the opening. His education and training have prepared him for this position at this time and he was acting police chief during the "Where's Chris Shawkey?" fiasco.

TOUGH CALL
While I'm personally saddened that someone from within the department will not be chosen, I hope Hatch uses this opportunity to select an outstanding law enforcement leader - one who will place the public safety of Costa Mesa residents and visitors over the political demands of members of the City Council. Considering the political climate and the diminished resources available to the new chief, this is going to be quite a task.

HATCH CAN'T MAKE A MISTAKE ON THIS ONE
Quite honestly, Hatch cannot afford to make a mistake with this critical position. Ever since Dave Snowden retired and moved on to Beverly Hills, Costa Mesa has managed to shoot itself in the foot when it came to choosing men to run the department, at least on a permanent basis. With so many eyes on our city in recent months, this selection may be the most important Hatch will have made to date in his brief tenure as CEO. This one must be right.

Foley & Righeimer on "Which Way, LA"

FOLEY & RIGHEIMER, TOGETHER AGAIN
In case you missed it, Katrina Foley and Jim Righeimer appeared with venerable Los Angeles newsman Warren Olney on KCRW, 89.9 FM on Olney's program, "Which Way, LA". Here's a link that will take you to the archived video. See the image above. Drag the scroll bar across to that point adjacent to the line separating "Nuclear" and "City", as shown - that's where their segment starts. They're on for about 10 minutes. Late in the discussion listen for a familiar name. :-)

Late Night Costa Mesa Hijinks

DEPRESSED AND POOPED, BUT I'M BACK...
"So, where ya been Pot Stirrer?", you ask. Well, last night's council meeting just flat wrung me out and by the time I finally left City Hall at 1:20 a.m. I was so disappointed and angry about the events of the evening/morning and so physically thrashed that I just couldn't sit down and write... so I took a mini-hiatus for a few hours. I'm back.


COMPRESSED CHAOS
By the time that meeting ended in the wee hours of Wednesday it seemed to me that we'd had an entire week's activities jammed into two days. With Interim Police Chief Steve Staveley's abrupt departure and the letter he left in his wake; Tom Hatch's angry response to that departure; the last-minute presentation by the OCEA of the results of their audit and then the events of the meeting itself, I found myself getting a giant brain cramp. Some might say it couldn't have been too big, considering what was involved...

BUDGET, COPS AND JERKS
The shortest shorthand version of last night's meeting - we have a budget, we barely have a Police Department left and a couple members of the city council majority have demonstrated again that they don't really care what the residents - those fine folks they are supposed to serve - have to say. In fact, they are more than willing to spit back at folks who criticize them - a totally unacceptable behavior for a municipal leader. That's all you need to know, but there are those nasty details to deal with.

UH-OH...
I thought we might be in for an interesting evening when I found five (5) television news vans parked outside the council chambers more than an hour before the event was scheduled to begin. I was right. By the time I dragged my weary old body to my car more than seven hours later I'd had about all the political rhetoric and staged sound bites that I could take. You can watch the entire painful proceeding via streaming video HERE. To navigate the site be sure you use the "jump to" feature, then drag the scroll bar to the specific point of interest.

FULL AND FOCUSED
The auditorium was packed, with the overflow crowd watching and listening to the proceedings from the porch. They could be heard clapping and cheering occasionally following more than a few of the speakers before the council. There were many employees in the building, including a large contingent of police officers, eager for a last minute reprieve to the destruction of their organization. They went home disappointed.

HYPOCRITE STIFLES ENTHUSIASM
Early on, when the crowd clapped and cheered for a couple of the early speakers during Public Comments, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer blew a gasket and scolded the crowd for their boisterousness. He told them that folks were afraid to speak for fear of jeering and that school children who came to the meetings were ashamed of the adults acting like children. Later he gave us a demonstration of what he meant when he and non-elected councilman Steve Mensinger chided and berated members of the OCEA from the dais. Talk about lack of professionalism! The hypocrisy was so deep you almost needed hip boots in the chambers! More on that later.

LOTS OF SPEAKERS, LOTS OF PASSION
The Public Comments segment took almost 90 minutes, with 33 speakers stepping up to address the council on a variety of issues. I'm not going to try to comment on every one, but Helen Nenadal led off with a passionate thank you to the residents of the city for their support in these troubled times.

ARTICULATE "JIFFY LUBE GUY"
Award-winning city mechanic, Gant Corum - one of those "Jiffy Lube Guys" that Colin McCarthy vilifies - stepped up and hit one out of the park, also thanking the residents of the city for their support. He's one of those waiting to hear the results of the RFP process to unfold - and the clock's ticking.

EPPERSON STEPS UP
Retired police lieutenant Clay Epperson, who recently had a long commentary published in the Daily Pilot, stood to speak on behalf of recently-departed Interim Police Chief Steve Staveley, and to beg the council to not destroy our excellent police organization. As it turned out, the council was wearing ear plugs.




IGNORING THE EXPERTS, CMPD RESTRUCTURED
The council, with relatively little debate, approved CEO Tom Hatch's plan to gut the Costa Mesa Police Department, ignoring the best professional advice available. He, and the council, chose to use as the cornerstone of their decision the pulled-from-the-air number of 125 sworn officers imposed on the process by "two members of the city council". We know that's the genesis of the number because Staveley told his troops that fact during his meeting with them a week ago. April 12, 2011, Staveley wrote a report to him defining his views on the staffing of the police department - he felt 160+ was a good number, but that 140 would be the barest minimum number that should be considered. Hatch's hand-picked consultants, Management Partners - which included in its stable of experts the former Police Chief in Brea, Mike Messina, a veteran cop with more than 35 years in law enforcement under his belt - suggested a minimum number of 136 sworn. And yet, here we are, with 125, to which will be added 5 positions via federal grant for 3 years and one restored Lieutenant slot for a total of 131. The department has not seen staffing numbers that low since the mid-1980s - when the population was nearly 40% smaller.

WHAT'S THE PLAN, MAN?
The discussion of how this reduction was to be executed was wishy-washy at best. Hatch seemed either unwilling or unable to describe how this plan will be executed, so they just moved on, apparently assuming it would just happen. I was seated near many members of the CMPD, who had a very troubled, confused look on many of their faces. It's bad enough to have their lives so affected by the decisions made at that moment, but to see the indecisiveness at the end of it certainly must have been frustrating for them.


$95 MILLION BUDGET
Again, with relatively little discussion on the budget - especially considering the magnitude of the issue and the lengthy multiple-meetings that have been held on it in the recent past - the council voted to approve Hatch's plan, but with the alternatives offered up to meet the capricious demands made by Righeimer at the Study Session last week. We now have a General Fund budget of just over $95 million - a number that is almost certainly going to get massaged with a sledgehammer in the second quarter of the fiscal year once the whole outsourcing debacle begins to kick in.

RIGHEIMER IS RUNNING THE SHOW
There seems to be absolutely no doubt about just who's running the show on the dais these days - regardless who signs the paperwork. Yep, the carpetbagger has taken over and, as resident and former council candidate Lisa Reedy stated so clearly, is running wild. Mayor Gary Monahan appears to have abdicated the power seat, if not officially, at least in practice, to Righeimer. There must be some OC GOP marching orders at play here. Righeimer may not have snatched the crown off Monahan's head yet, but he certainly is messing with it.

LEGAL FEES UP? BUDGET LESS!
Here's an irony for you. They approved the version of the budget that reduced the allocation for the legal fees from $1 million to just over $800,000, but earlier approved the Warrant in the Consent Calendar that showed the most recent bill to Jones & Mayer to be just over $120,000 - an annualized rate of $1.4 million. I doubt anyone in the room expects the legal fees to go down any time soon. Do these guys actually think nobody is watching this? Geez!

COUNT YOUR TOES, STEVE!
An amusing, and pathetic, sidebar occurred last night as Mensinger got into a discussion with Hatch about Park Rangers and Community Service Specialists (CSS). Over the past couple years, in an effort to balance earlier budgets, several of the non-sworn CSS positions were vacated and the incumbents laid off. Mensinger wanted to know how many were in the new budget and how they can be used. Hatch told him there was one Park Ranger slot filled and one vacant, plus 5 CSS slots approved. Mensinger wanted to know how many could be used as Park Rangers. There is no "Park Ranger" job - they are CSS slots filled to be Park Rangers and the pay grade and requirements are the same. For some reason, Mensinger just could not grasp the concept that there were 7 position and would remain 7 no matter how you sliced them. I wanted to stand up and yell for him to take off his shoes and count the toes, for goodness sake! And we wonder how his division of SunCal ended up in bankruptcy!

UNNECESSARY PRESENTATIONS
After midnight (!), before the budget was approved, the remaining 60 or so observers in the audience were forced to endure two irrelevant and unnecessary presentations. The first, by the smarmy Colin McCarthy in his role as the president of the Costa Mesa Taxpayer's Association - the vocal chords for the OC GOP in Costa Mesa - was a PowerPoint presentation showing a bundle of inaccurate and biased numbers with which they've been attempting to whip confused residents into a fiscal frenzy. There was NO reason for this presentation, particularly since it interfered with the real business of the council - to discuss and approve a budget!

LAME OCEA PRESENTATION
The second was a lame presentation by a representative of the Orange County Employee's Association of the Executive Summary of their recently-completed audit. There was no good reason for this to have been presented since it was only released the day before and the final audit was only made available to the City Tuesday morning. Yes, it should have been acknowledged and, yes, the announcement of a study session to discuss it should have been made, but the presentation should not have been approved. As is turned out, it was disastrous for the OCEA. In yet another tactical blunder, in my view, they chose not to fly down the author from San Francisco for the presentation and the nice young woman who made the pitch was shredded by Righeimer in an aggressive, unprofessional attack. He was joined, like a second mutt in a brace of pit bulls, by his pal, Mensinger, who took the opportunity to castigate OCEA spokeswoman Jennifer Muir. And, in an interesting bit of piling on, McCarthy stood to further denigrate the OCEA presentation when public comments were invited. It was like a bully convention, for goodness sake.

BUDGET, BUT AT A DEAR COST
So, dear readers, we've got a budget, but at the expense of the police department and public safety in our city. I know the men and women of the CMPD are going to continue to do their best to provide safe streets for all residents and visitors. I hope Hatch does, as he said was his plan, hire a new Police Chief shortly so the troops will not be operating with a leadership vacuum much longer. I have no idea how the latest Interim Police Chief, Dennis Kies, will do for the short time he will be around. Certainly, he will not try to implement any new initiatives during his short tenure. He'll be like a substitute teacher - here today, gone tomorrow. We'll see.

NO MORE "EVERY TUESDAY" MEETINGS!
On the positive side, I no longer have to plan my every waking moment around Tuesday meetings at City Hall. With the budget approved, that requirement gets reduced to every other Tuesday. Ah, like a vacation...