What's Mansoor Up To Now?

WHAT THE HECK?!
OK, can someone please explain this latest move by our young jailer/mayor? The other day the Daily Pilot announced, HERE, that Allan Mansoor - candidate for the 68th Assembly seat currently held by Van Tran - will bring the recently-approved agreement between the city and the firefighters union back to the council for re-consideration. Mansoor apparently appealed the decision from the earlier special council meeting just before the council meeting Tuesday. According to city officials, this appeal will now be held at the council meeting on September 1st.

WHO WILL SWITCH?
Mansoor and his "pal", Eric Bever, voted against approval at the earlier meeting. One can only assume that Mansoor thinks he's managed to sway one of the other council members - most likely Wendy Leece or Gary Monahan - to change their position.

ALL ACTION FROZEN
This move by Mansoor essentially freezes any action on that segment of the budget until the appeal is heard and voted on. If, perchance, he is successful in convincing one of his peers to change a vote, that really snarls up the budget process.

INSUFFICIENT NOTICE?
Mansoor, based on reports, thinks the voting public didn't receive sufficient notice before the new contract was approved. He thinks there's not enough payoff for the city - he termed it, "only short-term savings". It's an interesting statement, since the public has not been privy to the agreements in the past. He's just posturing for potential donors to his campaign.

"NEGOTIATED"
The firefighters negotiated - key word there - the change to their Memorandum of Understanding and actually provided the city with much more savings than it had requested. According to one of their representatives, Fire Captain Jeff Janzen, HERE, the increased retirement incentive that seems to be part of Mansoor's complaint was not something the firefighters requested - the city needed it to attain the staff reductions as part of the 10-point plan to balance the budget.

INEXPLICABLE STUBBORNNESS
Throughout the public elements of the labor negotiations both Mansoor and Bever have shown an inexplicable stubbornness. In Bever's case it might be explained away because he failed to show up an most of the essential meetings during this process so didn't have a clue. It would appear that Mansoor is doing this for pure political posturing purposes. He markets himself as being a hard-liner on taxes, so I guess he thinks putting the city in a headlock at one of it's most critical times in history is a way to demonstrate that "characteristic".

MANSOOR IS BEING STUPID AND CHILDISH
I just think he's being childish and stupid. I think he simply does not grasp the numbers, so feels obligated to say NO!

INTERESTING SIDEBAR
An interesting sidebar to this particular scenario is that Costa Mesa is one of the very few cities whose rules allow the loser on a vote to call it up for appeal. In most other cities only a council member on the winning side of a vote can call it back for re-consideration. Perhaps we should revisit that issue in the near future.

MARKING TIME
So, as the city staff hums the Jeopardy! theme we mark time, waiting until September 1st to see what, if anything changes.

OTHER EMPLOYEES FEEL MISTREATED NOW
Meanwhile, some other city employees feel they were not treated fairly when they negotiated their concessions. Their union representative spoke before the city council last Tuesday, whining about the poor treatment they received. Now, that seems very strange to me. They negotiated - there's that word again - the changes that were approved. Perhaps the employees should be complaining to their paid union representatives. If any of the council members decide to revisit that issue, too, it will create chaos.

SMALL PEOPLE IN BIG JOBS
This is what happens when you elect small people to big jobs... I warned you..

Finally, A Budget Framework...

OVERPAID PLANNING COMMISSIONERS PROVE MY POINT
Before I forget.... the Costa Mesa Planning Commission, at their meeting Monday night, exceeded my expectations - kinda. As I earlier predicted, their one-item meeting was going to be a quickie - I speculated that it would be finished in a half-hour. Well, I was wrong, but not by much. The meeting began promptly at 6 p.m. and concluded at 6:27, so the boys did themselves proud. And, since they will only be meeting once a month through November, that means the good taxpayers of Costa Mesa paid them what amounted to more than $800.00 per hour for all their "hard work" on Monday. Don't you feel good about that?

*****

FULL STUDY SESSION AGENDA
Today was a busy one for our City Council. As mentioned yesterday, they had a full agenda, with a Study Session packed with interesting items - including Wendy Leece's proposal to sanctify the City Council chambers with a plaque carrying the motto, "In God We Trust". Since the session was not televised live I have no idea how that played with the remainder of the council members.

PAINFUL REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY REALITY
Then they adjourned to the council chambers for a meeting of the Redevelopment Agency - the council in a different dress. That was a quickie, during which they made decisions protecting the city in the event the state successfully snatches redevelopment dollars from us.

MUSICAL CHAIRS
Then the lights were dimmed and the council played musical chairs and swapped name tags and re-convened as the city council to consider one item - the proposed Memorandum of Understanding between the Costa Mesa Firefighters and the city.

FIREFIGHTERS OFFERED MORE THAN WAS ASKED...
To summarize, the questionable areas that existed a week ago have been hashed out by the negotiators on both sides and an acceptable proposal was presented for the council to consider. Presentations by senior city staff with, added input by the leaders of the firefighters association, made clear that this was an acceptable proposal. In fact, the firefighters actually presented more savings than the city originally requested.

STUBBORN OR STUPID?
It was very frustrating, but not unexpected, that Mayor Mansoor just couldn't grasp the numbers no matter how many times it was explained to him. Of course, this is who he is - a man with very limited intellectual resources being asked to comprehend what began as some complicated issues. In the end, though, I think it was just stubbornness on his part. Led by the solid discussions by Katrina Foley, Wendy Leece and Gary Monahan, the proposal as presented was passed on a 3-2 vote, with Mansoor and Bever voting No.

BEVER'S CONTRIBUTION? ONE WORD...
It was interesting to note that, despite all his bluster on the Daily Pilot blog over the past few days, Bever said only one audible word all night. That was when he said "second" to Mansoor's substitute motion to delay voting on this issue until the next council meeting on the 18th. That motion failed. Bever offered not a single word - not even any of his occasional grunts - during the discussion. He asked no questions, posed no alternatives - it was as though he was asleep. In fact, he may have been for all we could tell. One might have thought someone had cut out his tongue, for goodness sake.

THE BERRYS BLUSTER
Maybe Bever felt the tag-team of his neighbors, Mike and Judi Berry, said enough so he didn't have to. Believe me, I thought they said more than enough, but at least Judi didn't whine about cutting the Mutt Mittens from the budget this time around. And who knows what Mike said?! Sometimes it seems as though even he doesn't know what he's saying.

PETTINESS ON DISPLAY
When the final vote was taken Mansoor, clearly peeved, abruptly said, "That's it. We're adjourned."

NOW LET'S MOVE FORWARD
This budget process has been taxing for all concerned. City Manager Allan Roeder, Steve Mandoki, Marc Puckett, Bobby Young and the rest of the senior staff did a masterful job of presenting the council with workable solutions. Some of those are still dependent on a certain level of sales and property tax dollars. However, with the passage of the issue tonight, they now have a skeleton on which to begin adding muscle and bone. So now the city staff can move forward unless other curves are thrown our way. They can begin to plan for the potential early retirements they anticipate this fall and they can begin to manage the 104 unpaid furlough hours each employee - except the firefighters - will be expected to take between now and the end of August next year.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL FOR A JOB WELL-DONE
Congratulations to all involved for a job well-done. To the employees of our city, thank you all for understanding the extent of the problem and for your dedication in working together with the senior staff to resolve the problems. The firefighters, in particular, are to be commended for presenting a workable solution with some very sticky service issues that had to be addressed.

MANSOOR AND BEVER UNWORTHY OF OFFICE
I cannot close this post without observing, one more time, just how ineffective Mansoor and Bever have been in this process. It seems as though everything is black or white to them. Their inability to grasp - either through stubbornness or denseness, or both - the intricacies of this process demonstrates just what happens when the electorate is wooed by a one-note samba during a campaign. Mansoor and Bever used the fear of your dark-skinned neighbors to win their seats, which concealed the fact that neither man has the grey matter necessary to do their jobs. That is certainly something to keep in mind in the future as one or both may seek another elected office.

Catching Up

CAN'T TURN YOUR BACK FOR A MINUTE!
Geez, I sneak away for some quality time with the little woman for our 42nd wedding anniversary and the wheels begin to come off around here!

Upon my return Monday I found a few minutes to go online to catch up and found some very interesting items awaiting me.

QUACH'S CANDIDACY SQUASHED
First, there is the article about Assemblyman Van Tran's right-hand man, Andy Quach, getting tanked - with a blood alcohol level of .26 (three times the legal limit) - and smashing his car into another car, a power pole and a building and knocking out power to 300 homes! According to news reports, Tran himself came close to getting arrested as he tried to intervene during the processing of his friend at the scene. Quach was to be a contender in the race with our young jailer/mayor, Allan Mansoor, for Tran's Assembly seat. Looks like that race got just a little easier for our easily-led mayor.

BEVER BLOGS BUFFOONERY
Then, there is the article Alan Blank wrote in the Daily Pilot last week, HERE, about Costa Mesa employees taking furloughs generated lots of flack on the DP Blog. Among the many familiar names posting long, long entries was our very own formerly-pigtailed councilman, Eric Bever. He defended his position on the votes at the recent council meeting wherein he voted NO! to almost every item having to do with the negotiated budget issues. He apparently thinks that the employee unions should have taken a flat 5% pay cut instead of 104 hours of unpaid time - the fiscal impact is the same.

HE SHOULD PAY ATTENTION
Now, I understand Bever's view, but I wonder if he understands the position of the unions. Word has it that he was absent from almost all the sessions where negotiations took place or were discussed. Maybe if he'd pay a little more attention to his job as councilman he'd actually be in a position to make an informed vote, not just some gut reaction in a fit of pique. As I type this the comment thread on that article is at 54 and counting... very interesting.

GOOD GOD, WENDY!
And then there is the issue that Wendy Leece is going to present at the council study session on Tuesday! She apparently wants the city to fork over enough cash - maybe as much as $3,500 - to place a plaque somewhere in the council chambers proclaiming, "In God We Trust". You know, I'm not really surprised at this. All you folks who voted for Wendy knew what you were getting. It was inevitable that, somehow, she was going to attempt to insert her religious beliefs into her job as a council member. What astounds me is her absolutely abysmal timing! This is an unnecessary distraction for our city leaders at this moment in time.

LOBDELL CHIMES IN
There are some interesting viewpoints on this issue, one of which is HERE, from former Daily Pilot Editor and current Co-Publisher of the recently-launched Daily Voice, William Lobdell's take on this subject. He's the author of, "Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America - and Found Unexpected Peace."

MAYBE WENDY'S RIGHT...
Lobdell is apparently willing to cut Wendy some slack, but many of those posting comments on the Daily Pilot article are not, HERE. But maybe Wendy has a point. Based on some of their actions in recent years, maybe this current City Council needs a little reminder of some of the cornerstone values of Christianity - like tolerance, for example. It might work better, though, if - every time a council member votes to disenfranchise a member of a minority in our city - a big mallet would drop from the ceiling and give him or her a big whack on the skull. I can see it now... "I'm sorry, Mr. Bautista, but we want you to change the name of your basketball league to get rid of that nasty, offensive 'Aztec' reference"... Whack! A new lump on the skull of the mayor! I don't think a simple little plaque with a motto on it will do the trick.

MAYBE PLURAL?
On the other hand, I'm a little concerned about just what this plaque will say. Since we are rapidly becoming a very diverse nation, in which sizable chunks of our population do not, in fact, worship God. What about Greek gods, Hindu gods, Norse gods, Roman gods? You get the picture. Maybe the plaque should say, "In Gods We Trust", and cover all the bases.

OR A HIGH-TECH CRAWL?
And, since we're a high-tech kind of place, maybe we don't need a plaque at all. We can take an idea from the news media and include a big, running scroll across the council dais that says, "In God We Trust....In God We Trust....In God We Trust..." in big, red illuminated letters. Wouldn't that be cool?! Even better, every time the word "God" passed in front of Wendy Leece's position on the dais a big halo would light up around her head!

FULL AGENDA AT THE STUDY SESSION...
Tuesday is going to be an interesting day for the City Council. They have the aforementioned Study Session at 4:30, in which they will hear about John Wayne Airport, Local Agency Formation of Orange County and have the new city website previewed - in addition to Wendy's plans for a religious overlay for our city.

THEN BAD NEWS FOR THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY...
Then they adjourn to a meeting of the Redevelopment Agency - the City Council in a fancy dress - at which they will undoubtedly hear how the current state budget crisis is going to hamstring redevelopment agencies state-wide.

AND THEN A SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING
And then they will convene a special City Council meeting at which the new Memorandum of Understanding with the Costa Mesa firefighters will be discussed. It's going to be a very, very interesting afternoon and evening.

I guess I'm just going to have to stick closer to home from now on...

CM TRUTH takes on CM PRESS

BACK AND TOSSING LOGS ON THE FIRE
We've been back for a couple days after the Independence Day holiday last weekend, have tossed a few logs under the old Cauldron and will be back up to full boil soon. In the meantime...


CM TRUTH IS GUEST POSTER
My anonymous amigo over at the presently-dormant CM TRUTH Blog is currently renovating his site, but has asked to post something as a "guest poster" here on A Bubbling Cauldron.

THE "ANTI-CM PRESS"
For some perspective, the CM TRUTH Blog has been a source of facts about graffiti and gangs in our community and region since it's inception. It has provided credible information and photos to help us understand the real meaning of graffiti we see around town. It has been a very welcome counterpoint to the rants, raves, half-truths and spin generated at the CM Press. Although the CM TRUTH has been an excellent resource, the author promises a "new and improved" version soon.

CM PRESS QUOTES IN RED
That being said, the following is his submission. For clarity-sake I've highlighted his quotes from the CM Press in red and the remainder of CM Truth's text in blue. Please feel free to post comments to this post if you choose.

*****

MORE GRAFFITI TRUTH

"The CM PRESS is getting reports from folks on the Westside about more Latino gang graffiti in the area."

There has been no increase of gang related graffiti on the West Side. There has been a few examples primarily from VFK and a couple from PVL. The most active gang graffiti wise in Costa Mesa at the moment is VFM in the Mesa North and most of that has been done primarily by one individual.

"And, at the City Council meeting this week, a Councilmember spoke about the "graffiti problem. With all due respect to the Councilmember, Costa Mesa does not have a graffiti problem. It has a Latino gang problem."

There are consistently more acts of vandalism attributed to graffiti and taggers, than that of gang related incidents period. This is in no way an attempt to down play Costa Mesa's gangs or perceived problem, they do that themselves. The majority of the "trouble makers" are in jail and have been for some time. This being done despite an inept council on dealing with gangs and can be attributed to a fine Gang Unit with an understanding of the who, what and why's. We as residents of Costa Mesa should be thankful our Gang Unit has been able to accomplish so much despite councils blatant disregard for the CMPD's recommendations thus far.

"We do not live in a Disneyesque world where inanimate objects have personalities and intelligence. No, the forks and spoons in your kitchen do not suddenly come alive at night and dance around the place. But, I digress. By not seeing the human element involved, successive City Councils have never ended the graffiti in this city. All the Councils have done is spend more tax money to rush out and cover up the graffiti which is usually replaced within a few hours."

It's simply foolish to think any city council can stop graffiti. Some on the other side like to rant and rave every chance they are given and look foolish in doing so since it shows just how out of touch they are with graffiti and graffiti writers. Neither Irvine or Newport Beach for that matter are graffiti free. Neither of those cities have Latino Gangs or a primarily Latino neighborhood, yet they both have graffiti and will continue to do so as they have for years and years. Irvine may not have a territorial Latino Gang but they do have gangs. Non Latino Gangs are not known for their graffiti styles where as Latino Gangs in Southern California have a unique style of graffiti that is recognized world wide and dates back many many years, in fact it dates back to before many of you were born. Why is this important? It's simple, many people like to ignore that fact and focus on Latino Gangs when talking about gangs in their city. The if you can't see it it must not exist notion. Originally traditional Latino gangs were started for protection purposes and marking their territory was a warning that their neighborhood was "protected". White gangs operate very differently and anyone who thinks or suggests Costa Mesa does not have white gang members who both live and commit crimes both petty and violent in Costa Mesa is sadly mistaken. County wide taggers account for the majority of graffiti offenses and one would be a fool to think only Latino youth paint graffiti or even primarily paint graffiti. As we have said before and will say it again, graffiti has no color lines and some of the top writers worldwide as well as many of it originators are white, and that goes for Orange County as well.

"Graffiti is the symptom. It is not the disease itself."

Considering most graffiti found in Costa Mesa is non gang related and committed by people of all ethnicities and monetary backgrounds the above statement is not even worth of comment.

"Rid this city of the gangs which, according to police reports, are almost exclusively Latino and which infest the slums on the Westside, Mesa North and Mesa del Mar and the graffiti will go away and our crime rate will drop."

Supposing Costa Mesa was to rid the city of gangs. According to CMPD gangs attribute for approximately 40% of the cities graffiti, are we to believe the other 60% would just vanish? This is nothing more than typical rhetoric from an ill-informed individual with ulterior motives.

"Just keep treating the symptoms and Costa Mesa will never be able to stop the graffiti or lower the extremely high violent crime rate in this city."

Again Costa Mesa will never stop the graffiti. Graffiti can at times be decreased but for writers, where there is a will there is a way and as one generation fades away another is there lying in wait to "get up". One of the most prolific vandals operating in Costa Mesa right now is a white individual not a Latino.

"As we've written many times, the way to proceed is as follows: 1. Have the CMPD prepare a scatter map (read, pin map) showing the locations where gang members live, where violent crimes occur and where graffiti is found. We believe the map will show just a few well defined areas where the problems originate. We also believe that these well defined areas will have rows and rows of barracks style apartment buildings that are functionally obsolete." There are many spots in Costa Mesa that are continually hit with graffiti far more frequently than any of the neighborhoods some would like you to believe. Over the last several months Shalimar Street has for the most part been graffiti free with a few exceptions here and there and 90% of those exceptions were non gang related examples. "2. Then, concentrate on thinning out the slum apartment buildings in those areas and in ensuring that the apartments that remain are not overcrowded. And, at the same time, step up policing in those areas. Thinning out the slum apartment buildings will give us long term relief, while the stepped up policing will give us some short term help with violent crime and graffiti."

We still are not sure why violent crime and graffiti are being lumped together when referencing Costa Mesa. If any graffiti in Costa Mesa has the potential to spark a violent offense it would be the work of the so called "graffiti vigilante" who obviously has a problem with graffiti and chooses to combat it with graffiti.

"The mistake the City is now making, in addition to thinking that graffiti is the problem and not just a symptom, is in thinking it can make nice with gang members and give them activities and freebies and the problems will go away."

Mistake? The mistake is thinking only gang members paint graffiti. Anyone who truly thinks that kids do not benefit from activities and after school programs is a fool. There are neighborhoods in Santa Ana that during the early 1990's were so bad SAPD seldom went in unless they had a reason. Thanks largely to outreach programs the same can't be said for some of those neighborhoods today.

"The City also wrongly believes that the functionally obsolete apartment buildings can remain and will somehow magically turn into places that will attract upwardly mobile people. This is nonsense. The functionally obsolete apartment buildings need to be razed."

The above statement basically sums up the real reason for the rant. We all know who lives in these neighborhoods. What needs to be done is the landlords need to be held accountable for maintaining their property. If you actually talked to the residents of Shalimar as opposed to being afraid of them you might find they actually don't like living in the conditions their landlords provide them either. You may also want to ask them why they pay more than do many residents on the East Side in nicer complexes. Like all ministers of propaganda, preying on the weak minded individuals who buy into their snake oil rhetoric. The only thing that should be "razed" is the bigotry, hate and uneducated rants coming out of Mensa North especially regarding gangs and graffiti. It also should come as no shock that the man who likes the public to believe he is just a concerned citizen when it comes to violent crime Costa Mesa made no mention of the recent injury involved shooting that took place in Costa Mesa. Could it be due to the fact those arrested do not fit the criteria? Could it be they don't reside on the West Side but in a meth ridden area on the East Side? http://www.ocregister.com/articles/scott-mesa-homicide-2435686-suspicion-accessory

The best part of all this:

"CM PRESS. THE VOICE OF FREE SPEECH,TOLERANCE,IMPROVEMENT AND QUALITY OF LIFE"

Give us a break!

Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

*****

BEVER AND THE BLOWHARD
By the way, have you noted that councilman Eric Bever has asked for the Aztec Basketball issue to be reviewed at the next council meeting? Is it a coincidence that he makes this request at virtually the same time the racist blowhard at the CM Press posted two entries on that issue? I think not, particularly when some Bever's comments were virtually echoes of those published by the CM Press. It continues to be a distressing fact of life here in Costa Mesa that a man with such virulent racist views has such an impact on elected leaders and some of those they've appointed.

Some Budget Cuts Restored, Just Not Enough

WORTH THE PRICE
As expected, the Costa Mesa City Council meeting was worth the price of admission, even though one of the potentially most contentious issues - the proposed tougher solicitation ordinance - was continued until next month. I guess they may have realized that their plan had some major holes in it - like the lack of a Job Center, for example.

ANTICIPATED FIREWORKS DO MATERIALIZE
The proposal by Katrina Foley and Wendy Leece to restore previously chopped programs to the budget generated many comments from community members and rancorous discussion between council members. Allan Mansoor set the tone for the evening's discussions when he launched into a tirade against Katrina Foley during council member comments for her behavior at the previous meeting nearly a month ago. He demanded an apology for being called "ignorant" by Foley at the last meeting. He didn't get one, and rightfully so. At that meeting he, Eric Bever and Gary Monahan displayed ignorance of family issues as they stubbornly voted in lock-step to chop family-oriented issues from the budget. I guess our young jailer/mayor (is he still a jailer?) has a heightened sensitivity to being called ignorant, for which I take some small degree of responsibility since I've reminded readers of his limited intellectual horsepower for several years. Since this was the first meeting which did not include the dinner part of the "dinner session", maybe Mansoor was just hungry. He really shouldn't miss any meals because his teeny brain needs all the nourishment it can get...

MONAHAN, THE MARTYR
As anticipated, Monahan again played the martyr, acknowledging that he knows he will get "beat up" for defending his position of nit-picking the little issues on the budget because the city is "in trouble". Well, duh, Gary - we all know that. Why didn't you spend your time massaging the big-ticket items in the budget? Maybe we should be asking the unions for a 6% pay cut instead of 5. Maybe he should be giving up his family health care plan - that would save a couple staff jobs. Oh, no.. he simply must use our current budget crisis to further oppress the less fortunate among us - those folks with brown skins. Honestly, I don't know how he faces those folks at church on Sunday...

SHOPPING CART ISSUE PASSED
The council decided to go along with the recommendation by staff regarding the shopping cart issue. Monahan recommended the threshold for the requirements be raised to 15 carts from 10. It will take several months to get the details sorted out and the store owners informed. Eventually, this plan will save the city $48,000 that it pays to have abandoned carts scooped up and returned to the proper stores. I wonder what it will cost us in goodwill with the stores in town, and how any potential merchants will feel about locating here with this measure in place. Oh, yes - the section of the ordinance giving the "developer majority" on the Planning Commission final say was included - lord help us all!

MASSAGE PARLOR MORATORIUM PASSED
The urgency ordinance requested by the Police Department to delay approvals of new permits and licenses for massage parlors and therapists was approved. Chief Shawkey told the council that he will use the 45 day moratorium to work with the City Attorney to craft tighter regulations for such businesses to help head off those that might be fronts for prostitution.

CONCERTS IN THE PARK RESTORED
Due to the efforts by Foley, Leece and others, the concerts in the park were restored. The Costa Mesa Community Foundation came up with $4300 and the Fire and Police unions donated $2500 each to help produce three concerts in the park. It is possible that a fourth concert will be salvaged if the community can come up with $1000 - Foley committed to contribute $500 of the $1500 necessary to produce that fourth concert. The council unanimously supported the restoration of the remaining concerts.

NEIGHBORS FOR NEIGHBORS, TOO
Leece moved that the Neighbors for Neighbors program be restored by using previously allocated funds from the Community Foundation. The vote was 4-1 in favor, with Monahan voting no.

MOBILE RECREATION PROGRAMS REJECTED - AGAIN
The Mobile Recreation Program was again rejected, despite the fact that the Costa Mesa Library Foundation and the School District both have participated in programs. Foley and Leece voted to reinstate it, but the three stooges on the council chose to take the short-sighted path and rejected it. Now the city will simply moth-ball the $82,000 vehicle and kiss off the opportunity to have a very positive impact on over 400 kids a month in our city.

TEEN AND YOUTH RECREATION PROGRAMS REJECTED - AGAIN
The Teen Program and the Youth Recreation programs were, once again, rejected by the men on the council. The council voted to receive and file the sister city and grad night programs, which means they remain unfunded in this year's budget.

IGNORANCE AND ELITISM
So, the men on the council demonstrated for their constituents one more time that they really have no clue when it comes to issues involving children and the importance of after school programs for them. Of course, we expect that kind of ignorance from Bever and Mansoor, since they have no kids that we know of. Monahan's insensitivity, however, is pure elitism - he can cover the cost of his children's private schools and all the after school amenities that goes with it by simply raising the price of a drink at his bar. The hardworking folks on the Westside that are the main beneficiaries of those chopped programs don't have that luxury. Monahan's "let them eat cake" attitude is disgusting, but not unexpected. I warned you about it last year during the campaign. Pay attention next time, will you please?

WHAT'S WITH BEVER?
By the way, is it my imagination or has Eric Bever decided to hibernate for the summer? His participation in the debates last night was nearly zero, and when he did speak he made no sense at all. If he plans to ride out the remainder of his term like this - basically phoning it in - perhaps someone should consider launching a recall effort so he can be replaced by someone who actually seems to be interested in city issues.

WENDY STANDS HER GROUND
And, finally, I must again commend Wendy Leece for standing up to the guys on the dais. She clearly has a much better grasp of family-oriented issues and, as an instructor at Juvenile Hall, she sees the end result of kids having little or no guidance and direction. I'm certainly not her biggest fan, but cannot help but admire her tenacity over the past couple months.

Strap Yourself In - It's Budget Time

Once again the Costa Mesa City Council made for interesting viewing last night.

BUDGET PRESENTED TO THE COUNCIL LAST NIGHT
City Manager Allan Roeder provided a confirmation of the budget schedule. He placed the budget into the council's hands at the end of the meeting. It will be available for review on the city web site by the end of the day today and in libraries and at City Hall for resident review by the end of the week.

STUDY SESSION ON JUNE 9TH
There will be a council study session at 4:30 on Tuesday, June 9th in Conference Room 1A, City Hall, at which time public comments will be gathered and the council will have a chance to be briefed on the budget. Roeder then told them that he will schedule an "adjourned" council meeting immediately thereafter so the council will have a method of giving the staff direction on the budget. Direction may not be provided during a study session.

PUBLIC WORKSHOP ON JUNE 11TH
There will be a public budget workshop on Thursday, June 11, but the time and venue have not been firmed up. In years past it was conducted in Conference Room 1A at City Hall.

FINAL BUDGET VOTE ON JUNE 16TH
The council will, hopefully, vote on the final budget at their meeting on June 16th. If they get hung up there will still be a couple weeks in which to work out the problems. (See Roeder comments below)

MANSOOR - INFLEXIBLE DENSENESS
Once again the proposals by the Fire Department for new revenue sources received rough treatment by some of the council members. Our young jailer (is he still a jailer?)/mayor, Allan Mansoor, demonstrated that he's more than willing to let the fiscal well-being of our city and residents take a back seat to his own personal political dogma. During the discussion of the EMS fees Mansoor demonstrated, once again, that he's about half-a-brain short! He seems perpetually unable to follow even the most slightly complex issue.

BEVER - A NEAR-TERM HERO
To the cheers of many residents, Eric Bever brought the EMS fee issue back to the council for re-consideration. After a lengthy discussion and input from many residents the council voted unanimously to overturn their last vote and reject the EMS fee plan. This means the city will now have to find ways to cut around $900,000 from the budget... We'll see how long Bever's halo continues to shine after the budget is finally approved.

RESOLUTION OPPOSING FAIRGROUNDS SALE
Near the end of the meeting Roeder presented a resolution opposing the sale of the Orange County Fair and Exposition Center property - something the governor has suggested, along with many other state properties, to balance the state budget. The Fairgrounds generates more than $185 million in revenue each year.

BUDGET PRESENTED IN PLAIN, WHITE WRAPPER
At the end of the meeting, just before 10 p.m., Roeder presented the proposed budget - significantly, in a plain, white cover this year - to the council and encouraged them to take their copies with them.

NEAR-SIGHTED COUNCIL HAS TROUBLE AHEAD
Keep in mind that, with the actions the council took tonight declining the proposals of the Fire Department for additional revenue sources, they effectively removed about $1.25 million from the budget. That means more cuts to balance the budget.

ROEDER SETS THE SCENE
I've been writing about this for months because I've spent a good deal of time talking with members of the Finance Department staff and others so I have had a pretty good idea of just how deep a hole our city is in. But don't believe me. Let me quote City Manager Allan Roeder as he closed his presentation of the budget to the council tonight. First he told them, "... we are going to have to make some decisions..." implying that they will be hard decisions.

ALL TAXES BARELY COVERS PUBLIC SAFETY
Roeder went on to say, "If you took all the property taxes this city collects it's less than half what it takes to fund just the police and fire. If we did nothing else in this city - no streets, no parks, no open space, no recreation - property tax alone would be less than half of what's required for police and fire alone. If you took all of your property tax and all of your sales tax it just barely covers those two departments. And those are the departments you task to protect people, to provide the very important emergency medical services we talked about this evening so those are not areas, I would submit to you, ah, that are good candidates for cutting back on what we just heard this evening are essential services."

DID YOU GET THAT?
Are you paying attention? I hope those statements got your attention, because that's what our elected leaders and the staff will be dealing with over the next two weeks. Roeder's not kidding around with this stuff. There will be no surgical trimming of the budget this year - it's meat cleaver time.

WE'VE ALREADY MADE DEEP CUTS
During council member comments, in response to a question by Katrina Foley about how much has already been cut out of the budget, Roeder told the council that, "...the plan that we brought to you on April 14th, the one that you approved, slightly less than 90% of the $19 million plus that must be reduced to balance the budget is all cuts." He went on to describe the other 10%, roughly $1 million in additional funding - grants and the like - that will contribute to balancing the budget. Again, in response to a question by Foley, he affirmed that this is in addition to nearly $8 million in cuts made at the mid-year budget review.

THIS COUNCIL LACKS FORESIGHT
This council has demonstrated an unwillingness to consider new funding sources as presented to them. It has chosen not to put the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) and the Business License fees on the ballot for voters to consider for possible increases. It perpetuated the RRIP program last year when it was clear that the city was heading for rough water budget-wise. That program has cost the city coffers well over $1 million over the past three years.

BLOODY BATTLES AHEAD
Neighbors, the next two weeks are probably going to be the bloodiest in recent memory. When the council votes for a new budget in two weeks there will be many, many unhappy people in our town. The employees will probably be the most unhappy because salaries and benefits are where we spend the bulk of our money - nearly 75% - so they are the logical places to look for cuts. Most residents have their own pet projects they don't want to see de-funded, but unless something magic happens over the next fortnight we will be seeing a much smaller city staff left to deal with our demands for services. It ain't going to be pretty.

BRING YOUR IDEAS
If you've got some great ideas for helping with the budget, get on the horn and call the city staff or a council member. Send them an email or letter or just hike over to City Hall and talk to someone. Attend the study session next Tuesday or the workshop on the 11th. Now's the time to donate your brain to this process because we obviously don't have enough grey matter on the dais to solve the problems.

DON'T TIGHTEN THAT BELT, EAT IT!
Some folks seem to think this year our city will be doing some serious belt-tightening. Actually, it's probably going to be more like boiling that belt so we'll have something to eat!