What's Righeimer Up To Now?
Tomorrow night the Costa Mesa City Council will hold its first council meeting since the election and this one promises to have some highly-charged elements - not that all have not had way, way too much drama for the past two years.
Today Mike Reicher, former ace reporter for the Daily Pilot who now writes for the Orange County Register, broke the story, HERE, that Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer will be "calling for administrators to rescind pink slips issued to employees last year and to negotiate a deal with the labor union." If you've been following Costa Mesa politics for the past couple years, that statement will certainly get your attention - and probably make you curious about what Righeimer is up to now. The Daily Pilot also reported on this story late tonight, HERE.
Since he was elected two years ago he and his 4-1 super majority on the dais have run roughshod over the City, violating their own rules on outsourcing, causing a costly lawsuit to be filed which resulted in an appellate court decision that apparently threatens hundreds of other California cities who have privatized operations.
He and his cohorts have stampeded through the municipal governance process using the specter of fiscal disaster and insolvency because of "unsustainable pensions and pay levels". All the while they managed to balance the budget - a direct contradiction of their dire predictions.
Righeimer attempted to jam his cut-and-paste charter down the throats of the residents of the city. Fortunately, the electorate is not nearly as gullible as he apparently thought and that charter was soundly rejected by the voters. The last numbers today show 59.8% against it. This was a major defeat for Righeimer and his handlers at the Orange County Republican Party. That loss, combined with the rejection of the OC GOP slate for seats on the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, should have rocked them back and made them reconsider their overt attempt to use Costa Mesa as a Petri dish for pension reform and social experimentation. And, we hear grumblings that the GOP power brokers at the Lincoln Club are none to happy with how things went this election.
State-wide, my Republican Party suffered the loss of seats in the Assembly that now gives the Democrats a super majority. My Republicans are now just eunuchs in Sacramento.
So, many of us are reacting to Righeimer's overture with no small degree of suspicion. We wonder what he's up to now. Late this afternoon, in response to an inquiry by a reporter, Orange County Employee Association General Manager Nick Berardino - the group that represents the Costa Mesa City Employees Association - issued the following letter: (click to enlarge)
I take from Berardino's letter that he, too, is curious about what's up with this overture. Righeimer has demonstrated time after time that he is not beyond playing fast and loose with the rules. Distrust has marked his tenure on the dais. It's going to be very interesting tomorrow night at the council meeting, which begins at 6:00 in council chambers although it will be preceded by a special joint meeting of the city council and Costa Mesa Housing Authority and a closed session. You can read the complete agenda HERE.
And, the council meeting was already full of interesting stuff. The Consent Calendar alone holds much to be curious about - like the more than $95,000 billed by Jones Day as the latest bill in their open-ended contract as part of one of the five Warrants the council will consider.
WHY?
I'm also curious about the amendment of the agreement with Management Partners for yet another $37,000 for "interim management assistance". You can read the staff report HERE. The City has added so many people on the 5th floor of City Hall it makes one curious just why we continue to have to have these folks on board, month after month, when we've hired several highly-paid managers. Maybe someone will ask that question tomorrow night.
TRAFFIC IMPACT FEESThe council will also consider the annual citywide traffic impact fee program and the report from the ad hoc committee. You can read the staff report HERE. The recommendation is to leave the current fee structure in place.
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One item of particular interest will be the amendment to the contract with CalPERS and The City codifying the recently negotiated change to the agreement with the Fire Safety employees to implement the 2%@50 retirement formula. You can read the staff report HERE.
Near the end of the meeting the council will discuss the SR-55 Gateway Improvement Project Monument Sign Design, HERE and the Costa Mesa 60th Anniversary Planning Committee, HERE.
It looks like it's going to be another long night...
Labels: Jim Righeimer, Layoffs, outsourcing
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 11/19/2012 08:37:00 PM
28 Comments:
Everything's good again in Costa Mesa! Now how soon will Riggy, Mensy, Gary and Bever reimburse the city for the 2 million wasted on legal fees?
It only took a year and a half from Huy Pham's death for Napoleon to begin to understand.
Geoff,
I'm saddened by the state of your party. We need at least two viable political parties in this country. Right-wing radicalism has ruined the Republican brand from Costa Mesa on up to the national level.
The groundhog was awakened early.
If he sees his shadow, then we'll have two more years of Righeimer hurting Costa Mesa.
So, he now says he wants to see which jobs he can legally outsource. That's funny because for one, he clearly didn't do that the first go around. For another, the lawsuit he got the city involved in now makes it even harder to outsource. Previous GOP councils aren't the problem. Righeimer is the problem. He could have sat on his ass the entire time and not done anything and the city would be better off because of it.
Does anyone think Riggy had a change of heart?
Could it be that my EX-GOP party got it's arse whooped!?
The warrants to be paid this week ALREADY show that they are paying the Cassity law firm for negotiations with the bargaining units. HUH? yep!
Hey Riggy, Baugh, and other Kool Aide drinkers...Baugh-ha-ha! YOU tarnished the CM brand and people will never forget that!
let's see: the ocgop ran two for sanitary and lost. they ran two for water and won. they ran three for council and won 2. 5-3 is their record. yep , they got whooped big time.
Welcome back, Geoff.
Nothing Righeimer says or does can bring back Huy Pham.
Ahh Riggy trying to save face in the wake of a recall. LOL what a complete TOOL!
He's not fooling anyone!
I bet Fitzy is going mental!!!
@ can I have another--the biggest thing is that the charter got blown out of the water. The OCGOP was looking at that as the big prize in Costa Mesa, and the people realized what and who was behind it. Riggys OCGOP handlers don't care about the water or sanitary districts, it was all about the charter and it failed, just like anything else that these numbnuts try to pass on to the people of Costa Mesa. They might want to start looking at another city to experiment with.
What on Earth is "a LEAN program to streamline city government?" Is LEAN an acronym? Did the CAPS LOCK get broken? Is Nick screaming at us again?
Oh, and they ran 3 for water. Lest we forget that Fisler, Baby Ethan, and our Mayor was endorsed by the OCGOP. So that makes your score 5-4. Throw in the charter, which Scott Baugh called "a priority of the Republican party" and you have a tie.
Add up the vote totals of the Top 3 (41,361) versus the 3Ms (41,473). Yep, another tie.
>'canI Have Another Sir"
I believe the reference was to "RADICAL OCGOP". The ONLY winers in that league are two of the 3 M's. The others are GOP (like me)but, certainly not radical like those two bozo's.
It was a good test for the unions as well. Outspend your opponents 10-1, hire private detectives in an attempt to frame one council member on a criminal charge and attempt to destroy the marriage of another and you can nearly own a city. If they have spent just a little more they would have had Monahan’s seat and owned the entire town. Next time, in the next town, the message will be make sure opponents are outspent by at least a 11-1 margin, maybe add a little violence. Jimmy Hoffa would be proud of the CMPD gang.
Hey Mike H--I don't think that Bever was really endorsed by the OCGOP, they just told him that. He's to dumb to realize that they were just using him for the last couple of years and now I bet they'll forget all about him, which they should as well as all of us too.
What a complete joke it is that he thought he could run for the Water Dept. against a guy who has made it this his profession. Nice try Bever, now just go away.
The Drama Queen has spoken! Let the soap opera continue!
I bet Jim can't go 30 days without a media fix. Any takers?
And now that Riggy has found he can't get his way in C.M. easily, he's ready to move on to Moorlach's seat. He'll gladly dump the mess he's made and move on if he gets the chance. Frankly, I hope its sooner rather than later.
very good Mr. Hermanos. what is the vote total for the ones elected to council, the 3? winning 2 out of 3 is a "tie" that anyone would take. because the real math is 3-2 wins any vote.
Randall wrote:
"It was a good test for the unions as well. Outspend your opponents.."
Is this Dickson posting on city time?
I wanna know if Byron de Arakal is on someone's payroll and flacking hard for Riggy or just really loves Costa Mesa, based on all his comments on the Pilot story. He can't seem to accept that people simply don't trust Riggy, never have and never will, and we should all just move along. I'll reserve judgement on that.
Not flacking for anyone, Move Along. Just hoping the grown ups will show up soon so we can get this city back on a sustainable fiscal track.
de Arakal = Neville Chamberlain
41.4K voters voted for the frogs
47.7K voted against them. Wassup widdat Hermanos/leffler/fuqua? YOUR frog buddies were rejected by way over half the voters!!
u sure spin it different in the pilot.
"Randall" must be the new minister of (mis)information. He fails as usual to look at both sides. Yes on V spent as much or more than No on V. Our house got more Yes on V mailers and door hangers than No on V, only Yes on V-related robo-calls, and Yes on V paid for an obvious push-poll. The charter pushers had big expensive plastic 3 color signs and No on V had little two-color paper ones.
You won’t find most of the Yes on V money easily. Anything from the Orange County Republican Party will be really hard to find. It was all sent as “member communications”. If you do find them they won’t be itemized, there will just be a line somewhere that says “member communication” without explanation. It might not even show up in California.
keep looking Robin! the frogs may have lost the council races but you can try to get even. hey contact Val's building owner too. tell him how upset you would be if hanging the banners damaged the siding IF you owned the building. But you DON'T own it do you? But stay involved in it. What is your opinion of the new rose bush planted on Samar? Or the car your neighbor purchased? Is the fruit display at Von's to your liking? We need to know!
An overly dramatic comparison, Mr. Eichner. This is Costa Mesa, not Munich. But in the genre of notable British PMs, I'll leave you with this Churchill gem: "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Happy Thanksgiving...
Matty, apparently you can't count. We didn't get the majority seats, but what we did win was the loss of the charter, as you well know. You also well know that Sandy received the majority of votes. If you wish to consider this election a win, do so. We're laughing on this side.
And, the best part, is now Riggy is whimpering.
What's up with that? You have an entire army of volunteers, money, power, influence, and everything else you want in Costa Mesa and Orange County.
I can't speak for my friends, but I am nobody and you almost got beat by nobody.
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