Rules? What Rules?

FINISHING THE SAME DAY
The good news from the Costa Mesa City Council meeting Tuesday night was, well, it ended Tuesday night.  Considering the length of many recent meetings, the early adjournment was welcome to those of us who remained in the auditorium at 11:30 p.m.  You can read Joe Serna's account in the Daily Pilot HERE, Lauren Jow's Orange County Register coverage HERE and Joe Hill's account of the meeting from the LiberalOC blog HERE.

ARROGANT BEVER BLOWS MORE STAFF TIME
Of course, that good news was more than balanced by other news.  For example, in order to wrap-up this meeting before midnight, at 11:00 p.m.  Mayor Eric Bever decided - and was supported by most council members - to shove New Business item #4 - the report from the Neighborhood Improvement Task Force - to a future meeting when, in Bever's words, it can start earlier so more people can attend and hear the report.  That was no small insult to those of us who actually attended to hear that report and were still there.  I guess the 20 or so of us still in the auditorium don't count.  And, it was a terrible affront to the many city staffers and consultants who had waited five hours to provide the council with their reports, only to be shoved aside.  There was a whole lot of muttering going on as they filed out of the council chambers after wasting basically a half day waiting, and waiting.  

RUDE, CRUDE AND IMMATURE
Ever since he became mayor earlier this year when Gary Monahan abdicated his throne, Bever has demonstrated an increasing arrogance and impatience, having cursed from the dais and told the audience to "just go home" on another occasion.  Clearly, he's tired of his job and, believe me, more than a few of us are REALLY tired of rude, churlish and infantile behavior on the dais.  Instead of providing a calm mature hand guiding the proceedings, he's frequently the agitator of rude, insensitive, inappropriate behavior - like a school-yard bully who just must get the last word in.

SHUFFLING THE DECK AGAIN
This all began when Bever moved New Business #5, Civic Openness In Negotiations (COIN), to the front of the line.  He didn't give us a reason, but I suspect the fact that $300 -per-hour attorney Richard Kreisler - the City's hired-gun negotiator - was part of the program and his meter was running.  That meant two other contract attorneys - Celeste Brady and Chris Neumeyer (also with meters running) - had to cool their heels, instead.  It also meant that councilman Steve Mensinger's scheme would be heard early in the evening, where more people in the audience would hear it.  It is a campaign season, after all, and Mensinger continues to campaign from the dais.
 

SELECTIVE OPACITY
This scheme, conjured up and presented by Mensinger, who had Finance and Information Technology Director Bobby Young and the aforementioned Kreisler flying as wing men,  purportedly was hatched to provide more transparency to the negotiation process.  Unfortunately, it appears to only work one way.  One speaker, activist Robin Leffler, referred to it as "selective opacity", a term for which she gave credit to another.

 APPARENTLY DOESN'T TRUST HATCH
Mensinger's Scheme calls for an independent negotiator - like Kreisler, at $300 per hour - to be the "principal negotiator" in employee contracts.  The reason behind that requirement is that Mensinger apparently thinks that an employee - his guy, Chief Executive Officer, Tom Hatch - can't be trusted to negotiate a fair contract for the City when he might be a beneficiary of that contract.  That, of course, is a steaming pile of manure.  Hatch is NOT part of a bargaining unit - he has his own deal with the City Council.  But, I guess Mensinger and his three pals on the dais just don't trust him.  I found that to be very offensive, since Hatch may be the most honest, honorable man sitting on the dais.

INDEPENDENT ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
Mensinger's Scheme also requires an independent economic analysis of the fiscal impacts attributed to each term and condition of employment subject to the meet and confer process required by the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act.  This analysis would be made available to the public at least thirty (30) days before consideration by the City Council.  A very specific, detailed format was presented as part of the staff report.  No details of what this analysis will cost was provided, but I doubt if it will be an insignificant amount.

WATCHING SAUSAGE BEING MADE...
Mensinger's Scheme also requires "reporting out" of closed session with the facts, as well as their significance and impact, of all prior offers, counteroffers, and the meet and confer-related bargaining positions received or made by either the City or an employee organization and that are no longer being considered.  At first glance you might think, "Hey, this is great!  We finally get to know all the gory details!"  Well, all of that takes time and, when Kreisler attempted to explain how this would work, it was clear that the goal was to present only one side of the equation, thereby, perhaps, painting the employee associations as stubborn, greedy folks.  More on that in a minute.
MICRO-MANAGING
That particular element of Mensinger's Scheme is a classic example of micro-managing.  As we've seen over the past many months, negotiations take a long time.  The negotiators sit behind closed doors, trying to hammer out an agreement.  Then they each take the proposals back to their respective decision makers - the council and the membership of the associations.  If parts of the agreement are unacceptable to either side, back they go to that closed room for more negotiations.  This back-and-forth is impacted by meeting schedules, so they can actually take months.  Nothing in this plan will change that.  In fact, it may exacerbate the problem.


CONTACT DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENT
Mensinger's Scheme also requires that each council member would be required to disclose the identity of any employee association representative with whom that council member has had any communications regarding the subject matter of a pending meet and confer process.  This element became a flash point of controversy because councilwoman Wendy Leece proposed a similar rule that was broader in scope not too long ago.  That rule, which Leece proposed be folded into this ordinance, would require council members to divulge any exparte communications they had with anyone on issues before them.  Previously that was eviscerated by Jim Righeimer before it was rejected.  Several speakers last night resurrected that issue, angering four council members on the dais.

PRIOR NOTICE
Mensinger's Scheme also requires that, prior to rendering a final City Council determination regarding adoption of a memorandum of understanding, that matter shall be heard at a minimum of two (2) City Council meetings and that the materials for the matter shall be posted on the City web site for at least seven (7) days prior to the first meeting.

NO TIME LINE...
One thing that was missing from the presentation last night was a time line.  As I read through the staff report and listened to the rhetoric from the dais I found myself thinking that this is going to be a VERY cumbersome ordinance to follow - a set of rules contrived by a guy who doesn't like rules in the first place - that, rather than enhance the negotiation process, will likely bog it down.  When I later asked Young about this he told me they didn't have enough information yet.  So, I guess this is going to be like asking us to step out onto what appears to be quicksand and hope we don't sink. 

VIOLATING THE RULES - AGAIN
Perhaps the most sad, yet amusing, segment came when Leece expressed curiosity about how this plan came to fruition since it was obvious that much more than 4 hours of staff time was required to produce the report.  As Hatch back-peddled, attempting to recall how it evolved he eventually acknowledged that it did, indeed, require more than 4 hours, Mensinger feigned ignorance of the rule - Council Policy 300-6 - that requires specific permission when more than 4 hours of staff time will be necessary.  He said he thought it was just a suggestion!  Righeimer expressed concern and implied that it was time for that rule to go!

 COMING BACK AFTER LABOR DAY
Finally, after more than 90 minutes of discussion and sixteen residents rising to speak on the issue, the council voted to give it a first reading - 4-1, Leece voting no.  It will return for the second reading - and perhaps some modification - the first meeting following the Labor Day holiday, September 4th.  That seems somehow appropriate...

FINALLY!
It was 9:15 before the council finally got to the Consent Calendar, which moved quickly, fortunately.

RIGHEIMER'S RANT
Earlier in the meeting, during Public Comments, several residents living in the 400 block of Ford Road stepped to the podium to complain about the rising crime rate on that short stretch of roadway.  Thefts, burglaries and assaults were reported.  After hearing their comments Bever postulated that it was due to the recent addition of secure storage facilities for our rising homeless population at The Crossing Church, just up the road on Newport Boulevard.  He and Righeimer speculated that the problem was due to the motels in the area.  They've budgeted $500,000 this year to "purchase" one or more.  Not a chance with that pittance but it gives him a chance to pontificate.  This provided Righeimer with an opportunity for one of his predictable anti-union rants.  I've provided you with a little video clip in which he 1) discusses confidential details about negotiations and 2) points his pen at Police Chief Tom Gazsi and angrily directs him to re-deploy his motor officers to solve this problem immediately - a violation of our current Municipal Code.  Perhaps the most telling quote from him during this rant, when Leece tried to stop him from divulging information about negotiations he said, "I can talk about whatever I want to talk here."  You can watch his multiple melt-down below.


 ABUSE OF POWER

During Council Member Comments Mensinger went off on a tangent, telling us about a trip he recently made "with a congressman" - that probably means Dana Rhorabacher - to Mojave for a visit to what has become a civilian space port.  He regaled us with stories about the success of private industry doing things better and cheaper than the government can.  No hidden message there - it was right out in the open.  However, the end of the story was his real point.  He told us about meeting with an Air Force General who managed to get by on only $9,700 per month, plus housing and uniforms.  The clear implication here was that our municipal employees make more than a man who laid his life on the line for his country.  I've never been so offended by such shameless electioneering - a rant so full of misrepresentations it's impossible to know where to start.  Suffice it to say, Steve Mensinger will continue to campaign from the dais, using his bully pulpit - a perfect term in his case - to distort facts.

GOOD-BYE, BIG LEAGUE DREAMS
One bright spot was the shelving of Gary Monahan's proposal to privatize the TeWinkle Park Athletic Complex.  After months of meetings by the task force created for that issue, the council finally came to their senses and decided to abandon this bogus scheme.  The sticking points - in addition to the groundswell of complaints from Mesa del Mar residents - was the sale of alcohol within 600 feet of Davis School and a parking problem that seemed unresolvable.  As predicted, Righeimer suggested that Bob Knapp, recently hired Recreation Manager, should be tasked with finding new ways to maximize that facility. 

WIRELESS TOWERS
The new ordinance to apply some controls over Wireless Telecommunication Towers in the public right-of-way was passed after presentions by Public Works Director Ernesto Muno and Deputy City Attorney Chris Neumeyer.  Monahan asked that the height restriction be RAISED to 35 feet - five feet higher than the staff recommendation!

ANOTHER RFP APPROVED AND PUT ON HOLD
The other big item on the agenda was the contract for Parks and Landscape Maintenance.  The short version of this issue is that the staff did a good job of vetting the seven (7) applicants and seemed to have made the correct decision on a choice of vendor.  However, due to the injunction currently in place, this contract may NOT be implemented until the pending lawsuit is resolved.  It was implied by Righeimer that if his Charter passes action might be taken sooner.  Contract City Attorney Tom Duarte told us that a trial date may be set soon - maybe next week.  He didn't expect to see it on a docket until after the first of the year.  So, we wait for November on this one.  The council voted to approve the contract and authorized Hatch to implement it when possible.

BLAMING EMPLOYEES
Righeimer used this issue to, again, blame the employees for the problem, implying that they - not the council which caused this problem when they chose to not follow their own rules last year - were responsible for the City not saving over $1 million on this project - a plan that will see 13 of their fellow employees terminated.

DISREGARDING RULES
I was left with a couple strong recollections of last night's meeting.  First, many members of this council abhor rules and will ignore them any chance they get.  This arrogant disregard for rules in place to protect the residents should make every resident shudder when contemplating Jim Righeimer's Charter passing and placing unfettered power in their hands.

DECORUM ABSENT
The other feeling I came away with was deep sadness from watching Bever and Righeimer run roughshod over speakers and Wendy Leece.  Decorum has taken an extended holiday and I don't expect it to return until a new council is seated.  Watching Righeimer rant meeting after meeting is getting pretty old.  As he pontificates and vilifies he acts like people are not watching, for goodness sake.  And Bever continues to set low watermarks for his personal behavior, demonstrating that he really never has advanced past puberty.  His junior high school antics are an embarrassment for our city and we just have to hope he won't step so far over the line that he creates legal complications for us.  Thank goodness he's termed-out.

Charter Idea Not New To Costa Mesa

EXCELLENT ARTICLE ON CHARTER HISTORY
This afternoon Joe Serna, writing in the Daily Pilot, has an excellent piece describing Costa Mesa's first pass at considering shifting from a General Law city to a Charter city - way, way, way back in 1971. You can read Serna's article HERE.



FRED AND HANK SIGN IN
In his piece Serna quotes some of the very senior citizens who were involved in this process, including former City Manager Fred Sorsabal - the man who hired and trained recently-retired City Manager, Allan Roeder - and long-time Costa Mesa resident and educator, Hank Panian.

PANIAN'S LETTER
The Pilot is also running a letter Panian wrote to them back in January about this first effort, HERE. In case you're wondering why we should care about what Hank Panian thinks on this issue, you can read more about him HERE, in a piece published by Orange Coast College a few years ago, and HERE, in a piece Daily Pilot columnist Jim Carnett wrote about him a little over a year ago. He's a man who has spent virtually all his adult life as an educator and community activist in Costa Mesa trying to make this town a better place to live.

WHAT'S THE RUSH?
What I take away from this article and Panian's letter is that this process should not be done in haste. It requires more careful deliberation than it's being given right now. The ONLY reason to rush this process is because it suits Jim Righeimer's agenda - fewer voters vote in the Primary Elections and, since only the Republican Presidential ticket will be contested in June, he has a much better chance of a voter pool that leans toward his way of thinking.

LISTEN TO THEIR VIEWS
The views of these highly respected men should carry some weight with the voters of this community. Jim Righeimer's hasty, politically-opportunistic Charter should be rejected in June.

Is Jimmy Fitzy Out At The Sanitary District?

THE EXCREMENT HIT THE OSCILLATING UNIT
As anticipated, based on a review of previous meeting minutes, the regular monthly meeting of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District found itself, figuratively, knee-deep in effluent Thursday night.

JIMMY FITZY "INCOMPATIBLE"?
The issue that prompts my characterization is the presentation of a legal opinion - the second such opinion - that District Board Member Jim Fitzpatrick's position on the Board has been determined to be "incompatible" with his position as a Costa Mesa Planning Commissioner.

SPARKS A'FLYIN'...
Although I was not present, reports from the scene indicate that the discussion on this issue was, to put it mildly, animated. Apparently Fitzpatrick is not happy with this decision because it could cause him to lose his position on the Sanitary District Board. I'm told that, at one point, Director Art Perry asked Fitzpatrick if he was going to resign. Fitzpatrick did not respond.

SPECIAL MEETING TUESDAY
Next Tuesday, February 28, 2012, at 9:00 a.m. the Sanitary District Board will meet in a Special Meeting - read the agenda HERE - at which, following public comments, they will immediately adjourn to a Closed Session to "discuss initiation of litigation (Quo Warranto to determine if Director Fitzpatrick's appointment to the Costa Mesa Planning Commission caused a vacation of his office as Director as being incompatible/conflict of interest) (Gov. Code 54956.9)"

EXPENSIVE AND LENGTHY LITIGATION
It is my understanding that such litigation could cost upwards of $40,000 and could take months to resolve. I also understand that it is possible to request an opinion directly from the State Attorney General on the issue of incompatibility.




NOT A NEW ISSUE
This is not a new issue. It actually began last summer and has dragged on until the present time, coming to a full boil within the past three months. The issue was also addressed when Fitzpatrick, then a first-term Planning Commissioner, decided to run for a seat on the Sanitary District Board. Mayor Gary Monahan, in a city council meeting during open session, gave his view that Fitzpatrick holding both seats was not "incompatible" because he, as a sitting council member, also recently held a seat on the Sanitary District Board.

DIFFERENT RULES FOR COUNCILMEN
However, it is my understanding that the prohibition that applies to Fitzpatrick would NOT apply to a council member, based on a section of the State Health and Safety Code which exempted Monahan from that prohibition.



SO MANY QUESTIONS...
So, Tuesday's meeting will be very interesting. Will the Sanitary District Board choose to move forward with the litigation? Will Fitzpatrick fight that decision and force the expenditure of time and treasure to enforce two legal opinions? Will the Board, following the Closed Session, use item III on the agenda - Reconsider Committee and Other Assignments of Directors - to strip Fitzpatrick of any committee assignments and, de facto, render his participation on the board moot until the legal issue is resolved? Will Fitzpatrick resign from the Sanitary District Board? Or, will he resign from his Planning Commission seat? There certainly is plenty to think about over this weekend, and that doesn't even consider the council meeting on Tuesday evening that will deal with the Homeless Task Force Report and the Mid-year Budget Review. Yikes!

SERNA WILL REPORT NEXT WEEK
Daily Pilot Ace Reporter Joe Serna was present and will have a long story on this meeting, and the meeting Tuesday, early in the week. I look forward to his first-person account of the "festivities".

Revisiting Hatch's Comments

TAKING ANOTHER LOOK
The end of last week I wrote about the speech Costa Mesa CEO Tom Hatch gave to the good folks at the monthly meeting of Mesa Verde Community, Inc. last Wednesday evening. According to the report published in the Daily Pilot, reporter Joe Serna told us that Hatch, referring to increasing the size of the City staff, had pledged, "As long as I'm our leader, I'll make sure we don't do that." You can re-read Serna's article HERE.

I WROTE ABOUT IT
I read Serna's report with some consternation, then launched off onto my views on that pronouncement. You can read what I wrote HERE.

HATCH - HIS INTENT MISINTERPRETED
Saturday Hatch called me at home. He was wrapping up the end of a long day and a long week, and wanted to clear up a misunderstanding about what he said last Wednesday night in Mesa Verde. He told me that it is not his intent to NEVER fill vacant slots, but that he doesn't foresee any circumstance in the future when the city would return to the high-water mark of 611 employees. He does plan to selectively fill openings to round out a core staff and will attempt to use contractors or temporary staff members to meet peak needs as they occur.

CHECKED WITH OTHERS
Hatch told me Serna got it wrong in his report and encouraged me to contact others who attended the meeting to get their take on what he said versus what was reported, which I have done. I've communicated with a few long time Mesa Verde residents who were actually in the room last Wednesday and they've shared their thoughts with me about Hatch's speech.

AFFIRMATION AND PRAISE
Some of them understood the message Hatch was trying to send - that he didn't expect to ever get back to the peak staffing levels of the past - and also heard that "not on my watch" comment, too. That phrase was apparently followed by high praise for the employees who are dealing with undermanned departments and are learning to do more with less. Regarding outsourcing, one of my correspondents told me that Hatch was confident that some outsourcing might be appropriate, but in other cases it might not. I found myself thinking that, unfortunately, Hatch isn't the only person making these decisions.

MENSINGER IS A REAL LIFE BIFF TANNEN
Since I've begun nosing around this issue I've had another interesting report from that evening, too. Apparently following Hatch's presentation non-elected council member Steve Mensinger chided him because "he said too much" to the group. This kind of micromanaging is what happens when a guy who is used to having his minions immediately levitate when he says "jump" is handed a position of high authority. He has not had to earn the job by campaigning. He has not had to convince the electorate of the purity of his intentions and his worthiness for the position. Unlike every other person currently sitting on the dais, he didn't need more than 10,000 votes to secure a seat - he only needed three. He, therefore, assumes that dictatorial brevity is more appropriate than true leadership communication. He doesn't understand that in a governmental leadership position it's necessary to explain the "Why" of his actions. It's an alien concept to him. We see this frequently on the dais when Wendy Leece, for example, challenges his actions. He cannot wait to chide her with some "clever" retort. He's very much like Eric Bever in that respect. In fact, his tendency to try to push people around, to bully them, is very reminiscent of the character Biff Tannen in the "Back To The Future" movies.

BACK TO HATCH
But I'm off track. Based on my conversations with him and input from others in the room last Wednesday, I have no doubt that Tom Hatch sincerely believes that our municipal government must operate with fewer full-time, permanent staff members. I believe he feels this way because the current economic conditions force us to do more with less. I also believe that he understands that an inflexible position is simply bad management, and that he will assess the circumstances as they evolve and fill each position as required.

COUNCIL DIRECTION MAKES ME UNEASY
That being said, I'm still very uneasy about the direction this current city council majority is heading. While it seems to me that the whole outsourcing scheme is being done backwards, I'm most concerned about the public safety aspects of their present plan.

OCFA PROPOSAL STILL PENDING
The fire department, moving forward with no permanent senior leadership in place, continues to await the final determination of the proposal by the Orange County Fire Authority to take over fire and EMS service for the City. I've read the proposal and heard the concerns when it was discussed by the city council, so I understand why there has been a delay - there were many questions that needed to be resolved. However, until we know which way the city will move, the lack of direction only adds to the unease within the department and the public, too.

POLICE DEPARTMENT SHRINKING
We know that the police department is rapidly shrinking to staffing levels not seen since the late 1980s when our city was 25% smaller, and it's difficult to imagine just what kind of configuration of resources could possibly be implemented with those few numbers that won't result in a much less effective police presence in our city. We are hemorrhaging trained, experienced law enforcement officers virtually every week and the bleeding seems destined to continue through the summer - at least. Some of those departing men and women are not just rookies, fresh out of the academy. Many are veterans with several years experience who have been prompted to seek jobs elsewhere rather than be forced to endure the uncertainty and hostile environment that currently exists in our city. Not only is this disappointing, but it's frightening, too.

DISABLED ABLE
Baring some last minute miracle, in thirty days the ABLE helicopter program will cease to exist, leaving Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Santa Ana without airborne support for their law enforcement efforts. In the case of Costa Mesa, the timing could not be worse, since it gives no airborne support for the police and fire staff over the July 4th holiday weekend - one in which fireworks, for the first time, will not be restricted to only the day of the holiday. No, this year, bowing to pressure by booster groups and led by Mensinger and Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer, our city will be subjected to an entire long weekend - Saturday through Monday evenings - during which fireworks may be legally discharged. This will certainly strain already thin resources on the ground, which will only amplify the loss of ABLE.

BEACH SAFETY IN PERIL
Newport Beach, for the first time in nearly four decades, also faces a summer without ABLE available to help patrol its beaches when tens of thousands of tourists jam the sand every day. I cannot help but wonder how this short-sightedness will manifest itself in the loss of lives and property.

HOPING HATCH'S PLAN WORKS
I hope Tom Hatch's plans pan out, and that the city will be able to maintain our current high level of service by using a smaller cadre of permanent staffers supplemented by temporary personnel. It's my personal opinion that we will not be able to pull that off because of the almost irreplaceable loss of experience and institutional knowledge. If the economy recovers and developers once again begin knocking on the doors of our Planning Department we will find out how this scheme actually impacts service - and development in the process.

SAFER STREETS?
During this summer, with diminished police resources patrolling our streets and no helicopter available, we will find out whether the current re-structuring plans will make our streets safer - or not. I hope I'm incorrect, but I doubt many of us will feel safer with fewer cops on the streets.

THE BEST I CAN DO
If Tom Hatch believes I mis-characterized his speech last week, then this is the best I can do with a correction. It's based on conversations with him and others in attendance - folks who actually do pay attention to what's going on in our city and whose observations are valid, in my opinion.

More On Pham's "Cocaine Use"

MORE BAD NEWS
Sometimes when bad news happens it just keeps on coming. That is the case with the story that appeared Thursday in local newspapers online and in print Friday morning announcing that the toxicology report for Huy Pham, the young man who leaped to his death from the roof of Costa Mesa City Hall on St. Patrick's Day after he was called in to work from a medical absence to receive one of the 213 6-month layoff notices that day, showed that he had traces of cocaine in his blood. The amount was .44 milligrams per liter of blood.

MY EARLIER POST
The articles in both the Daily Pilot and the Orange County Register produced blistering comment threads and I wrote about it in my earlier post, HERE.

"EXPERT" ANALYSIS OF THE REPORT
This afternoon the Register produced two more articles on this subject. Jaimee Fletcher, tells us HERE that a doctor specializing in drug detoxification is apparently convinced that the results of the toxicology report make it clear that Pham had been using cocaine. He dismissed the possibility that the number shown on the report might be the result of pain medication being taken due to his broken ankle. He is further quoted as saying, "Cocaine gets you excited, agitated and some people even go into hallucinations, but eventually it drops you down. People can get suicide depression when they use any type of drug, especially cocaine." If his assessment of this situation proves to be valid, it's a very disappointing finding.

VENEZIA'S FOLLOW-UP
In another article, columnist Barbara Venezia did a follow-up on her article yesterday, HERE, describing in greater detail her calls for comments to several Costa Mesa officials, some of whom she re-contacted again this morning.

STAVELEY CONCERNED FOR THE FAMILY
Among those with whom she spoke was Costa Mesa Interim Police Chief Steve Staveley, who described the substance shown on the report and referred her to Wikipedia for a more thorough understanding. She quotes Staveley as saying, "Someone needs to get this information out for this man's family."

THE "LEAK" SPECULATION
Throughout the comment threads in both the Daily Pilot and Orange County Register writers complained that this information was "leaked" to the press in response to the favorable Register column published by Frank Mickadeit on Billy Folsom earlier in the week. That seemed callous, even for those who might have had a hand in doing it. So I did some checking.

THE REPORT WAS GETTING STALE
The story I have is that the toxicology report was completed earlier this month and a copy was mailed to Pham's family on May 11th and was accompanied by a message left on a family member's voice mail alerting them to the results. It's my understanding that the Daily Pilot's Joe Serna, reading the Mickadeit column, was jogged to followup on the toxicology report and called the coroner's office. He was told that it had been available to the public for two weeks, so he drove up to Santa Ana, paid $1.50, got the report and wrote his article.

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
At this point we have the fact that a substance was found in Pham's blood that is a byproduct of cocaine use and an "expert" opinion confirming that it likely did not come from some other substance Pham had ingested. I don't know if there are any "official" evaluations in the works for the results of the report. If not, we are left only to conclude that Pham, indeed, used cocaine sometime prior to jumping to his death on March 17th this year. If this is the end of it - if no other experts are called upon to evaluate and comment on this report - it makes an already-tragic event even more so and leaves an indelible stain on the collective memory of this young man.

BUDGET ALMOST LOST IN THE DRAMA
And the caustic comments continue to be posted in both local newspapers and I fully expect to see letters to the editor in print within a few days, too. Almost lost in all this drama is the fact that, on Tuesday, the Costa Mesa City Council will hold another study session in which the Expenditure side of the budget will be discussed. This will be the meeting at which cuts necessary to squeeze out at least $3.3 million from the 2011/2012 budget will be hammered out. It's not going to be a pretty sight and the revelations of Pham's alleged cocaine use will certainly make nerves raw on both sides.