Righeimer Admits He Was Wrong!
WHAT HE SAID...
In my post wrapping up the Costa Mesa City Council meeting last Tuesday I mentioned that Mayor Jim Righeimer had lied about the Costa Mesa Police Department NOT being understaffed. His exact words were, "Our police department is
fully funded. We are looking to hire people that we need. We are NOT
understaffed. We are fine with that issue there." (that emphasis is his - he emphasized the "NOT")
CORRECTING THE RECORD
Today, in a letter to the editor in the Daily Pilot today, HERE, Righeimer admitted that he didn't tell the truth during the council meeting last Tuesday. As you will read when you click on that link, the mayor's brief letter acknowledges his error. He says, "At last Tuesday's City Council meeting, I made a statement that our Police Department was not understaffed. I misspoke." He went on to expand on it and to apologize for any confusion his misstatement might have made.
NEEDS TO SAY IT AT THE COUNCIL MEETING
OK, I'm glad he corrected the record, but it will only reach those of you who can read the Daily Pilot. If he's serious about the statement he made early in that meeting that it's a new year and there's a new attitude, he needs to clarify the record at the next City Council meeting on January 21st - right at the top of the meeting.
HE HAS A HABIT OF MISSPEAKING
A word of caution.... this doesn't mean that we shouldn't pay attention to what he says in the future. He has a long history of misspeaking himself, like when he said from the dais that the Charter Committee would determine IF we needed a charter. He later recanted that statement, since HE had already decided that we need a charter. When he launches off on one of his stream-of-consciousness rants on the dais you just never know what he's going to say, so we pay attention.
GLAD HE STEPPED UP, BUT...
That being said, I'm glad he stepped up this time. I'm just disappointed that he had to in the first place.
In my post wrapping up the Costa Mesa City Council meeting last Tuesday I mentioned that Mayor Jim Righeimer had lied about the Costa Mesa Police Department NOT being understaffed. His exact words were, "Our police department is
fully funded. We are looking to hire people that we need. We are NOT
understaffed. We are fine with that issue there." (that emphasis is his - he emphasized the "NOT")CORRECTING THE RECORD
Today, in a letter to the editor in the Daily Pilot today, HERE, Righeimer admitted that he didn't tell the truth during the council meeting last Tuesday. As you will read when you click on that link, the mayor's brief letter acknowledges his error. He says, "At last Tuesday's City Council meeting, I made a statement that our Police Department was not understaffed. I misspoke." He went on to expand on it and to apologize for any confusion his misstatement might have made.NEEDS TO SAY IT AT THE COUNCIL MEETING
OK, I'm glad he corrected the record, but it will only reach those of you who can read the Daily Pilot. If he's serious about the statement he made early in that meeting that it's a new year and there's a new attitude, he needs to clarify the record at the next City Council meeting on January 21st - right at the top of the meeting.HE HAS A HABIT OF MISSPEAKING
A word of caution.... this doesn't mean that we shouldn't pay attention to what he says in the future. He has a long history of misspeaking himself, like when he said from the dais that the Charter Committee would determine IF we needed a charter. He later recanted that statement, since HE had already decided that we need a charter. When he launches off on one of his stream-of-consciousness rants on the dais you just never know what he's going to say, so we pay attention.GLAD HE STEPPED UP, BUT...
That being said, I'm glad he stepped up this time. I'm just disappointed that he had to in the first place.Labels: CMPD, Jim Righeimer
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 1/10/2014 02:22:00 PM
8 Comments:
I also heard him say in a TV interview that we have a "commission" working on the charter.
We don't- It's a committee that the council majority mostly hand-picked.
Big difference.
Goebbells would be proud.
It’s important to recognize that Righeimer DID NOT apologize for lying. He just mouthed the usual words of nonapology that paid spinmeisters gin up for politicians.
First, saying that he “misspoke” is simply stating a fact, not offering an apology.
Second, saying, “I apologize for any confusion my misstatement caused,” as he did, is an insult. It’s operative as an apology only to those (few) benighted folk who got confused by his lie. At the same time, though, it subtly puts down anybody who isn’t aware enough of his reign of error to recognize his lie.
So, Righeimer has not apologized to those of us (perhaps all of Costa Mesa by now) who know that he has crippled the PD … those who know that he is attempting to tamp down increased crime by having the remaining police work massive amounts of overtime.
When the cops burn out after months of long overtime, increasing the crime rate even more, what baloney will he slice off to hide his dreadful decisions? Stay tuned.
See Steve? It didn't hurt that much. You can do it...you can do it.
What's worse? Dishonesty or Ignorance? I give it to dishonesty by a hair when evaluating public servants. Is it too much to ask for leaders who are honest AND well informed about the City they serve?
"I misspoke. I was attempting to reassure residents that we have the same number of patrol officers on our streets today, despite vacancies in our Police Department."
Actually my little smurf, you misspoke again. Operating at minimum staffing levels for a shift is NOT the same as operating a shift fully staffed. Once again you are either out of touch with what damage you are doing to our city, or you are purposely lying to the public.
@Wheres My Coffee:
Stevie only bullies, never apologizes.
What will he tell "The Kids," and their parents, if a certain youth sports group is brought into the DG Trail mess and fined?
Let’s check Jim Righeimer out. He’s done the following:
1. The outsourcing plan – quashed by the courts.
2. The layoff notices – First, it caused Huy Pham’s suicide; later, after many good and true city employees had left, all layoff notices were rescinded.
3. “Unfunded pension liability” – many strong words, no action.
4. Measure V charter – 60 to 40 defeat.
5. 7-million dollar surplus – not a nickel into replenishing city reserves.
6. Lawsuit against our police – the mark of a whiner. Despite repeated entreaties to “man up” and drop it, he persists in playing the poor, helpless victim, violently and irreparably damaged by a policeman who was simply performing his constabulary duty.
7. The attempt to evict the OC model engineers, damning them with a useless short extension – defeated by Gary Monahan’s defection in favor of the five-year extension. JR made the offhand statement that their track occupies 40 acres, and that Fairview Park is “worth two million dollars an acre”.
8. Six hundred fifty thousand dollars to put lighting into a dawn-to-dusk parking lot.
9. A 42-space parking lot in Fairview park – reduced to a 10-space parking lot, then further reduced to a turnaround, on land that is (1) environmentally-sensitive, (2) sacred burial-ground to Acjachemen indians, (3) archaeologically precious, and (4) withheld from development by the Fairview park Master plan.
10. The decomposed granite path, which cost us fourteen-thousand dollars to remove and remedy, PLUS whatever fines the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will levy over this callous violation of the Endangered Species act.
11. The violation of the public’s right to freedom of speech, by the bifurcation of the Public Comment period. It places a tremendous burden on this right: To speak out against the awesome power of government is difficult for many of us; to have the process arbitrarily delayed by hours and the audience thereby reduced because of the councilman’s need to cloture dissent is backbreaking. The ACLU will doubtless have something to say in this matter.
12. The outright LIE in a Council meeting, on record at 30:23 in the recording, that the police department is not understaffed, followed five days later by a mealy-mouthed not-quite-retraction, not-quite-apology via a letter to the Daily Pilot. This lie came off as a blustery response to Sue Lester’s public comment, in JR’s failed attempt to save face.
Telling a lie in order to save face publicly is an act of cowardice – at best. Somewhat lower on the scale, it may be an attempt to cheat and deceive; further down, perhaps an attempt to enslave. Hitler, one of history’s most evil cowards, developed and used the big lie technique to some temporary advantage. He eventually took a coward’s way out, and died by his own hand. It is probably too much to hope that JR will follow this example. We shall probably be forced just to vote him out of office.
Terry, let's not forget to mention the absolutely horrible and unacceptable way he has treated Wendy and Sandy and the analogy of punching Sandy in the face.
This is just one example. His nastiness and crudeness and rudeness towards people who step up to the dias is shameful.
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