More Storage, More Development And More Legal Fees

FIRST MEETING SINCE THE ELECTION
The Costa Mesa City Council will hold its first meeting following the elections last week on Tuesday, November 15, 2016 in City Council Chambers at City Hall beginning at 5:45 p.m.  There is no Closed Session prior to this meeting.  You can read the full agenda HERE.

CONSENT CALENDAR
The Consent Calendar continues to provide fodder for discussion.  Even though all items on the Consent Calendar are, in theory, of such a routine nature that they all can be voted upon in one vote, without discussion, at least a couple of the items on this edition simply cry out for conversation.

THE WARRANT
Let's begin with Item #2,  the Warrant, #2566, HERE,  which lists dollars being spent on our behalf.  I'm not going to list all the entries that give me heartburn, but will mention a few that may do the same to you.

• Clean Street - $57,291.98 - Street Sweeping for September
• G4S Secure Solutions, Inc - $56,483.31 - Jail Facilities Svcs for September
• Jones & Mayer - $143,393.47 - Legal Svcs
• Kimley Horn & Associates - $25,981.50 - Consultant thru 9/30/16 (see report below)
• City of Huntington Beach - $23,660.00 - Helicopter Svcs, Sept. 2016
• Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth - $6,833.27 - Legal Svcs various

If you click on that link and simply scroll down through the pages of entries you will find more consultants, more temporary employees and other interesting items.

REMOVING GRASS IN MESA VERDE
Item #5, HERE, it the $457,737.00 contract to spruce up medians in Mesa Verde - you know, where the mayor and mayor pro tem live - by pulling out the grass and replacing it with drought-tolerant plantings.

MORE EXTENSION ON LEGAL CONTRACTS
Item #7, HERE,  is an increase request for legal services for Best, Best and Krieger, doubling the previously-authorized $75,000.  Each time we see one of these kinds of bills I find myself wondering just what the heck Jones & Mayer are doing for us as our contract legal department?  When they were hired it was on the presumption that their firm was a full-service legal firm and would be handling most, if not all, of our legal business in-house.  That has certainly turned out to NOT be the case.  For example, as Katrina Foley told us at the last council meeting, Rutan and Tucker cost us $50,000 defending Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer's botched ballot argument, which a judge ruled was a pack of lies and misleading to the voters.

ANOTHER EXPENSIVE CONSULTING CONTRACT EXTENSION
Item #8, HERE, is an extension of a professional services contract with Kimley-Horn and Associates.  Of all the items on the Consent Calendar, this one bugs me the most.  This one asks to extend the contract so we may continue to use the services of Sherri Vander Duessen as interim Assistant Director of Community Improvement Programs in the Development Services Department.  If approved, the City will spend just under $500,000 for 14 months work by Ms. Vander Duessen, which apparently focuses mostly on sober living issues.  We should have a chance to see her in action at the Planning Commission tonight, since that meeting will focus exclusively on sober living issues.  In my view, and nothing against Ms. Vander Duessen, this situation is a perfect example of the crappy management by the current City Council majority, whose dictatorial style has created such a toxic work environment at City Hall that many, many experienced leaders have either retired early or sought other jobs.  It is tragic.  We can only hope a change in the demographic on the dais can, finally, begin to rebuild what was once an outstanding municipal organization.

CREATION OF ASSISTANT BUILDING OFFICIAL POSITION
Finally, Item #9, HERE, is the request to create a new position at City Hall - Assistant Building Official.  Apparently this is intended to fill the gap created by the recent, abrupt departure of Building Offical Khanh Nguyen.  A consultant is currently filling the job at a cost of more than $262,000 per year.  This new position would be placed at a level of $194,330 per year and provide upward mobility.  Again, the departure of seasoned, experienced staffers bites us in the posterior!

SEPARATE DISCUSSION?  WE'LL SEE...
Again, if any of these - or others - are pulled for separate discussion they will be trailed to the very end of the meeting thanks to the policies implemented by the current council majority.
 
ADOPTION OF NEW CODES
Public Hearing #1, HERE, is a mandatory adoption of the most recent model codes including Building, Residential, Green Building Standards, Fire, Plumbing, Mechanical and Electrical.  This shouldn't take long.

REVIEW OF PLANNING DECISION ON "HOLIDAY"
Public Hearing #2, HERE, should generate a lot of interest by the public.  This is a review, requested by a council member, of the Planning Application for Holiday (formerly Lion's Den and Maison) on West 19th Street.  This controversial establishment has been in the news for a couple years and has apparently undergone a couple of ownership changes.  This review, a "de novo" review - which means the entire issue may be re-heard as though it is a brand new item - calls into question the decisions made by the Planning Commission regarding compliance with state noise laws.  This one could take awhile.

SELF-STORAGE AT 375 BRISTOL STREET
Old Business #1, HERE, is the second reading of an ordinance, passed by the council on November 1, 2016 on a 5-0 vote, for a re-zone of a business site at 375 Bristol Street for a self-storage facility/retail center.  This won't take long.

OLD LOS ANGELES TIMES SITE
Old Business #2, HERE,  is also a second reading.  This is a re-zone request for a 23.4 acre site in the north part of town - the old Los Angeles Times site plus an existing baseball field.  This also passed on a 5-0 vote on November 1, 2016.  This also won't take long.

MORE SELF-STORAGE?
New Business #1, HERE,  is a General Plan Screening for a proposed self-storage facility at 390 Ford Road and 1957 Newport Boulevard on both sides of Ford Road.

A NEW URBAN PLAN WITHIN THE SOBECA PLAN
The final item on the agenda is New Business #2, HERE.  This is a new Urban Master Plan within the SoBECA Urban Plan and calls for the re-purposing of existing business facilities at 769 Baker Street and 2972 Century Place.  Plans call for retail, restaurant and food stall uses totaling 22,000 square feet; add 10,000 square feet of new retail and office uses and construct 3 live/work units and 45 residential units.

COULD BE AN INTERESTING EVENING
I have no idea how long this meeting will last.  I expect a large crowd to show up for the Holiday item, but beyond that, it's any one's guess.  Heck, we may not have a full council since Gary Monahan has previously said there's no reason for him to show up since he's termed out.  And, will Mayor Steve Mensinger show up now that it looks like he's been de-throned?  Only tomorrow will tell.

Small Agenda Faces City Council Tuesday

CAREFUL... DON'T OVERWORK THEM!
The Costa Mesa City Staff, apparently not eager to overwork the City Council after their nearly month-long hiatus, has prepared a very small agenda for their meeting Tuesday, September 6, 2016.  The agenda for that meeting, which begins at 5:45 p.m. in City Council Chambers, may be viewed HERE.

"SECURITY THREAT"?
As is usually the case, the regular meeting will be preceded by a Closed Session commencing at 5:00 p.m.  This one has three items on the agenda, the most interesting of which is the third item, which says: Threat To Public Services of Facilities.  Security Briefing by Rob Sharpnack, Chief of Police.  I don't ever recall this item having been on previous agendas, so perhaps when the regular session convenes someone will "report out" that information - or at least the reason for it.

THE LINE UP
Following the Costa Mesa Minute, the Mayor's Award, Public Comments, Council Members' Reports, Comments and Suggestions and CEO Tom Hatch's Report, if any, comes the Consent Calendar.

CONSENT CALENDAR
As has been the case over the past couple years, the Consent Calendar this time - items which are supposed to be "routine in nature" and would be considered with one vote - is packed with interesting stuff that you'll probably not hear about unless someone pulls them for separate discussion.  If that happens those items will be trailed to the end of the meeting to meet the Mayor's intent to stifle discussion of issues.  I won't comment on every item on the Consent Calendar, but I will give you my thoughts on a few of them.

MORE THAN 8.6 MILLION BUCKS!
Item #2, Warrant 2562, HERE, represents the expenditure of over $8.6 million of your tax dollars.  Because this warrant is so huge, with so many entries, I'm not going to attempt to list items, but  I will summarize some issues.  You can go to that link and just scroll down through the payments and seek out pearls for yourself if you wish.

Legal Fees!
Legal fees continue to spin the meter.  This time around we paid nearly $420,000, most of which went to our contract City Attorney, Jones & Mayer - something just under $200,000.

Trying To Fill Empty Slots
Consulting services and contract employees also continue to be a large part of our monthly expenditures.  We're spending at least tens of thousands of dollars each month on consultants and contract employees filling holes in the organization due to unfilled vacancies.  More on that later.

Jail and Streets
We spent outsourcing companies more than $110,000.00 to have our Jail staffed and our streets swept.

Two Hundred Grand in BIA Receipts
We wrote a check to Travel Costa Mesa for $213,369.36 which represented the VIA Receipts for June, 2016.

More New Library/NCC Fees
We also paid Johnson Favaro LLP $170,748.00 for their consultative support on the new Library/Community Center project.

Saving Money On Undercover Cop Cars
On the other hand, we spent only about half as much as usual to Enterprise Rental Cars for Undercover Police cars.  I guess we don't have enough cops to go undercover these days, so we're saving a few bucks on that line item.

Helicopter Services from NEWPORT BEACH?
I did notice a funny entry.  Apparently we cut a check to the City of Newport Beach for helicopter services  for June, 2016, in the amount of $26,385.50.  That's interesting, since I didn't know Newport Beach had any helicopters and also thought we had a contract with Huntington Beach for helicopter services.  Wonder what's up with that?

Sloppiness?
Which brings me to one final observation on the Warrant.  In recent months, unlike in previous years, we've seen several entries correcting previous errors.  This entry for helicopter service may be a similar situation.  This is NOT a place where sloppiness can be tolerated, so it makes me wonder just who's paying attention in the process.

TURF AT JACK HAMMETT
Item #5, HERE, is the resolution for the application of $1 million in grant funds to help replace grass with artificial turf on a couple fields at the Jack Hammett Sports Complex.  It will still cost the City an additional $3.5 million.

CHANGES TO THE FUAP
Item #7, HERE, contains amendments to the Field Use and Allocation Policy (FUAP) as recommended by the Parks and Recreation Commission at its July meeting.  It includes a Field Use Code Of Conduct.

FILLING CLAIRE'S VACANCY - TEMPORARILY?
Item #8, HERE,  is an amendment to the professional services agreement with Management Partners to retain Jay Trevino to temporarily (I think) replace departed Assistant Development Services Director Claire Flynn, who left to join the private sector.  This amendment presently has a $200,000 cap on it - but we've all seen how those caps manage to disappear.

BUILDING OFFICIAL CONSULTING
Item #9, HERE, is a similar situation with Interwest Consulting Group for Building Official services, apparently to fill the hole left by the recent departure of Khanh Nguyen, our Building Official, and other vacancies in that department.  This one is for $150,000.  You may recall that recently we also saw an approval to spend $900,000 for engineering consulting support.  Hmmm, wonder why we can't retain people?  Could it be the crappy contract the Miscellaneous employees were forced to swallow?  Smart money says it is.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST CODE
Item #10, HERE,  is the Biennial Review of City's Conflict Of Interest Code.  This one changes - adds and deletes - positions and groups that are subject to the Conflict of Interest Code.  Appendix A, HERE, shows those positions/groups.  I guess I understand it all with this exception.  At the end, under Commissions, it shows only the Parks and Recreation Commission.  What about the Planning Commission and Senior Commission?  And no mention of the City Council, either.  Maybe I'm missing something, but...?

FINAL OLD GENERAL PLAN REVIEW
Item #12, HERE, is the Annual Review of the Current Housing Element and Final Review of the Previous General Plan.  Interesting that they will likely just sign this without comment.

AMENDING NORTH COSTA MESA SPECIFIC PLAN
Public Hearing #1, HERE, is the city-initiated amendment to the North Costa Mesa Specific Plan related to the Segerstrom Home Ranch Site, 3350 Avenue of the Arts and Sakioka Lot 2 bringing them into conformance with the recently-approved General Plan.  The Planning Commission recently reviewed these items and moved them forward.

HOME RANCH DEVELOPMENT PLAN AMENDMENT
Public Hearing #2, HERE, is the Fourth Amendment to the development agreement for the Home Ranch.  Similarly, this brings this project into conformity with the new General Plan.

LEAGUE OF CALIFORNIA CITIES VOTING DELEGATES
The final item on the agenda is New Business #1, HERE.  this is a fairly routine item, designating a Voting Delegate and Voting Delegate Alternate(s) for the 2016 League of California Cities Annual Conference in Long Beach, October 5-7, 2016.  Presently Mayor Steve Mensinger, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer and Council Member Sandy Genis are registered to attend, so this should be a no-brainer, huh?  Not so fast!  It seems that the Eastside Costa Mesa Neighbors Group Candidate Forum is scheduled for October 6th.  And, if that's not enough fun, I understand there may also be some kind of a fundraiser at Monahan's gin mill on the same evening.  This item should be worth waiting for at the tail end of the meeting.

MORE LATER...
We'll be watching and will report on the festivities following the meeting.  This one should not take long, but one just never knows these days.

Packed City Council Agenda Tonight

PICK AN EVENT TONIGHT
So, if you're not attending the Concerts In The Park at 5:30 nor attending Orange Coast College's "Vision 2020" meeting in it's library at 6:00, then you MUST be joining me and a few dozen of your neighbors at the Costa Mesa City Council meeting beginning at 6:00 in City Council Chambers.  You can read the agenda for this meeting HERE.  By the way, if you want to see a preview of that OCC presentation as delivered by the OCC President Dennis Harkins to the Planning Commission last night, just click HERE for the video and "jump" down to the item.  It's early in the meeting.

PRESENTATIONS
There will be a couple interesting presentations tonight.  One by Kelly Vucinic regarding the National Night Out event coming up and then presentations to youth baseball teams.

LUCK OF THE DRAW
Then comes Public Comments, when the lucky 10 lottery winners will have a chance to address issues not on the agenda, but which speakers may feel are important to be presented to the council.  Any remaining comments will be shoved off to the end of the meeting - discouraging folks who can't stay up until midnight to thank the council for their actions or to complain about potholes, coyotes or other things that might be on their minds.

"MARY JANE", GARY?
Council members comments follow - always a crap-shoot.  Tonight one might expect Gary Monahan to talk about his Medical Marijuana initiative he's had City Attorney Tom Duarte draft for possible placement on the November ballot.  It's not on the agenda and time is running out.

DON'T YOU DARE PULL AN ITEM!
Then the Consent Calendar comes up and it's likely that none of the items will be pulled for separate discussion because Emperor Mayor Jim Righeimer has decreed that any such act will require the discussion of those items at the tail end of the meeting.  He gets around a real discussion of those items by encouraging council members to talk about them during their Council Member Comments - thereby eliminating the nasty requirement for a separate vote.

INTERESTING NUMBERS
However, as a public service, we will, again, present some of the items appearing on Warrant #2519 that caught our eye.  You can read the entire Warrant HERE.  In no particular order, only as they appear on the Warrant:

Enterprise Counsel Group - $28,324.77 - Successor Agency legal
Golden Star Technology, Inc. - $38,127.00 for PC Installation
Lilley Planning Group - $25,580.00 - Planning Consultant Services
Onward Engineering (2) - $38,720.50 and $28,545.67 - Construction Inspection and Design
Liebert Cassidy Whitmore  - $8,940.00 - Labor Negotiations
Melad & Associates - $14,709.40 - Bldg. Permit/Plan Check Services
Meyers Nave - $1,341.44 - Fairview Park Legal Services
Apple One Employment Services - $7,348.08 - Various Temp. Svcs.
Civil Source - $123,515.00 - Various Design, Project Support and Inspection Services
Civil Works Engineers - $25,710.75 - Engineering Support
Costa Mesa Conference and Visitors Bureau - $173,354.30 -  BIA Receipts for April
Accounting Principals Inc. - $2,889.36 - Temp Svcs.
CSG Consultants, Inc. - $6,107.10 - Bldg. Plan Review/Inspection Svcs.
FTOG Inc. - $2,745.00 - Interim Buyer
Government Staffing Services, Inc. - $4,372.50 - Temp Proj. Mgr
IntelliBridge Partners, LLC - $11,649.75 - RFP Purchasing Assistance
Kabbara Engineering - $10,447.50 - On-Call Trffc Svcs
Keyser Marston Associates, Inc. - $4,945.00 - Housing Consulting
Liebert Cassidy Whitmore - $12,645.67 - Several legal, incl. 60th Anniv. Investigation

As you can see, we continue to rack up large numbers for temporary help - accounting, engineering, inspection, planning, etc.

GETTING THOSE DOLLARS
There are five (5) Public Hearings on the agenda tonight.  The first, HERE, is to approve certification of special assessments for delinquent civil fines for municipal code violations.  The total for those violations is $36,325.00 and you can read the list of the violators and the amounts HERE.

GIVING A DEVELOPER THE STREET
Public Hearing #2, HERE, involves the vacation of a portion of Superior Avenue at 1677 coincident with the development of a new housing development.  You can see the site plan for that strip of Superior Avenue to be deeded to a developer HERE.

CORRECTING AN ISSUE
Public Hearing #3, HERE, is the General Plan Amendment for a lot line adjustment at 320 East 18th Street.

TO BE CONTINUED?  WONDER WHY, MAYOR?
Public Hearing #4, HERE, is the second reading of the Pre-Zoning and Property Tax Exchange Agreement for the Santa Ana/Colleen Island Annexation and would normally be a BIGGIE, but Mayor Righeimer apparently wants this item continued to give the developer of the vacant chunk in the middle of this area to meet with residents to "discuss zoning".  It's our understanding that the owner in question is Facilities Management West - one of the outfits that tried to buy the Fairgrounds and the principals of which have, in the past, been campaign contributors to - guess who?  Yep... you got it.

ELIMINATING AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Public Hearing #5, HERE,  it the Municipal Code amendment regarding the governance of Motels.  For details, read the attachment to the staff report, HERE.  This is a big deal because it potentially decimates current affordable housing stock in the form of motels.  I suspect this will provide lively discussion tonight.


TAXPAYER REWARDS FOR PRIVATE PROPERTY VANDALISM?
Old Business #1, HERE, is the second reading of an ordinance repealing and replacing a section of the Municipal Code relating to rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of persons vandalizing PRIVATE PROPERTY.  It's an interesting issue.  Do you want your tax dollars to go to providing a reward for the capture of those who vandalize private property?  Should we, the community, pay a reward, or should the property owner? 

DICTATORSHIP IN ACTION
The last item on the agenda, except for trailed Public comments and/or Consent Calendar items, is Old Business #2, HERE, which is the second reading of what I now refer to as Jim Righeimer's "Shut Your Mouth, Go Away" ordinance.  You can read the ordinance as proposed by the City Attorney HERE.  You will see that it still contains the provision for citation of a misdemeanor offense by folks who are disorderly in more than one meeting.  Also, there's an interesting phrase at the preamble of the section that lists "disorderly behavior", section 2-61, (b).  It says "Disorderly behavior under subdivision (a) may include, but is not limited to, the following:"  That emphasis is mine.  "Not limited to" means anything the mayor decides is disorderly behavior IS disorderly behavior.  This ordinance is just the perpetuation and codification of the mayor's move to quash critical comment by members of the public.  This is dictatorship, pure and simple!