Thursday, May 26, 2016

A Hostile Takeover Of The Costa Mesa Sanitary District?

IS MESA WATER PLANNING A COUP?
According to informed sources, rumor has it that the Board of Directors of the Mesa Water District may be planning to attempt a hostile takeover of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District.
PUSHING FOR A QUICK REPLY
Apparently officials of Mesa Water have approached the Costa Mesa Sanitary District with a proposal for Mesa Water to absorb the Costa Mesa Sanitary District and have asked for an early response from the CMSD Board on this issue.  It's my understanding that no discussions by the CMSD Board have taken place yet and it's not clear whether the Mesa Water Board has held official discussions, either in open or closed sessions.
NOT SURPRISING...
This is interesting, but not surprising.  It would represent a further expansion of the sphere of influence by certain city politicians over all segments of our lives - and not for the better in my humble opinion.
AN ODD MOVE
Normally, if a special district attempts to take over another it's because that district is in financial difficulty.  That's what makes this so curious, since both Mesa Water and Costa Mesa Sanitary District are on solid financial footing.  In fact, the CMSD is currently negotiating the sale of their current facility on West 19th Street and is purchasing a newer, larger facility near John Wayne Airport.
IS MONAHAN INVOLVED?
There could be many things at play here.  For example, it is presumed that Gary Monahan will, once again, try to land a seat on the CMSD board since he's termed out on the City Council again for the second time.  He's already apparently spouting off about what he will do when elected to that body.  Could this be the first step to attempt to discredit incumbent candidates?  Seems likely.
HE'S STAYED TOO LONG AT THE TROUGH
On that subject, it's my opinion that Monahan has spent much too long at the public trough.  For the past five years he's demonstrated a willingness to just "phone it in" -  go with the flow of the council power couple, Jim Righeimer and Steve Mensinger.  Because he's virtually a guaranteed third vote, the council has had few study sessions at which controversial and important issues could be fleshed out by the council and public before an official vote is taken.
IT'S ALL ABOUT POWER
Mesa Water has a similar unbreakable troika, with Shawn Dewane, Jim Fisler and Ethan Temanka controlling the agenda.  All three are tight with the council majority.
STAY TUNED...
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  It would seem that the Costa Mesa Sanitary District has no reason to consider such a move.  Stay tuned...

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9 Comments:

Blogger Marquis said...

"For the last 5 years Monahan has phoned it in"

5 years??? Monahan has done NOTHING for 16 years. I defy anyone to come up with one thing the guy has actually accomplished in his 16 years of wasting space on the council. The only barely notable thing he did was that he once voted against Riggy on the model train renewal.

We elect idiots in Costa Mesa with frightening regularity. Monahan is example No. 1 of that. If he gets elected to another position, we will confirm our status as a truly stupid city.

5/26/2016 08:54:00 AM  
Blogger Honeyman said...

Marquis,

How dare you besmirch Gary! He once tried to host a celebration of life at his establishment for a wonderful individual who had passed away suddenly, but was rebuffed.

Granted, this man was an accused pedophile. And he lost his life in a shoot-out with a CM cop. Who had come to arrest him.

Well, he did vote for the trains.

5/26/2016 10:49:00 AM  
Anonymous Where's My Coffee? said...

Marquis, he did wake up once.

5/26/2016 11:24:00 AM  
Anonymous Arthur Nern said...

Now I'm really confused Mr. West. You imply that Monahan is interested in Water or the Sanitary District. But all this time I had in my head that one of his main interests was the medical marijuana business. Which is it? The plants need water, so maybe there's a connection?

5/26/2016 02:18:00 PM  
Anonymous Ken Nyquist said...

Do the math......6 kids...Health insurance...per diem,,,no more troth from council...soooo

Sanitary District..No Health Insurance bene..The five elected representatives of the public trash and sewer agency will receive a $295 stipend for each day of work. The part-time board members are limited to working six days a month. That's $1,770 a month..

Mesa Water...$240 a day up to 10 days a month...Medical insurance $1,400 a month benefit..So a Mesa Water board boy can earn up to $3,800...but the insurance is a given..

Monahan needs the ratepayers to continue to pay for his family medical care. As he said at the council meeting not to long ago, he can barely pay his payroll, mortgage, etc. My opinion is he needs the public troth to survive since he does not take kickbacks or any of that kind of stuff for things like backdating receipts, or playing beard for his pals, or......

5/26/2016 05:18:00 PM  
Anonymous breaking bad said...

Sadly this guy Fitzpatrick is asking when are the police going to throw a Tax Payer appreciation day because after all who is paying for their high pensions? There are so many things funny and sad about this. Mr Fitzpatrick it's been said for years hadn't been bringing home the family income. He just recently obtained his current job,title or whatever he does with the MJ industry. Now he's thumping his chest so much about how he is just a hard working tax paying man and our Police should thank him with an appreciation day. This guy is unbelievable. I think everyday these guys put on that uniform they are serving our community and when they take down a guy with a gun, knife, secure dangerous areas like from a bomb threat or catch the criminals, that's all the thanks I need from our public safety. And you can include Fire in that too. No need to thank me just keep doing the awesome jobs you do.

But here is the funniest thing about this. Mr Fitzpatrick should thank his little buddy Monahan because Monahan is the only council member who voted for the 2 highest pension formulas in our city. Yes I said Monahan is the ONLY council member who voted for both the 3@50 pension formulas for Police and Fire. Tom Pollitt brought that up recently at a Council meeting. Keep in mind what Righeimer and Mensinger and their supporters say about this. It was the underhanded and on-the-take former liberal councils who did this to us. Gee are they talking about Monahan?

5/28/2016 02:45:00 PM  
Anonymous breaking bad said...

Now before everyone gets down on Monahan for his voting in the highest pension formulas. Keep in mind the times, the economic situations and what was happening. Because if you do that you realize at the time these votes happened like in 2000 for the police it was because the pension system was flush with cash. The years from 1992 to 2000 the stock market as we all know was HOT. The pension systems are tied to the stock market and they were super funded. Super funded meant they had more than enough to cover even the increase. Also the police I have heard were already basically getting 3%. There was their 2% and then there was some other 1% in a different plan and they apparently just combined the 2 to make it 3 total. If that's true or not the pension was still super funded.

The fire deal that I believe happened in 2010 was agonizing. That was a tough decision on all sides. Approve a higher pension formula but we lose several fire fighter positions because of lowering the minimum staffing requirement. If things stayed the same then we I believe we're suppose to save about $600,000 per year with this deal. However the pension situation continued to get worse and we all were hit harder by the bad recession.

Side note: I don't know if anyone realizes that the general city employees in their last negotiations agreed to pick up 60% of any increase cost to the city toward their pensions. Yes I said 60%. Those evil greedy no good employees agreed to that. Can you imagine back in 2010, had the council tried to negotiate with employees in good faith instead of just handing them lay-off notices in early 2011 and come to that agreement back then. The savings the city would have enjoyed the past 5 or 6 years would have been pretty nice.

5/28/2016 03:11:00 PM  
Anonymous zennymoon said...

@Honeyman...but at least he voted for the trains....his comment prior to that was that his kids would be grown by the end of the five year contract. (so after that he wouldn't care?)...next accomplishment, oh, the wake for the pedophile who tried to murder our two offficer's, bull sheet. He has got his fill at the public trough, guve it up..tend your marijuana interest

5/28/2016 10:03:00 PM  
Anonymous Where's My Coffee? said...

I don't believe he can have a liquor license and a license for a dispensary at the same time. True? Will Fitz be the frontman?

5/29/2016 10:05:00 AM  

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