Tuesday's Council Agenda
The Costa Mesa City Council will meet again on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 for their first meeting of the month. Proceedings begin at 5:00 p.m. for a closed session and at 6:00 p.m. for the regular meeting. The agenda may be found HERE.
SHORT MEETING?
This might be a fairly short meeting, meaning we may actually head home by 10:00 p.m. or earlier. However, don't hold your breath for that.
CONSENT ITEMS
There are several items on the Consent Calendar that might interest you. You will recall that the new, more jovial Mayor Jim Righeimer prefers that nobody pull anything from the Consent Calendar for separate discussion - but that doesn't mean it won't be happening.THE COST OF RUNNING
Item #6 is the resolution for the closure of several streets for the Orange County Marathon, HERE. A casual review of the closures planned show less negative impact on traffic than in previous years. I guess we'll see.
Numbers 7 and 9 are for the acquisition of 10 Police cars and 5 Police motorcycles for a total cost of just over $450,000. You can read the staff reports HERE and HERE, respectively.
GIMME SHELTER
The only Public Hearing on the agenda involves an amendment to the Municipal Code relating to the establishment of Emergency Shelters, Transitional Housing and Supportive Housing to comply with State Law. You can read the staff report HERE. It identifies two areas of town that will be designated as appropriate for Emergency Shelters, among other things.GRAHAM'S STEPS
There's no Old Business on the agenda, but a couple items on the New Business agenda may draw some attention. Item #2 is "Fairview Park Projects", HERE. Included is new/old Parks and Recreation Commissioner Bob Graham's request for stairs into the park at Canary Drive, replacing the slippery dirt/mud ramp that's been created by visitors over the years.
ANOTHER COMMITTEE?Also included are several items requested by Mayor Pro Tem Steve Mensinger. They include the re-creation of the Fairview Park Citizen's Advisory Committee, which will "analyze and make recommendations on future project proposals". The staff will recommend be composed of 11 members - two city council members; two members of the Parks and Recreation Commission; the Public Services Director and six members at large from the community that will be selected by the council after a recruitment effort is complete. I guess Mensinger still has friends he needs to pay back for campaign support. This is the third committee he has either asked to be created or expanded since he took office.
TALBERT NATURE PRESERVE
Mensinger also asked the staff to bring to the council a proposal for the construction of bluff stairs at the south end of the park to provide direct access to Talbert Nature Preserve and also information on the potential acquisition of Talbert Nature Preserve from the County of Orange.
STUDYING NEW FACILITIES AT CMHS
The final item on the agenda, New Business #3, is another Mensinger brain storm - the approval of a Memorandum of Understanding between The City and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District for a "design feasibility study" in the amount of $15,000 to analyze the placement and development of a joint use athletic facility at Costa Mesa High School, HERE. The fifteen grand is chump change, but according to the staff report and the Daily Pilot report by Jeremiah Dobruck, HERE, this is the first step to The City spending more than $3 million to build a complex at CMHS. That's NOT chump change, for sure. And, of course, it is the last item on the agenda...Labels: Costa Mesa Homeless, Fairview Park, Jim Righeimer, OC Marathon, Steve Mensinger
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 3/03/2013 12:19:00 PM
14 Comments:
More cars and bikes for our hard working CMPD folks, I'm sure they are needed... But I always find it odd that the "additional" costs to get these fine new units rolling down the road seems to never end up being included? Each car may need 4 to 6,000 more out of pocket dollars to bolt and wire up all that fancy cop stuff. they want new cameras in the cars, wheres the cost to put those in? Can some of the fine bean counters start showing us taxpayers the "complete" picture one day??? I truly have lost all interest in what the cops may retire with or without, those numbers seem to change with the tides with our city hall.
Need a new football field for Pop Warner in Fairview Park?
Here is how you do it.
Create a Fairview Park Commission. Stack it with your pals. Have them claim we need a new football field and and then your hands appear clean.
Remember the failed attempt to pave over some of the park so you could get more Pop Warner parking by urging (blackmailing) the Harbor Soaring Society!!!
Thankfully the Harbor Soaring Society didn't make this happen.
"Need a new football field for Pop Warner?"
Who in Costa Mesa is overly obsessed with Pop Warner? Certainly not the guy we miss and need back up here! Furthermore, COIN solved all government tricks, so stop talking like this immediately!
If there is money for a second set of stairs at Fairview Park, the acquisition of Talbert Preserve and investment in a sports complex,couldn't that go to pay down the pension liability? I thought that was the top priority, or did I make the mistake of actually listening to the Council majority?
Ah, Mary Ann, you didn't listen to our mayor, Jovial Jim, last Tuesday evening. He said he's not interested in sending more money to CalPERS. Guess that ends the discussion... We have a problem that he has been railing about for two years, but he's got his heels dug in on at least part of the solution. No matter what kind of increase in revenues we institute, he's not going to send it to CalPERS.
More police cars? joy. There was a time where not long ago i saw a person pulled over daily on my 10 minute route to the 55. Im sure those cars will pay for themselves in the worst way.
Another set of stairs a 2 minute walk away from one already built in a place thats supposed to encourage walking? people seem to climb on the bluff because they think its fun, not out of necessity.
I also looked through the projects in work for the park- they want parking next to the site of the new stairs. Pave over nature to put in a parking lot that isnt accessible from any main road? This all seems loopy and wasteful. I hope they arent planning to build it up into a mile square. Although a lovely park, people TRASH the place on weekends and ruin parking for the neighborhoods surrounding. Come monday morning stray chip bags, plastic grocery bags, and other assorted items seem to find their way onto the roads.
Costa mesa has existing unkempt roads need to be repaved more than the south end of the park needs a a parking lot. Park in the neighborhood and walk the extra 20 feet! Sigh.
So, Pot Stirrer, is Righeimer saying we have a serious problem but we're not going to solve it? We're just going to use it to complain about the way things are? That's the kind of leadership we need on our City Council!
Cronyism - the act of hiring employees or selecting friends for a committee regardless of qualifications. One of the main problems with cronyism is the feeling of entitlement that employees or committee members selected under these circumstances feel. Because they know or are friends to management, they feel they can make any decision they want. Cronyism creates conflict in the workplace or community and can result in losing qualified personnel or in decisions that are not in the best interest of the community. In addition, it depletes morale and creates suspicions by others involved in the situation. So why would the council or management continue this practice? The only answer I can come up with is because they don’t care about anyone but themselves.
Cynicism aside, Geoff, isn't there action we can take to stop an individual(and his lackeys) from willfully defaulting on a debt and endangering our fiscal health? To incur a debt without the intention of paying it is a form of fraud and he is doing it in our name!
Is this what it will take to get a meaningful recall effort?
Mary Ann,
Good question. I have no idea how the recall effort is going. It doesn't start costing the taxpayers money until and unless sufficient numbers of valid signatures are turned in by the deadline. As long as Jovial Jim keeps tossing Mayor's Awards around like candy and feeding us pizza and Diet Coke it going to be harder to find signatories. We'll see.
sk, good to see you denounce cronyism. even at the san district? lol
sk, kinda like using ratepayer dollars to oust Fitzy and get Arlene back, right? Those pesky elections...
Hoot - "qualifications" was the key. Glad I can make you smile:)
Mary Ann,
I think, if I understand what Righeimer is saying, is that sending the PERS system any money beyond what they insist on may be a poor decision if they ultimately fail. Excess funds delivered to PERS could probably never be returned to Costa Mesa and may be distributed throughout the PERS portfolio to the benefit of other government agencies.
Now, that may, or may not be true. But, if it were a possibility, why would the city council put Costa Mesa taxpayer dollars in jeopardy of being redistributed to other communities?
If it is not the case, withholding excess contributions would be no harm, no foul.
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