Back At It With A...

WE SURVIVED ANOTHER JULY 4TH!
Well, now, we've all survived yet another Independence Day celebration and are ready to get back to work... So far, no information is available from the Costa Mesa public safety folks as to what, if any, kind of infractions or incidents they responded to during the holiday weekend. Preliminary word is that things were "OK" in our city. (Late report by Alan Blank in the Daily Pilot, HERE, tells us that 42 miscreants were cited for fireworks violations this year - a much larger number than in past years - and that 8 were cited for illegal fireworks, which carries a $500 fine.) I do know that, upon my return from an out-of-town excursion Sunday, there were still illegal bottle rockets being fired into the late-night sky... Oh, well. I know who was firing those off last night - apparently as a parting shot as he finally moves out of town. Adios, Brian... don't let the bottle rocket hit you in the fanny as you leave.

BACK TO BUSINESS - WITH A BANG!
The Costa Mesa City Council meeting Tuesday has all the earmarks to be one for the ages. First of all, it's a full moon - never a good sign when our council meets. I suspect we'll see many "interesting" speakers tomorrow evening. One guy, for sure, is going to appear to be "howling at the moon" - as usual.

MALNOURISHMENT ON THE DAIS
Second, this is the first "foodless" council meeting - they chopped the pre-meeting meal budget, so expect to hear lots of growling stomachs and see some very grumpy council members as the meeting goes on and on and on. I suggested someone arrange for a "roach coach" to materialize in the back parking lot at City Hall around 4:15, to allow famished staffers and council members to grab some nachos or a day-old burrito before the council meeting. Yummy!

SHOPPING CARTS STARTS THE FUN
The agenda alone makes this one worth the price of admission. Right off the top, following the consent calendar, is Public Hearing #1, which deals with a proposed new ordinance requiring vendors around town to implement new systems to insure that their shopping carts do not leave the boundaries of their parking lots. I've gone through the entire proposed ordinance and suspect many vendors will be less than happy with it. I find myself wondering just how many will show up at the meeting, though.

DEVELOPER MAJORITY HAS FINAL SAY
For example, Section 15-19 deals with Appeals. Section F tells us that the Planning Commission is the final authority on these issues - no appeal to the City Council is possible. As I contemplate having Jim Righeimer, Steve Mensinger and Colin McCarthy be the final authority on ANY issue I get chills down my spine! This is a very bad idea, so we'll have to see how it shakes out.

UNDOING MONAHAN'S HEART-BREAKING DAMAGE
That item is followed by Old Business #1, the request by Katrina Foley and Wendy Leece to reverse the draconian budget cuts proposed by Gary Monahan at the last meeting. Those items, specifically, are:

a. Neighbors for Neighbors
b. Sister City Program
c. Grad night contributions
d. Mobile Recreation Program
e. Teen Programs - TeWinkle School/Downtown Recreation Center
f. Youth Sports programs
g. Concerts in the Park.

Since Monahan had the votes last time, it's going to take a serious community turnout to change Mansoor, Bever and Monahan's minds on these issues.

URGENCY ORDINANCE - MASSAGE PARLORS
Next comes New Business #1, the request by the Police Department for an urgency ordinance imposing an immediate 45-day city-wide moratorium on the approval of any business license, use permit or any applicable application related to Massage establishments and/or practitioners. The Police Department apparently feels those kind of establishments are fronts for prostitution and want everything to stop immediately so they can get a handle on this situation in our town. This 45-day moratorium is more likely to become much longer - maybe two years...

STOPPING STATE THEFT
New Business #2 is a request by staff for the City Council to authorize the City Attorney to cooperate with the League of California Cities in litigation challenging the constitutionality of the State to seize the city's street maintenance and Redevelopment funds. This year that would represent around $1.8 million from Costa Mesa.

MORE DAY LABORER CONTROLS
Finally, at the end of what promises to be an action-packed agenda, we find New Business #3, which is simply entitled "Solicitation of Employment, Business, Contribution from Streets". This issue deals with a proposal to follow the lead of the City of Orange in it's efforts to manage day laborers in their city. Costa Mesa presently has a non-solicitation ordinance - passed by a very enlightened City Council more than 20 years ago - to control day laborers around town. When it was passed the city also opened up the Job Center on the Westside, to provide an alternative to gathering helter skelter around town. It worked extremely well until the angry little knot of self-proclaimed "improvers" - guided by one particularly virulent racist who doesn't even live in that part of town - decided they didn't like all those brown faces in their part of town. They thought the closure of the Job Center would make them sufficiently uncomfortable that they'd move out of town - maybe to Santa Ana. It didn't and they didn't.

MONAHAN'S HISTORY OF SLY MOVES
Some will recall that Gary Monahan, as has become his style, stealthily had the subject of the Job Center placed on the agenda, the result of which was that is was summarily shut down. You will also recall that was the beginning of massive protests on our streets and at council meetings, one of which resulted in the arrest of Benito Acosta who's lawsuit against our young jailer (is he still one?)/mayor is still pending and will be heard in October.

NO PRESS - NO ATTENDANCE?
This item has gotten virtually no press, so I doubt many people will be in the audience tomorrow evening to address this issue. That's too bad, because this issue has the potential to severely restrict the freedoms we all have on our city streets, even though it's specifically directed at Latino day laborers.

EMPTY STOMACHS, GRUMPY PEOPLE = BAD DECISIONS
So, listen for the growling of empty stomachs over the shouting tomorrow night. I think, if these kind of agendas are going to be the norm, the city should consider charging for admission and make council meetings a profit center to help in our current budget dilemma. I think I might borrow a costume from one of the guys at Anaheim Stadium and cruise the council chambers aisles around 9 p.m., selling bags of peanuts and hot dogs to the starving masses.

Leece Doesn't Get It!

BEVER WANTS A JOB CENTER
Mayor Eric Bever recently suggested opening a new, improved Job Center as a method of "fixing" the problem of loitering day laborers around town. Gee, that seems like a good idea, since the previous Job Center did precisely that for almost two decades before the City Council, of which Bever was a part, decided to close it a couple years ago.

BEVER WANTS TIGHTER RULES
Bever wants to tighten up our municipal ordinances that cover solicitation and also tighten up the requirements for "clients" of the new Job Center - using the recently enacted rules implemented in the City of Orange.

HASTE CAN MAKE (LEGAL) WASTE
I've read those ordinances and the rules for use of their Resource Center. It seems to me that they can create significant legal problems for our city if enacted. It's my understanding that they are currently being reviewed for legal challenges.

LEECE IS CLUELESS
One thing is sure - at least one of our council members doesn't understand what Orange is doing. Wendy Leece - in a response to a question by the Daily Pilot editorial staff - indicated that Orange requires CITIZENSHIP for any workers hoping to register for work at their Resource Center. This is FALSE! Orange requires a valid ID and documentation verifying the applicant's authorization to work legally in this country - which DOES NOT require citizenship.

Sadly, this is so typical of her comprehension of issues that it's almost scary.

JOINED AT THE HIP
In an interesting sidebar, only she and Allan Mansoor responded to the question, with Bever, Katrina Foley and Linda Dixon choosing not to respond to the question for whatever reason. It doesn't surprise me that Leece and Mansoor responded. They've been practically inseparable since their "conjoined twins" campaign two years ago when they surfed the wave of brown bodies in Costa Mesa to victory.

BETTER STUDY HABITS REQUIRED
As this issue moves forward let's keep our fingers crossed that Leece will study the subject a little more closely before making such blatantly inaccurate statements. Homework, after all, is part of the job.

Does Bever Want The Job Center Back?

DAY LABORER FORUM
The Daily Pilot this morning brings us an article by Alan Blank that discusses a forum in which Costa Mesa Police Chief Chris Shawkey participated that apparently addressed the subject of day laborers. The article, HERE, doesn't tell us who the other participants in the forum were, but quotes Shawkey and Mayor Eric Bever extensively - Bever and Wendy Leece attended the forum.

BOGUS PHOTO
According to Blank, Shawkey apparently told a story about an email he recently received which complained about loitering day laborers and used a bogus photograph - one taken years ago - to illustrate it's point. Shawkey is quoted as saying, "People are out there trying to generate issues that aren't even there."

FABRICATED ISSUES NOT NEW
Gee, no kidding, Chief! I've been saying that for years. There is at least one "activist" (that word just seems too benign when describing this guy) in our town who has a long and dark history of fabricating issues to inflame residents against our Latino population. "Marauding" soccer players at Paularino Park comes to mind. Although I don't know this reference by Shawkey was about him, I sure wouldn't be surprised.

CAUGHT RED-HANDED
Further bolstering that thought is his blog entry, HERE, published at the crack of dawn this morning which leaps to solicit current photos of loitering day workers as specific locations around town. He was in such a hurry to pound out this entry and use "Return to Reason" as an epithet that he mis-identified the author of the Daily Pilot article as his father. Methinks thou doest protest too much... Beware of skulking "improvers" with cameras as you stop at your local 7-11 lest you be recorded for posterity as a "loitering day worker"!

LACK OF JOB CENTER HURTS ENFORCEMENT?
The Daily Pilot article, as you will read, also carries an interesting quote attributed to Eric Bever. When addressing Costa Mesa's approach to managing day laborers he is quoted as saying, "Our strategy is lacking some regards. Closing our job center detracted from our ability to enforce," If that quote is accurate, Bever is acknowledging what I've said since the closure of the Job Center was first proposed - that it provides an effective method to manage and control the day laborers in our city. It solved a problem back when it was opened in the late 1980s and became a model program other cities followed, including our neighbors in Laguna Beach.

BEVER WANTS A JOB CENTER?
So, Mayor Bever, are you REALLY saying that we should open the Job Center again? That will certainly make for an interesting plank in your re-election campaign platform.

The Orange Coast Voice - Costly Legal Action and Day Laborer Harassment

As we all begin to breathe a little easier - both literally and figuratively - because most of the horrendous fires here in southern California are either contained or look to be contained within the next couple days, our attention turns to more mundane things - like the Benito Acosta fiasco.

THE ORANGE COAST VOICE REPORTS
Over at the Orange Coast Voice, published by activists Duane Roberts and John Earl, the current issue presents some interesting statistics about the trials involving Benito Acosta. The current issue may be found at this link. According to that publication, the City of Costa Mesa has already spent more than $130,000 on the two trials involving Acosta, with no end in sight.

LAW FIRM BILLING RECORDS
Please take the time to read this fascinating account and to review the PDF files linked within the story reflecting the bills from the two law firms involved. It looks to me as though the meter continues to spin, racking up significant charges in both the criminal trial - presently dismissed, but perhaps to be appealed - and the pending civil rights law suit filed on behalf of Acosta by the ACLU.

"CHILLING EFFECT"
In the same issue there's an interesting article entitled "Chilling Effect", which addresses the current condition of day laborers in Costa Mesa and their relationship with the Costa Mesa Police. I'm not going to attempt to interpret Earl's words - please read them for yourselves. I will say, though, that the closure of the Job Center has exacerbated tensions between the police and day laborers. This has been compounded by the anti-immigrant attitude of our current City Council majority and their band of "improver" buddies. When you read Earl's account of this situation you will come to realize that relationships between the city government and the Latino community will continue to be strained until there is a change in attitude at the top in our city government. Right now, that seems highly unlikely.