SPECIAL DISTRICT RACES

YEAH, I'M BACK AGAIN...
Yes, there are more races we should address as the 2020 campaign season has now launched - and who really knows what THAT means?  I sure don't!  Are we going to have candidate forums? Are we going to have Zoom debates?  Are we just going to close our eyes and stab at our ballots, then mail them in? Will President Trump emasculate the United States Postal Service so our votes won't make it to the Registrar?  Anyhow, there are more races to be discussed and I'm going to give you my take, early in the season, for whatever it's worth.  HERE is a link to the page on the OC Registrar of Voters web page that gives you some info on each of the following candidates.

COSTA MESA SANITARY DISTRICT
As most know, the Costa Mesa Sanitary District was extorted, just as the City of Costa Mesa and many other municipal entities were, into voting by district.  That required creating districts, then staggering the elections for those districts.  And, of course, the district boundaries are similar, but not the same, as the City boundaries or those of other districts that operate within Costa Mesa.  Yeah, confusion reigns.  This time around the CMSD has two seats being contested.  I'll address each of those individually.

DIVISION 2
This seat, is currently held by long, long time incumbent JAMES FERRYMAN, a man with a very long history of service to our community, including his tour as one of the strong leaders of the CMSD.  He would be my choice, hands down, if I could vote in this race.  He is challenged by BRETT ECKLES, a man with a youth sports orientation and a strong allegiance to the former political regime led by Jim Righeimer and Steve Mensinger.  Two years ago he ran against Andrea Marr for the 2nd District City Council seat and was soundly trounced by her.  I suspect that was because she brought such strong academic and leadership credentials to the race AND he carried the baggage of that previous administration.  He has not lost that baggage and Jim Ferryman has too much experience and leadership to be tossed aside.  Jim Ferryman is far and away the best choice.

DIVISION 4
In this race we have a similar situation.  ART PERRY is a long time community leader and educator.  His experience on the CMSD board has contributed to it being one of the most highly-regarded special districts in Orange County, if not the state.  Under the leadership of men like Art Perry and Jim Ferryman the CMSD has shown just how well such an organization can be run - with efficiency and fiscal responsibility.  Art Perry would be my guy in this race.  He is challenged by MICHELLE FIGUEREDO-WILSON, a woman with zero municipal experience.  She also challenged for a seat on the City Council two years ago, and, despite serious support from the OC GOP hierarchy, was soundly whipped by young newcomer Manuel Chavez.  She gained only 709 votes in that election.  She brings nothing to the table - to academic credentials nor demonstrated leadership experience.  She is a constant complainer via the social media sites and is closely allied with the above-mentioned Righeimer/Mensinger cabal.  Nope.. Art Perry's experience and long-time dedication to our community make him the easy choice in this race.

MESA WATER DISTRICT
It's interesting that, although there are three seats up for grabs, only one will be contested.  The seats held by incumbents FRED BOCKMILLER and MARICE DE PASAQUALE will not be contested - nobody stepped up to challenge them.  However, the Division 2 seat held by incumbent JAMES R. FISLER is being contested.  He is being challenged by newcomer, but home-town boy, ADAM C. ERETH, a member of the iconic Perry clan in town.  He brings an exceptional academic and work background to this race and will be a very refreshing replacement for the onerous Righeimer/Mensinger sycophant, Fisler.  I've watched Fisler over the years and have come away singularly unimpressed with his tours on various commissions and committees.  He's a politician who brings no expertise to any assignment.  I expect this will be a tough race - Fisler is well-connected in that part of town - but Ereth brings a special new kind of energy to this race and would certainly be a breath of fresh air on that board.  If I could vote in this race Adam Ereth would be my guy.

MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT OF ORANGE COUNTY (MWDOC)
There are several seats on this board being contested this time around, but only one with a local connection.

DIVISION 4
This race will be hotly-contested by an interesting mix of people.  There are two people about which I know absolutely nothing about - CHRISTOPHER GANIERE and DANA M. REED.  They apparently have no prior public service experience and will not get my vote.

Mesa Water District manager STACY LYNNE TAYLOR  has a strong Public Relations background at Mesa Water.  I've met her and don't dislike her, but I will not consider her because there is a much stronger candidate on the ballot and she is one more member of the Mesa Water power-hungry hierarchy trying to spread it's tentacles throughout the regional water management infrastructure.

Next is re-tread and termed out Costa Mesa Councilman ALLAN MANSOOR - a guy looking for another public trough to which he can belly-up.  Right up front, I am NOT a Mansoor fan.  Although he is a multi-term councilman, his times on the council were "distinguished" only by his anti-immigrant positions - he wanted to turn every Costa Mesa police officer into an ICE officer, for example.  He was named as an honorary "Minuteman" by the anti-immigrant leader, Jim Gilchrist, for goodness sake!  He has no record of accomplishment here - only divisiveness - or in the California State Assembly seat he held before returning to local politics.  He has been a willing pawn for the local OC GOP power brokers and brings nothing - no demonstrated leadership at any level, no strong academic credentials, no technical expertise, zero - to this particular race.  I strongly suspect that the only thing he knows about water is when he admiringly goes "ooohhh" as he watches it swirl around the toilet bowl when he flushes it.  The last time he ran for public office was two years ago when he ran, as a seated councilman and former mayor,  for the District 5 council seat.  He was crushed by newcomer Arlis Reynolds - making it clear that his neighbors knew him and rejected his brand of politics.  I suspect that will happen in this race, too.

Which brings us to the final person on the ballot - my friend and neighbor, KARL SECKEL.  Notwithstanding the fact that he lives in my neighborhood and I've gotten to know him over the past several years, as an old resume-reader for decades I can tell you that he brings a nearly perfect background for this job.  He has worked for MWDOC for nearly 4 decades and has an outstanding academic, technical and management background for this assignment.  He will retire the end of this year and his presence on this board will provide an extraordinary level of continuity of technical and professional leadership.  He is endorsed by the incumbent, Joan Finnegan.  This is an easy call for me -   Karl Seckel will enthusiastically get my vote.

SCHOOL BOARD?
Maybe next time.  I know nothing about any of the candidates except one.  So, I'll try to do my homework and get back to you - maybe I'll actually read Steve Smith's blog! :-)

Lies, Lies And More Lies!

THE LIES PERSIST
Yesterday, October 31st, many voters in District 3 received the mailer displayed below.  Each of the four (4) pages is shown.

BLATANT MISREPRESENTATION
As you can see, any reasonable person would assume this was distributed by the Democrats - the two images of the donkey, for example, implies a level of officialness to this piece.  And, since this thing clearly touts Sandy Genis and Brett Eckles as the right candidates for mayor and District 3, respectively, those voters might logically assume that Democrat officials support those two candidates. I'm told similar, but not exactly the same, mailers in other districts with the same misleading messages.

 THE MISLEADING FRONT PAGE
 This is the image of the front page, with mailing address, misleading title and donkey images.

THE DISCLAIMER
This is a blow-up of the Notice to Voters box in the lower right corner.  Please note the last statement.  It tells the reader that the "Appearance is paid for and authorized by each candidate and ballot measure which is designated by an *"  Well, Brett Eckles carries that designation on the back page, so one can logically assume that not only endorsed this mailer, but authorized it (paid for it?).

PAGE 2 - GENIS ENDORSEMENT

PAGE 3 - THE ECKLES ENDORSEMENT

ECKLES PAID FOR IT?
Back page clearly carries the * adjacent to Eckles name, indicating he endorsed and authorized (paid for?) this mailer.

DESPERATION
This mailer reflects the desperation on the part of the Sandy Genis faction in this election.  They are in a panic and, with less than a week to go, are pulling out all stops to lie, defame and discredit Katrina Foley and those she supports.  Every voter should consider this kind of deceit when marking their ballot.  A vote for Genis and Eckles is a vote to perpetuate the developer-controlled interests that have dominated the political discussion for that past decade.

THE CHOICE IS EASY
With every attempt to deceive voters Genis and her developer-funded faction make the choice easier.  Katrina Foley for Mayor - Andrea Marr for District 3 - Manuel Chavez for District 4 and Arlis Reynolds for District 5.

This Election Is Too Important To Be Silent

WELL, I'M BACK... KINDA
Eighteen months ago, in the wake of my wife's retirement and my previously-mentioned health issues, I retired this blog.  At that time I presumed the restoration of my health and our anticipated travel would preclude me from giving enough attention to issues in Costa Mesa to justify the time it takes to produce this content.

THIS MAY BE A "ONE-OFF"... WE'LL SEE
Instead, although I throttled-back my meeting attendance to almost nil and paid a reduced amount of attention,  I didn't stop watching completely and I burped out frequent Facebook posts with my observations.  However, times have changed a little, to the point where I think it's important for me to comment here on our upcoming elections.  I don't know what the future holds for the blog - or for me, for that matter - but I may post things here on a very reduced schedule, so stay tuned.  And now, about this election...

LOST CIVILITY
I've lived in Costa Mesa for more than 45 years - 46, if you count the short time I rented a little studio apartment just off 19th Street in the mid-60's.  I've written about all things political in our city for more than a fifteen years, both in local newspapers and here on my blog.  I have never seen such a contentious, divisive political season in all my years as a Costa Mesan, and I'm concerned that our city might not recover from the wounds being inflicted in this campaign.  Civility is a lost art in our town these days.

BIGGEST ELECTION CHANGE
For the first time in it's 65 year history Costa Mesa voters will select council members by district, launching a potential "Balkanization" of our town, pitting one district's interests against others.  This was predicted several times from the dais by Jim Righeimer - the man who eventually orchestrated this mess.  And, for the first time, the mayor of our city will be directly elected by the voters instead of being chosen by council members from among their peers.  The only advantage of having a directly-elected mayor is that an incumbent can't be ousted by a capricious, petulant, agenda-driven majority in the future.  It will take another vote of the people to cast aside a mayor in the future.

THE GENIS FACTION

Since the campaigning began in earnest this summer two clear factions have emerged.  One, which includes current mayor Sandra Genis, current council member and former mayor Allan Mansoor (running for the District 5 seat), unknown newcomer Michelle Figueredo-Wilson (running for the District 4 seat) and Brett Eckles (running for the District 3 seat), appears to be largely funded by developer interests and other friends of termed-out councilman Jim Righeimer and former mayor Steve Mensinger - who was soundly defeated in his run for re-election two years ago in a statement by the voters that they'd had enough of their pro-developer schemes.

THE FOLEY FACTION

The other faction is led by former mayor Katrina Foley and includes outstanding candidates Arlis Reynolds (District 5), Andrea Marr (District 3) and Manuel Chavez (District 4).  More about this team later...

TACTICS
The Genis faction has chosen a very vicious, back-stabbing, divisive tack, spewing lies and other fabrications to cast a shadow on Foley, in particular, but also includes attacks on the others in her faction.  This has fractured old friendships throughout the city and may have done long term damaged to the very fabric of our city.  The Foley faction, meanwhile, has focused on presenting their qualifications for office, citing their strong education credentials, career successes and previous public service, instead of rolling around in the political mud with their opponents.

OUTLIERS
Steve Chan (District 4) and Rebecca Trahan (District 5) are outliers and bring little for the voters to consider, but both tilt strongly toward the Genis faction, which could complicate the votes in their districts.

MANSOOR AS ATTACK DOG
In this most unpleasant campaign season Mansoor, a divisive councilman throughout his career with two years left on his at-large term, has chosen to attack Foley with lies and deceit rather than actually taking on Reynolds for the District 5 seat.  Clearly, he knows he has nothing to lose, since he will be sitting on the dais the first week of December when the results are certified no matter which way this campaign goes.  Perhaps he's contemplating a run for mayor in 2020 and figures he can fool the voters, again - who knows?

LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES
Similarly, Genis - also with two years remaining on her at-large seat -  will still be sitting on the dais even if she loses the mayor's race to Foley, who will be out without a seat once the music stops unless she prevails on November 6th.  The Genis team has chosen to unleash a blistering social media (perhaps "anti-social" is more appropriate) attack on Foley, spreading lies and falsehoods to all who would read them.  Foley, on the other hand, has taken the high road, remaining focused on guiding her team of volunteers in positive actions - meet-and-greets, letter-writing, knocking on doors, placement of signs throughout the city - instead of engaging the opposition in combat on those sites.

WHAT HAPPENED TO GENIS?
Genis has a long and, until recently, illustrious political career in Costa Mesa. She's a former mayor, with service on the council dating back 30 years.  No one can question her contributions to our city, both as a council member and as a private citizen.  However, more than a year ago she changed and that change manifested itself most clearly in her unwarranted, unexplained and unceremonious ousting of Foley as mayor a year ago - despite the fact that she, herself, nominated Foley for that slot - and having herself placed in that job by a 3-2 vote.  Mansoor and Righeimer joined her in that vote.  Previously viewed as an intelligent, independent thinker, with only the good of the city guiding her moves on the council, she has shifted her focus and aligned herself with the developer-oriented folks who seem eager to pave over every single square foot of earth in our city.  These are the very folks who, only a short time ago, vilified, ridiculed and chided her mercilessly and attempted to sabotage her last campaign - straight out of the OC GOP playbook that we saw in action in the 48th District Primary combat between Scott Baugh and Dana Rohrabacher.   It's difficult to see how the city benefits from this new alliance, since the voters spoke overwhelmingly two years ago that they'd had enough of that kind of governance.

OUR BALLOTS ARE IN THE MAIL
My wife and I mailed our completed ballots off to the Registrar of Voters last Wednesday and they included our votes for Foley.  This time around we get no vote for our council district, Number 6 - that will wait until 2020.  If we could have, we would have also voted for Arlis Reynolds - a hometown woman with an M.I.T. engineering degree, a successful career and strong community volunteer history, including currently serving as the Vice Chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission; Andrea Marr - a Naval Academy graduate with five years of service in the United States Navy where she led sailors in hostile waters and has shown a strong volunteer spirit, serving on two important committees, since moving to our city 6 years ago; and Manuel Chavez, another home-grown product of our schools and a UCI graduate who, despite his youth, has been heavily involved in his community since a child.  Nobody has a better feel for residents of the district and the needs of District 4 than Manuel Chavez.

FIXING THIS WILL REQUIRE STRONG LEADERSHIP
My concern is how this city comes together after this campaign.  How will those campaign combatants reconcile their differences, resolve the bad feelings generated over the past couple months and find ways to work together for the good of all our residents?  We've seen this campaign fracture old alliances and friendships.  How do those get repaired?  In my view, that will take strong leadership - something Katrina Foley has clearly demonstrated throughout her political and volunteer career, and especially during her year as mayor, when she guided the prioritization of issues for the future of our city.  Genis has not shown leadership since ousting Foley.  Quite the contrary - Genis has allowed others - Righeimer and Mansoor -  to guide the ship during her recent mayoral tenure.

IT'S IN THE HANDS OF THE VOTERS...
The future of our city is in the hands of the voters, who will cast their ballots in the most important election since the formation of this city.  I hope they do it with care.  I hope they will select Katrina Foley, Arlis Reynolds, Andrea Marr and Manuel Chavez to lead our city into the future.

EVERY SINGLE VOTE COUNTS

In recent elections we've had races decided by fewer than 50 votes, so it's very important that every registered voter take the time to exercise this responsibility.  PLEASE VOTE!

Short Parks & Rec. Commission Meeting

A SHORT MEETING ANTICIPATED
The Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission met again on Thursday, October 27, 2016 for what we expected to be a very short meeting because of the nature of the agenda.

NO PUBLIC COMMENTS
There were NO public comments and most of the commissioners either had no comments or reserved their comments until their Park Report later in the meeting.

CONSENT CALENDAR
They made quick work of the Consent Calendar - a request for two plaques and trees honoring two women who served the community as members of the Historical Society.  The vote was 5-0.

TREE REMOVAL REQUEST - WHY?
The tree request on the agenda was a very strange situation.  Apparently nobody is sure whether the tree in question is a city tree or if it belongs to the homeowner, Ms. Humphries.  After a short discussion the commission decided to direct staff to determine who owns the tree and, if the city owns is, the applicant can return at the November meeting to plead her case.  If it is determined that she actually owns the tree she can remove it any time she wishes.

SHIFFER PARK CELL SITE EXPANSION
The item involving the possible expansion of an existing cell tower installation at Shiffer Park and, again, it was a curious discussion.  The commissioners discussed it at length and were frustrated by the fact that the applicant was not present to answer some of he important questions.  Interim Public Services Director Raja Sethuraman attempted to field questions about timing and scheduling to the City Council.  The discussion went round and round and the frustration about not having enough information information to make a proper decision.  Byron de Arakal made a motion to continue this issue until the November meeting at which time they expect the applicant to be ready with answers to many of the questions that were creating heartburn for the commissioners.  Julie Mercurio made a substitute motion to simply reject the proposal - it died for lack of a second.  de Arakal's motion passed, 5-0

PARK TOUR REPORTS
Next came the Park Tour Reports - information from each commissioner on each of the parks in their own individual districts.  Mercurio disappeared at this time and never returned.  I guess an hour was all she had in her tank last night.

DISTRICT 1
First up was Commissioner de Arakal, for Parks District #1.  There are 7 parks in this district.

• Raleigh Park is a small park in good shape.  
• Tanager Park has some issues that de Arakal wants to discuss with members of the community early next year.  
• Civic Center Park is in good shape.  de Arakal wants to propose meandering trails and benches through the park if their is community support.  
• Jack Hammett Sports Complex were described as being in phenomenal shape.  He mentioned the planned replacement of two of the fields with artificial turf and also addressed the need maintenance for drainage and rain gutters on the bathrooms. 
• Ketchum-Libolt Park is a pocket park that needs maintenance - paint and rust.  He would like to see some lighting from a security standpoint.  He was concerned that the memorial plaque has been defaced.  
• Wilson Park was described as "fair".  Equipment is good.  Playground is in good shape.  Some trees are dead.  Ongoing issue is transients and homeless folks in the park.  de Arakal complained about the circumstances that have caused the transients to exist on our streets.  He mentioned AB 109, Prop. 47 and Prop 57 on this current ballot.  He said Governor Brown and the folks in Sacramento have no moral compass.  The folks around Wilson Park simply cannot use their park because of the homeless and other transients.  He wants Assistant CEO Rick Francis and his team to come before the commission to describe what is being done.  He specifically stated, "We need to take our parks back."  
• TeWinkle Park is overall in excellent condition.  He was particularly effusive about the condition of the lakes and fountains.  He was concerned about the pumps not working in the upper pond and there was leakage in another pond.  He mentioned the need for maintenance of bridges.  He said there was money in the capital improvement budget to replace them this year.
• TeWinkle Athletic Complex was in good shape with some minor maintenance issues - light fixtures in the bathrooms and an exposed electrical outlet.  
• The Skate Park was in excellent condition, but he was very concerned about the violation of the rules of the park.  He specifically cited folks on bikes in the bowls, which are forbidden.  When he broached the fact to the riders he was told, "To go have sexual relations with myself." - his words.  He is very concerned about limited enforcement at the park.  He said it's out of control.  He expressed the view that we didn't need mirrors in the bathrooms because they have become graffiti canvas.  
• The Bark Park is in good shape.  He specifically praised the improvements made recently to the Small Dog Park.

DISTRICT 3
Vice Chair Bob Graham reported on District 3 which consists of 6 parks on the Eastside of town. 

• He first spoke about Heller Park in glowing terms.  He gave it an "A" rating.
  Pinkley Park is a larger park which he gave a "C" rating.  He suggested creating some kind of a "recognition wall" in this park.  He is concerned that there are no restrooms in this park.
•  Harper Park is carved out of school property on Tustin Avenue.  This also has no restrooms.
  Jordan Park, which includes the Boys and Girls Club.  He expressed concerns about the actual ownership of the park - the City or the club?  He felt parking was a problem.  He gave it a "B" rating.
  Lindbergh Park is part of a school complex.  Restrooms are available at the school.  He gave it a "B" rating.
  Brentwood Park has no restrooms nor swings but he described it as a great park.  He mentioned a Master Plan for the park.  He gave it a "C" rating.

DISTRICT 4
Commissioner Kim Pederson reported on District 4 parks - also 6 parks in the north part of the city.
Del Mesa Park, Gisler Park, Paularino Park, Shiffer Park, Wakeham Park and Wimbledon Park.  He cited a need for bike racks.  He opined that there should be a clean-up fee for rentals to be sure the residue from the rental activity is properly cleaned-up. 

• Del Mesa Park seemed well-used with a lot of areas for picnicing.  He was concerned about wood rotting. 
• Gisler Park needs a gate to curtail speeders at night.  He also cited the need for drinking fountains and a shade structure for the play area.  He cited a need for workout equipment. 
• Paularino Park needs the replacement of the shade structure, which is termite-eaten.  He expressed a preference for BBQs and the need to improve signage and add drinking fountains. 
• Schiffer Park needs upgrades in the restrooms and play areas. 
• Wakeham Park could use some split rail fencing in the park to enhance the appeal.  He said we need some boulders - kids love big rocks to climb on and no maintenance.  Also needs shade structure. 
• Wimbledon Park needs new playground equipment, drinking fountains and benches. 

DISTRICT 5
Chair Brett Eckles discussed District 5. Shalimar Park is the smallest park in this district and is very heavily used.  Unfortunately, the picnic table was removed due to damage caused by vandals. 

• Fairview Park is our biggest park and has had a lot of attention paid to it.  He cited recent CIP budgeted amounts, including storm drains, on-call environmental services, plant establishment and pond maintenance, west bluff repair and more. 
• Canyon Park opens up into Talbert Nature Reserve and you can walk for hours.  It's a well-used park with plenty of amenities but no restrooms nor shade structures. 
• Marina View Park was being well-used at the end of 19th Street with many amenities including a large grass play area.  
• Vista Park is his personal favorite, which provides an outstanding view of the ocean and Huntington Beach.  This 7 acre park has a restroom and many other amenities.  It does have "homelessness" challenges caused by low visibility and proximity to homeless encampments at Talbert Park.  Restroom needs paint and he suggests adding a Veterans Memorial. 
• Lions Park is an incredible site with the new community center/library complex underway, plus Davis Field.  It has a restroom and picnic tables.  He cited the ongoing homelessness issues that plague the park and maintenance issues.

DISTRICT 2
As mentioned above, Commissioner Julie Mercurio disppeared as de Arakal began his report and never returned so Eckles gave an abbreviated report on her parks in District 2.

• Estancia Park has had several projects completed, including bike racks installed near the restrooms.  Plans also exist to install electric hand dryers in the restrooms.
• Mesa Verde Park have plans to improve the shade shelter.
• Moon Park will be impacted by an upcoming 405 Freeway on/off ramp project
• Smallwood Park have funding to resurface the basketball ares and areas around the playground.
• Suburbia Park had only a report on the maintenance of the park.

RECREATION MANAGER'S REPORT
Justin Martin provided his Recreation Managers Report for which there was no online staff report available.  Generally, participation is increasing in all athletic activities.

NEXT MEETING A WEEK EARLY
The commission meeting was adjourned to November 17, 2016, a week earlier than usual due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

COMPLICATIONS IN THE STAFF WORK?
Just a short observation.  There were two items on the agenda tonight that probably should not have been there.  The tree removal request certainly had enough questions - like who the heck actually owns the tree - to delay it until that question was answered.   And the staff report for the cell facility expansion at Shiffer Park certainly didn't provide enough information to the commissioners and the applicant wasn't available to answer questions.  In both cases it appeared that the staff had been strained to try to get them handled.  I'm not sure what the reason is, but for the past few months it appears that some of the staff work has dropped off.  Personally, I suspect it's because we have lost so many experienced staffers and the new folks are paddling hard to get up to speed.

Parks & Rec. Commission Tweaks The FUAP, And More

IMPORTANT ISSUES CONSIDERED
The Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission met again last night and dealt with a couple important issues.  You can read the agenda HERE.

ABOUT MS. MERCURIO
Before we get to the important parts of the meeting, let me report to you that rookie commissioner Julie Mercurio - she who recently withdrew from the City Council race - attended this meeting, although you wouldn't know it if you depended solely on audio for your information.  During the entire 2 plus hours of the meeting, with the exception of when she started the meeting by leading the Pledge of Allegiance, she was not heard to utter a single word.  Even then, we couldn't tell if she spoke or lip synched it.  In fact, it looked like she didn't even turn on her microphone the entire evening.  We presume she can actually speak, since she looks like she's whispering in Commissioner Kim Pederson's ear in this image.

SHE CONTRIBUTED NOTHING!
During Public Comments two speakers criticized Mercurio's selection.  In fact, Cindy Black presented a slide show of all the applications for that appointive position to demonstrate how unqualified she was for the position.  A couple of the commissioners, including my friend, Byron de Arakal, angrily defended her selection, citing the fact that she was a mother as reason enough for her appointment.  I almost choked when he said that!  Since this was early in the meeting he probably had no idea that she would become the invisible woman, offering not a single thing to the proceedings.  It was clear at the time that her appointment was solely to give her some visibility during her council campaign.  Last night she demonstrated just how unprepared she is for this assignment.  The two items on the agenda were pithy enough that every commissioner should have had something to contribute to the discussion.  All the others did.

STEP DOWN, JULIE!
So, enough with this charade... I'm asking Ms. Mercurio to simply step down - resign from the commission and let one of the other applicants be appointed to fill out Don Harper's term which expires in February.  If we're going to pay her $100 a month for her service, she should at least try to provide some.  Her continued presence on the dais is a constant reminder of the partisanship that rules our city.

PUBLIC COMMENTS
During Public Comments Beth Refakes reminded us that the Military Affairs Team is, once again, collecting lightly-used cocktail dresses, ball gowns and accessories for the wives of the men of the 1/5 Marines at Camp Pendleton for the Marine Ball.  Donations may be left in the lobby at City Hall.

Rocky Evans again asked the commission to consider extending the operating hours of the Skate Park.

Mark Arblaster, who runs a club soccer organization, announced that his group is helping a struggling  recreational soccer group with their expertise and financial aid.

Kim Hendricks asked that the rope barriers for some of the vernal pools in Fairview Park be re-installed.  She also offered criticism of Mercurio's appointment

Cindy Black reminded the commission of the proximity of Banning Ranch to Talbert Park and then offered criticism of Mercurio's appointment.

CONSENT CALENDAR
Back to the meeting.  The commission passed the Instructional Class Proposals on the Consent Calendar - they were all Ice Skating-related - without discussion.

FUAP REPORT AND MODIFICATIONS
The first item on the agenda was the spring Field Use Allocation Report (FUAP) and amendments to the existing policy.  Recreation Manager Justin Martin led the discussion.  You can read the staff report HERE.  This is the completion of the first year this new FUAP has been in existence and, based on the report, the results are quite positive.  The staff and the users had some tough going sorting out the residency requirements.  Only one user - Newport Mesa Friday Night Lights - failed to produce sufficient numbers of verifiable residents to retain Group 3 status, and will have limited use of fields.

APPROVED WITH MODIFICATIONS
After lengthy discussions the commission, led by Chairman Brett Eckles, approved the Field Use Report and recommended modifications to the changes to the FUAP, including tightening up the definitions of what constitutes a "strike" against a group under the new Code of Conduct section.  The staff will tinker with it following the direction provided by the commission before this issue is presented to the City Council for approval.

TALBERT PARK
The other item on the agenda was the Review of Talbert Regional Park Final Habitat Restoration Plan, HERE.  You can plow through the 168 pages if you wish.  City Engineer Bart Mejia led this discussion and had assistance from Susan Brodeur from Orange County Parks.  The commissioners heard the report and heard from members of the public, each of whom expressed a desire to keep Talbert Park as natural as possible.

BOB'S IMAGES
Vice Chair Robert Graham provided some photographic information to demonstrate some things that could be done to make that area more accessible.

MOVING IT FORWARD...
Eventually the commission moved to partner with OC Parks to search for and apply for grants and other funding opportunities to fulfill the estimated $22 million necessary to complete the plan as presented.  They also recommended Alternate 1 and segments of Alternates 2 and 3 for future consideration.  Both de Arakal and Graham suggested that we should think big in this process - it's going to take quite awhile because of the many governmental entities that will have their oars in this water.

HIGH PRAISE FOR MARTIN AND STAFF
The evening finished with Martin providing his report on recent activities - none of which was included in the online staff report.  Suffice it to say that things in the Recreation Division are looking up, with enhanced activities at the Senior Center and throughout the city.  Several commissioners, including Kim Pederson,  praised Martin and his staff for their outstanding work.  The next meeting is August 25th.

BYRON WANTS SECURITY AT FUTURE MEETINGS!
One last thing... at the very end of the meeting de Arakal said he was going to ask CEO Tom Hatch and Police Chief Rob Sharpnack to assign a Sergeant-at-arms to all future Parks and Recreation meetings!  This is very strange!  I've attended most of these meetings and the crowd (a generous term for the few people normally attending) have NEVER been rowdy - EVER!  I don't know what was going on at that meeting last night, or why he felt it necessary to take that step, but he mentioned safety.  Maybe with Ms. Mercurio comes a more rowdy crowd... who knows?