Righeimer's Fuzzy Math

RIGHEIMER'S VICTORY LAP
Costa Mesa Mayor Jim Righeimer - apparently enjoying his victory lap following what appears to be a very slim 47 vote victory to retain a seat on the city council over his closest challenger, former councilman Jay Humphrey - paused long enough to be quoted in a Daily Pilot article by Bradley Zint, HERE.

OOPS, HE ONLY FINISHED SECOND!
Righeimer finished a distant second to former councilwoman and current Newport Mesa Unified School District trustee Katrina Foley.  His pronouncements don't mention that fact, although he does mention that he'll meet with Foley, quoting the Zint article, "to see what's important to her.  I think there are things we all agree on that we can get done right away.  And the things we don't agree on, we'll work on those issues and close those gaps... our job is to represent the whole city, not half."   One might infer that he thinks half the people in this election supported his candidacy, when only 21.3% of the votes cast went to him.  The other 79% went to other candidates.  Foley got more than 26.5% alone.  And, you know, there's something slightly right about the image of Righeimer shouting "I'm Number Two!"  Some of us have thought that for a long, long time.

MESSAGE?  WHAT MESSAGE?
Zint's article includes this observation, "Righeimer said his win is not necessarily 'a runaway,' but one that sends a message."  I agree - the result of this election DOES send a message - to him.  That message is that he DOES NOT have a mandate to continue to run roughshod over the residents of this city.  That message is that he must consider the views of others instead of his own, narrow political dogma.

CHECK YOUR MATH, JIMBO!
Righeimer is further quoted as saying, "The message is that the community is 50-50 on the important issues.  As an elected official, you have to look at that.  They didn't go out there and give you a mandate to do whatever you're doing and continue to do."  I'm not sure where he gets that "50-50" ratio, because the results of the election certainly do not support that view.  If you measure community sentiment by observing the results of the election, fewer than a quarter of the voters think he's the right guy to be sitting up on that dais.

AND DON'T FORGET THE CHARTER!
And, if you factor in the overwhelming defeat of his pet project, a municipal Charter, it's very clear that his views are not shared by the electorate.  Two years ago, the first time he tried to quick pitch his Charter scheme - Measure V - 60% of the voters rejected it.  This time around the voters looked at his second attempt to change the form of municipal governance to give himself even more unfettered power - Measure O - and rejected it by an even larger margin.  More than 63% of the votes cast on that issue rejected it.  Clearly, he doesn't listen to the voters of this city because one of his point persons on Measure O has been heard to state that if Measure O fails they will just gear-up for 2016.  Talk about arrogant disregard for the will of the people!

MANDATE?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
I suggest that Righeimer expunge the word "mandate" from his lexicon because he certainly DOES NOT have one.  He's codified ignoring members of the public by bifurcating public comments at council meetings to discourage dissenting views.  He has shown us that he listens only to a small knot of his hangers-on - many of whom have been rewarded for their loyalty with plum commission and committee assignments - and to his developer buddies who stand at the city border salivating all over themselves trying to build over-dense, under-parked projects.  So enamored is Righeimer with the thought of developing every single square inch of open space in this city that he and his cronies have codified away protections for the rest of us in the form of a Small Lot Ordinance - which did away with all those nasty variances, deviations and other changes his developer buddies had to deal with.  Now we see dense developments sprouting up all over town like mushrooms.

OBSOLETE OVERLAYS CHASE BUSINESSES OUT
They've been using the decade-old Westside Overlay plans to facilitate many of those developments, which has resulted in long-established commercial and industrial business operators choosing to leave town - taking with them prestigious businesses and high-paying jobs - rather than deal with the specter of residential neighbors adjacent to their noisy, aromatic industrial operations.

PUMMELING BUSINESSES
We've seen him and his pals brazenly state that they plan to force established businesses - so-called "problem motels" - out of business by slamming them with police, fire and code enforcement attention and the fines that would go along with it.  They established an "Excessive Use Of Resources" ordinance to discourage those business owners from calling for help when they have an emergency situation.  Then, they crow when those calls diminish, but the owners are still saddled with the crime and public safety problems - they just don't call for fear of exceeding their threshold of calls and thus incurring fines.  The apparent goal - stated from the dais - is to cause those business owners to "re-value" their properties so they could be sold to developers at a more reasonable price, who would then build equally dense, very profitable, developments.  Profit seems to be the only thing Righeimer understands - a very bad characteristic for someone heading up an organization the sole purpose of which is to provide SERVICE.

DECIMATING THE POLICE DEPARTMENT...
Righeimer and his pals have decimated the Costa Mesa Police Department, as indicated in a very recent article in the Daily Pilot by Jeremiah Dobruck, HERE.  Dobruck outlines the reduction in DUI enforcement in our city - once the high-water mark for such enforcement in the county.  Similar reductions in the Narcotics and Gang units have made our city much less safe.  Right now Chief Tom Gazsi and his command staff are holding things together, barely, through horrendous overtime hours being worked by the staff that remains.  In recent months we've seen early retirements and lateral moves to other jurisdictions by four dozen members of the CMPD.  Today, nearly 20% of the diminished authorized staff is unable to work because of illness or injury - some of that certainly due to the long, tough hours being required.

...AT THE WORST TIME...
This occurs at the worst possible time.  The early prison releases as a result of AB109, the passage of Prop. 47 that changes the penalties for certain crimes and keeps criminals on the streets, the growing proliferation of drug and alcohol rehabilitation (group) homes in our neighborhoods and the pending probability of the re-introduction of medical marijuana sales in our city will further tax our beleaguered police department.  And more officers will leave.  And Costa Mesa will be a less-safe city.

SHAME ON YOU!
To those 7,524 voters who marked their ballots for Jim Righeimer I say, Shame On You!  You're willing to let this man and his cronies destroy this city - to put potholes before public safety and to let outside interests, developers and out-of-town politicians, control the municipal agenda instead of doing what is right for the residents.  The mayor has said over and over that he wants to attract more young families to our city, yet perpetuates housing development that will not serve that demographic and creates situations where crime will increase.

RULES?  WHAT RULES?
And, he has demonstrated that he thinks rules are for somebody else, beginning with his bogus scheme to layoff more than half the so-called "miscellaneous employees" that fateful St. Patrick's Day of 2011... the day young maintenance worker Huy Pham jumped to his death from the roof of City Hall as he was about to be given his layoff notice - and then-mayor Gary Monahan chose to stay garbed in his kilt and pull beer taps at his bar instead of attending to distraught and grieving employees and residents.  That tragic event was a direct result of Righeimer's violation of municipal policy and generated a lawsuit that still ferments.

MENSINGER AS MAYOR?  ARRGGHH!

So, dear voters, you're saddled with a Righeimer-dominated regime for the next two years.  Monahan will be termed-out (again) and Mayor Pro Tem Steve Mensinger will be up for re-election.  Some are postulating that Mensinger may be the next mayor.  That's problematic - for him.  That means he'll be required to focus his teeny attention span on city business and set his cell phone aside.  No more texting from the dais and ignoring the agenda.  If there's a positive side to that possibility, it's going to be VERY interesting for those of us who actually take the time to pay attention to municipal affairs.  He'll quickly demonstrate his ineptitude and it should make for some entertaining meetings.

STRAP IN...
Time for us to tighten our seat belts and get ready for more bumpy roads ahead - probably beginning with the meeting tonight where good old Mary Jane will come a'visitin' again.  See you there.