Catching Up

VIDEOS TO WATCH...
Catching up on some interesting video now available to us for viewing after the fact.

COSTA MESA BRIEF CANDIDATE VIDEOS

Our "pal", Barry Friedland over at Costa Mesa Brief, captured the discussion by 2nd District Supervisorial candidates Allan Mansoor and Michelle Steel at the Newport-Mesa Tea Party confab last Thursday evening.  Each segment is just under 30 minutes long, but are certainly worth viewing - especially if you are searching for information to make an informed decision in the Primary Election in June.  You can watch the Mansoor segment HERE and the Steel segment HERE.  There are two other candidates running for that office, but apparently neither were invited to this event.  In fact, when I asked Tea Party Tom Pollitt about it earlier in the week, he had no clue

 about other candidates.  Then, again....

BARRY'S DOING A GOOD JOB
I must give old Barry credit.  He's providing excellent video coverage of important events in the City.  His coverage, for example, of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District Town Hall last month at which the proposed Organics Recycling program was explained, is quite good.  You can watch that one HERE.

HATCH ON CITY TALK
There's a brand, new City Talk segment available for viewing on the City website, HERE.  Host Dane Bora asks City Chief Executive Officer Tom Hatch a variety of questions about the current state of affairs in the city.  Viewing this clip will be thirty minutes well-spent.

In wrapping up the segment Bora asked Hatch a series of four questions.  The last one went like this:

Bora - "If you could grant one wish for Costa Mesa, what would that be?"

Hatch - "A more, ah, civil discussion about, ah, about, ah, moving this community forward.  We're doing some great things.  We have a lot of great people who care deeply and love this town.  Ah, we, ah, our tone and approach is, ah, is, makes it hard.  And, we have such strong opinions, and change is difficult and so, I hope we have more of a civil discussion moving forward." 

WHAT WAS HE THINKING?...
I've replayed that segment a couple of times.  I'm sure Hatch is correct - a more civil discourse could make it easier to move forward.  I found myself wondering just who he might have been thinking of as he haltingly uttered those words.  Was he thinking about the cadre of concerned residents who take time from their lives to study important issues, then present themselves before the City Council and other official bodies to offer their questions and views?

Or, might he have been thinking about some current elected officials who sometimes veer from the path of civility when addressing folks speaking to them, and other council members, as well?

Or, might he have been thinking about those of us who write critically about issues and events in The City?

Or, was he contemplating all of the above?

AN EARLY NIGHT TOMORROW?  WE'LL SEE...
Tomorrow's City Council meeting, which gives the appearance of being relatively brief, may surprise us.  Much depends on how many speakers take the time to exercise their right to address concerns with the council - even though Mayor Jim Righeimer continues to fine-tune his obstructionist moves to keep that from happening.  I'm predicting a departure by 10:25 p.m.  We'll see.

Who's Running? & Roeder on City Talk

PAPERS ARE FLYING
As of early Thursday afternoon the Costa Mesa City Clerk reports that, so far, seven residents have pulled papers to run for the two seats on the Costa Mesa City Council in November. Some of those names will be very familiar to you and a couple will raise question marks. Since the period for pulling papers ends the first week of August there is still time for more candidates to throw their hats into the ring.

WENDY'S RUNNING AGAINThe list below is random, except I gave Wendy Leece first position because she is the only incumbent running. Leece is ending her first four year term following her election back in 2006, when she rode Allan Mansoor's coattails to victory. She didn't really run her own campaign - her campaign web site never did get up and running and seldom was she seen on the campaign without the shadow of Mansoor on her shoulder.

RIGGY - ONE MORE TIMECarpetbagging Planning Commission Chairman Jim Righeimer, amidst much hoopla and with a crowd of more than two dozen well-wishers cheering him on, pulled papers this week and held a "news conference" - with no members of the media present - on the steps of City Hall. There's a short video clip floating around out there of the event, but it's of such poor quality that I didn't bother to provide it. Here's a photo of Riggy and his entourage that morning. See how many elected and appointed officials you can identify. Here's a hint - there are three council members, four planning commissioners, one parks and recreation commissioner and one water district director.

CHRIS BUNYAN AGAIN
Local businessman, author and former candidate Chris Bunyan is back. Bunyan has been devoting a great deal of time on the Banning Ranch issue and I suspect that will be part of his campaign platform.


CHRIS MCEVOY, TOO
High school math teacher Chris McEvoy is also back again. McEvoy, true to his promise following the last election, has remained immersed in municipal issues and has been a regular presence before the City Council and commissions. He has consistently presented his views respectfully and with clarity and certainly has a better feel for how things work - or don't work - in our city than he did two years ago.

ONE MORE "CHRIS" - BLANK IS RUNNING
Yet another "Chris" is running this year - lawyer Chris Blank has decided to take his considerable legal and organizational skills into this campaign. His presence in this campaign will add a very different dynamic to the process.


SUSAN LESTER
Newcomer to Costa Mesa, Susan Lester, didn't let any "grass" grow under her feet and has pulled papers. Lester has been a frequent speaker before the council recently, with her primary focus being on the sale of medical marijuana in our city. Her name appears in a closed session agenda item involving a lawsuit between the City and several proponents of the distribution of medical marijuana. She's relatively unknown in our town and it's going to be very interesting to see what the thrust of her campaign will be.

JEFFREY CHAPMAN - WHO?
Finally, someone named Jeffrey Chapman has pulled papers for this campaign. We will find out more about him once he returns the package to the City Clerk, but for now he's just a big question mark.


IT WILL BE A FUN SUMMER
This promises to be a very interesting campaign - as the past several have been in our city. We'll find out if Leece can actually mount an effective campaign on her own.

RIGGY'S THE ONE TO WATCH
Of greater interest to me will be the campaign Righeimer mounts this time around. The last time he ran he finished 4th. Riggy is "one of the boys" in the Orange County Republican Party - he's in very tight with the Chairman, Scott Baugh. You don't get any more "connected" than Riggy is, so we can expect a lot of support from the OC GOP for his campaign. I'll be very surprised if he doesn't end up out-spending every other candidate very significantly this summer and fall.

I'M NOT A RIGGY FAN
Those who read this blog frequently know that I'm not a big Riggy fan. I didn't - and still don't - like the way he blew into town here during Allan Mansoor's re-election campaign almost four years ago to the day and then ended up elbowing his way onto the Planning Commission just a few months later with an application filed well after the deadline - shoving aside Mansoor loyalist Paul Bunney in the process. I've said many times, his appointment was pure political payback for the support he and his buddy, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, provided for Mansoor.

HE'S A BULLY
I also don't like Righeimer's style as Chairman of the Planning Commission. He plays fast and loose with the rules, ignoring established procedures and protocols and has been seen bullying more than one applicant appearing before him. He has a tendency to micro-manage projects coming before the commission, attempting to overlay his own personal agenda instead of following the rules in place at the time. He seems to frequently be trying to re-shape our city into some distorted version of Irvine all by himself.

FAIRGROUNDS DEAL THREAT
Righeimer's behavior relative to the Fairgrounds Sale issue makes me very distrustful of him. As councilwoman Katrina Foley reported on the dais, he told her that he was ready to "blow up" the deal because he was being blocked from playing a role in the process. I have no reason to doubt Foley since he told me virtually the same thing during an earlier telephone conversation.

A COUP COMING?
And, my biggest concern about Jim Righeimer is what appears to be a planned take-over of our municipal government. He's manipulated himself into a powerful commission assignment, where, as chairman, he runs things like a little kingdom. Of even more concern is a report I recently received about him telling a long-time community resident and activist that he no longer had a political future in Costa Mesa and that Righeimer and his cadre of buddies - Steve Mensinger, Colin McCarthy and Jeff Mathews - were all lined up to jump into city council slots as the opportunities presented themselves.

MENSINGER MANIPULATION
In my opinion, it is absolutely no coincidence that Mensinger has headed the "draft Katrina Foley for School Board" movement this year. If Foley runs for Michael Collier's seat and wins she will have to abandon her council seat with two years left on her term. The new council - the one seated following the November election - will most likely appoint someone to serve out her term. If that council is comprised of Riggy and Leece plus Eric Bever and Gary Monahan I think there will be ZERO chance that they would take the next-highest vote-getter from the election, even though that person will have already been vetted and considered by the voters. Nope, I think they would appoint one of "their boys" from the group mentioned above to get another step up in their take-over.

PAY ATTENTION OR PAY THE PRICE
I certainly hope the voters pay attention this year, and that they take the opportunity to attend any candidate forums presented this summer and fall to personally assess all the candidates. If they don't, and if that results in Riggy's election to our city council...well, they will get what they deserve - a dictatorship.

***

ROEDER ON "CITY TALK"
On a much more positive note, City Manager Allan Roeder is featured again on the most recent edition of Costa Mesa TV's City Talk. This time he answers questions by host Dane Bora about the budget and the Fairgrounds Sale. This is an excellent half-hour presentation and should be required viewing by every Costa Mesa resident. You can view the streaming video HERE. The following is the viewing schedule for the remainder of the month on CMTV, Channel 24 on Time Warner Cable and Channel 99 on ATT U-Verse.

Roeder Discusses Budget On City Talk

BUDGET IS AN ANGRY BEAST
The Costa Mesa Municipal Budget is a beast that just won't go away this year. For months - actually, the best part of the past dozen months - the city staff, guided by City Manager Allan Roeder, Finance Director Marc Puckett and his strong right-hand man, Budget and Research Officer Bobby Young - have worked diligently to find ways to trim expenditures in light of declining revenues.


THIS YEAR THERE IS MUCH DISAGREEMENT
Unlike most years in the recent past, this year the budget is a real work in progress. The staff presented the City Council with a balanced budget which was then pounded with a meat cleaver by Gary Monahan, resulting in unnecessary significant reductions in youth recreation programs. Some of those were restored in a subsequent council meeting thanks to the efforts of Katrina Foley and Wendy Leece.

MAJOR ELEMENTS STILL PENDING
The major elements of balancing this budget - the cooperation by the employee unions and the assumed, but not confirmed, participation in an enhanced early retirement plan that probably won't come to fruition until the last quarter of this calendar year - are still pending. Foley recently announced that she thinks the city and the unions are very close to agreements.... we'll see.

TOO FEW RESIDENTS PAY ATTENTION
There has been much confusion about the budget this year - probably because more people are aware of it, but have not taken the time to educate themselves about it. Believe me, I understand the problem.

ROEDER EXPLAINS THE BUDGET ON TV
However, residents may now take advantage of an excellent presentation by Roeder on Channel 24 and streaming video on the internet with his half-hour conversation with moderator Dane Bora. They recently sat in front of the City Hall and talked about many of the elements of this year's budget in terms that are easy to comprehend.

CHANNEL 24 REPLAY SCHEDULE
Here is the Channel 24 replay schedule for the City Talk segment - unfortunately numbered 666 for those of us with a Biblical orientation. I strongly believe that the residents of this city will get a much clearer picture of our current budget dilemma, and Roeder's perception of how we deal with it, by investing thirty minutes of their time to watch this show. As you can see, it's available every day of this month except the 22nd right through and including August 1st. I wouldn't be surprised if they extend it into the August schedule further.

REPLAY SCHEDULE

STREAMING VIDEO AVAILABLE
As I said earlier, this is also available for viewing via streaming video on the city web site. I have a link to it over to the right of this page.

BUDGET DOCUMENTS ALSO AVAILABLE
Additionally, the entire budget proposal is also available for download on the city web site. Puckett, Young and the staff do an excellent job of presenting this information - their efforts have resulted in an entire bookcase full of plaques and trophies for excellence in budget presentation.

THE GAME IS STILL BEING PLAYED
Take some time, watch this presentation and voice your opinion to your elected leaders. This game is far, far from over.