Egan Challenges A Bully And A Liar

ELEANOR EGAN SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Today, in the Daily Pilot, HERE, long time resident, Westside activist, former Assistant City Attorney and former member of the Planning Commission, Eleanor Egan takes exception to Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer's recent mischaracterization from the dais of the legal action she took to challenge the veracity of a rebuttal argument that, if not corrected, will deceive the voters in November.

INACCURATE REBUTTAL
The rebuttal in question, signed by Righeimer and four other residents, reads like a Facebook comment thread.  In fact, many of the phrases contained therein seem very, very familiar - as though  I've read them on that site before.

MISUSE OF HIS POSITION
The issue at hand in Egan's letter in the Daily Pilot is Righeimer's now-trademark misuse of the bully pulpit he occupies on the dais to misrepresent issues and, in fact, in many cases just flat-out lies.  This was the case when he misrepresented Egan's lawsuit recently.

THE TRUTH
As she explained in her letter, Egan is NOT suing Righeimer and the other four "authors" of the bogus rebuttal - Chuck Perry, Chris Bunyan, Julie Fowler and Lee Ramos.  Her suit is directed at City Clerk Brenda Green and Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley to have them remove - in part or in its entirety - the bogus rebuttal because it contains information that is simply not true and/or misleading.

HE'S A LIAR AND CAN'T HELP HIMSELF
As anyone paying attention for the past half-dozen years knows, this is Righeimer's style.  He launches off on stream-of-consciousness rants at the drop of a hat, apparently saying whatever crosses his mind, whether accurate or not.  He's the worst kind of a lame duck - with two years left before he is termed-out - so he has nothing really to lose by continuing his pontification and prevarication from the dais.  He bullies people, interrupts them to break their train of thought, then uses "his time" to chide, vilify and put inaccurate spin on the issues.  He's very much like Donald Trump - he apparently just cannot stop himself.  He loves to hear the sound of his own voice, even when he's lying.  Maybe especially when he's lying.

WE GET A BREAK UNTIL SEPTEMBER
On the positive side, there are no more council meetings scheduled for this month.  They chose to cancel the August meeting, apparently in deference to vacation schedules.  The next meeting is scheduled for September 6th, so we may have a month of reprise from Righeimer's obsfucation from the dais.

IT'S CAMPAIGN SEASON - EXPECT LIES
Keep in mind that this is a campaign season.  Expect greater than average number of lies and other misrepresentations coming from Righeimer, Mensinger - who actually IS running for re-election - and their buddies.  We have seen their tactics in play for the past several months.

• They didn't like the Costa Mesa First citizen-generated so-called Smart Growth Initiative, so caused the City to create an opposing ballot measure to confuse the voters. 
• They didn't like the citizen-generated initiative by the Fairview Park Preservation Alliance, designed to protect Fairview Park, so they had the city create an opposing measure for the ballot to confuse the voters. 
• They didn't like the two medical marijuana initiatives that qualified for the ballot, so cobbled together their own measure that is supposed to "compete" with them on the ballot.  Only problem there is that it really DOES NOT compete with them because it has no retail distribution element.  The City measure is designed to control upstream issues - manufacturing, transportation, testing and wholesale distribution and it's restricted to a very small section of the City.  There is NO retail sales element.

WATCH IT GROW!
Pay attention at future meetings and you may actually see Righeimer's nose grow.  The residents of this city deserve much, much better than this.