Packed City Council Agenda Tonight

PICK AN EVENT TONIGHT
So, if you're not attending the Concerts In The Park at 5:30 nor attending Orange Coast College's "Vision 2020" meeting in it's library at 6:00, then you MUST be joining me and a few dozen of your neighbors at the Costa Mesa City Council meeting beginning at 6:00 in City Council Chambers.  You can read the agenda for this meeting HERE.  By the way, if you want to see a preview of that OCC presentation as delivered by the OCC President Dennis Harkins to the Planning Commission last night, just click HERE for the video and "jump" down to the item.  It's early in the meeting.

PRESENTATIONS
There will be a couple interesting presentations tonight.  One by Kelly Vucinic regarding the National Night Out event coming up and then presentations to youth baseball teams.

LUCK OF THE DRAW
Then comes Public Comments, when the lucky 10 lottery winners will have a chance to address issues not on the agenda, but which speakers may feel are important to be presented to the council.  Any remaining comments will be shoved off to the end of the meeting - discouraging folks who can't stay up until midnight to thank the council for their actions or to complain about potholes, coyotes or other things that might be on their minds.

"MARY JANE", GARY?
Council members comments follow - always a crap-shoot.  Tonight one might expect Gary Monahan to talk about his Medical Marijuana initiative he's had City Attorney Tom Duarte draft for possible placement on the November ballot.  It's not on the agenda and time is running out.

DON'T YOU DARE PULL AN ITEM!
Then the Consent Calendar comes up and it's likely that none of the items will be pulled for separate discussion because Emperor Mayor Jim Righeimer has decreed that any such act will require the discussion of those items at the tail end of the meeting.  He gets around a real discussion of those items by encouraging council members to talk about them during their Council Member Comments - thereby eliminating the nasty requirement for a separate vote.

INTERESTING NUMBERS
However, as a public service, we will, again, present some of the items appearing on Warrant #2519 that caught our eye.  You can read the entire Warrant HERE.  In no particular order, only as they appear on the Warrant:

Enterprise Counsel Group - $28,324.77 - Successor Agency legal
Golden Star Technology, Inc. - $38,127.00 for PC Installation
Lilley Planning Group - $25,580.00 - Planning Consultant Services
Onward Engineering (2) - $38,720.50 and $28,545.67 - Construction Inspection and Design
Liebert Cassidy Whitmore  - $8,940.00 - Labor Negotiations
Melad & Associates - $14,709.40 - Bldg. Permit/Plan Check Services
Meyers Nave - $1,341.44 - Fairview Park Legal Services
Apple One Employment Services - $7,348.08 - Various Temp. Svcs.
Civil Source - $123,515.00 - Various Design, Project Support and Inspection Services
Civil Works Engineers - $25,710.75 - Engineering Support
Costa Mesa Conference and Visitors Bureau - $173,354.30 -  BIA Receipts for April
Accounting Principals Inc. - $2,889.36 - Temp Svcs.
CSG Consultants, Inc. - $6,107.10 - Bldg. Plan Review/Inspection Svcs.
FTOG Inc. - $2,745.00 - Interim Buyer
Government Staffing Services, Inc. - $4,372.50 - Temp Proj. Mgr
IntelliBridge Partners, LLC - $11,649.75 - RFP Purchasing Assistance
Kabbara Engineering - $10,447.50 - On-Call Trffc Svcs
Keyser Marston Associates, Inc. - $4,945.00 - Housing Consulting
Liebert Cassidy Whitmore - $12,645.67 - Several legal, incl. 60th Anniv. Investigation

As you can see, we continue to rack up large numbers for temporary help - accounting, engineering, inspection, planning, etc.

GETTING THOSE DOLLARS
There are five (5) Public Hearings on the agenda tonight.  The first, HERE, is to approve certification of special assessments for delinquent civil fines for municipal code violations.  The total for those violations is $36,325.00 and you can read the list of the violators and the amounts HERE.

GIVING A DEVELOPER THE STREET
Public Hearing #2, HERE, involves the vacation of a portion of Superior Avenue at 1677 coincident with the development of a new housing development.  You can see the site plan for that strip of Superior Avenue to be deeded to a developer HERE.

CORRECTING AN ISSUE
Public Hearing #3, HERE, is the General Plan Amendment for a lot line adjustment at 320 East 18th Street.

TO BE CONTINUED?  WONDER WHY, MAYOR?
Public Hearing #4, HERE, is the second reading of the Pre-Zoning and Property Tax Exchange Agreement for the Santa Ana/Colleen Island Annexation and would normally be a BIGGIE, but Mayor Righeimer apparently wants this item continued to give the developer of the vacant chunk in the middle of this area to meet with residents to "discuss zoning".  It's our understanding that the owner in question is Facilities Management West - one of the outfits that tried to buy the Fairgrounds and the principals of which have, in the past, been campaign contributors to - guess who?  Yep... you got it.

ELIMINATING AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Public Hearing #5, HERE,  it the Municipal Code amendment regarding the governance of Motels.  For details, read the attachment to the staff report, HERE.  This is a big deal because it potentially decimates current affordable housing stock in the form of motels.  I suspect this will provide lively discussion tonight.


TAXPAYER REWARDS FOR PRIVATE PROPERTY VANDALISM?
Old Business #1, HERE, is the second reading of an ordinance repealing and replacing a section of the Municipal Code relating to rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of persons vandalizing PRIVATE PROPERTY.  It's an interesting issue.  Do you want your tax dollars to go to providing a reward for the capture of those who vandalize private property?  Should we, the community, pay a reward, or should the property owner? 

DICTATORSHIP IN ACTION
The last item on the agenda, except for trailed Public comments and/or Consent Calendar items, is Old Business #2, HERE, which is the second reading of what I now refer to as Jim Righeimer's "Shut Your Mouth, Go Away" ordinance.  You can read the ordinance as proposed by the City Attorney HERE.  You will see that it still contains the provision for citation of a misdemeanor offense by folks who are disorderly in more than one meeting.  Also, there's an interesting phrase at the preamble of the section that lists "disorderly behavior", section 2-61, (b).  It says "Disorderly behavior under subdivision (a) may include, but is not limited to, the following:"  That emphasis is mine.  "Not limited to" means anything the mayor decides is disorderly behavior IS disorderly behavior.  This ordinance is just the perpetuation and codification of the mayor's move to quash critical comment by members of the public.  This is dictatorship, pure and simple!