New City Council Members To Be Sworn-in Tuesday

THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA
The recently-elected Costa Mesa City Council members - Sandy Genis, John Stephens and Allan Mansoor - will be sworn-in at a Special Meeting of the City Council on Tuesday, December 13, 2016, beginning at 5:45 p.m.   You can read the full agenda for that meeting HERE. 

PUBLIC COMMENTS RESTRICTED
Public Comments will be restricted in this special meeting to items on the agenda only.

GREEN'S SHOW...
City Clerk Brenda Green will manage the only item on the agenda, #1, HERE.  She will acknowledge the certification of the election by the Registrar of Voters and tell us that the  total number of ballots cast in this election was 43,721.  Total registered voters in Costa Mesa according to the Registrar of Voters is 54,888, so 79.65% of the voters participated, slightly less than Orange County as a whole.  She will announce the names of the three people who secured a seat.

THE BALLOT MEASURES
She will then certify the status of each of the eight (8) items on the ballot.  According to the staff report, here are the final results:

MEDICAL MARIJUANA ISSUES
Measure V -  14,937 For; 24,565 Against (39,502 Votes Cast -  90%)
Measure W - 16,501 For; 22,695 Against (39,196 Votes Cast -  89.6%)
Measure X -  21,470 For; 17,845 Against (39,315 Votes Cast -  89.9%)

GROWTH MEASURES
Measure Y - 26,132 For; 12,081 Against (38,213 Votes Cast - 87.4%)
Measure Z - 20,506 For; 16,258 Against  (36,764 Votes Cast - 84%)

FAIRVIEW PARK MEASURES
Measure AA - 27,098 For; 11,149 Against (39,247 Votes Cast - 89.7%)
Measure BB - 17,591 For; 20,289 Against  (37,880 Votes Cast - 86.6%)

VOTE-BY-DISTRICTS/DIRECTLY-ELECTED MAYOR
Measure EE - 23,295 For; 12,495 Against (35,790 Votes Cast - 81.8%)

RECOGNITION
According to the staff report, there will be a recognition of outgoing Mayor Steve Mensinger and Councilman Gary Monahan and each will be given the opportunity to speak, although Monahan already did his thing at the last meeting.

THE OATH
Green will then administer the oath to the three new council members, which will be followed by the nominations for Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem.

COMMENTS, THEN ADJOURNMENT
Apparently there will also be time for Council members' reports, comments and suggestions, followed by adjournment until the first meeting in January.

CITY MANAGER AND 9/80 - A GREAT START!
By the way, change is already happening.  Tom Hatch announced that he will no longer be known as the CEO of the City - he will be City Manager, the title he should have had for the past almost six years.  And, the Miscellaneous Employees will soon return to the 9/80 work schedule they had before Righeimer/Mensinger took over.  This is GREAT news for them, and for the city, because it provides us with a competitive recruitment tool.  Kudos to Hatch for these moves.