Friday, May 17, 2013

Brief Council Meeting And Vegas Boondoggle

ALMOST LIKE A VACATION!
After this past week, with meeting after meeting after meeting at Costa Mesa City Hall, next week looks like a piece of cake!

HOMELESS HOUSING ISSUE
Tuesday the remaining three members (more on that later) of the city council will hold what looks like a very short meeting beginning at 6:00 in Council Chambers.  Wendy Leece has been designated to run this meeting.  There is only one item on the agenda, HERE, beyond the Consent Calendar items and that's the issue titled "Community Housing Development Organization Predevelopment Loan And Commitment Of Home Program Funds Agreement".  The council needs to approve this item so the City can move forward with a plan for permanent supportive housing to serve the Costa Mesa homeless population.  I suspect that this is the only reason the meeting was not canceled, since it has a short fuse on the process.  You can read the staff report on that one HERE to help you understand what's at stake.

STATE BANDITS!
However, we don't want to overlook the Warrants on the Consent Calendar because they have some interesting numbers this time around.  The biggie, on Warrant #2472, HERE, is a check we wrote to the Orange County Auditor Controller for $2,492,747.00!  That, of course, was the disputed money being sucked out of our coffers by the State of California as a result of the dissolution of the Costa Mesa Redevelopment Agency.  This is the money we will apparently be suing the State to get back.

LEGAL COSTS...

Also on that Warrant are entries for legal fees to Jones and Mayer for $129,713.66 for a whole mish-mash of work they did for us.  Also, Liebert Cassidy Whitmore was paid $8,627.60 for legal work related to labor negotiations.

... AND MORE LEGAL COSTS
On Warrant #2473, HERE, Jones Day was paid $37,867.50, Liebert Cassidy Whitmore another $4,,845 and Woodruff Spradlin & Smart a whopping #332.50 for work on the Benito Acosta affair.

COULD BE AN EARLY NIGHT!
Unless somebody decides to pull a bunch of stuff from the Consent Calendar, we could be out of the meeting by 6:30.

DESERT BOONDOGGLE
Also, the reason we will have only three council members present Tuesday night is because Mayor Jim Righeimer, Mayor Pro Tem Steve Mensinger, CEO Tom Hatch, Public Affairs Manager Dan Joyce, Management Analyst Dan Baker and Executive Assistant Kelly Shelton will all traipse off to a boondoggle in Las Vegas for what is billed as an "Economic Development" trip.  I guess they want to entice more fast food places to set up shop in Costa Mesa.  Barbara Venezia, the effervescent columnist for the Orange County Register and The Current, wrote a piece on this excursion, HERE, that will give you more information.  That link is to her own web site, since some of you won't be able to access the Register site because you don't subscribe.  Barbara solved that problem for us.  I hope this time the entourage will actually report some positive results from this effort.  We'll see.

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Best Reality TV said...

We will be tuned into this meeting. This is a can't miss meeting where Wendy finally gets to run the meeting. We bet she has been on cloud 9 ever since hearing the news she will call the lightest agenda in the history of council to order.

What are the odds she wears that bright red outfit?

What is the over / under on how many times Genis disses her from the dais.

How many speakers will come and throw praise and encourage all Costa Mesan's, in the best Palin voice, to all be safe.

There is no better TV on Tuesday

5/20/2013 08:14:00 AM  
Anonymous wizardofodds said...

red with shawl 4:1
red without: 7:1

forgets to open public comments: 1:1

over under genis dis: .5

earnie feeney gets to rant on a subject not under city jurisdiction : 3:5

all be safe, over under: 3.5

5/20/2013 11:20:00 AM  
Anonymous Find them at Thunder Down Under said...

Dan Baker went to Vegas with the boys. Wow. What a piece of work. A guy that guised himself as being pro employee turns to the darkside. Sounds like a lot of folks at city hall these days. What puzzles me is, why are Kelly Shelton and Dan Baker even there? Perhaps theyre a part of the executive staff now...

5/21/2013 07:05:00 AM  

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