Numbers

COMMENT PIQUED MY INTEREST
In a recent post another Costa Mesa-based blogger made mention that a site he follows is ranked high on scale provided by Alexa, so that got me thinking about my site and others around the area.

DECIDED TO TAKE A LOOK
Alexa, HERE, is a site that analyzes web sites - blogs and the like - and does a calculation to "rank" them both from a global standpoint and when comparing them to the countries in which they originate.

INTERESTING RESULTS
So, I did some research, slammed it into a little spread sheet and now present it for your viewing pleasure.  The information surprised me.  I listed these sites by "Global Rank" since some didn't have enough data to produce a number in the "United States Rank" column. The calculations were taken from the site today. 

(click on the image to enlarge it)

HAVE FUN WITH IT...
You'll see some familiar names on the list.  The top three shouldn't surprise you.  I was interested in how those of us further down the list compared - not that it means anything.  Enjoy...

Does Costa Mesa Share Anaheim's Dilemma?

ANAHEIM'S CONTRACTING COMPLICATION
A tip of the old hat to Chris Prevatt over at The LiberalOC blog, who addresses an interesting subject that is being faced by the City of Anaheim - one that has potential impacts here in Costa Mesa. In his piece today titled "What's The Matter With Anaheim?", HERE, he expands on an excellent investigative piece written yesterday by Adam Elmahrek at the Voice of OC yesterday, HERE, concerning potential, and probable, conflicts of interest within the Anaheim Planning Department. It seems a contract plan check supervisor had been routing significant volumes of work to his actual employer, plan check consulting firm Charles Abbott Associates.

DO WE HAVE A PROBLEM?
I don't know if such a situation exists in Costa Mesa, but we have so many contractors now working at City Hall in so many departments and wearing so many different hats and so many members of the regular senior staff that would ordinarily be overseeing their activities have departed, that it seems like the kind of malfeasance referenced in Anaheim could easily occur in our city.

WHO'S WATCHING THE CONTRACTORS?
I find myself wondering just what kind of checks and balances are in place in Costa Mesa to keep this kind of stuff from happening. Are those few senior managers left reviewing the work of contract employees carefully? Some of the contractors came aboard with no-bid arrangements, apparently based on previous associations with members of the senior staff. We assume there are friendships involved there, so just how much "supervision" will senior managers be giving to "friends"?

ELEANOR EGAN'S INQUIRY
Resident and former city employee Eleanor Egan recently pointed out a discrepancy in the contract of one of our current cadre of contractors at two city council meetings, and asked CEO Tom Hatch for clarification. It's unclear whether she ever received a response, but it dealt with this very kind of situation.


JOKE'S NO LONGER FUNNY...
I joked many months ago that, in it's haste to flush out all the pension-bearing employees, our current city council majority's idea of the perfect city staff would be Hatch and a half-dozen contract administrators. It seemed funny at the time, but now it certainly seems like we're on a road to that destination, so any holes in the oversight procedures for contract employees need to be patched up immediately before we get ourselves into the kind of situation Anaheim finds itself in today. According to Prevatt, their city council will apparently address this issue in the very last item on the agenda for their meeting tonight. It's titled, "Discuss the existing policies and procedures governing the City's contracting and purchasing authority"

NOW IS THE TIME...
I think it's important for this subject to be dealt with immediately in Costa Mesa, since we are now beginning to see responses to the outsourcing RFPs being returned and will soon be undergoing evaluation for possible implementation. If we don't get a handle on just how all these contracting companies will be managed right now, the city could lose lots of money by inadvertent or intentional bad acts by contractors.

Quiet 4th And More Fireworks Tonight (Amended)*

FIRE CHIEF REPORTS A QUIET 4TH
Well, how was your weekend? Safe and sane, I hope. According to Costa Mesa Interim Fire Chief Kirk Dominic this morning, it was a quiet weekend. Except for some trash fires caused by folks discarding hot fireworks in their trash cans, things were quiet from a fire response standpoint. That's wonderful news. There were no structure fires reported.

EASTSIDE WAR ZONE
On the Eastside of Costa Mesa there were lots of illegal fireworks fired-off throughout the evening of the 4th, beginning before dark and continuing until just before midnight.

MORE MONEY FOR YOUTH SPORTS?
No word yet from our friends who were selling the safe and sane fireworks around town. Logic would tell you that they'd have more sales than in years past because folks could shoot the fireworks off for three evenings instead of just one.

KUDOS TO ALL
Kudos to all who used the fireworks for doing so safely.






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CITY COUNCIL MEETING TONIGHT
Tonight the Costa Mesa City Council meets in its first meeting of the new fiscal year. It looks like it may be a short meeting - a nice change.

REDUCING INCOME?
The first Public Hearing - scheduled to commence at 7:00 (the meeting itself begins at 6:00), we will hear a proposal to REDUCE income to the city by establishing a new schedule of rates, fees and charges for police department coverage of special/community events. You can read the staff report HERE. The theory is apparently to reduce costs charged by the city for police presence at special events and thereby entice more such events to our city. Seems like a curious tactic at a time when we're struggling to balance our budgets and potentially laying off half the city staff to do so. This is just another affirmation that the current city council's actions are not about finances, they are about politics.

"MASSAGING" THE MASSAGE PARLOR ORDINANCE
The third Public Hearing (there's another one, but it's being recommended for continuance to the next meeting) deals with a revision of the ordinance governing Massage Establishments and Practitioners. You can read the staff report HERE and the actual ordinance HERE. Certainly, this is a necessary modification to our ordinances since we're told that many such establishments in our city are actually fronts for illicit activities. As I scrolled down through the ordinance I came to the definitions on page 4. Some of the terms used therein snapped these old eyeballs open, for sure. I'll let you visit the ordinance to read them for yourselves.

*OCEA AUDIT TO BE EXPLAINED - AGAIN
I forgot to mention that Steve Foti, the man who actually performed the audit recently for the OCEA, will appear before the City Council tonight to explain his numbers. I have no idea how it will play out, but at least this time around we will hear from the horse's mouth, not a Union surrogate who was clearly unprepared for the hand-to-hand combat she was subjected to by Jim Righeimer at the last council meeting.

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OCEA/CITY IN COURT TODAY
Over at the LiberalOC blog, writer Chris Prevatt reports that the Orange County Employee's Association (OCEA) will be in court today requesting a Preliminary Injunction to stop the layoffs of more than 100 Costa Mesa city employees. HERE. We've seen this issue on closed session agendas in recent weeks, but were not aware that the court date was today. In fact, it's on the closed session agenda again this evening. We hope that some member of the staff will report the results of the court date in open session tonight.