Another Late Friday Pronouncement From City Hall

STEALTH MOVE BY THE MAYOR

Shortly after close of business the City of Costa Mesa issued an announcement about a letter sent by Mayor Steve Mensinger to two California Legislative leaders opposing an apparent move by Governor Jerry Brown to remove local safeguards and control over affordable housing, HERE.

HERE'S THE LETTER
When you go to that link you'll find a direct link to the letter from Mensinger - a letter I'm told was sent without any prior notice to all members of the council!  You can read his epistle to the legislative leaders HERE.

UH, OH...

This certainly appears to be a political ploy - campaigning from his office at City Hall - and this letter has phrases that he's going to have a very hard time living with as this campaign season moves forward.

"...DISTRUST IN GOVERNMENT"
For example, there is this paragraph:
"Eliminating opportunities for public review of these major development projects goes against the principles of local democracy and public engagement.  While it may be frustrating for some developers to hear concerns about traffic, parking and other development impacts, those affected by such projects have a right to be heard.  Not having such outlets will increase public distrust in government."  Well, Mr. Mayor... what the heck do you think is driving the Smart Growth Initiative?  Precisely those issues you wrote about above!  Lack of public trust in elected leaders and their decisions has caused the creation of that initiative.

"...RESIDENTS WHO DESERVE A VOICE..."
He ends his letter with this sentence:
"On behalf of the residents who deserve a voice in the future shape of their communities, the City of Costa Mesa respectfully states our opposition to this measure."  Yep, he actually wrote those words!

TRANSPARENCY IS ONLY A WORD IN COSTA MESA
I find myself wondering where his concerns for the residents have been for the past half-dozen years?  He and his pal, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer, have institutionalize quashing public comments and have taken measures to discourage views that disagree with them.  I find his letter to the legislature disingenuous, at best.  What a hypocrite!  And, of course, this letter was released - without prior notification to other council members - after the close of business so there are no city officials available to discuss this.  So much for transparency.

REMEMBER...
We deserve much, much, much better than this.  Remember in November.

Transparency Is A Double-Edged Sword

GOVERNOR BROWN SIGNS SB331
Well, kind of lost in the shuffle this weekend is the fact that Governor Jerry Brown, in a last minute flurry with many other bills last Friday, signed into law Senate Bill 331, the Civic Reporting Openness in Negotiations Efficiency Act (CRONE).  We've briefly mentioned this before.

TURNABOUT...
This act, described by many detractors as an attempt by unions to get back at jurisdictions that have adopted the Civic Openness In Negotiations process (COIN) by imposing a similar deliberative process over most big-ticket government contracts.  You can read about this act HERE.  I won't attempt to give you links to all the negative comments - just click HERE and sift through them yourself.

AFFECTS ONLY A FEW
Now it is law and the jurisdictions affected by it are ONLY those who have adopted COIN - like Costa Mesa, Beverly Hills, the County of Orange and a few more.

TELL STEVE HOW YOU FEEL
So, to those folks who govern those jurisdictions - like our Board of Supervisors and the elected leaders of Costa Mesa and the other cities involved - please remember how you got into this predicament.  You can feel free to write directly to our mayor, Steve Mensinger, the father of COIN and the man who has thumped his chest about it since he first fertilized the egg that became COIN in Costa Mesa.  Please, write to him to tell him how much you appreciate his handiwork, because without COIN there would be no CRONE.

EARLIER REQUESTS REJECTED
Some of you will recall that many community activists encouraged the city to adopt a similar rule for government contracts a couple years ago when COIN was being hatched, basically citing that "what's good for the goose is good for the gander", and that if the presumed-transparency derived from COIN in labor negotiations is something we desire, then similar transparency in government contracts seemed to be important to consider.  We need only look as far back as our now-notorious 60th Anniversary Celebration debacle - where cost-overruns ran into the tens of thousands of dollars - to see the value of such a program.  But those requests fell on deaf ears.  In fact, certain high-ranking members of our city government chided those who suggested it.  Uh, huh... well, here we are today with a state-wide law that focuses directly on those utilizing COIN.

LED BY THE NOSE
This is the kind of stuff that happens when a person who is not all that smart is being guided by those with strong anti-employee biases.  I don't for one second think Mensinger conjured up COIN on his own - he was just chosen to deliver this mess to a council with an unbreakable majority - a guaranteed pass.  It is this kind of lock-step mentality that generates initiative petitions all over town - people just don't trust their elected leaders to do the right thing.  Well, as the saying goes, "Karma's a bitch!"

AVOID "CHRONE" BY DUMPING "COIN"?
Now, as long as COIN is the law in those jurisdictions, the deliberative - slow - process described in in the CRONE legislation will have to be enforced.  That leads us to a question....  Since it applies ONLY to jurisdictions where COIN is the law, I presume those jurisdictions could escape CRONE by simply wiping COIN off the books, right?  I suspect some of those jurisdictions involved might just decide to do that, rather than be forced into a "transparency" situation that might make them more than a little uneasy.  We'll find out soon enough.

WHAT DO YOU CALL THEM?
And, what do you call a contractor whose presentations fall under this new law?  A "CRONEY"?  Seems just about perfect, don't you think?

"STUFF" HAPPENS...
A friend observed the similarity in sounding out the name of this new law - CRONE - and the intestinal disease, Crohn's Disease.  He snarkily observed that both are a pain in the gut and both will likely result in a whole lot of effluent being expelled from the alimentary canals - of the humans and the governments.  He may be correct.  It's going to be very interesting to watch this new drama play out.  I suspect we may have just found a new way to enhance the retirement fund of our contract attorney's at Jones & Mayer.  There may be a whole lot of legal stuff going on with CRONE.

Time For A Dose Of The Chuckmeister

ONCE AGAIN...
My pal, The Chuckmeister, is at it again.  He decamped to parts south from his long-time home in Costa Mesa a couple years ago to enjoy the proximity of his family and the growing wine region inland from Camp Pendleton and created a blog - Chuckmeister Unleashed -  to provide an outlet for his pent-up frustration on a variety of issues.  I know the feeling well.

A SPECIAL MESSAGE
Under normal circumstances I'd simply make a little entry on Facebook and link to his piece and let my friends and others go nuts as they read them.  Not today.  Today the message my pal sends is too important, and too timely, to simply leave to the Zuckerbergians who run Facebook.  Today I want my broader audience to have a chance to read his words.  I will link it on Facebook, where folks there will have to take one more step to read Chuck's words.

JUST A LITTLE TEASE

I'm not even going to paraphrase his entry... I'm going to make you follow the link, HERE, to his site and take your time reading it.  I will, however, provoke you with the title, "A Front-Row Seat for Slow-Motion Suicide...", and tell you it deals with the state (small "s" intended) of California.

MEDICATE IF NECESSARY, BUT READ IT...
So, take a Valium if you need to, or pour yourself a relaxing libation and click on that link.  I won't tell you that you'll "like" what you read, but I think you'll understand it and maybe even appreciate it.

Hatch - Oops, My Bad On Measure P

RECALL THIS ISSUE?
You will recall that I recently wrote about the confusing language on the ballot for Measure P, the advisory measure regarding the scheme to make some lanes on the I-405 Freeway from Costa Mesa to the Los Angeles County line into High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes, HERE.

TWO QUESTIONS - ONE ANSWER
At the time I emphasized that the language on the ballot asked two (2) questions that were exact opposites, but you're given only one choice of an answer - YES or NO.  Here's how it looks on the ballot.

STONEWALLED...
Since my earlier blog entry I have communicated several times with city officials - specifically, CEO Tom Hatch, City Attorney Tom Duarte and Communication Director Bill Lobdell.  To date I have received NO direct reply to my requests.

...UNTIL TODAY
Today, however, Lobdell distributed the following information via email to an undisclosed number of recipients in which Hatch apparently falls on his sword on this issue:

From City CEO Tom Hatch:

In an attempt to summarize the I-405 toll lane advisory measure in a short ballot title, City of Costa Mesa staff used wording and punctuation that could cause confusion among voters. For that, we apologize.  We are reviewing the matter.  Ultimately, as the City CEO, I take responsibility for the title’s lack of clarity and hope that it does not detract from the purpose of this advisory measure.   

The I-405 advisory ballot question for voters to consider is: “Do you agree with the Costa Mesa City Council, which unanimously opposes the establishment of toll lanes on the I-405 Freeway in Orange County?”

We are taking several steps to reduce any potential confusion.  First, the city is sending three informational mailers about the ballot measure to each resident. The first mailer—which emphasizes the ballot question—has already been mailed.  For the remaining two mailers, the city will also emphasize the ballot question—and point out the difference between the ballot title and ballot question—to reduce any potential confusion.  The same material will also be featured on the city’s website and other media platforms.  

YOU MAY HAVE MADE A MISTAKE

Of course, many of you will have already mailed in your absentee ballots and a goodly number of you may have marked it incorrectly as regards Measure P.  Keep in mind that I don't care how you marked it as long as you understood what your answer meant.  

DON'T WANT TOLL LANES?  VOTE "YES" ON P

If you have not already marked your ballot, let me help you.  I, personally, don't want to see CalTrans hijack our Measure M-funded expansion lanes on the I-405 and turn them into HOT lanes.  So - follow me now - I'm voting YES on Measure P.  That means I agree with the City Council in their opposition to the toll lanes.

THE WHOLE THING IS UNNECESSARY!

Perhaps the most unfortunate part of this debacle - aside from it being a major screw-up - is that the whole thing was unnecessary in the first place.  Putting Measure P on the ballot - it cost at least $12,000 to do so and who knows how much more to distribute those "fix it" communications Hatch mentions above - is unnecessary because it's only an advisory item and has no strength of law, but it made a certain mayor who's running for re-election look firm and decisive.  If it was designed to tell Governor Jerry Brown that we don't want the HOT lanes - that's the alleged purpose - and if it was really THAT important, somebody should have paid more attention to it.  It wasn't really important, so they didn't.  Too bad, because it makes the city look like a bunch of rubes who can't get their act together.

"Realignment" Burglar Arrested In Costa Mesa

REPEAT CRIMINAL ARRESTED
The Costa Mesa Police Department issued a press release today about the arrest of one Daniel Lee Warn of Bloomington, CA who was released as part of the State's "Realignment to Post Release" program.

THANKS, JERRY!
Let's all send Governor Jerry Brown a little note thanking him for sending these criminals BACK into our communities to prey on residents AGAIN!  Contact information for the governor is HERE.

HERE'S THE REPORT
The following two images are the police report of the incident and photos of this "model citizen".  Click on the images to enlarge.

SB311 Signed - Pressure Off Charter Committee

GOOD NEWS LAST NIGHT!
Near the end of the Costa Mesa Charter Committee meeting last night in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), attorney Yolanda Summerhill told the committee and facilitators Dr. Kirk Bauermeister and Dr. Mike Decker that Senate Bill 311 was signed by Governor Jerry Brown, which means that, in general terms, most ballot measures involving charters may ONLY be placed on a General Election ballot.  She affirmed that, if this committee does, in fact, move forward with a recommendation for a charter to the City Council, they have a little more time on their hands now.  The earliest a charter proposal could be placed before the voters would be November, 2014, during the General Election.  Mayor Jim Righeimer wanted their work-product to be on the Primary ballot in June of next year.

MORE TIME TO CRAFT A CHARTER
This, of course, is good news for the residents of Costa Mesa, since the committee now has more time to craft a proper charter and no longer have to worry about being mired in minutia.  They now have several months more to do the work.  I'm not sure all the members will view this as a good idea.

A SMALL CROWD ATTENDED
A few residents and other visitors spoke to the committee, outlining their thoughts about the charter process.  The "Prevailing Wage" issue is one that will soon be discussed at length, so representatives from labor and employer groups expressed their views on that subject.

NO "OFFICERS" AT THIS TIME
This meeting of the committee seemed to run fairly smoothly - a fact acknowledged by several members as they addressed the agendized item about whether to name a Chairman and Vice Chairman.  The group seems to be satisfied with the facilitation model that's being followed now.  Tea Party Tom Pollitt opined that having a Chairman would be good because, once the committee completed its assignment, the media would have someone to ask questions of.  In case you're wondering, that wasn't the strangest thing he said last night.  So, the committee will continue with the facilitation of Bauermeister and Decker.  A good decision.

LEG BONE CONNECTED TO THE KNEE BONE...
Early in the meeting the committee made two decisions that created the beginning bones in the skeleton of what may be a charter for the city.  They agreed to call the city "Costa Mesa" and agreed that the current boundaries be codified.  If this sounds like something that probably should have been done within the first five minutes of the first meeting, you may be right.  But, then, you probably have not been following the proceedings very closely.  NOTHING happens quickly, especially when significant chunks of time were wasted at at least two meetings trying to resolve the whole "Invocation" issue posed by Tea Party Tom.

RESOLVING DEFINITIONS
Again, some issues that you'd have thought should have been resolved earlier in this process - definitions of some basic terms - were discussed.  Those were:
Charter
Transparency
Openness
Retention
Firewalling
Quality
Prevailing Wages

Yeah, I know.. as I said before, NOTHING happens quickly.

ERNESTO SAVES THE DAY - AGAIN
Once again, the professionalism and presence of Director of Public Services, Ernesto Munoz, was the high point of the meeting.  As requested by the committee at the previous meeting, he prepared a memo outlining the current Labor Compliance Procedures, including an extensive list - fourteen (14) items - that outlined steps the staff took during the processing of contracts for the City.  Several members expressed admiration that the staff followed such a comprehensive plan as part of their work assignments.  More than once we heard members exclaim, "I didn't know about that!".  Of course, why would they, or any member of the public?  The memo just captured how the staff goes about doing its job without fanfare, but with a very high level of professionalism.

TIGHTENED FOCUS NEEDED
The committee continues to move slowly through the process they originally prescribed, occasionally getting sidetracked by peripheral dialogue by their members.  That practice needs to be tightened-up or this process will still be dragging along next summer.  One of the problems seems to be the inability of some members to stay focused on the issue at hand.  One member, for example, just had to bring up the unfunded pension liability, which was superfluous to the discussion at the time.


ANOTHER LEGAL REVIEW
Much discussion was held on whether certain phrases should actually be part of the charter, or just part of the preamble.  Tea Party Tom, for example, seemed firm that he wanted a phrase he created to be a major part of the charter.  It was so broad that it basically said the City Council could do anything it wanted.  Wiser folks prevailed and the phrase was sent to the legal folks for an opinion.

ADMISSION
There were a few amusing moments last night.  For example, during the discussions member Harold Weitzberg frequently expressed the opinion that the committee should be wary of changing something that's not broken.  At one point Ron Amburgey said, "I hate to admit it, but I agree with Harold." There was a whole lot of smiling after that one.

A LITTLE TIME TO CHAT
The committee seems to have settled in with a pretty darn collegial approach to discussing important issues.  There was generally respect for each others views and cordial discussion.  However, Brett Eckles suggested that time on the agenda be carved out for each member to just "talk" - to say what may be a specific concern for them.  There was agreement from the group, with others chiming in, indicating they felt just a little stifled by the format.

MIS-APPLICATION OF COIN
One of the frustrating moments for me was the stubborn insistence of member Gene Hutchins that the COIN policy be utilized for ALL contracts.  You may recall that COIN was hatched by Mayor Pro Tem Steve Mensinger to, theoretically, provide more transparency to the labor contract negotiations.  It is specifically NOT designed for public service contracts, but Hutchins just wouldn't let it go.  He kept saying that COIN was working just fine when, in fact, we don't have any idea if it will work at all.  He sounded like he was just parroting things Mensinger says all the time with no facts to back him up.  In the end, the issue was passed to the legal time for an opinion.  There's a whole lot of that going on.

ANOTHER ASSIGNMENT FOR ERNESTO
By the time the meeting finally wrapped up, nearly three and half hours later, Munoz had an assignment to provide information at the next meeting about how costs might have differed on recent contracts IF prevailing wages had NOT been used.  This is another big assignment for him, but he seemed willing to provide the committee the information.  And, Summerhill took away with her several items to research before the next meeting.

NEXT MEETING
Speaking which, the committee will next meet in the EOC on September 11, 2013 beginning at 6:00 p.m.

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Curious Timing Or PR Spinning At The Fairgrounds? (Amended)

BIG NEWS AT THE FAIRGROUNDS!
Tonight I write to you about a curious phenomenon that occurred in one of our local newspapers today.  After what seems like months of absence from the pages of the Daily Pilot - it's really only been a few weeks - all of a sudden today there are three (3) big news stories dealing with the Orange County Fair and Event Center online Tuesday night which will likely appear in print Wednesday.  Yes, I know there is almost always some little piece in the Daily Pilot about this or that event at the Fairgrounds - it's what they do across the street from City Hall, after all.  While informative, I'd have to describe most of those as benign.  Not so with the pieces that will appear today.  NOTE:  Before I was out of bed this morning former Fair Board President Dave Ellis signed in with a couple clarifications.  You can read them below in green italics.

LAST "NEWS" A MONTH AGO
The last "news" story about the Fairgrounds before today was an article on March 22nd describing the cessation of elephant rides during the annual Fair.  Before that was a story a month earlier about two new Fair Board members - Ashleigh Aitken and Stan Tkaczyk - being appointed by Governor Jerry Brown.  Today the Daily Pilot made up for lost time.  In no particular order, here are the three stories regarding the Fairgrounds that appear today.

ONE-SIDED CALCULATION OF VALUE
First, is a piece by Jon Cassidy - former Orange County Register reporter who now writes the occasional story for the Daily Pilot as a contractor - titled, "Fair collects little from Equestrian Center".  You can read it HERE.  It outlines the financial part of the equestrian activities at the Fairgrounds with a slant on the story that would lead one to believe there may be a move afoot to further reduce - or completely eliminate - the equestrian activities at the Fairgrounds.  In recent years the footprint of that activity has been reduced by 50% and it is widely known that former Fair Board president Dave Ellis was a main proponent of ousting the horse folks and paving over that area and using it as additional parking.  No mention is made in this particular article of the value to the community of the equestrian activities on the Fairgrounds property.  Nor is there any historical context of those activities - only raw numbers.  It seems one-sided. (Dave Ellis says,"in 2009 former Fair Board President Julie Vandermost led the effort to terminate the equestrian operation, not me.  It has never come to a vote so you do not know what my position is, or might be.  I think you might be listening to some folks that have a different agenda.  However, I do have a concern fair revenues subsidizing private clubs operating on public land.")

ATTORNEY GENERAL DROPS FAIR BOARD AS CLIENT - AGAIN
The second article appearing today is another piece by the recently-ubiquitous Cassidy titled, "Attorney general drops Fair Board as client."  The thrust of the story, which you can read HERE, is the fact that the State Attorney General has, once again, refused to represent the Fair Board in matters involving the lingering questions about the bogus sale scheme that occurred a couple years ago, citing conflict of interest concerns.  Again, the equestrian users are a centerpiece of this article.  And, again, this piece seems to have a distinctly pro-Fair Board slant.

WHERE DID HE GET THOSE NUMBERS?
The third article appearing today is columnist Steve Smith's little epistle titled, "Fair Board gets it right when helping foster kids."  You can read Smith's disjointed piece HERE.  OK, some of you will say the use of "disjointed" is a little harsh, but that's how I view it.  He begins with a supposed quote from Robert Kennedy, then follows up with a couple other unattributed numerical quotes, including his statement, "80% of complaints will come from 20% of the citizens."  I don't know where he got that one, but I suggest it's not even close.  I suspect that most of the complaints by citizens come from a very small percentage of the populace - maybe 5% or less.  I state that based on a decade of watching our local government in action and realizing that fewer than 50 people regularly speak up at public meetings - those people that actually pay attention to issues.

FOSTER FAMILY NIGHT AT THE FAIR
He then veers into the excellent program wherein the Fair Board provides a "foster family night" - an evening at the Fair before it's open to the public where foster families may attend and not have to deal with the rest of us.  It's a good program and, according to Smith, was previously paid for by private funds.  This year the Board hopes to attract 25,000 people to the event - nearly three times last year's number - and it will be funded by an additional dollar charged on tickets for shows at the Pacific Amphitheater.  (Dave Ellis says, "One more small detail in your Foster Family story.  Steve Smith posted this comment (below) to his story as a clarification on the funding of the event.  This is an important item … Joyce Tucker and I start raising the 150K in the next couple of weeks … I’d like to make it clear that the vast majority of the funds for the event will be from private sources.  The $1 per PacAmp ticket is designed to help if we fall short.  In the event of a surplus of funds the remainder will flow to a college scholarship program for foster children.

smi161 at 3:32 PM April 24, 2012

Readers, please note: Funding for the foster family night will include significant private donations in the range of $150,000. Any leftover funds will be used to establish a scholarship program for Orange County's foster children. SS")

TAX OR NOT?
He then gets into the "is that buck a tax?" issue, and whether people should be subjected to paying an additional tax.  He decides that, yes, we members of the public should fork over another buck to pay for this program.  According to him, "it's the least we can do".  Really?

DISMISSING CRITICS
Smith then brushes aside criticism of the program wherein some apparently have suggested this is another "deal" contrived by the Fair Board.  I don't know if it is or not - Smith cavalierly dismisses that thought - but it speaks volumes about how at least a few members of the public feel about the Fair Board.  They've learned not to trust them.

OPPOSING VIEWS FROM "MALCONTENTS"
In his final sentence Smith says, "One night at the fair is the least we can do to say thank you to these families through a small charge, even if the malcontent 20% believe otherwise."  I highlighted that word because it rings of a phrase planted by someone pushing the Fair Board view of anyone who dares to criticize them.

COINCIDENTAL TIMING OR PR CAMPAIGN?
My point here is that each of these articles have managed to appear all at once on the pages of our local newspaper of record and have just the slightest whiff of PR-flackery in them.  I'm not suggesting that Cassidy nor Smith are biased in their reporting, but none of the three articles seem to carry the kind of balance one might hope for.  Yeah, I know - Steve Smith is a "columnist" and, therefore, not required to be "fair and balanced" in his presentation of issues.  And, of course, he makes his living as a PR flack.

I LOVE THE SMELL OF PR SPIN IN THE MORNING
What I AM suggesting is that this kind of smells like the work of a good Public Relations person - someone hired to pump out "news" with a definite slant in favor of the Fair Board's views.  In my view, there's nothing wrong with that as long as the local media is not complicit in presenting only one side of the issue.  It's something to consider.

Fair Board Changes Guarantees Entertainment

MEDIA GUSHES ABOUT NEW FAIR BOARD MEMBERS
Over the past twenty-four hours the local media - print and electronic - have boiled over with the report that Governor Jerry Brown has made two new appointments to the 32nd Agricultural Association Board of Directors, commonly known in these parts as the Orange County Fair Board.


BALANCED APPOINTMENTS
The two new members are attorney Ashleigh Aitken, a 36-year-old Democrat from Anaheim and businessman Stan Tkaczyk, a 66-year-old Republican from Newport Beach. Aitken has a solid background in her profession and is the daughter of Uber-attorney Wylie Aitken. Tkaczyk is a retired president of Rainbow Disposal Company and is the husband of the irrepressible Orange County Register columnist, Barbara Venezia. I don't know Ms. Aitken, but Stan and Barbara are friends.

READ OTHER VIEWS
As I mentioned, local media outlets covered this story like a blanket. You can read Lauren Williams' Daily Pilot article HERE and Jon Cassidy's Orange County Register coverage HERE. In addition, you can read Vern Nelson's Orange Juice Blog almost apoplectic coverage HERE and Norberto Santana, Jr.'s coverage in the Voice of OC HERE. A note: Stan Tkaczyk is a member of the Voice of OC Board of Directors.

ANTICIPATING SPARKS
I, perhaps to a lesser extent than Nelson, almost salivate at the idea of Stan Tkaczyk sitting side-by-side with Dave Ellis on the Fair Board. I suspect the sparks between them might resemble some of those high school physics experiments some of us performed that shot sparks several inches and made us jump. Some will recall that Ellis, while the political advisor to current Assembly candidate Leslie Daigle in her Newport Beach City Council campaign against Venezia in the last decade, went beyond propriety and attacked Tkaczyk's business, which had been sold to its employees. Rather than subject those innocent workers to harassment, Venezia dropped out of the race. Memories of that event linger.

GOOD MOVE BY GOVERNOR BROWN
Personally, I think these two appointments will go a long way to producing solid, balanced decisions by this Fair Board. You can read the current roster HERE. The one-sidedness of the previous board led to mischief, much of which has been flogged at length by opponents of the bogus plan to sell-off the Fairgrounds that raised the community blood pressure for a couple years. I hope, however, that as other Fair Board terms expire, the governor will not permit the political pendulum to swing clear to the other side and only appoint liberals. The community is not well-served by a Fair Board that tilts extremely to either side.

THEY JOIN THE BOARD THURSDAY
Congratulations to both Ashleigh Aitken and Stan Tkaczyk on their appointment to the Fair Board. They will be officially welcomed to the Fair Board at its meeting Thursday, February 23rd at 10:00 at the Fair headquarters building. Tkaczyk got the jump today when he was sworn in by Judge Steve Bromberg - a former mayor of Newport Beach - in his court room. Barbara Venezia, in her own special way, was there to record the event as one of her "Barbara's Bits", and has permitted me to share that video clip with you.

More Red Meat For Pension Reformers

THE REGISTER'S BURIED PENSION TREASURE
Sunday's Orange County Register was a treasure trove for those among us who believe drastic action must be taken to reform pensions in California.


GREENHUT ON BROWN'S PENSION PROPOSALS
Steven Greenhut, editor of www.calwatchdog.com, presents us with a commentary on the editorial pages titled "Odds against Jerry on pensions", HERE, that addresses Governor Jerry Brown's recently announced pension reform proposal. While I'm not going to try to steal his thunder - you can read his words at the link above - suffice it to say that he doesn't think Brown's proposals have chance of passing. This paragraph probably says it all, "But the plan probably is dead on arrival in the union-dominated Legislature. One might even argue that Brown is being cynical here - offering reasonably tough reform proposals that he knows will go nowhere. Then he can claim that he has tried to fix the problem but could not surmount the insurmountable." Enjoy your read.

OC WATCHDOG HITS US AGAIN
Then, OC Watchdog columnist Teri Sforza presents us with her most recent update on the "$100,000 Dollar Club" - those Californians currently raking in $100,000 or more in pensions. Her column, "$100,000 pension club explodes", HERE, is designed to startle you - it will. For example, she tells us that, between 2005 and 2011 the number of people receiving CalPERS pensions in California rose by 10,358 - a 563% increase!

STARTLING NUMBERS
And, although she provides us with the "top ten" - those folks receiving almost unbelievable pensions - Sforza also tells us that the average CalPERS pensioner receives $27,564 and that those in the "$100,000 Club", 12,199 pensioners, represent only 2.3% of the total 536,234 retirees. Still, the numbers rock you back.

MORE RED MEAT
So, I suspect Tuesday's Costa Mesa City Council closed session meeting - which will discuss labor negotiations - will likely include some of these numbers. And, if I were a betting guy, I suspect that they will be presented out of context.

PENSIONS ARE A PROBLEM
Let me be clear about one thing. I've heard all the public presentations by "pension experts" and I've heard the self-serving comments by members of the Costa Mesa City Council over the past couple years. I've had conversations and correspondence with members of the employee organizations on the subject and have heard scores of speakers address this issue before the City Council. There is NO doubt in my mind that our current pensions situation has our city in a tough spot. The word "unsustainable" keeps being tossed around and, much as I'd like to throw it right back in the faces of those who use it as an oratorical cudgel, I can't. I believe that something MUST be done to address the ongoing costs of our public employee pensions and that "something" is likely a two-tier system, combined with an increased participation in the costs by employees.

TWO-TIER NOT A QUICK FIX
However, those "pension experts" all agree that if we started tomorrow to offer a reduced pension benefit to new hires, it will not significantly affect our pension costs for years - probably decades. And thereby lies the problem we face. We have folks on our City Council - Jim Righeimer in particular - who campaigned as a "pension reformer", but finds himself in a boat without a paddle. He can't do anything about the pensions because the legally consummated contracts will be in effect until after his term of office expires - unless he gets recalled even sooner.

HEAVY-HANDEDNESS LED TO LAWSUIT
Righeimer's solution - ratified by the majority on the City Council - is to get rid of the employees who are earning those pensions and the "tool" being used is the now-infamous "outsourcing" scheme. And, in their haste to impose this draconian measure, the council forgot the rules, which has resulted in a law suit filed by employees to protect their rights. In response to this situation the City has hired an expensive mercenary - renowned labor lawyer Richard Kreisler, who has a track record of "dealing" with these kinds of issues - to bring some horsepower to the negotiations. He will bill the City $300 per hour - with no cap - to "deal" with this lawsuit.

PAST CORDIAL RELATIONSHIPS GONE
In years past the relationship between the management of the City and the employee bargaining units has been cordial, right up to and including the most recent difficult years 2008-2010, when the individual units stepped up when asked and tried to find ways to help the City over the dire financial problems it faced. Nobody held a gun to anyone's head - both parties agreed on the contracts and side letters signed at the time. Today, it is my impression that the bargaining units have so little trust in the folks currently running the City that they are very apprehensive about opening discussions at all. We KNOW the City Council doesn't trust the employees because CEO Tom Hatch told them that at a meeting earlier this year with members of the police department staff.

DON'T SEE ANY LIGHT YET
I'd like to find some light at the end of this very, very dark tunnel, but I'm not sure where it will come from. As long as this City Council perpetuates the adversarial relationship - until trust is restored on both sides - I just don't see how the employees can feel safe attempting to try to work things out. Maybe I'm wrong - I hope so. I hope wisdom and trust will prevail - and soon.