Some "Civil Thinking" To Consider

CIVIL THINKING...
Bruce Krochman, operator of the Civil Thinking blog, has kept a pretty low profile in recent months. He doesn't post very frequently on his blog, so we get out of the habit of checking in on it. However, when he does post it is always worth reading and considering, just as are his occasional comments posted here. They always enhance the discussion of important issues.

SCIENCE CAMP FUNDING
Last week, on November 8th, he posted an interesting observation on his blog titled, Local control is just that, Local!, which you can find HERE. It deals with the proposal the Newport Mesa Unified School Board was to consider that evening regarding the proposal by Board Member Katrina Foley to fund, district wide, the 6th grade science camp. He linked to a Daily Pilot article on the issue in his blog.

DAILY PILOT REPORTS ON THE MEETING
On the 9th the Daily Pilot ran Britney Barnes' article covering the story, HERE. The school board chose to do nothing about the issue, remaining mute when Foley moved to put the issue on the next meeting's agenda for discussion.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
I confess that I've not immersed myself in school issues, but I wonder what the readers here think about this situation? I do know that I'm concerned when any government body, elected to serve the people, refuses to place an issue on the agenda for discussion.

Time For Some Contemplation

TEN DAYS OF DEEP BREATHING
Now that we have a budget and that drama is behind us for the time being, it's time to take a deep breath, pause for a few days and contemplate where this city goes from this point forward. We don't have another scheduled council meeting until July 5th - the day after the three-day orgy of fireworks promoted by a couple members of the city council to the detriment of the rest of us. Oops, there I go again.

WISDOM IMPARTED
My friend, Bruce Krochman, operates a blog called "Civil Thinking" on which he occasionally posts his views of our community. He doesn't post nearly frequently enough, but when he does, those entries are always worth a careful reading. On April 12th of this year - the same date, by the way, that recently-departed Interim Police Chief Steve Staveley presented CEO Tom Hatch with his ideas about how to structure the Police Department - Bruce published a little essay he titled, "My Little Corner of Paradise is Feeling More Like a War-Zone", which you can read HERE. I encourage you to do so, because it provides a pretty concise summary of events in the recent political history of our city from the last campaign until that date.

STOP "DISSIN'' AND LISTEN
Some members of our City Council have been dismissive and condescending with folks who rise to speak before them. Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer, in particular, apparently feels that those folks - who take the time to study issues and regularly attend council meetings - don't really represent the views of the majority of the residents of the city. He apparently feels that the absence of the other 110,000 residents means that he and this council must be doing a good job. He, of course, is wrong.

LISTEN TO YOUR NEIGHBOR'S VIEWS
Lest you think that all of those who rise to speak to the council are a bunch of lunatics or partisan political hacks - yes, there are a few of those - from time to time I'm going to give you a peek at what some of your neighbors have said to the council. Late last week I provided you with four video clips in one post to show you some of the concerned voices pleading with the council for the exercise of wisdom on the police department restructuring and the budget. If you had difficulty viewing those clips you may wish to update your browser and you may have to download Microsoft Silverlight, HERE. It's free and makes viewing those clips possible.

LEFFLER AND REEDY - VOICES OF REASON
Today, I present a couple more voices that spoke before the council on June 22nd. Both of these women, Robin Leffler and Lisa Reedy, are respected members of their individual communities - Leffler in Mesa Verde and Reedy in Mesa del Mar. Each have been officers in their respective homeowner's associations and Reedy has been a candidate for City Council in the recent past. Both study the issues and present their views with clarity and passion. These women are representative of the best among us. They are also among those voices consistently ignored by this current City Council as it doggedly slogs forward, attempting to re-make our city into the image held in the minds of politicians living outside our community. Take a few minutes to view their presentations before the city council and ask yourselves why these uncomplicated , respectful and sincere requests for consideration and moderation are being ignored.

ROBIN LEFFLER



LISA REEDY

Barlow's Report, Bloggers + Phil and Kirk

INVESTIGATION REPORT DUE TONIGHT
By around 8 p.m. tonight we should have received and digested Costa Mesa City Attorney Kimberly Hall Barlow's report from her investigation of the Jim Righeimer/DUI checkpoint incident from September 16th. I sincerely hope she does more than say something like, "I looked into this situation and nobody was at fault." That would not only be a shame, but it certainly wouldn't serve the community well. This has been an incendiary issue since it occurred so the residents - and voters - deserve more detail, regardless the outcome.

WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY AND HOW?
I, for example, would like to know how many police officers she interviewed that were at the scene? How many recordings did she review - she released three, two of which were useless? How many civilian witnesses did she speak with who were actually at the scene that evening? Were any of the officers at the scene given discipline for their actions that evening? Did Righeimer eventually meet with City Manager Allan Roeder and Police Chief Chris Shawkey so he could set them straight on just where DUI checkpoints should or should not be placed? I guess we'll see tonight.

"CIVIL THINKING" AWAKENS
Costa Mesa resident Bruce Krochman has nudged his blog, Civil Thinking, awake and is posting on it again. You can read his most recent entry, "How Comfortable Have You Become Wearing Masks?", HERE and you can always slide over to the link on the right side of this page any time to visit the blog.

MORE "CHUCKMEISTER UNLEASHED"
And, Chuck Cassity has another very interesting post entitled, "Who Owns Your Money?" on his blog. You can read it HERE.

ANOTHER GREAT "CITY TALK" SHOW
Another reminder of the quality television available to you on Costa Mesa Television, Channel 24 on Time Warner Cable and Channel 99 on ATT Uverse. Late last night I finally carved out a half hour to watch the outstanding interview Dane Bora conducted with Costa Mesa High School principal Phil D'Agostino and Estancia High School principal Kirk Bauermeister. This piece should be required reading for everyone who really cares for Costa Mesa schools. You can view it on streaming video on the city web site HERE. Or, you can catch it on television on the following schedule:

Election Numbers, City Financial Woes and a New Blog In Town

LATEST ELECTION RESULTS
Checking the most recent Costa Mesa election results, as of 5:00 pm this evening shows no change in positioning by the nine candidates. All of the positions since the polls closed last Tuesday evening remain the same. Three-term councilman Gary Monahan retains a nearly 1500 vote lead over Katrina Foley. She, in turn, holds a lead of almost 800 votes over Eric Bever. Bever still leads Jim Righeimer by slightly more than 1500 votes for the final seat.


REEDY AND MC EVOY SURPRISE...
One of the really fascinating aspects of this election is the number of votes captured by Lisa Reedy and Chris McEvoy. Both ran bare bones campaigns and yet Reedy received 6,457 votes and McEvoy received 5,973.

SO DO SNEEN AND BUNYAN...
Also surprising is the expectedly poor showings by Bill Sneen and Chris Bunyan...


MORE VOTES REMAIN TO BE COUNTED
According to the Orange County Registrar of Voters site, county-wide there remains over 116,000 votes still to be counted. I guess they will be chipping away at that total the rest of this week.


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FACING THE HARSH FINANCIAL TRUTH
The Costa Mesa City Council, at their Study Session on Wednesday, November 12, 2008, will hear recommendations from the city staff on ways to save $8,396,233 in this year's budget through extensive spending reductions. The following is one paragraph from the staff report on this subject currently posted on the city web site. The emphasis is mine.

"The City has undertaken a series of cost-cutting measures to reduce spending in light of the significant reduction in revenues in the current operating and capital improvement budget and growing budget imbalance. This imbalance in the budget has increased the City's budget deficit to approximately $10.5 million or 8.67% of the City General Fund operating budget. As has been highlighted in prior budget deliberations, this budget imbalance has been growing over the past four years but is exacerbated in the current year due to a decline in General Fund revenues attributable to the economic conditions and rising costs."

PROBLEMS NO SURPRISE
Certainly, the fact that our city is facing problems with it's budget will come as no surprise. It was acknowledged earlier this summer that the current economics - the decline in sales tax revenues and possible loss of property tax revenues - would almost certainly require some adjustments.

COUNCIL IGNORES STAFF - AGAIN
As stated in the report, the budget deficit is nothing new - it's been growing for four years. However, those few of us who actually pay attention to these things recall that the staff has recommended additional funding sources - including an increase in the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) - which were brushed aside by the current council. The staff has their finger on the pulse on our city finances and provided their best professional guidance to the council, which chose to ignore it.

COSTLY HABIT
This has become a very bad habit by this council. Maybe it's the "improver" arrogance at work, but they seem to feel that simply being elected automatically makes them experts on every subject that faces our city. Well, it didn't, which they demonstrate time after time after time. All the members of the current and future council are culpable - Gary Monahan was part of the council for half of those four years.

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NEW BLOG IN TOWN!
In case you're interested, there's a new blog in town. Community activist and frequent participant on this blog and others, including the Daily Pilot blog, Bruce Krochman, has decided to dip his toe into the icy waters of Costa Mesa blogdom. His new blog, Civil Thinking, is in it's infancy, but I expect good things from it.

BRUCE ON THE CASE
Krochman has demonstrated that he gives important issues focused attention and makes excellent points. I'm sure his blog will become yet another important voice in our community. I've provided a link to his blog on the right side of this page. Welcome aboard, Bruce.