Charter Committee Turns For Home

HEADING FOR THE HOME STRETCH
The Costa Mesa Charter Committee met Wednesday night for their first meeting of the new year and made good progress toward their goal of presenting a finished document by the end of February.

MOVING SMOOTHLY
Guided by facilitators Dr. Kirk Bauermeister and Dr. Mike Decker, the committee briskly moved through a couple of pending items with a collegial approach to the decision-making process.

COUNCIL STIPEND
In the case of Council Members compensation, the committee overwhelmingly resolved to include in the Charter a segment providing for an annual stipend of $25,000, a portion of which could be used to purchase health care coverage if individual council members chose to do so.  In an interesting sidebar, announced City Council candidate and committee member Lee Ramos expressed concern that candidates need to know what they're signing up for - meaning himself and others running this year.  I smiled.

NO "BUDGET RESERVES" LANGUAGE IN THE DOCUMENT
They then moved on to the subject of Budget Reserves.  After significant discussion, on a 9-2 vote, they resolved to place a strong statement about the need for having healthy emergency reserves, but NOT to include any requirement within the Charter document itself.

PANIAN'S PROPERTY TAX IDEA...
Following a break they took up, once again, the issue raised by member Hank Panian - to consider the possibility of foregoing property tax revenue in the interest of tax equity.  His contention was that new buyers were being unfairly taxed base on current property values when compared to homeowners who purchased before 1975 - and the advent of Proposition 13.  This issue had been discussed in two previous meetings, but any decision was withheld until staff provided them with relevant data.  Interim Finance Director Steve Dunivent gave them most of what they asked for in a format that made it easy to understand.  Among the more interesting statistics provided were that 14% of Costa Mesa city parcels are based on 1975 or earlier assessments.  69% are assessed at the land base values between 1980 - 2000.

...WILL NOT BE IN THE CHARTER
As a result of the analysis of this information and serious discussion, the committee overwhelmingly - on a vote of 10-1 - decided NOT to address this issue in the Charter.  I must state that during all the discussions on this issue over three meetings the committee worked hard at fleshing out the possible value of this idea with civility and respect.  It was given a fair hearing from my perspective in the Peanut Gallery.  Read Brad Zint's piece from the Daily Pilot HERE.

 CHARTER REVIEW LANGUAGE
They also addressed the Charter Review issue again, assessing two choices for wording in the Charter as possibilities.  They ended up with a hybrid of both that reads as follows:

"Every 10 years, the City Council shall form a Charter Review Committee to review the existing City Charter and determine whether any amendments, modifications or repeal of its provisions are necessary.  The City Council may, at its discretion, appoint a Charter Review Committee at any time."

UNFUNDED PENSION LIABILITY NEXT TIME
They began a discussion on the Unfunded Pension Liability issue again.  According to member Gene Hutchins - also a member of the Pension Oversight Committee which met earlier Wednesday - that committee is not prepared yet to provide information that would be helpful to the Charter Committee.  Regardless, after some discussion, it was decided to ask the Chairman of the Pension Committee, Jeff Arthur - who sat in on part of the meeting last night -  to make a presentation to the Charter Committee at its meeting on January 22nd.

NEXT MEETING ON JANUARY 22ND
The work schedule for that meeting will include Outsourcing, City Owned Land, the Preamble and a review of the document.  It's likely that, with three more meetings remaining in their schedule, they will be prepared to present a document to the City Council by the end of February.  We'll see...