Righeimer's Rant...
ARCHIVED VIDEO NOW AVAILABLEWell, the video archive of Tuesday/Wednesday council meeting is finally up and available for viewing. There were significant computer problems that kept it from being uploaded promptly. You can watch it HERE if you wish.
BY POPULAR DEMAND
While watching this recording is an interesting exercise, it is more than five and half hours long. I gave you my take on the meeting yesterday. However, some folks have been insistent that they be able to view what I referred to as Jim Righeimer's meltdown. So, I've carved it out for your viewing pleasure below, but I need to provide you with a preamble.A SIMPLE TRANSACTION
This video clip - it's about 9 minutes long - comes at a point in the meeting where the mid-year budget review is taking place. Director of Finance and Information
Technology, Bobby Young, presented what amounted to a short-hand version of the numbers since the council had already had a lengthy presentation at an earlier study session. The culmination of this presentation was the request by staff - Young - for the council to approve the transfer of money from the General Fund into the Self Insurance Fund because legal bills are being racked up at an unanticipated rate due to hiring one of the most expensive law firms around - Jones Day - to work the lawsuit filed by employees against the City. This is really just a matter of taking money out of one pocket and putting it into another, then paying the legal bills out of that pocket. Pretty simple, yet an essential bookkeeping function. Without that transfer, when the Self Insurance Fund is depleted the City would, technically, not be able to pay Jones Day. The thought of that makes me smile just a teeny bit.BOGUS 5-YEAR FORECAST
Anyhow, R
igheimer had just finished a mini-rant about how we need to "take care" of things - infrastructure improvements in particular. He cited the 5-Year Forecast spreadsheet that was created a few weeks ago. You can read that spreadsheet HERE. You can also read the Vacant Positions document that they referred to HERE. You will recall that, at the time, I observed that they were just plucking numbers out of the air and plugging them into slots in the spreadsheet. I told you then that somewhere along the way Righeimer would use those numbers - most of which were not arrived at by any kind of analysis - as gospel and demand that the staff created a budget to meet those numbers. Well, that's precisely what he did late Tuesday night. He used those bogus numbers as the foundation for his larger rant following the vote.TOO FUNNY
In this video clip you will see the vote taken which resulted in a 2-2 tie. You will recall that former mayor Gary Monahan was absent from this meeting. His presence would have broken the tie. That meant the vote failed and the transfer of funds could not take place. It was actually pretty funny to watch in person because Steve Mensinger was clueless about how the vote turned out. He was sure Righeimer had voted for the issue. Leece voted no, citing her displeasure with funding the legal fees that she thought were excessive.
WHINING
Then Righeimer began his rant. He was like an infant with colic. Listen to him say he's not going to vote on anything anymore. He demanded that Hatch come back with a plan for tax increases to cover the "$12 million". Well, that $12 million is the bogus number from the spreadsheet. The foundation of his rant is based on a fabricated document. But then, that's his modus operandi - create a crisis to fit his goals.DEMANDS "ADULT SUPERVISION"
One of the great ironies was him, at about 5:20 on the tape, demand some "adult supervision up here". That, coming from a guy in the midst of an infantile display of petulance. I'm not sure why Righeimer threw his hissy fit, as my grandmother used to call these kinds of displays of immaturity. I'm sure he's frustrated because his takeover of our government isn't going as he planned. That's good news for the rest of us.
HATCH "SAVE" REJECTED
Near the end of the clip you'll see CEO Tom Hatch try to salvage the situation, but his overture was rejected. When this item was complete I saw Young gather his paperwork and leave the dock looking like a man who had been shot by a taser! Watch the clip...
FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES...
In stark contrast was the outstanding, mature presentation by young Jacob Serber. This roughly 100 second clip shows us why there is still hope for this community.
Labels: Bobby Young, Budget Woes, Jacob Serber, Jim Righeimer, Steve Mensinger, Tom Hatch, Wendy Leece
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 3/22/2012 09:37:00 PM
8 Comments:
Geoff - I can not laugh because it is so SAD to watch. Knowing these council members have the ability to play with the lives of others and destroy those lives the way they do for their political agenda.
Two nights ago it became obvious they are not fit for this job.
I am truly SCARED for my city, it's employees and for truth and honesty.
If there are no other decent republican choices in this election I will vote for the first time for a democrat. Not Obama but at the city level.
Remember when local politics was about the City of Costa Mesa and it's people and not a sacrifice for the greater good of Scott Baugh, Moorlach and their perception to the greater good of the OCGOP.
Righeimer doesn't want to pay his attorneys even when he's using "our" money.
Why did he second the motion that he then voted against?
biggest meltdowns of meeting:kwahlf and tamar by far.
Gericault, LISTEN to Righeimer and you will know why he voted the way he did. He is calling out Wendy who refuses to not fill vacant positions and sides with you on tax increases. He wants to let the people vote for your agenda of tax increases and union power. That vote, along with the charter being passed, will hopefully put an end to the circus.
Voters in Costa Mesa need to look and see what they have got going on here. This behavior is a good example.
There is a second wave of experienced police officers standing at the door with their hands on the ripcord. They want to continue to work for CM but they are waiting on the charter and what happens in november.
If that happens and the PD goes down to where they have to start hiring, here's what to expect...
They are going to have to start hiring from a pool of people who have either not been able to get past the interview process with other depts (after having put themselves through the acadamy) or they will be taking people who have failed their probations with other depts (who after hiring them thought otherwise about their qualifications).
Highly qualified and experienced lateral applicants will not want to come here. If Righeimer thinks so, that's just another example of how ignorant he is about this.
What he actually thinks is that he can fill vacancies with "reserves" willing to work part time for below standard wage and minimal benifits (because there are lots of bodies out there who will stand in line for a badge and a gun).
Some of the officers working today see a potential catastrophe in the making.
The experienced officers who stay are going to be put into the role of "training" these second tier cops and seeing that they pass their probationary period.
It's a difficult task to hire police officers that are smart enough to do the dangerous part of the job using restraint and not exposing the city to the huge liabilities that come with making bad decisions.
So far that is what CMPD has provided. Few understand or appreciate it but may very well find out in the future what a law suit like the one Fullerton is going to be paying for costs.
So... if the charter passes and OCGOPs experiment continues to hold power past november, someday you'll see a different kind of news about the CMPD in the OC Register.
cops come and go, decade after decade. bye. if you leave, remember Stavely and don't leave behind a letter to haunt you in your future career moves. thanks for your service and good luck. our new hires deserve the benefit of not coming here with a bunch of negatives being said about them though. Probably some outstanding dedicated people coming up. excellence didn't stop when our current cops were hired. Also, there is just as good a group of workers in the private sector as are in the unions.
2nd tier.... "private sector" cops are called security guards. Many of they would like to be PD but can't for good reason.
Maybe they'll get their chance in Costa Mesa. Good luck to you with that.
I wish Ms Leece had countered with a motion (that would have been defeated) asking for the substantiation of the costs in the budget and request the same level of detail that Mr Righeimer requested. It wouldn't have happened, but I would hope our citizens watching would have wondered why a motion like that would be defeated.
All he is doing is trying to set up Ms Leece to dangle in the wind. He did it earlier in the night when he saw the motion for changing the public comments getting bashed. He took the time to remind us all that this was not a Council motion, it was Mr Bever's. Just another sacrifice to his plan.
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