Measure Y Gets The First Test Tuesday

FIRST MEETING WITH NEW (OLD) FORMAT
The Costa Mesa City Council meets on Tuesday, January 17, 2017 in City Council Chambers at City Hall beginning at 6:00 p.m. per the revised rules.  This meeting will be preceded by a Closed Session that begins at 4:00 p.m. in Council Chambers to take Public Comments, then moves to Conference Room 5A for the closed session.  Three items are on that Closed Session agenda, including the lawsuit between Yellowstone Women's First Step House, Inc and Sober Living Network, Inc v. City of Costa Mesa.  The full agenda for the entire meeting may be found HERE.

COUNCIL MEMBERS GET ONLY 4 MINUTES - FIRST TIME UP
When the open meeting begins at 6:00 they will follow the new agenda format.  Following Public Comments there will be Council Member's Reports, Comments and Suggestions, but each council member will be limited to only 4 minutes at this point.  If any council member has more things to talk about there is time reserved for that at the end of the meeting, before the City Manager and City Attorney reports.

CONSENT CALENDAR
The Consent Calendar has another load of items on it - 13 to be precise.  In theory these items could be voted upon in one vote without separate discussion on them.  However, it's unusual for that to happen.  Any member of the council, city staff or public may pull an item for separate discussion and vote.  I won't cover all those items - you can read them when you click on that agenda link above.  However, there are some that require comment.

SPENDING OUR MONEY
Item #2, Warrant Resolution #2569, HERE, represents the expenditure of right at $4 million in city funds.  You can scroll down through the list to see if anything catches your eye.  Some items that caught mine are:

• City of Huntington Beach - $23,100.00 - Helicopter Svcs, Nov. 2016
• Clean Street - $60,590.98 - Street Sweeping Svcs Nov. 2016 Plus Power Wash Harbor/19th
• G4S Secure Solutions, Inc - $50,823.18 - Jail Svcs Nov. 2016
• Heroes Hall Veteran's Foundation - $25,000.00 - 2nd Grant for Vets Museum
• Johnson Favaro LLP - $285,859.00 - Library/NCC Architecure 11/16-12/15
• Jones & Mayer - $132,449.62 - Legal Svcs, various
• Keyser Marston Assoc. - $4,774.00 - Nghd Improv/Homeless Nov. 2016
• Lilley Planning Group - $9,720.00 - Planning Consultant Nov 2016
• MPS Consulting, Inc - $9,666.25 - Planning Consultant, 11/1-11/22
• Management Partners Inc - $8,631.00 - Consulting Svcs DS 11/16-11/30
• Permit Management Solutions - $2,665.00 - Interim Permit Tech 11/21-11/23, 11/28-12/2
• Scott Fazekas & Assoc. - $6,022.84 - Bldg Plan Check Svcs
• Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth - $10,787.50 - Legal Svcs, various
• The Code Group Inc. - $1,440.00 - Bldg Inspect. Svs 10/30-11/26
• Interwest Consulting Group, Inc. - $22,960.00 - Bldg Ofcrs/Bldg Inspect Oct 2016
• Kimley Horn & Assoc. - $40,548.00 - Group Home Consulting
• Rutan & Tucker LLP - $83,285.35 - Legal various (No Growth & Fairview Park)
• CSG Consultants Inc - $11,055.47 - Plan Check Svcs Nov 2016
• Kitchell Cern - $3,990.00 - Const. Mgt.Svs 10/31-11/27
• Liebert Cassidy Whitmore - $5,973.10 - Legal various
• Vincent Benjamin - $5,960.07 - Temp Staff, Treas. & Purch.

As you can see, we spent more than $230,000 on legal fees and more than $60,000 on various consultants.

CLEANING UP THE TOW POLICY
Item #3, HERE, is the modification of the Police Department Tow Policy.

SLOWING TRAFFIC ON EAST 19TH STREET
Item #6, HERE, is a $1.6 million Safe Route To School Project on East 19th Street from Church Street to Irvine Avenue and will involve so-called "traffic calming" measures the over that length.
These "enhancements" will slow the traffic on a busy residential street and almost certainly force traffic on adjacent streets - Costa Mesa Street, 20th Street and others - as traffic, like water, will find a way.  It will also include a new monument sign on a new median near the intersection of Fullerton and 19th Street.

BRISTOL STREET PROJECTS
Item #7, HERE, is a bundle of Bristol Street Projects totalling nearly $5 million.

HOUSING AUTHORITY FINANCIAL AUDIT
For you numbers people, Item #8, HERE, is the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Independent Financial Audit of the Costa Mesa Housing Authority.

BLOWING IN THE WIND
The first Public Hearing, HERE, is the 2016 California Residential Code Wind Speed Revision.  Yeah - I asked the same question - What the heck is that?  The staff report is short and this item may take a whole 5 minutes, max.

440 FAIR DRIVE - AND THE SMART GROWTH INITIATIVE
Public Hearing #2, HERE, is the elephant on the agenda, for many reasons.  This is the proposed project at 440 Fair Drive - the one the short-handed Planning Commission rejected.  According to the staff report, this one, if approved, will likely require a vote of the public before proceeding due to the requirements of Measure Y - the Smart Growth Initiative passed by the voters on November 8th.  The discussion of this item should be very interesting.

NAME CHANGES, PART 2
Old Business #1, HERE, is the second hearing of the change of the CEO and Assistant CEO positions to City Manager and Assistant City Manager.  This one will take about 2 minutes unless Jim Righeimer decides to launch off on a rant again.

WEST 19TH STREET BIKE TRAIL PROJECT
Old Business #2, HERE, is an amendment to the Professional Services Agreement with Dudek for Environmental Services for the West 19th Street Bicycle Trail Project.

MOBILE RECREATION PROGRAM REDUX
New Business #1, HERE, is the resurrection of the Mobile Recreation Program, abandoned a few years ago due to budget constraints.  If the council supports this idea the staff will develop a funding plan for the 2016/2017 mid-year budget report.  For some history, HERE'S the 2004 staff report for your recollection.

NEXT MEETING TO CONSIDER VOLUNTEERS
The council will adjourn to a special meeting on Tuesday, January 24, 2017 during which applicants wishing to be considered for positions on the Planning, Parks and Recreation and Senior Commissions will be interviewed.  The deadline for applying for these positions is 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 18, 2017.  Go HERE for more information.

Community Outreach On Bicycling

GOOD TURNOUT

Wednesday night nearly four dozen interested parties snuggled into the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) adjacent to Police Headquarters for a presentation by City staff and consultants on the program currently underway to study how to make Costa Mesa more bicycle-friendly.  Specifically, how to navigate by bicycle across town.

RAJA KICKS OFF
Transportation Services Manager Raja Sethuraman kicked things off, then tossed the baton to John Holloway, a consultant from the firm BTU+A, who guided the discussion/presentation from that point forward. 

HOLLOWAY TAKES THE BALL
Holloway used a PowerPoint presentation that will soon be available for viewing on the City's website.  And, throughout the room were several posters with informational displays, some of which are shown here.  If you click on the images they may be easier to read.

GOALS

 

SOME CHOICES

INTERESTED ATTENDEES
Among the attendees were former councilman and recent candidate Jay Humphrey, former candidate Tony Capitelli, and current planning commissioner Stephan Andranian, an avid bicyclist himself.  There were many other familiar faces - folks who regularly attend and participate in the discussion in important meetings.

PROVIDE INPUT
Following the presentation the attendees were asked to participate in providing information by making notes on one of several large city maps available, and by making notes and affixing colored stickers to charts on the walls.  That information, and similar data gathered from the second of these meetings will be included in the final report prepared by the consultants.

FIRST SEGMENT
This meeting dealt with the first of two cross-town elements - from Placentia to Orange Coast College via Adams Avenue.  The second meeting will deal with the segment from OCC to the Back Bay.  No mention was made about the date of that meeting

 

PART 1

 

PLACENTIA

 

ADAMS

 

TANAGER/GOLF COURSE/MESA VERDE DRIVE EAST

 

MERRIMAC

OCC PIVOTAL
I think the information on the images from the charts is pretty self-explanatory.  It was clear from the discussion that OCC is a pivotal element in this plan.  Dean Abernathy, an instructor at OCC and most recently a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission, told us that OCC staff is now working with City staff to coordinate their efforts, particularly as to how the OCC expansion plans currently underway might impact the results of this process.  He also told us that Costa Mesa has the highest bike use in the county, and that OCC's projected growth from 17,000 to 20,000 students in the near future - many of whom will likely be foreign students without automobiles, will jack up that use ratio significantly.

GOOD RESPONSE FROM ATTENDEES
From the discussions I overheard following the presentation and during the "notation" part of the meeting, it seems that most bicycle enthusiasts who attended felt this was a good step.  I'm looking forward to seeing the next step in the process, defined in one of the slides here - the next meeting.

Bike Paths And Native Plant Nursery Get OK For Study

BACK AFTER A COUPLE MONTHS
The Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee met again last night and the rainy weather kept the crowds down.  This meeting was the continuation of the discussion of the Southeast Quadrant of the park.  Fewer than 30 people attended the meeting, but many were active participants in the process.  Vice Chair Steve Smith did not attend, member Brett Eckles made it a little late, as did brand new Mayor Steve Mensinger, who is the primary City Council representative.

REVIEW OF RIVERSIDE FIELD TRIP
Parks Project Manager Bart Mejia led off with a brief summary report of the field trip the committee took to Riverside's Hunter Park, home of the Riverside Live Steamers,  a facility that blends active recreation uses with a model train ride.  If you want to see what that park is like, view a YouTube clip, HERE.  A half-dozen speakers addressed the issue - which apparently was intended to provide perspective for the possibility of mixing similar uses in Fairview Park.  Without exception they felt mixing playing fields with the area currently occupied by the Orange County Model Engineers is a bad idea.

NO-SHOW...
There was to have been some kind a presentation by someone named Bill LeValley about a Native Plant Nursery, but he didn't show up.  Later we learned from a commenter that he actually runs a nursery somewhere.

GRAHAM'S BIKE PATH SCHEME WILL BE STUDIED
Parks and Recreation Commissioner Bob Graham, on crutches nursing a wounded Achilles Tendon and speaking not as a commissioner but as a private citizen, made a pitch for a bike path that would skirt the perimeter of the north part of Fairview Park, using right-of-way near the Fairview Channel and eventually wind around and connect with the Joann Street Bike Path.  Although it is not clear that the County of Orange would be interested in participating, the committee voted unanimously to agendize the item for further discussion.

 NATIVE PLANT NURSERY MOVES FORWARD
Old Business #1 was the discussion of the creation of a Native Plant Nursery in the Southeast Quadrant of the park.  The idea would be to propagate Fairview Park native plants to be used later to rehabilitate areas of the park with such a need.  Mejia described in general terms the scope, cost and possible locations for such a facility in the park.  The image provided shows the main points.  Nine people spoke to this issue, including resident Cindy Black, who was the prime mover of this idea from the beginning.  After some significant discussion the committee voted unanimously to move this idea forward.  The preferred location would be adjacent to the OCME site - visible from the street for security purposes and with easy access to water, power and parking.

BIKE PATHS DIE
Next up was the discussion of the Improvement/Designation of Bike Paths within the park.  There already exists a plan for a bike path in the current Master Plan, shown as a yellow line below.  After a few minutes of discussion, and considering that they had already agreed to move Graham's idea forward, the suggestion to move this item forward died for lack of a motion.

 Below is the current map of Costa Mesa Bike Paths from the City website.  It you wish to see the larger version of the map click HERE.

RETURN OF THE FIELDS!
With the election now behind us and the demographics on the dais known, the committee then agreed, on a 6-2 vote - Anna Vrska and Chairman Dick Mehren voted NO - to bring back the items previously tabled at two earlier meetings for discussion at the next meeting, on January 7, 2015.  Those items are:
Baseball/Softball Facilities
Soccer/Football Fields
Multi-use Athletic Fields
OCME Track Expansions/Improvements
Basketball/Handball Courts
Roller Hockey Surface

LARGE TURNOUT EXPECTED IN JANUARY
I suspect the turnout at that meeting will be large and vocal since the predominant views expressed by residents throughout this process has been to keep the park natural, without playing fields and similar amenities.  I thought it was interesting that nobody mentioned the pending review of the city-wide Master Plan of Parks and Open Spaces, which will certainly affect the work being done by this committee.  Maybe next month...