Of Staffing, Charters, Waste And Trees

SOMETHING TO REVIEW ON YOUR HOLIDAY
Presuming you all are thoroughly thrashed from the football games on Sunday and are resting up on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Observed) on Monday when you read this, here's what's on the calendar in the City of Costa Mesa for the rest of the week.  As an aside, I did pick both winners Sunday and missed the point differential on each game slightly.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING TUESDAY
I've previously written at length, HERE, about the City Council meeting at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 21st, HERE.  I won't belabor it, except to observe, once again, that the issue of creating a new department and adding a dozen new staff members - including four (4) police officer slots and another senior executive on the 5th Floor - should make for an interesting discussion.

CHARTER COMMITTEE ON WEDNESDAY

On Wednesday, January 22, 2014 the Charter Committee will meet again beginning at 6:00 p.m. in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) near the Police Headquarters as they begin to finalize the unnecessary document (my opinion).  You can read the agenda HERE.  If you're actually interested in the progress, or lack thereof, that's being made, read further in the agenda items.  Item #6, the minutes of the January 8th meeting, HERE, is particularly enlightening.  Item #8, A, B & C on Outsourcing, Sale of City Owned Property and Pensions, HERE, is full of good information.  Item #8D, HERE, is the COIN Ordinance.  Item 8E, HERE, is communication from committee members and can give you a little insight into how they present their views to their colleagues.  Also on the agenda, Jeff Arthur - Chair of the Pension Oversight Committee - will make a presentation to this committee.  Join me as we watch this committee gather momentum to present a finished document to the City Council by the end of next month.

DOUBLE YOUR FUN ON THURSDAY
Thursday gets a little complicated.  There are two important meetings scheduled at the same time.

SANITARY DISTRICT MEETING
The first is the regular meeting of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District Board of Directors.  Anticipating a crowd too large for their little conference room at District Headquarters, this meeting has been relocated to the Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Avenue (Lions Park) and will begin at 5:30 p.m.  The full agenda is HERE.  The crowd is expected to attend to hear the Board's decision on the new proposed Organics Recycling plan proposed by our contract trash hauler, CR&R Environmental Services.  That agenda item, #13, is HERE.  If you want to refresh your memory, you can review the two slide shows on this issue HERE and HERE.  I've attended and reported on both of the workshops and plan to attend this meeting, too.  It is possible that more workshops will be scheduled and a vote on this item delayed for a month.  We'll see.

PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION
The other meeting being held that night is the first meeting of the new year of the Costa Mesa Planning Commission.  That one begins at 6:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers.  You can read the agenda HERE.  There are two interesting items on the agenda.  Item 6a, HERE, is the discussion of Adult and Youth Contract Instructional Proposals.  The other one, back again for the Commission's consideration, is Item 8a, HERE,  the removal of what amounts to a small urban forest on Yukon Avenue.  The last time around there was much heated discussion by residents of the area and there's no reason to anticipate anything else Thursday night.  I'll probably tape that meeting and report on it later.

SOMETHING'S ALWAYS HAPPENING...
So, off we go on another busy week in Costa Mesa.  As Dane Bora says during the Costa Mesa Minute - "Something's always happening in Costa Mesa."  Boy, ain't that the truth!