COIN, Budget, Labor Negotiations And New Committees

 A PACKED AGENDA AWAITS THE CITY COUNCIL TUESDAY
The Costa Mesa City Council meets again on Tuesday, March 7, 2017 for a meeting full of interesting stuff.  The Closed Session - which will begin at 4:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers and will adjourn to Conference Room 5A immediately following Public Comments on those items, if any - has one lawsuit and four labor negotiation items on that agenda.  The Regular meeting begins at 6:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers and has a load of interesting issues that will be heard.  You can read the entire agenda report HERE.

SEVEN ITEMS ON THE CONSENT CALENDAR
The Consent Calendar has seven (7) items on it.  These, theoretically, should be able to be heard and voted upon in one vote without discussion.  We'll see.

SPENDING YOUR MONEY ON LAWYERS AND CONSULTANTS
Item #2, HERE, is Warrant #2572.  Here are a few of the more interesting items you will find on that list of paid bills:

• Clean Street - $60,590.98 - Street Sweeping, January 2017
• G4S Secure Solutions, Inc. - $48,5878.26 - Jail Svcs, 2017
• Jones & Mayer - $167,379.88 - Legal Svcs, various
• Protiviti Government Services, Inc - $32,242.80 - Consulting Svcs For Web Design
• Norman A Traub Associates, Inc. - $6,056.58 - Legal Svcs 12/6/16-1/3/17
• Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth - $9.045.00 - Legal Svcs various
• Complete Landscape Care, Inc. - $59,774.37 - Landscape Maint. Svcs, Jan 2017
• Travel Costa Mesa - $205,309.87 - BIA Receipts for Dec. 2016

 A BUILDING FULL OF TEMPS
And, of course, we continue to rack up consultant fees for areas like Development Services, Building Inspection and much, much more.  Scroll down through the list...

COIN HEARING ON CMCEA CONTRACT
Public Hearing #1, HERE, is the second reading of the COIN hearing for the new Memorandum of Understanding between the City and the Costa Mesa City Employees Association (CMCEA).  This establishes new pay rates, pension contribution rates and Health Insurance payments PLUS establishes two new positions - Fairview Park Adminstrator  and the Confidential classification of Office Specialist II in the City Manager's office.  There are twelve (12) attachments to the staff report, including eight (8) separate resolutions, the MOU, two position descriptions and the COIN Fiscal Impact Analysis.  Great weekend reading for you all.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY...
Public Hearing #2, HERE, is the second biggie on the agenda.  This includes the Financial Update Report, including 1) The 6/30/16 Consolidated Annual Financial Report (CAFR), 2) The Mid-Year Budget Report and 3) The Updated Five-Year Financial Plan.  There are separate attachments for each of those items.  The report addresses many financial issues, like the nearly $11 million budget surplus from last year and a list of items requested by the City Council at the recent Study Session on this subject.  One question - will the City Council continue to provide City Manager Tom Hatch with a $1 million contingency (slush) fund?  Take a few minutes on this one - more weekend reading for you.

THREE RE-CONFIGURED COMMITTEES
New Business #1, HERE, addresses three City Committees that required direction and solutions based on earlier council comments.

Access Building, Fire and Housing Board of Appeal
The plan here is to keep this a five-member committee with two alternates, each serving 4 years.  However, the staff report provides a new series of requirements for membership on this committee, which apparently will disqualify some of the previous members.  Read the report.

Military Affairs Committee
This is a brand new committee, replacing the previous Military Affairs Team - a loosely-configured group of hardworking volunteers.  This new committee will have seven (7) members with staggered terms - 4 four-year terms and 3 two-year terms.  The scope of this new committee is described in detail in the report.

Finance and Pension Advisory Committee
This merges the old Finance Advisory Committee with the Pension Oversight Committee and will consist of eleven (11) members serving staggered terms - 6 two-years and 5 one-year.  According to the report, one of the voting members shall be the Mayor's designee, which might make for some interesting discussion, since the Mayor could appoint someone of like mind without council majority approval that would have tie-breaking capability - like the Vice President of the United States, who serves as the President of the Senate and is the 101st vote. The scope of responsibility of this committee seems quite comprehensive and makes me wonder whether this particular committee might not be better configured as a commission.  Certainly, the financial issues with which it will deal seem much more in line with the responsibilities of the Planning Commission, for example.  Anyhow, read the report and see if you agree.

RECRUITMENT STARTS NOW - FILL THE COMMITTEES ON APRIL 4TH
Assuming the City Council agrees with these plans and approves them Tuesday night, the plan is for  City Clerk Brenda Green to launch a recruitment effort for each from March 8, 2017 to March 22, 2017.  The staff will schedule the appointments to the committees for the regular City Council meeting of April 4, 2017.

FASCINATING ISSUES - TRY TO WATCH
It's going to be a very interesting night.  If you cannot attend, watch it live-streamed on the City Website or live on CMTV.