City Council Agenda

LAST ONE FOR A MONTH
Next Tuesday, October 16th, the Costa Mesa City Council will hold the last scheduled meeting of the month.  In fact, because they recently voted to NOT hold a meeting on November 6th - election day - this will be the last scheduled meeting until November 20th.  Based on the items on the agenda, this could be another short one.

ITEMS OF INTEREST
As I reviewed the agenda for this meeting, HERE, I found a few pearls that may be of interest to those of you that follow events in the city closely.

MORE LEGAL BUCKS!
On the Consent Calendar we find a couple Warrants - register of checks issued for council review and approval.  Warrant #2442, HERE, contains an entry for our contract City Attorney firm, Jones and Mayer in the amount of $119, 279.24.  At this rate we'll spend $1.4 million on legal fees to that firm alone.  That doesn't count the ongoing costs for Jones Day at $495 per hour.

 ADDING MORE CODE ENFORCEMENT MUSCLE
Further on the Consent Calendar is the authorization for the addition of two Code Enforcement Officers, HERE.

 BENEFITS COST SAVINGS
Also on the Consent Calendar is an item, #11, HERE, which authorizes an extension of a freeze in the city contribution to health and medical benefits for employees represented by the Costa Mesa Division Manager's Association (CMDMA) through the 2013 calendar year.

FIRE FIGHTERS 2%@50
The final item on the agenda, HERE, is the authorization of the agreement between The City and CalPERS codifying the recent agreement between The City and the Fire Safety organization to change the 2%@50 retirement formula for new hires, down from 3%@50.

FOLLOWING THE F2F DEBATE
This might be a very interesting meeting since it comes a day after the Feet To The Fire Charter debate between Jim Righeimer and Katrina Foley.  Depending on how that event goes, we might hear a lot of yapping from the dais on that subject.

Another Reason You Can't Trust Jim Righeimer *(Amended)

SFORZA POKES THE HORNET'S NEST - THREE TIMES
Last Thursday Orange County Register Watchdog reporter Teri Sforza published a column entitled "City posts shocker pay data", HERE, which emphasized the overtime pay racked up by members of the Costa Mesa Fire Department. Later that day she amended the article with a new title: "City posts shocker pay data: Transparent, or incendiary?" HERE. That subsequent article mentioned quotes from Orange County Employee Association Communication Director, Jennifer Muir.

COMPENSATION NUMBERS
In both articles Sforza, appropriately, made a big to-do about the fact that the City of Costa Mesa has made total compensation information - including pension costs - for ALL employees available online. In fact, that has happened for both the 2010 and 2011 calendar years.

NUMBERS EASY TO TWIST
Because that information is readily available, and because it's easy to misinterpret without some explanation, members of the City Council and some of their sycophants - like councilman wannabe Colin McCarthy, President of the council shill organization Costa Mesa Taxpayer's Association - have taken the raw data and twisted it to suit their personal agendas.

OVERTIME NECESSARY FOR PUBLIC SAFETY
Sforza points out that two members of the CMFD had TOTAL compensation in excess of $300,000 and one battalion chief racked up over $109,000 in overtime. Certainly, those numbers will rock you back, but they need to be taken in context. That overtime was necessary because the City Council has refused to permit new firefighters to be hired unless a change is made to their pension plan - a second tier. Only two firefighters were hired in 2011 according to Costa Mesa Firefighters Association President, Tim Vasin. As a result, in order to provide even minimal coverage with staffing levels well below the authorized strength, overtime has been essential.

THE REASON FOR THE NUMBERS...
And, according to Vasin from Sforza's article, the City refused to permit the overtime hours to be shown on their spreadsheet, HERE. According to the article, Vasin says the annual average is 3,300 hours on duty - 63.5 hours per week per firefighter. Those are big numbers - around 50% more hours worked than you would expect with full staffing.

THIRD ARTICLE...
Then, on Saturday, March 10th, Sforza wrote ANOTHER article on this subject, titled, "Righeimer: Huge O.T. bill is firefighters' fault", HERE. It was peppered with inflammatory comments by Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer.

OH, REALLY?
In that article Righeimer - still fuming because the contracts with each employee association don't expire until the end of his term - gripes that the firefighter's overtime is entirely due to the contract requirement for minimum staffing levels. He went on to say, "They could do the job with six people per shift, but they want to do it with 18 or 19 people because that's what their contract says." He goes on to say, "That contract is a political document. It basically says, 'We don't care how many people you actually need to do the job - you have to hire more.'"
*NOTE: When the print version of this article came out on 3/13/12 the "six people" comment by Righeimer had been deleted. It's gone from the online version, as well. According to Teri Sforza, in response to my inquiry, "Mr. R. was misquoted." That's it.

YOU PICK THE DESCRIPTION...
And there you have it. Righeimer is either stupid, ignorant, an angry, frustrated political opportunist who will do or say ANYTHING to get his way on issues - or, maybe he's just a liar. Some might say all of the above. This man - a carpetbagger who saw Costa Mesa as ripe pickin's for his personal political agenda - slithered into town almost six years ago and has been the focus of controversy, turmoil and distrust ever since. The fact that he might actually think that the residents, businesses and visitors to Costa Mesa would be properly served by six firefighters per shift - that would be one firefighter per fire station per shift - tells you how little he actually understands or cares about public safety.

GUTTED THE CMPD
Of course, he demonstrated that ignorance last year when he demanded - and got - the Costa Mesa Police Department staffing reduced to 126 plus 5 temporary officers instead of meeting the barest of minimum staffing recommended by both the expensive consultant the city hired and Interim Chief Steve Staveley. We are down from 164 two years ago.

FABRICATED NUMBERS
During a recent study session he plucked millions of dollars out of the air and plugged them into a 5-Year Plan spreadsheet without giving any indication of how he arrived at those numbers. Undoubtedly, come budget time those fabricated numbers will become part of the budget process and the city management team will have to figure out how to cover those fabrications. The answer will be few people - that's where the money is. And, oh, yes - that spread sheet is STILL not available on the city web site for public viewing.

YOU JUST CAN'T TRUST HIM
It is that kind of arrogant, ignorant, capricious behavior that should make every voter in this city question the motives behind Jim Righeimer's Charter scheme. If he ever gets the power available to him in that Charter, like General Sherman marching through Georgia during the Civil War, he and his cronies will destroy this fine city, then move on and never look back. You just can't trust him, period.

With Gratitude...

(Photo courtesy of Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times)

THANKS TO THE FIREFIGHTERS
Getting an early jump on the weekend, so I won't be too attentive to comments posted here, but I didn't want to begin my serious R&R without mentioning, again, the fantastic job that has been done by firefighters from all over the state and country in trying to wrestle the current horrendous southern California fires into submission.

THE BIGGEST, AND GROWING
The last numbers I heard included well over 4,000 firefighters working on our fires and doing a darn good job of it. The big one, the Station fire, is now being described as the largest blaze in Los Angeles County's modern history - 144,000 acres and is still growing.

ROAST ARSONISTS!
Two of the fires near Yucaipa are apparently the result of arson. Fortunately, they were attacked quickly and efficiently and are now under control. Idiots who intentionally start forest fires should receive punishment that suits the crime. I suggest trussing them up, tying them to and spit slow-roasting them in their own juices...

AIR ASSETS AMAZING
The "air force" that has been fighting these fires has been something to watch. The 747 that drops 20,000 gallons of retardant or water is an amazing machine to watch operating. The DC-10 drops a little less and the Martin Mars Flying Boat seems to have barely enough power to stay airborne, but does the job. And, the helicopters are magnificent. The precision with which those brave pilots do their jobs is truly amazing.

THE WINGS COME OFF
I leave you with these two clips for your viewing pleasure. The first is a short one that shows just how dangerous flying into these fire situations can be. It's not from our current fires.




FIREFIGHTER TRIBUTE - LOS ANGELES BURNS
The second is a tribute to firefighters - one of many available for viewing on youtube. This one, however, is pretty darn area-specific. Thanks, again, to all the firefighters who have risked their lives to protect us all.

Mansoor Withdraws MOU Review Request

Breaking News!!

NO REVIEW OF FIREFIGHTER MOU
Mayor Allan Mansoor today withdrew his request to re-hear the decision made by the Costa Mesa City Council on the Memorandum of Understanding between the city and the firefighters union.

REVIEW WOULD CREATE CHAOS
Mansoor and Eric Bever voted against the MOU and Mansoor subsequently requested a re-hearing. I posted a blog entry on it, HERE, expressing concern that this would create chaos in the system, since both parties to the agreement had signed it and were well on their individual ways to making it work.

MANSOOR ACTED ON ADVICE THAT CHANGED
According to City Manager Allan Roeder, Mansoor was advised originally by city staff that it was appropriate to request a re-hearing. Upon further legal review, however, it was determined that the city might not be on solid ground and they advised Mansoor today. He then withdrew his request. Much as I would love to gloat about Mansoor messing this up, he didn't. He followed the procedures, received advice, acted on it but the advice changed upon further review.

TIME TO MAKE THE PLAN WORK
Now both the city staffers and the members of the firefighters union can move forward with the plans they had made as a result of the signed MOU and try to make this element of the 10-point plan to balance the budget work.

OTHER EMPLOYEES GRUMBLING
In the meantime, there are still the not-to-subtle grumblings from other city employees and their representatives about the deals they made with the city. As I've said before, if they are unhappy with the negotiations conducted by their representatives they should take it up with them and perhaps consider changing their representation in the future.

Finally, A Budget Framework...

OVERPAID PLANNING COMMISSIONERS PROVE MY POINT
Before I forget.... the Costa Mesa Planning Commission, at their meeting Monday night, exceeded my expectations - kinda. As I earlier predicted, their one-item meeting was going to be a quickie - I speculated that it would be finished in a half-hour. Well, I was wrong, but not by much. The meeting began promptly at 6 p.m. and concluded at 6:27, so the boys did themselves proud. And, since they will only be meeting once a month through November, that means the good taxpayers of Costa Mesa paid them what amounted to more than $800.00 per hour for all their "hard work" on Monday. Don't you feel good about that?

*****

FULL STUDY SESSION AGENDA
Today was a busy one for our City Council. As mentioned yesterday, they had a full agenda, with a Study Session packed with interesting items - including Wendy Leece's proposal to sanctify the City Council chambers with a plaque carrying the motto, "In God We Trust". Since the session was not televised live I have no idea how that played with the remainder of the council members.

PAINFUL REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY REALITY
Then they adjourned to the council chambers for a meeting of the Redevelopment Agency - the council in a different dress. That was a quickie, during which they made decisions protecting the city in the event the state successfully snatches redevelopment dollars from us.

MUSICAL CHAIRS
Then the lights were dimmed and the council played musical chairs and swapped name tags and re-convened as the city council to consider one item - the proposed Memorandum of Understanding between the Costa Mesa Firefighters and the city.

FIREFIGHTERS OFFERED MORE THAN WAS ASKED...
To summarize, the questionable areas that existed a week ago have been hashed out by the negotiators on both sides and an acceptable proposal was presented for the council to consider. Presentations by senior city staff with, added input by the leaders of the firefighters association, made clear that this was an acceptable proposal. In fact, the firefighters actually presented more savings than the city originally requested.

STUBBORN OR STUPID?
It was very frustrating, but not unexpected, that Mayor Mansoor just couldn't grasp the numbers no matter how many times it was explained to him. Of course, this is who he is - a man with very limited intellectual resources being asked to comprehend what began as some complicated issues. In the end, though, I think it was just stubbornness on his part. Led by the solid discussions by Katrina Foley, Wendy Leece and Gary Monahan, the proposal as presented was passed on a 3-2 vote, with Mansoor and Bever voting No.

BEVER'S CONTRIBUTION? ONE WORD...
It was interesting to note that, despite all his bluster on the Daily Pilot blog over the past few days, Bever said only one audible word all night. That was when he said "second" to Mansoor's substitute motion to delay voting on this issue until the next council meeting on the 18th. That motion failed. Bever offered not a single word - not even any of his occasional grunts - during the discussion. He asked no questions, posed no alternatives - it was as though he was asleep. In fact, he may have been for all we could tell. One might have thought someone had cut out his tongue, for goodness sake.

THE BERRYS BLUSTER
Maybe Bever felt the tag-team of his neighbors, Mike and Judi Berry, said enough so he didn't have to. Believe me, I thought they said more than enough, but at least Judi didn't whine about cutting the Mutt Mittens from the budget this time around. And who knows what Mike said?! Sometimes it seems as though even he doesn't know what he's saying.

PETTINESS ON DISPLAY
When the final vote was taken Mansoor, clearly peeved, abruptly said, "That's it. We're adjourned."

NOW LET'S MOVE FORWARD
This budget process has been taxing for all concerned. City Manager Allan Roeder, Steve Mandoki, Marc Puckett, Bobby Young and the rest of the senior staff did a masterful job of presenting the council with workable solutions. Some of those are still dependent on a certain level of sales and property tax dollars. However, with the passage of the issue tonight, they now have a skeleton on which to begin adding muscle and bone. So now the city staff can move forward unless other curves are thrown our way. They can begin to plan for the potential early retirements they anticipate this fall and they can begin to manage the 104 unpaid furlough hours each employee - except the firefighters - will be expected to take between now and the end of August next year.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL FOR A JOB WELL-DONE
Congratulations to all involved for a job well-done. To the employees of our city, thank you all for understanding the extent of the problem and for your dedication in working together with the senior staff to resolve the problems. The firefighters, in particular, are to be commended for presenting a workable solution with some very sticky service issues that had to be addressed.

MANSOOR AND BEVER UNWORTHY OF OFFICE
I cannot close this post without observing, one more time, just how ineffective Mansoor and Bever have been in this process. It seems as though everything is black or white to them. Their inability to grasp - either through stubbornness or denseness, or both - the intricacies of this process demonstrates just what happens when the electorate is wooed by a one-note samba during a campaign. Mansoor and Bever used the fear of your dark-skinned neighbors to win their seats, which concealed the fact that neither man has the grey matter necessary to do their jobs. That is certainly something to keep in mind in the future as one or both may seek another elected office.