Planning Commission Interviews PLUS The Selections

HERE WE GO AGAIN...
I hope y'all had a great weekend - what a glorious place we live in, right?  OK, back to business.

SPECIAL MEETINGS
Tuesday evening, January 31, 2017, the Costa Mesa City Council will continue with the process of interviewing candidates for the three commissions that are presently completely vacant.  This time it is the Planning Commission candidates that get the attention.  More on that in a minute.

CLOSED SESSION FOR LABOR NEGOTIATIONS AT 4:00 P.M.
Prior to the interviews the City Council will hold a closed session beginning at 4:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers for Public Comments on these items, then moving to Conference Room 5A to discuss labor negotiations with City Manager Tom Hatch.  There are four items on the agenda, HERE, that involve the Costa Mesa City Employee Association (CMDEA); the Costa Mesa Firefighters Association (CMFA); the Costa Mesa Division Managers Association (CMDMA) and the Unrepresented Executive employees.

PLANNING COMMISSION CANDIDATE INTERVIEWS AT 5:30
Following that Closed Session the City Council will move to Conference Room 1A, on the First Floor, to begin the Planning Commission candidates interviews.  This is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., and Public Comments are permitted in this meeting ONLY on the issue at hand - the interview/process of selecting commissioners.  The agenda for that segment of the meeting may be found HERE, including the schedule of interviews.

CANDIDATE INTERVIEW SCHEDULE
Each candidate will be interviewed for eleven (11) minutes, just as the candidates for the Senior and Parks and Recreation Commissions were last Tuesday.  If they follow the same format as last week, Mayor Katrina Foley will greet each candidate - all the others will be asked to remain out of the room for fairness - then will ask a couple of pre-determined questions.  Following those questions the interrogation will rotate among the council members, one question at a time.  This takes a great deal of time discipline on the part of the council members.  The only exception to time provided that has been made in the past is that candidates being interviewed for two commissions is provided a couple more minutes.  Jeff Mathews gets 15 minutes. That interview schedule is presently as follows: (I noticed an aberration on the schedule - Susan Gonzales is provided with 15 minutes - so this schedule may be adjusted.

5:40 p.m.     Stephan H. Andranian
5:51 p.m.     Byron de Arakal
6:02 p.m.     Sarah Bortz
6:13 p.m.     Robert L. Dickson, Jr.
6:24 p.m.     Teresa Callo Drain
6:35 p.m.     Susan Gonzales
6:50 p.m.     Jeffrey Harlan
7:01 p.m.     Danial Hoffmann
7:12 p.m.     Jay Humphrey
7:23 p.m.     Isabell Mayer Kerins
7:34 p.m.     Jeff R. Mathews (interviewing for Parks and Recreation also)
7:49 p.m.     Jenna Tourje
8:00 p.m.     Dan Worthington
8:11 p.m.     Jonathan Zich
8:22 p.m.     Mark Buchanan (I'm not sure what will happen here, since he was already interviewed.)

OFF TO COUNCIL CHAMBERS FOR APPOINTMENTS
Upon completion of the interview process the City Council will reconvene in the City Council Chambers at approximately 8:30 for the Appointment Process.  As you can see by the agenda notes, this will include an opportunity for Public Comments, too.

READ THE PROCESS FOR YOURSELVES
Then the fun begins.  I'm not going to attempt to explain the process to you.  The agenda item goes on at great length - ten (10) steps for this process - in what certainly appears to be a process that reduces the politics of the appointment process.  I guess we'll see.  I suggest that you go through the exercise yourselves for each commission - try to guess who will nominate whom and run the tallies.  I have... Oh Boy!

RECORDING/TAPING
It is my understanding that the interview segment, as was the case last Tuesday, will be taped for later viewing - so those of you who did not attend can see how the candidates responded to the interrogations.  The Appointment Process is being held in Council Chambers and will be televised and streamed live so those of you only interested in the results can follow the process at home.

SHOULD BE AN ACTION-PACKED EVENING
I suspect that somewhere around 10:00 p.m. we will have three (3) fully staffed and sworn-in commissions and they will be ready to get down to work.  The Planning Commission will likely have a couple meetings in February.  The Parks and Recreation Commission should be able to meet in February, too.  The Senior Commission only meets every other month and their next scheduled meeting will be in March.

ABOUT THAT SENIOR COMMISSION...
As a side note, I suggested that we don't really need a Senior Commission - the City staff does a great job of running that operation.  We certainly don't need seven (7) commissioners.  The previous iteration of the commission had seen very significant turnover and only two of them - Gary Parkin and Lee Ramos (both short term commissioners) - applied this time around.  If the City Council decides to contemplate disbanding that commission they could delay the appointments for that commission and schedule a discussion at their next meeting in February.  If they decide to reduce the number from seven (7) to five (5) they could do the same thing - delay appointments, agendize the issue and still have time to appoint commissioners for their March meeting.  There is NO RUSH.

WILL RIGHEIMER SHOW UP AND WILL MANSOOR STICK AROUND?
I wonder if Jim Righeimer will boycott this meeting as he did the one last Tuesday?  If he does show up, he will certainly test the schedule, since he seems unable to not say every word in his head. I also wonder if Allan Mansoor will bail out early as he did last Tuesday.  Both of those situations were very disrespectful to the process, and to those of you who voted for them.  They may not like this process, but it's part of the job they were elected to do.  If they don't like it they should resign... sounds good to me.

JOIN ME FOR AN EVENING OF FUN...
So, join me in the cheap seats in Conference Room 1A for the interrogations of these highly qualified individuals - the Planning Commission applicants are excellent.  And/or, watch the results beginning around 8:30 Tuesday night.  It should be VERY interesting...

Lots Of Hats In The Ring

LARGE GROUP - QUALITY CANDIDATES
Yikes! I just read the City Council agenda for Tuesday, January 20th and saw that way, way, way down at the end of the program the council will decide which candidates will fill the openings on the Planning Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission. This time around there are 37 candidates who've thrown their hats in the ring - it's like graduation at a service academy, for goodness sake!

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW...
There are 22 candidates for the two slots open on the Planning Commission, including the incumbents, Eleanor Egan and Donn Hall. There are 15 candidates for the two positions open on the Parks and Recreation Commission, but only Bob Graham has asked to be re-appointed. Unless long-time commissioner Mark Harris has a late change of heart, he will not be on the commission again this time around.

Here's the list of good folks who have asked to be considered for one or both of the commissions:

2009 COMMISSION APPLICATIONS

Planning Commission
1. Robert ((Bob) Banka
2. Ted Butch
3. Scott Clements
4. Gary Craig
5. Eleanor Egan
6. Leah Ersoylu*
7. Donn Hall**
8. Matthew Hoyt*
9. Brittany Koper
10. Maryann Marks
11. Steven Martinez
12. Jeff Mathews
13. Diane McCardle
14. ColinMcCarthy
15. Christopher McEvoy
16. Stephen Mensinger
17. Joaquin Sahagun
18. Burt Sirota
19. Dan Skahill
20. Gabriel Teran*
21. Dan Worthington
22. Jonathan Zich*

Parks and Recreation Commission
1. Dennis Crane
2. Robert Dickson, Jr.
3. Leah Ersoylu
4. Jim Fitzpatrick
5. Robert Graham
6. Jeffrey Harlan
7. Matthew Hoyt
8. Jeff Mathews*
9. Kim Pederson
10. Marnie Primmer
11. Cliff Raits
12. Barbara Steck**
13. David Stiller
14. Gabriel Teran
15. Jonathan Zich

* Individual identified this Commission as first choice preference
** Late application: 1/12/09

STRONG CANDIDATES AVAILABLE
Pretty impressive numbers, and that's just the beginning. I don't recall such strong fields of candidates in years. I've gone to the attachment which lists the resumes/letters of interest for each of the candidates and reviewed every one of them. There are many very impressive resumes to be considered - folks with just the right kind of education and experience to prepare them for positions on the commissions. Plus, there are a few familiar names, too.

PLANNING - EGAN AND HALL OUT?
For Planning Commission, in addition to incumbents Egan and Hall, I see that young Chris McEvoy - a city council candidate last year - has asked to be considered. At the other end of the spectrum, I see that Minuteman Dan Worthington - long-time community activist - has also asked to be considered. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the "inside money" is betting on Colin McCarthy and Steve Mensinger to be chosen to replace Egan and Hall. McCarthy is a neighbor of The Mouth From Mesa North and has frequently been heard to echo much of his mantra. Mensinger is a business buddy of current commissioner Jim Righeimer and has spent a lot of his career under the wing of George L. Argyros, former Ambassador to Spain, head honcho at Arnel Development and big time political fund raiser.

PARKS - OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEW ENERGY
In the case of the Parks and Recreation Commission, it's unlikely that Graham will be re-appointed. He's proven to be intractable on issues regardless of what the facts or common sense dictate. Long time community activist David Stiller has asked for consideration. He has a long history of solid community involvement and is never reluctant to voice his opinion on issues. Among the others are Jeff Harlan and Marnie Primmer, both of whom have become active in the fledgling Eastside Homeowners Group. Both have solid credentials, too. And, Rob Dickson - a name familiar to those who read the Daily Pilot blog and other blogs around town, including this one - has stepped up for consideration, too. He's an interesting young man with strong views and a tenacity to dig into issues that could be welcome on the Parks and Recreation Commission. This is a real opportunity to re-invigorate what has been a pretty boring, leaderless commission over the past two years.

WILL POLITICS PREVAIL?
As always, I look forward to next Tuesday's meeting. It will be interesting for those of us willing to stay up late to see whether the current council will opt to place cronies on the commissions, or if they will choose those with strong credentials and fresh views. I will be fascinated by the choices they have to make for the Planning Commission, in particular. Will they cast aside Egan and Hall - experienced, hardworking, skilled practitioners who have also been loyal "Westsiders", too? If so, will they replace them with McCarthy - another strident voice - and Mensinger - another politically connected guy? It's going to be a very interesting evening.