CM4RG Supports Smart Growth Initiative

DAILY PILOT COVERAGE
As you may have read in Bradley Zint's article in the Daily Pilot tonight, HERE, the activist group Costa Mesans For Responsible Government (CM4RG) has offered their support to the initiative effort recently launched by another activist organization, Costa Mesa First, which has been described by the Costa Mesa City Attorney in the title they ascribed to the petition as, "An Initiative to Require Voter Approval on Certain Development Projects".

PRESS RELEASE
Robin Leffler, President of CM4RG, issued a press release over the weekend announcing their support for the initiative.  CM4RG is a grass roots activist group which represents the views of hundreds of Costa Mesa residents from across the political spectrum and was largely responsible for fighting off the challenge of Jim Righeimer's Charter scheme - twice.  The full text of that press release follows:

Costa Mesans for Responsible Government Supports the Citizen’s Rights to be Heard

COSTA MESA, California, August 15, 2015 - Costa Mesans for Responsible Government (CM4RG) announces their support for Costa Mesa First’s “An Initiative to Require Voter Approval on Certain Development Projects".  This initiative enables the citizens of Costa Mesa to have a voice in developments that do not comply with the established General Plan or zoning codes.  CM4RG's core belief is that a responsible government listens to their citizens. 

This initiative promotes responsible growth.  It does not affect well-designed projects that conform to the established guidelines.  If a developer proposes a project that complies with Costa Mesa’s General Plan and maintains the established zoning, the process remains the same.  If the project requires substantial changes to the General Plan and zoning,  then the citizens will be notified, and the developer will present its project to the citizens.   Projects that add less than 40 residential units, 10,000 square feet of commercial space, or 200 new vehicle trips will not need voter approval. 

The Planning Commission often hears proposals on large projects that violate the General Plan or zoning restrictions.  A large, non-compliant development may be passed by a vote of as few as 3 Commissioners.  It is then forwarded to the City Council where only 3 votes  can change the rules to allow projects that negatively affect residents of Costa Mesa for years into the future. The initiative guards against such circumstances.   

Jay Humphrey,  a proponent of the initiative, says, "If we have to live with the impacts of major development changes in our community, we should have the ability to vote if we want to live with those impacts for the next 40 years or not.  A council is only around for the new phase of what they vote for and are usually out of office when the newness wears off and we get to live with what's left, warts and all."

CM4RG believes a government responsible to its citizens strives to comply with the goals and objectives of the General Plan.  CM4RG supports this initiative because we believe that the citizens of Costa Mesa often have not been heard, and deserve a voice in changes to land use and development that can substantially impact their quality of life. 

For more information about the initiative, see Costamesa1st.com.

SIGNATURES BEING GATHERED NOW
Signatures are being gathered now to qualify the initiative for the November, 2016 ballot.  More than 5,000 valid signatures are required to be collected and verified by early next year.  You can read the ballot summary description HERE and the full text of the initiative HERE.  You can also view an easy-to-understand flow chart on the initiative HERE.

Hatch And Sharpnack Apologize - For What?

APOLOGY?  REALLY?

Monday afternoon, in a press release attributed to Costa Mesa CEO Tom Hatch and Acting Police Chief Rob Sharpnack, they issued an apology to Mayor Steve Mensinger, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer and Councilman Gary Monahan.  My question is - for what?  I was SO angry about this that I had to just walk away from the subject for a couple hours.  Then I wrote this...

THE PRESS RELEASE
Here's the complete text of the press release:

Joint statement from City CEO Tom Hatch and Acting Police Chief Rob Sharpnack on the Orange County District Attorney’s investigation into surveillance of councilmembers 
Posted Date: 12/15/2014

   
Recently, the Orange County District Attorney stated that the Costa Mesa Police Officers Assn. paid to have some of our elected officials surveiled in the months prior to the November 2012 election. We find this deeply concerning and will work vigorously to obtain and evaluate all information about the conduct of any involved Costa Mesa police officers, whether on or off duty, and to do so in a thorough and unbiased manner.

Close scrutiny is being given to whether, and in what manner, any member of the Costa Mesa Police Department had culpable knowledge of or aided in the surveillance of our elected officials, or engaged in any other violation of the rules, regulations and standards of conduct of the City and Police Department.

If warranted and in coordination with the District Attorney's Office to insure no impacts on its criminal investigation, an internal investigation will be initiated by the City and conducted by an independent party to provide all concerned with confidence in the completeness, fairness, and impartiality of that process. Strong and appropriate action will be taken if misconduct has occurred.

We are sorry that Mayor Steve Mensinger, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer and Councilmember Gary Monahan and their families were put in this unacceptable situation.

RESPONDING TO T-RACK

They are responding to a press release issued by Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas last week, HERE, in which the arrest of two private investigators, Chris Lanzillo and Scott Impola, were arrested and charged with four felonies.

PROOF?

Nowhere in that press release by the OC DA does it name ANY member of the Costa Mesa Police Department or the Costa Mesa Police Officers Association as being culpable of ANY crime, although it does refer to the law firm the CMPOA hired to do "candidate research".  One could presume that if any member of the CMPD had been specifically implicated in the activities described in the OC DA press release they would also be charged with the crimes - but they were not.  I know several members of the CMPOA spoke before the Grand Jury and that an affidavit exists which refers to activities from that Grand Jury, although I have not personally seen the document.

ASSUMING GUILT, TAINTING A JURY?

What is very distressing to me is the willingness of Hatch and Sharpnack to ignore due process and assume that members of the CMPD are guilty - even though nobody has been charged with anything.  This stinks!  And, I find it oddly curious that Mensinger, himself, was guilty of hiring a PI to surveil employees he thought might be stealing his campaign signs.  That little activity cost Steven White his job with the city, despite the fact that he was acquitted of the alleged crime.  Talk about a double standard!

"BILL OF RIGHTS"

It seems to me that Hatch is skating on thin ice here.  Police officers are guaranteed certain rights under California Government Code Section 3300 - 3313, commonly known as the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill Of Rights, HERE.  Section 3302 (a) states: Except as otherwise provided by law, or whenever on duty or in uniform, no public safety officer shall be prohibited from engaging, or be coerced or required to engage, in political activity."  There's much more to that section of the code, which you can read at your leisure.

WHO'S INVESTIGATING?

And, I'm concerned about just who's going to be doing this "internal investigation" Hatch refers to.  Will he contract with an outside police agency?  The Orange County Sheriff's Department?  Newport Beach Police Department?  Or, will he have members of his 5th floor hierarchy take a stab at it.

DAILY PILOT COVERAGE 
As one person commented in the thread on Bradley Zint and Jeremiah Dobruck's article on this issue, HERE, "It's a far cry from an alleged conspiracy to a conviction."  She reminds us of the many questionable actions these guys have taken and didn't even mention the more than 200 bogus layoff notices that generated a lawsuit that is still percolating in the system.

*****

UH-OH!
Then, during a pause, I found a Google alert that linked to Jordan Graham's piece in the Orange County Register, HERE, and my perspective changed dramatically.  That article refers to an affidavit, and quotes liberally from it.  Some of you may not be able to read the article because of the Register Pay wall, so I'll give you a taste of it.

CODED MESSAGES
It speaks of coded messages between investigator Chris Lanzillo and Dieter Dammeier of the law firm Lackie, Dammeier, McGill and Ethir, which had hired Lanzillo to perform surveillance on Costa Mesa politicians.  It documents the acquisition and placement of GPS tracking devices on two individuals, including now-mayor Steve Mensinger.

DIRT
It talks of digging up dirt on Mensinger, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer and Councilman Gary Monahan and quotes from the text of the report about the possible tactics to be used.

DUES
It talks about raising dues for Costa Mesa Police Officers Association members to cover the costs of the investigations and contacts between CMPOA officers and the law firm on the issue.

STAGGERING REPORT
I was distressed, figuring Graham may have misinterpreted the information, so I obtained a copy of the report to which he referred and read every word of the 27 pages - twice.  I am not a happy guy.

HARD TO BELIEVE...

As I reviewed the report I just shook my head as I read the details of the investigation - search warrants for cell phone records, bank accounts and interviews with the parties involved.  I was stunned at the actions and words attributed to officers I've come to know, admire and trust.  I find myself wanting more information - more background - that would temper the appearance of this situation.

MENSINGER QUOTE
In Graham's article Mensinger is quoted thus: 
 “Its disappointing that police officers have become political operatives with a desire to ruin peoples lives in order to achieve additional pay and benefits,” Mensinger responded Monday. “It speaks volumes to the corruption and thuggery in the Costa Mesa police union. I have to believe that rank-and-file police officers, who are fine men and women, will find this every bit as displeasing.”

DISAPPOINTED...
We don't have all the details yet, and I'm still willing to let this case run its course, but I now understand why he feels this way.  Members of the CMPOA are not talking on this issue yet, so we'll just have to wait to see if they can offer any clarification that will mitigate this situation.

THAT BEING SAID...
And, as I pause one more time before finishing this entry, I reflect on the lives that have been ruined by actions this council majority have taken.  I recall the shell-shocked look on the faces of more than 200 employees on St. Patrick's Day, 2011 when they received those bogus layoff notices - the day Huy Pham leaped to his death.  I recall Steven White, who was accused of stealing campaign signs by Mensinger and a private investigator, arrested, charged with a crime, lost his job and then was acquitted.  His life was dramatically changed by the same man being quoted above.  And I think of the dozens of employees for whom city government had become such a toxic workplace that they just left, retiring earlier than anticipated or simply finding jobs elsewhere.

NOT YOUR FATHER'S COSTA MESA
This is not the Costa Mesa I once knew.  This is not the town where I felt we were in good hands with the City Councils in charge in years past.  Today it's a town torn by distrust and divisiveness, where elected leaders overstep their authority with impunity and stifle dissent at every turn.  It's a town where employees cower at the thought of elected leaders prowling the halls at their workplace.  It's a place now where employees actively seek other jobs instead of pulling together to keep the City on an even keel.  It's a place where contractors manage operations rather than senior employees with broad institutional knowledge and a true vested interest in the success of the City.

UPSIDE DOWN!
This is a City upside down where the only department with a growing head-count is the Executive Offices!  This is a place where prison early releasees and homeless seek shelter, rehab homes proliferate, businesses are discouraged from reporting crimes or suffer fines if they do, and where our public safety organization is held in such disdain by elected leaders that they seem willing to place the entire city in jeopardy just to get back at the men and women who are hired to protect and serve us.

SPINMEISTERS AND PARTY PLANNERS
This is a City where we hire spinmeisters to paint a happy face on municipal dung heaps.  This is a place where we hire party planners to distract us from the important issues, then are aghast when events like the 60th anniversary celebration is beset with no-bid contracts, financial irregularities and other misdeeds that result in tens of thousands of dollars in cost overruns.

THEY DONT LISTEN...
This is a city where elected leaders refuse to hear the voice of the people who overwhelmingly rejected a Charter scheme, so brought it right back for another epic fail at the polls.  It's a city where leaders bemoan unfunded pension liabilities, yet do NOTHING about it.  It's a city where it feels like we are being sold to the highest bidding developers, who line the campaign coffers of certain politicians, who then change the codes to make it easier for them to build more dense housing.  It's become a city where the elected leaders don't serve the residents - they serve outside interests.

WE DIDN'T LISTEN, SO...
It's a city where, because we failed to listen to the voices that warned us about this, we now have elected leaders and our law enforcement organization in what amounts to a battle to the death.  It is not a pretty sight and it doesn't have to be this way, but it will until the voters in this town start paying attention.  I do not condone the tactics used against the current council majority, but I understand them.  This city needs a change in leadership, but I don't see that happening for two years - unless one of the majority decides to bail out early.  Until then, I expect only more of the same, which might even include a move toward municipal bankruptcy.  Stay tuned...

Righeimer's Fuzzy Math

RIGHEIMER'S VICTORY LAP
Costa Mesa Mayor Jim Righeimer - apparently enjoying his victory lap following what appears to be a very slim 47 vote victory to retain a seat on the city council over his closest challenger, former councilman Jay Humphrey - paused long enough to be quoted in a Daily Pilot article by Bradley Zint, HERE.

OOPS, HE ONLY FINISHED SECOND!
Righeimer finished a distant second to former councilwoman and current Newport Mesa Unified School District trustee Katrina Foley.  His pronouncements don't mention that fact, although he does mention that he'll meet with Foley, quoting the Zint article, "to see what's important to her.  I think there are things we all agree on that we can get done right away.  And the things we don't agree on, we'll work on those issues and close those gaps... our job is to represent the whole city, not half."   One might infer that he thinks half the people in this election supported his candidacy, when only 21.3% of the votes cast went to him.  The other 79% went to other candidates.  Foley got more than 26.5% alone.  And, you know, there's something slightly right about the image of Righeimer shouting "I'm Number Two!"  Some of us have thought that for a long, long time.

MESSAGE?  WHAT MESSAGE?
Zint's article includes this observation, "Righeimer said his win is not necessarily 'a runaway,' but one that sends a message."  I agree - the result of this election DOES send a message - to him.  That message is that he DOES NOT have a mandate to continue to run roughshod over the residents of this city.  That message is that he must consider the views of others instead of his own, narrow political dogma.

CHECK YOUR MATH, JIMBO!
Righeimer is further quoted as saying, "The message is that the community is 50-50 on the important issues.  As an elected official, you have to look at that.  They didn't go out there and give you a mandate to do whatever you're doing and continue to do."  I'm not sure where he gets that "50-50" ratio, because the results of the election certainly do not support that view.  If you measure community sentiment by observing the results of the election, fewer than a quarter of the voters think he's the right guy to be sitting up on that dais.

AND DON'T FORGET THE CHARTER!
And, if you factor in the overwhelming defeat of his pet project, a municipal Charter, it's very clear that his views are not shared by the electorate.  Two years ago, the first time he tried to quick pitch his Charter scheme - Measure V - 60% of the voters rejected it.  This time around the voters looked at his second attempt to change the form of municipal governance to give himself even more unfettered power - Measure O - and rejected it by an even larger margin.  More than 63% of the votes cast on that issue rejected it.  Clearly, he doesn't listen to the voters of this city because one of his point persons on Measure O has been heard to state that if Measure O fails they will just gear-up for 2016.  Talk about arrogant disregard for the will of the people!

MANDATE?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
I suggest that Righeimer expunge the word "mandate" from his lexicon because he certainly DOES NOT have one.  He's codified ignoring members of the public by bifurcating public comments at council meetings to discourage dissenting views.  He has shown us that he listens only to a small knot of his hangers-on - many of whom have been rewarded for their loyalty with plum commission and committee assignments - and to his developer buddies who stand at the city border salivating all over themselves trying to build over-dense, under-parked projects.  So enamored is Righeimer with the thought of developing every single square inch of open space in this city that he and his cronies have codified away protections for the rest of us in the form of a Small Lot Ordinance - which did away with all those nasty variances, deviations and other changes his developer buddies had to deal with.  Now we see dense developments sprouting up all over town like mushrooms.

OBSOLETE OVERLAYS CHASE BUSINESSES OUT
They've been using the decade-old Westside Overlay plans to facilitate many of those developments, which has resulted in long-established commercial and industrial business operators choosing to leave town - taking with them prestigious businesses and high-paying jobs - rather than deal with the specter of residential neighbors adjacent to their noisy, aromatic industrial operations.

PUMMELING BUSINESSES
We've seen him and his pals brazenly state that they plan to force established businesses - so-called "problem motels" - out of business by slamming them with police, fire and code enforcement attention and the fines that would go along with it.  They established an "Excessive Use Of Resources" ordinance to discourage those business owners from calling for help when they have an emergency situation.  Then, they crow when those calls diminish, but the owners are still saddled with the crime and public safety problems - they just don't call for fear of exceeding their threshold of calls and thus incurring fines.  The apparent goal - stated from the dais - is to cause those business owners to "re-value" their properties so they could be sold to developers at a more reasonable price, who would then build equally dense, very profitable, developments.  Profit seems to be the only thing Righeimer understands - a very bad characteristic for someone heading up an organization the sole purpose of which is to provide SERVICE.

DECIMATING THE POLICE DEPARTMENT...
Righeimer and his pals have decimated the Costa Mesa Police Department, as indicated in a very recent article in the Daily Pilot by Jeremiah Dobruck, HERE.  Dobruck outlines the reduction in DUI enforcement in our city - once the high-water mark for such enforcement in the county.  Similar reductions in the Narcotics and Gang units have made our city much less safe.  Right now Chief Tom Gazsi and his command staff are holding things together, barely, through horrendous overtime hours being worked by the staff that remains.  In recent months we've seen early retirements and lateral moves to other jurisdictions by four dozen members of the CMPD.  Today, nearly 20% of the diminished authorized staff is unable to work because of illness or injury - some of that certainly due to the long, tough hours being required.

...AT THE WORST TIME...
This occurs at the worst possible time.  The early prison releases as a result of AB109, the passage of Prop. 47 that changes the penalties for certain crimes and keeps criminals on the streets, the growing proliferation of drug and alcohol rehabilitation (group) homes in our neighborhoods and the pending probability of the re-introduction of medical marijuana sales in our city will further tax our beleaguered police department.  And more officers will leave.  And Costa Mesa will be a less-safe city.

SHAME ON YOU!
To those 7,524 voters who marked their ballots for Jim Righeimer I say, Shame On You!  You're willing to let this man and his cronies destroy this city - to put potholes before public safety and to let outside interests, developers and out-of-town politicians, control the municipal agenda instead of doing what is right for the residents.  The mayor has said over and over that he wants to attract more young families to our city, yet perpetuates housing development that will not serve that demographic and creates situations where crime will increase.

RULES?  WHAT RULES?
And, he has demonstrated that he thinks rules are for somebody else, beginning with his bogus scheme to layoff more than half the so-called "miscellaneous employees" that fateful St. Patrick's Day of 2011... the day young maintenance worker Huy Pham jumped to his death from the roof of City Hall as he was about to be given his layoff notice - and then-mayor Gary Monahan chose to stay garbed in his kilt and pull beer taps at his bar instead of attending to distraught and grieving employees and residents.  That tragic event was a direct result of Righeimer's violation of municipal policy and generated a lawsuit that still ferments.

MENSINGER AS MAYOR?  ARRGGHH!

So, dear voters, you're saddled with a Righeimer-dominated regime for the next two years.  Monahan will be termed-out (again) and Mayor Pro Tem Steve Mensinger will be up for re-election.  Some are postulating that Mensinger may be the next mayor.  That's problematic - for him.  That means he'll be required to focus his teeny attention span on city business and set his cell phone aside.  No more texting from the dais and ignoring the agenda.  If there's a positive side to that possibility, it's going to be VERY interesting for those of us who actually take the time to pay attention to municipal affairs.  He'll quickly demonstrate his ineptitude and it should make for some entertaining meetings.

STRAP IN...
Time for us to tighten our seat belts and get ready for more bumpy roads ahead - probably beginning with the meeting tonight where good old Mary Jane will come a'visitin' again.  See you there.

Righeimer Stretches Lead Over Humphrey to 112

THE NUMBERS FROM 5:00 P.M., THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6TH
OK, here's how it looks now.  If you want to check the Registrar of Voters site, click HERE.

COSTA MESA CITY COUNCIL

Jay Humphrey lost ground to Righeimer significantly in today's tallying.  He now trails the mayor by 112 votes.  Katrina Foley continues to hold a commanding lead and each of the other candidates picked up a few votes, too.  Foley gained 479 votes.  Righeimer gained 435.  Humphrey gained only 341 during today's counting.  Lee Ramos picked up 305.  Tony Capitelli gained only 89.  Al Melone gained 84.  Rita Simpson gained 80 and Chris Bunyan picked up only 52, to continue to bring up the rear.

NUMBERS GAME
If you combine the votes cast for Foley and Humphrey you get 12,893.  If you combine those cast for Righeimer and Ramos you get you get 9,893.  Those numbers are not significant, but interesting to observe. 

MORE THAN 100,000 VOTES LEFT, COUNTY-WIDE
According to the ROV website, there remains 106,513 votes left to count.  All the vote-by-mail ballots have been counted.  There remains 38,513 provisional ballots to count and 62208 vote-by-mail ballots returned at the polls are uncounted at this time.  The last guess by Neal Kelley, the Registrar of Voters, made was that the count would be complete by November 14th.  So, we have a week and a half of agony left with lots of votes remaining to be counted.

MEASURE "O" - THE BOGUS CHARTER
No change to speak of in the Measure "O" race.  It is still being soundly thrashed.  Not surprised.  So far, 14,616 votes have been tallied in this race.

MEASURE P - THE I-405 TOLL LANE ADVISORY
No change to speak of in the insignificant, irrelevant and unusable information from the Measure P tally.  So far, 14,814 votes have been counted in this race.

HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THAT?
One of the interesting aspects of the Costa Mesa races is that virtually all other cities around us, throughout the county and state AND nationally, MY Republican Party has made major inroads.  That makes me smile.  Not in good old Costa Mesa, though.  Here, the party apparatus - "managed" by Righeimer's version of Scott Baugh's mantra - is a miserable failure!  All the candidates associated with the Riganistas in local races, except Shawn Dewane for the Orange County Water District seat he already held and possibly Righeimer, didn't just fail, but failed in epic style!  How do we explain that?

DRAGGING THEM DOWN...

One might assume that Righeimer and his second attempt at a Charter actually became an anchor around the necks of his pals.  Now, if that trend in the council race can just be reversed...  Next report in 23 hours, 22 minutes or so.

And, Finally, The Charter And Ethics...

THINGS TO CONSIDER
Tuesday many of you will go to the polls, sample ballot clutched tightly in your hands so you can remember all those decisions you made at your dining room table on the important issues to be considered by the electorate, and step up to cast your ballot.

IMPORTANT ISSUES
There are many important issues facing the voters on this one, even though it's a mid-term election.  In Costa Mesa there are two that require your careful contemplation - the election of two council members and Measure "O" - the Charter.

IGNORING THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE...
I've written many times about Measure "O", which I've described as the bastard child of Mayor Jim Righeimer's Charter, the flawed and failed Measure "V" from two years ago.  You will recall that the cardboard voting booths had barely been deconstructed and stored away before Righeimer demanded that a Charter be considered again this year.  He cobbled together a weak process - hand-picking the committee that was stacked with folks he knew would re-create his document and perpetuate his myopic vision of how our city should be governed.  Former council candidate John Stephens (he lost to Gary Monahan by 155 votes two years ago) provided an excellent reconstruction of the process in a Daily Pilot commentary HERE last August.

TOO MUCH POWER

Without beating this dead horse further, Measure "O" is a bad document, flawed in so many ways, but the worst part is the fact that sections 104 and 806 provide unfettered power to the city council.  Short of breaking state or federal law, under the Charter contained in Measure "O" it can do whatever it wishes, whenever it chooses.  That is much too low a bar for the governance of our city.  Vote NO on Measure "O".

 
TAKE BACK OUR CITY!

The other reason I'm writing this tonight is to remind you that it is critical to the future of this city that it be returned into the hands of the residents and voters.  It is currently in a stranglehold imposed by developers through a developer-friendly council majority headed by Jim Righeimer and the lock-step lemmings of the Orange County Republican Party, whose leader, Scott Baugh, has declared our city "Ground Zero" in their ongoing attempt to smash public employee organizations.

READ WHAT I'VE WRITTEN BEFORE

I've written extensively on this blog, HERE, and simultaneously in the Daily Pilot, HERE, about why you should NOT vote for Righeimer, and select Katrina Foley and Jay Humphrey instead.  I've described Righeimer as a carpetbagging political opportunist who has attempted to use the electorate of Costa Mesa to impose his warped values that have been soundly rejected elsewhere.  I've described him as a man who abhors rules - unless he makes them himself, and even then he applies them unevenly.  His attempt to layoff half the so-called "miscellaneous employees" three years ago is the perfect example of that behavior, but certainly not the only one.  Read my other essays, linked above.

UNETHICAL LEADERSHIP

Tonight, probably my final post before you cast your ballot, I want to remind you that he recently rejected an Ethics Policy - an issue that was also rejected by his hand-picked Charter Committee during their year-long deliberations.  Shortly after midnight on May 7th of this year, at the tail end of a City Council meeting that began more than six hours earlier, he rejected even the concept of an Ethics Policy.  You can read the staff report HERE, the language of the proposed Administrative Regulation that would have bound employees, HERE, and the actual language of the proposed Ethics Policy, HERE.  At the end the council, on a 4-1 vote (Wendy Leece voted NO) voted to simply "receive and file" the staff report and not be bothered with such an inconvenience.  I wrote about it HERE.  In that entry I provided you with this paragraph to sum up my thoughts on the event:

*****
IT'S "HIS WAY" OR...
The meeting ended with us knowing a lot more about Mayor Jim Righeimer.  We know that the rules don't apply to him, and that he won't approve any attempt to make rules that he has to follow - the Ethics Policy, for example.  I read the policy and the modified version handed out at the meeting.  It wasn't quite ready for prime time yet, but it would only take a little tweaking to make it work - some process issues needed to be clarified.  So, dear readers, know that your mayor - the guy with hands firmly on the steering wheel of your city - simply isn't going to be bothered by ethical issues.  He's going to do things HIS way, whether you like it or not - and he's got the votes to do exactly that.  Six months from now you have a chance to change that situation.
***** 

HE IS UNWORTHY...

Well, that "six months" mentioned above is NOW!  The fact that Jim Righeimer is unwilling to be bound by ethical conduct as a member of your City Council should make every one of you carefully consider your vote Tuesday.  He is a man unworthy of your trust and certainly not your vote.  If you wish to watch that segment of the May 6/7, 2014 meeting click HERE.

PLEASE VOTE...

Please find your way to the polls Tuesday and vote to return mature, responsible, ethical leadership to our city.  Vote to take Costa Mesa back from outside interests - developers who will defile our city with high-density vertical developments then go on their merry way and politicians with no skin in our game, willing to use Costa Mesa as a Petri Dish for their experimentation.

FOR MATURE, RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP