First Council Meeting For New Group Tuesday

HERE WE GO WITH A NEW COUNCIL
The agenda for the first City Council meeting of the new era has been published and has some very interesting items on it.

CLOSED SESSION MOVED TO THE END
This meeting will apparently have the closed session at the tail end of the regular meeting to allow new council member Sandra Genis to fully participate in the deliberations.  I'm led to believe this is a one-time change.

THE SWEARING-IN

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:00 in council chambers at City Hall.  You can read the entire agenda HERE.  It will begin with Public Comments, Council Members Reports, Comments and Suggestions then will address the resolution validating the recent General Election.  You can read that staff report HERE.  The council members elected - Sandra Genis, Steve Mensinger and Gary Monahan - will be sworn in and seated.  Somewhere along the line the new mayor and mayor pro tem will be elected and a break will be taken to juggle the chairs on the dais and have a short reception for the winners in the election.  I don't expect the scheduled items on the agenda to begin until around 7:00, and then it will likely be the Public Hearing item, below.

HATCH, THEN CONSENT CALENDAR
Following the report from Tom Hatch, City Chief Executive Officer, the council will consider the Consent Calendar - a long one this time around.  There are seventeen (17) individual items on the agenda, several of which will likely be pulled for separate discussion.

JONES DAY CHARGES
For example, Warrant #2449, HERE,  might get pulled for a discussion of the charge from Jones Day - the expensive law firm handling the OCEA lawsuit - for over $69,000.  So far they've been paid well over $1 million on that bogus lawsuit, and that doesn't include charges from our contract law firm, Jones and Mayer, for their part in the suit.

19TH STREET BRIDGE DELETION

Item #6, the deletion of the 19th Street Bridge, may generate some discussion.  The staff recommendation is to receive and file - no action is required.  The staff report is HERE.

DONATED SENIOR TRANSPORTATION BUS
Item #8 is the proposed acceptance of a donated bus to be used for Senior transportation, HERE.

REHABING RED HILL
Item #11 deals with the acquisition of $922,000 in funding to rehabilitate Red Hill Avenue, widely considered the arterial roadway in the worst condition within the city.  The staff report is HERE.

SPIFFING UP HARBOR BLVD. AND 17TH STREET
Item #13 deals with $1 million in grant funding to beautify Harbor Blvd. and enhance the streetscape on 17th Street.  That staff report is HERE.

STORM DRAINS
Item #14 is for engineering services of $69,745 for work on Industrial Way and Storm Drain Improvements, HERE.

DESIGNING FAIRVIEW PARK TRAILS
Item #15 is an engineering contract for #160,387 for design of Fairview Park Multipurpose Trails, HERE.

BRENTWOOD PARK
Item #16 is design services for Brentwood Park in the amount of $95,605, HERE.

DEPUTY CITY CLERK
Item #17, the final item on the Consent Calendar, is a request for the authorization of a new position, Deputy City Clerk, HERE, to formalize the position that Christine Cordon had been doing before her recent promotion to a position in Public Affairs.

SUCCESSOR AGENCY
The council will then change dresses and become the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency and consider one item, the independent accounts report, HERE.

CLOSURE OF ANCHOR TRAILER PARK REPORT

Next on the agenda is one Public Hearing, which I suspect might be moved to the head of the line since council policy calls for public hearings to begin at 7:00 or as close to that hour as is possible.  This item, if approved, will require the owner of  Anchor Trailer Port Mobilehome Park to implement a "Closure Impact Report".  You can read most of the staff report HERE, but several pages are missing.  Hopefully, that will be remedied on Monday so we can actually read and understand the report.

JANUARY 1, 2013 COUNCIL MEETING

There is no Old Business scheduled, but there are a couple VERY interesting items under New Business.  The first is a discussion of rescheduling or canceling the City Council meeting that would normally fall on Tuesday, January1, 2013.  Options presented are to move it to January 8th or cancel it altogether.


RESCINDING LAYOFF NOTICES
The second New Business item is the recision of layoff notices and rejection of all remaining bids for services.  You can read that staff report HERE.  The recommendation to the council by staff at the beginning of the staff report reads as follows:

1. Authorize the CEO to rescind the remaining lay off notices; 

2. In lieu of outsourcing not providing extensive relief on City pension challenges, direct
the CEO to prepare and present a plan to address the underfunded pension and
retiree medical liabilities at the mid year budget review in February 2013. 

3. Authorize the CEO to enter into negotiations with representatives of the Costa Mesa City Employees’ Association (CMCEA) to discuss innovative methods and techniques that will both ensure continued quality services to the public and produce long term financial savings to the City;

4. Authorize the CEO to initially focus the discussions with CMCEA on Jail Services, Street Sweeping Services, Parks and Landscape Maintenance Services, Graphic Design Services and Payroll Services with the CEO administratively implementing the changes without any layoffs to full-time personnel; and

5. Reject all bids for the remaining outsourcing services where the City Council has yet to provide direction.

Personally, I'm going to be VERY interested to see how the discussion of this particular item goes.  It will come at the end of the meeting and we all know that most councils don't do their best work late in the evening.

CITY ATTORNEY AND CLOSED SESSION
At that point we will hear a report from the City Attorney, then the council will adjourn to Closed Session to consider two items involving anticipated or present litigation.