Anger, Frustration Mark The Planning Commission Meeting...

...AND THAT WAS JUST AMONG THE COMMISSIONERS!
Yes, it was a short, tense Planning Commission meeting tonight.  Yes, there was anger, frustration and disappointment in the City Council Chambers, and probably felt most strongly on the dais, as all five commissioners clearly showed their anger and frustration at not being able to hear the four remaining items on their agenda.  Three others had been pulled last week.

LAWYER ABSENT DUE TO FAMILY MEDICAL EMERGENCY
According to information provided by staff during the short discussion of the first item, it seems the lawyer for all of the applicants tonight had some kind of a family medical emergency and so all the applicants and the lawyer requested that all the items on the agenda be continued - and they were!

ANGRY CROWD HEARS BAD NEWS
At the very beginning of the meeting, before what I've been told was a packed house, Chairman Rob Dickson mentioned that there was a possibility that each of the items on the agenda - all sober living homes - would be continued, but they wouldn't know for sure until they began hearing the items.  The members of the public who took time out of their busy lives - again, for some of them - clearly were not happy with that news.

HELPING STANDING ROCK
Thirteen (13) members of the public stepped up during Public Comments to express their views on this situation.  Only one, Mary Spadoni, spoke on another issue - the recent community outreach to gather goods for the Native Americans at Standing Rock.  She used a clever video clip of a pooch to enhance her presentation for the sales of homemade dog cookies, the sale of which will be donated 100% to the folks at Standing Rock.

QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUES
Many of my Eastside neighbors spoke tonight.  Katie Arthur spoke about the impact of the sober living homes on our neighborhoods, citing quality of life issues.  She encouraged the commission to be bold - to think outside the box and work together to get this issue resolved.

"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"
One speaker told the commission she was appalled that they were considering continuing the items, advising them that these venues were all over the Eastside and that they were near areas earmarked for high density housing.  She told the commission that "enough is enough".

"SICK AND TIRED OF IT"
A local businessman angrily spoke to the commissioners, telling the commissioners they are not listening to what the people are saying, and that they - the people - are sick and tired of it.  He used the word "corrupt" without any details.

SHARED HORROR STORIES
Flo Martin spoke about personal issues and those of her relatives and neighbors in College Park dealing with the impact of sober living homes.

RESTRICT TO COMMERCIAL AREAS
A gent from Irvine who alleged having ties to Costa Mesa suggested closer attention be paid to the State Health and Safety Code and that sober living homes should be restricted to commercial areas.

PANDERING
Richard Russell, a frequent speaker, praised the commission - "you guys make good decisions" and refuted an earlier suggestion by a speaker that the city "invited sober living homes into the city."

CORRUPTION?
The final speaker, who didn't identify himself but proclaimed that he had previously worked for Solid Landings - a large sober living outfit in town - and painted a grim picture of those operations.  He said the operators take advantage of the families of kids in need of detox - claiming that they charged $30,000 per bed per month.  He claimed that the organization broke the rules by housing too many clients, then disbursing them when inspections were scheduled, only to return them later.

SESLER PLEADS FOR UNDERSTANDING
The Public Comment segment lasted about 25 minutes, then came Commissioner Comments and you could see the steam coming from their ears.  Stephan Andranian had nothing to say.  Tim Sesler acknowledged the passing of Jeff Arthur, Chair of the Pension Oversight Committee.  He then pleaded with the audience to understand that the commissioners were there to do the right thing, citing the fact that they all live in the city and raise their families here.

COLIN DEMANDS NUMBERS
Colin McCarthy also acknowledged Jeff Arthur.  He then asked interim Development Services Director Jay Trevino to check with the staff and come back with a number of high density projects this commission had approved in the past 4 years - again, attempting to refute claims made by earlier speakers.  He said he could only recall a couple.

MATHEWS SHOULD HAVE KEPT QUIET
Vice Chair Jeff Mathews was clearly peeved and he said he wanted one or two Code Enforcement officers assigned to doing regular, frequent checks on all the sober living homes in Costa Mesa.  He said if we don't have enough staff he wanted more to be hired.  He also complained about sober living homes being located in residential neighborhoods, defining it as "stupid" that they can be there.  I thought it was interesting, since all the guidance the city has gotten from our lawyers tell us to avoid inflammatory statements like that because it may bite us later in court - it shows an institutional bias against sober living clients - a class of people protected by the ADA and Fair Housing laws.  Usually Mathews just sits there and says nothing.  Tonight that would have been a good idea.

STAFF READY TO GO, MORE OR LESS
At 6:40 p.m. Interim Assistant Director of Development Services Sherri Vander Duessen began, with Deputy City Attorney Tarquin Preziosi, to discuss Public Hearing #1, the sober living home at 2041 Tustin Avenue - a couple blocks from my home on the Eastside.  It was this hearing that took the longest because the issue of the absence of the lawyer for the applicant was discussed at length.

SUMMERHILL KEPT THEM ON COURSE
As each commissioner expressed their anger and frustration it became clear that they REALLY wanted to move forward with the hearing, but the staff was firm in their advice against it.  Deputy City Attorney Yolanda Summerhill held a steady hand on the tiller, reminding the commissioners that it was critical that the applicant receive a fair hearing and that he not be denied due process.  And, of course, she was correct.   To do otherwise would have likely entangled us in lengthy, costly legal battles.

NO MAS!
Both Andranian and Mathews expressed the opinion that if they agreed to continue this item they wouldn't agree to subsequent continuances, even if the applicant's lawyer wasn't available.  Andranian opined that there are plenty of other lawyers out there.

VOTED TO CONTINUE
Summerhill reminded the commissioners that we need to take these issues step-by-step.  Finally, at 6:55, the commission voted, 5-0, to continue this item to a future date - undefined at this time.  The crowd was angry and many began to leave, so Dickson called for a short break - it lasted 2 minutes as the angry folks filtered out of the auditorium.

TEN MINUTES FLAT FOR THE OTHER THREE
When they re-convened they made quick work of the other three sober living issues remaining on the agenda.  It took less than 10 minutes to have each read into the record and to vote to continue them on 5-0 votes.  During the first couple several commissioners continued to grumble about it.

SHORT AND NOT VERY SWEET
At 7:05 p.m. - 65 minutes after the meeting was called to order - Dickson adjourned in memory of Jeff Arthur to the meeting NEXT Monday night, December 12th.  It's my understanding that they have a full agenda at that meeting, too. 

FRUSTRATION ALL AROUND, BUT THEY DID THE RIGHT THING
Here's my view on what happened tonight.  I certainly understand the anger and frustration expressed by my friends and neighbors - and by the commissioners, too.  I believe the commissioners had no other choice but to honor the requests for continuances, even though all were frustrated because a couple had previously been continued.  McCarthy, in an earlier meeting, opined that they were being "played" - manipulated by the lawyer.  That may, in fact, be the case.  However, Summerhill gave them good advice - all five of the commissioners have legal training - and they took it, although begrudgingly.

THE NEW CITY COUNCIL WILL HAVE THESE THROWN TO THEM
It's going to be very interesting to see how this all plays out over the next few months.  The staff has consistently recommended denial of these issues.  The can will be kicked down the road under the normal course of events to a brand new city council.  These hot potatoes will be dropped squarely in their lap, most likely beginning in January.  It's going to be very interesting.

ON JEFF ARTHUR...
On a personal note, I didn't know Jeff Arthur well, but did have several conversations with him and had a chance to watch him work on city committees.  He was a hardworking, decent man who brought intelligence and decades of solid business experience to his assignments for the city.  His presence on the Pension Oversight Committee will certainly be missed.  You can read Bradly Zint's piece on his passing from the Daily Pilot HERE.  Condolences to his family and his friends on this loss.  The following is a video clip from our pal, Barry Friedland at Costa Mesa Brief of a presentation Jeff made to the local Tea Party group on the issue of pensions.

Council Meeting Could Have Been Shorter

SHOULDA BEEN SHORTER
The Costa Mesa City Council held it's only meeting of May last night and what should have been a fairly short meeting turned out to stretch until 10:30.  Actually, I guess we should be grateful that it didn't stretch into Wednesday.

SPECIAL PLEDGE
The meeting was special in at least one way.  Costa Mesa Police Department staffer Jeanette Chervony led the Pledge of Allegiance, then spoke briefly of her father, Eddie Chervony, who was killed in Vietnam on this date in 1968.  Mayor Steve Mensinger later closed the meeting in his honor.

SOLEMN EXPRESSION
Sayed Mostafa Qazwini, the Imam of the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County in Costa Mesa led the moment of solemn expression.

MAYOR'S AWARD TO AUTO CLUB
Mensinger presented the Mayor's Award to the Automobile Club of Southern California, a premiere employer in our City which is housed in a building of over 700,000 square feet and employes more than 3,000 people in Costa Mesa.

PENSION OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE REPORT
Jeff Arthur, Chairman of the Pension Oversight Committee presented a report - the first one in more than 15 months - in which he presented charts showing the status of our pension liability and the duration of time it would take to bet out from under it.  These are shown below.  There was no response later when a member of the public asked if they had considered plans similar to those recently implemented in Irvine or Newport Beach, which would pay off their pension liabilities in a much shorter time.  The council majority has shown NO inclination to pay down this debt, instead continues to put our money into infrastructure, expensive parties and similar items, while bemoaning the unfunded pension liability as our biggest problem.  Seems like an odd management strategy - identify the "biggest problem", then ignore it and apparently hope it goes away.

PUBLIC COMMENTS
Fourteen people spoke during Public Comments.  Here's a very short summary of some of the comments:

• Richard Russell expressed gratitude for continuing the Fireworks over the upcoming July 4th holiday.
• Robin Leffler raked Mensinger over the coals for his refusal to take personal responsibility for the now-infamous DG Path incident, choosing, instead to let the City foot the bill for the remediation and legal battles.
• Mary Spadoni questioned contract City Attorney, Tom Duarte, about our current method of requiring speaker cards, citing a recent meeting of women lawyers who opined that it was a Brown Act violation.  No response was given.  She also asked if the Pension committee had polled Irvine and Newport Beach on their solution.
• Wendy Leece expressed concern for Public Safety, and specifically the Fire Department.  She suggested that the plan to close Station 6 should be revisited, and that greater emphasis should be placed on getting our transport ambulances into service so the City could realize that revenue stream instead of having it to a private company.  (Which just happens to be a big campaign contributor to Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer).
• Ann Parker reminded the council that heroin is a huge problem - one that has been ignored each time she previously brought it up.  She mentioned a suicide at a rehab home and another death nearby.  She spoke of corrupt politicians and implied that Righeimer worked for Scott Baugh - former Chairman of the Orange County Republican Party.  Righeimer later took exception to her comments.
• Chuck Perry praised the council for their infrastructure improvements and criticized those who expressed concern about what he called the "stupid DG Trail".  Should we mention that he's good buddies with Mensinger?  
• Jay Humphrey spoke briefly on the parking standards and provided a slide show on an analysis he recently performed demonstrating that, contrary to what has been espoused in recent months about our "strict" parking standards, other cities nearby have even more strict standards.
• Patrick Singer spoke with concern for the rehab folks.
• Lisa Sabo expressed concern about the bioswale being installed on Arlington Avenue because of the problems it creates for members of the equestrian community trying to enter and depart from the Fairgrounds.
• Teresa Drain again demanded a forensic audit of the 60th Anniversary Celebration, and gave examples of exactly why it's necessary.
• Pamela Wilson complained about the unfunded pension liability.  It was not clear that she'd heard Arthur's earlier presentation.
•  Tea Party Tom Pollitt complained about the recently-approved plan to remodel and re-purpose the old Print Shop space in City Hall, expressing the opinion that the "Convention Center" could be used if meeting space was needed.  Of course, he meant the Community Center, but one never knows what will come out when he opens his mouth.  He expressed interest in a big report showing Costa Mesa crime stats for 15 years back.
• Laurene Keane inquired about the availability of any reports on crime in the City, and expressed concern about drug trafficking.
• Gene Hutchins, formerly a member of the Pension Oversight Committee, thanked the committee then opined that if we, the public, were concerned about not having enough police officers we should "tell the unions to do more.", meaning participate in the cost of pensions more.

COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS
Council Member Comments were next, and here are some of the thoughts presented by them:

• Steve Mensinger - Thanked Arthur for his report and the "Pension Oversight Board" (it's a committee!).
• Katrina Foley -  Asked for the City Staff to do a parking standards survey of all Orange County cities.  She inquired, again, about the memo she asked for regarding the audit of the 60th Celebration.  She inquired of Assistant CEO Tammy Letourneau about the pension deductions for new employees, since it was implied by one speaker that members of the Police Department pay nothing.  They, in fact, do pay toward their pension as required by state law.  She observed that a new restaurant recently opened in SoCo, and that there will be a remembrance of Henry Segerstrom on May 7th.
• Sandra Genis - Mentioned the budget workshop and spoke about landscaping.  She suggested the Planning Commission look at parking in general in the city and address the Small Lot Ordinance in particular.
• Gary Monahan had nothing - again.
• Jim Righeimer made up for it, though.  He echoed the need for a study of parking and the Small Lot Ordinance parking standards.  He then went off on a rant about Pensions and the Police Department in particular, using his bully pulpit to castigate those people he is suing.  He has so sense of shame or deportment.

HATCH
During his report CEO Tom Hatch covered a number of items.  He spoke about the recently-introduced plan to run a dedicated bus line from Costa Mesa (South Coast Plaza area) directly to and from the Disneyland Resort area of Anaheim.  At $5.00 per head round trip, that sounds like a GREAT deal for anyone heading up to Disneyland, for sure.  He also offered a compliment to the CMPD, citing a recent sweep of parole and probation violators.  He mentioned recent graduates of the Costa Mesa High School Teen CERT academy.  He told us of upcoming budget meetings.  On Tuesday, May 12th there will be a Budget Study session.  On Thursday, May 21st, there will be a community budget meeting.  On June 15th the 2015-2016 budget will be discussed and approved.  He then had a video of the Water Quality project being completed in Lions Park shown.

CONSENT CALENDAR
Five items were pulled from the Consent Calendar, with the remainder being passed with one vote.  Of those five, by the time they were called at the end of the meeting only two were discussed because folks who pulled the others had left.  Both passed on 5-0 votes.  See my earlier report on the issues involved.

CONSOLIDATED PLAN AND CDBG FUNDS
Public Hearing #1, the Consolidated Plan and distribution of CDBG funds was up next.  Consultant Mike Linares - whose contract was extended in the Consent Calendar - led the discussion and showed an extensive slide show.  The following are highlights.

Four people spoke on this issue, including a member of the committee that hammered out the distribution of the CDBG funds.  The council voted to receive and file the report at 7:40 p.m.

ANOTHER DEVELOPER GIVE-AWAY
The next item, Public Hearing #2, the proposed development at 1239 Victoria Street, came next.  This is for 28 units replacing an office building that once was a manufacturing site.  The Planning Commission approved it with some requirements dealing with roof gardens and a fence along the park across Victoria Street.  I'm not going to cover every word that was said in the 3:40 minutes it took to cover this issue.  23 people spoke to it, of which a third - 7 - were against it.  The others were made up mostly of the same cadre of young folks who spoke before the Planning Commission.  They said the same spiel, almost word for word, that they did before.  Most seemed to have a tie to the developer or development/real estate.  At the end Righeimer convinced the council majority that the rooftop patios removed by the Planning Commission should be added back into the units where they had been deleted, and that the fence should not be the responsibility of the developer.  This will get a second reading in June.

BIA RENEWAL
At 10:00 Public Affairs Manager Dan Baker led the discussion of the renewal of the BIA program, confirmed that eleven (11) hotels now particpate and that the Conference and Visitors Bureau will receive around $2.37 million to market our community to the outside world.  Paulette Lombardi-Fries of the CVB spoke about their activities briefly and emphasized their recent 70 page annual report and their recently freshened web site at TravelCostaMesa.com.

CLOSED IN MEMORY OF EDDIE CHERVONY

After the "pulled" Consent Calendar items were heard, Mensinger read a note that Jeanette Chervony had written about her father, then closed the meeting in his honor.  The next council meeting will be in June.

Accusations Fly At City Council Meeting

I WAS WRONG - BARELY
OK, let's get this out of the way right up front.  I was wrong!  The Costa Mesa City Council meeting that began Tuesday evening DID NOT run until 12:30 a.m. as I predicted.  It ended at 12:22 a.m. Wednesday morning!

FIREWORKS WORTH THE WAIT
And, as it turned out, the wait was worth it for the 20 or so residents who stuck it out. At approximately 12:07 a.m. resident Roger Chadderton, who had waited the entire meeting to speak, took his turn at the podium during the "trailed" Public Comments segment and accused members of the City Council of some hanky-panky dealing with the allocations of playing fields.  It seems Mr. Chadderton plays in an adult softball league on one of the fields at the TeWinkle Sports Complex.  He told the council and those of us remaining in the audience that his league - just three days after the field allocation had been confirmed - was told that they would not be able to use the field, and nor would a girls softball group on an adjoining field, because they had been ousted by Matt Leinart's Football program.  Chadderton looked directly at Steve Mensinger and accused him of causing that change - implying there was a USC connection.  Mensinger attended USC and Leinart was a Heisman Trophy winner from that school.  He further implied that Bob Knapp's recent departure as Costa Mesa Recreation Manager was a result of Knapp refusing to go along with the ouster of long-time group 1 users.  He demanded to know what was behind that move, and also demanded Knapp's reinstatement.

RIGHEIMER FLIPS OUT!
When Wendy Leece began to comment on the issue - demanding an investigation, Mayor Jim Righeimer came unglued!  He flew into a rage and said, "Investigation?!  Investigation?!  Oh, sure, let's just have the Police Department investigate this!"  Leece persisted and asked CEO Tom Hatch to investigate this issue and report back.

BULLYING DIDN'T WORK
Almost immediately after Righeimer gaveled the meeting closed at 12:22 he and Mensinger charged down off the dais and up the aisle to confront Chadderton, who stood his ground as Mensinger angrily pointed his finger at him and denied the charges, although he did acknowledge that Leinart is his friend.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

RESIDENT GOES AFTER DE ARAKAL ABOUT TREES
Early in the meeting, also during Public Comments, Yukon Avenue resident Kim LeBroux rose to complain about the recent tree removal hearing at the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. She accused "a commissioner" of playing favorites dealing with the issue of pine trees that line the streets in the neighborhood, and of arbitrarily changing the way the hearing went - splitting it into segments - and steering residents to modify their claims to satisfy the city staff.  I watched that meeting... she was referring to Chairman Byron de Arakal.  She was steaming!  She demanded an appeal of the ruling and Righeimer commanded the staff to NOT remove ANY trees out there until this issue is resolved.

60TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION REPORT UNDER FIRE
Not unexpectedly, many members of the public had taken much of their weekend to read every page of the 1,051 60th Anniversary Celebration Report, the many segments of which you can find HERE.  Eight of the 10 speakers accommodated in the first segment spoke critically of the report, providing more questions and demanding answers.  Two others stuck it out until after midnight to also complain about the report.  Several questioned the role of the Conference and Visitors Bureau, which apparently was used as a piggy bank to cover cost overruns for the celebration.   Members of the committee demanded a full accounting and a chance for the committee to convene and review the report and to be given the opportunity to present an "after action report" to the council - perhaps in a study session.

PROCEDURE VIOLATIONS - AT LEAST
One of the most troublesome parts of the report is the circumventing of proper approval procedures.  Staffers - Dan Joyce and Christine Cordon - signed "for Mike Scheafer", the Chairman of the committee, when he had not given any approval to do so.  They just cut him out of the loop.  There are many questions remaining as a result of that report and many residents are demanding a much fuller accounting.

Oh, yes... about the rest of the meeting....

ALL THREE SCREENING REQUESTS APPROVED
The three screening requests all moved on through the system, but not without serious discussion by residents, many of whom thought they represented an unhealthy trend to high density development throughout the city.  Several speakers observed that these kind of developments represent exactly what participants in the General Plan Update meetings opposed - higher density and more traffic.  Phrases like "Hodge Podge Development" and "Development Loopholes" were threaded through the comments.  Those concerns were brushed off by Righeimer during another of his rants.  Amusingly, Mensinger blurted out some irrelevant mention of the Unfunded Pension Liability - so far out of context and inappropriate at that moment that it made me wonder if he might have been dozing up there - or maybe he was distracted reading text messages.


DEVELOPMENT SERVICES REORGANIZATION
At 10:00 p.m. the council got around to New Business #4, the major reorganization of the Development Services Department, HERE.  There was general agreement that Gary Armstrong, Director of Development Services and Deputy CEO, needs lots of help in his department.  The staff report shows dramatically growing demand for services from that department, which suffers from a severely depleted staff.   Retired Planning executive Perry Valantine stepped up to support the changes and the additional eight (8) positions.  So did former Development Services Director Don Lamm, now a consultant to developers.  During the discussion Mensinger - apparently looking up from his Iphone - tried to sidetrack the conversation with a discussion of something not on the agenda.  He wanted to not fill the Assistant Development Services Director position requested and provide an Assistant Public Services Director to Ernesto Munoz!  The guy is hopeless!  It was totally inappropriate for him to attempt to hijack the discussion on an item not on the agenda, but he just kept on punching.  After much discussion the council voted to accept the staff recommendations - without the Assistant Director position.  Instead, they may fill that slot with yet another consultant.  An interesting part of that discussion was Wendy Leece's inquiry of Hatch for his views since he had analyzed the needs and approved the presentation.  Hatch was wishy-washy with his response, so the position was dropped.

OPEN SPACE MASTER PLAN
Following a relatively short discussion the council approved the request for funds to hire a consultant to help with updating the Open Space Master Plan, HERE.  This process might take as long as a year to complete, but it has not been updated since the 2010 census numbers have become available.


PENSION COST REDUCTION RECOMMENDATIONS
Then, just before 11:00, Righeimer announced that we were finally getting to the item "We've all been waiting for." - the Pension Cost Reduction Recommendations, HERE.  There were fewer than 30 people left in the audience by that time.  Interim Finance Director Steve Dunivent and Pension Oversight Committee Chairman Jeff Arthur formed a tag team and presented some very good information to the council.  Arthur outlined the work of his committee and showed slides of our current pension situation.  Dunivent presented more good information and the recommended solutions.  Those recommendations read as follows:

1. With respect to the Pension Oversight Committee 
     a. Receive and file the Pension Oversight Committee Report 
     b. Approve the distribution of the Committee Facts Volumes 1, 2 and 3. 
     c. Provide direction regarding the Committee’s future activities

2. Authorize the lump-sum prepayment of the City’s annual required contribution for the Miscellaneous and Police Retirement Plans beginning in July 2014.

3. Authorize the use of the City’s annual savings from the lump-sum prepayment of the Miscellaneous and Police Retirement Plans to make additional payments to the Fire Side Fund beginning in July 2014 with the goal of paying off this fund early.

4. Authorize the Finance Director, with the concurrence of the City CEO, to annually review recommended actions two and three and implement or suspend them each fiscal year as appropriate to the City’s financial condition at the time.

5. Authorize a one-time additional $1,000,000 payment to the Fire Side Fund this fiscal year using funds that were budgeted in FY 2012-13 and FY 2013-14.

6. Provide direction on continuing the practice of budgeting an additional $500,000 per year for the purpose of paying down unfunded pension liabilities.

CAN'T DO MUCH ABOUT IT...
During the discussion it was clear that Righeimer still feels that we really cannot do anything significant to reduce the unfunded liability.  At least twice he said that nothing will happen unless more cities file for bankruptcy, hastening to add that Costa Mesa is OK, but the state won't make the changes necessary until more cities go bankrupt.  He also said the employees should take the initiative, band together to tell Sacramento they are willing to take smaller retirements!

MUNICIPAL BANKRUPTCY?
I thought it was interesting - and telling - that during his outlining of the things the Pension Oversight Committee covered during their tenure Arthur, at no time, mentioned the Municipal Bankruptcy Workshop they attended last year.

THE HOLE IS TOO BIG
I think Righeimer is correct... unless all the players in this huge drama can find a way to collaborate on solutions nothing short of municipal bankruptcy can sort it out.  There are too many variables over which cities have no control.

A MODIFIED SOLUTION...
In the end the council voted to modify the staff recommendations by authorizing a $1 million  payment to the Fire Side Fund, pay one year PERS contribution in advance, contribute $500,000 next year toward the Fire Side fund and have the Finance Director and CEO evaluate that plan each year.  They took the vote at precisely midnight - 4-0.  Gary Monahan had bugged out before this item was discussed.

A WORTHY EFFORT, BUT...
I had the impression that members of the committee felt like their work had been validated - several were in the audience - but that few felt this was a complete solution.  We'll see how the discussion goes during the Mid-Year Budget Review at the study session next Tuesday.

ANOTHER LATE NIGHT
It was another interesting meeting that spanned two days and saw Righeimer exhibit his rudeness and petulance more than once.  He REALLY needs to read my previous post about Fay Vincent's article...

FAIRVIEW PARK CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Today, Wednesday, is the meeting of the Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee meeting at the Neighborhood Community Center beginning at 6:00, HERE.  See you there.