Tippin' A Few Cops

WHAT A WONDERFUL EVENING!
My sweet and very patient wife and I joined many Costa Mesans at the Claim Jumper Restaurant at South Coast Plaza last night for some really good food, outstanding fellowship and a chance to donate to the Special Olympics.

PLENTY OF PROTECTION
We arrived around 6 and found the entire front of the restaurant blanketed with members of the Costa Mesa Police Department and the Costa Mesa Fire Department - but I think that latter group was just there for the grub.

GUARDING THE EQUIPMENT
We made our way past Lieutenant Greg Scott and associates, guarding the bicycles and motorcycles, to a table where raffle tickets were available - we bought a few.  It was great to see Park Ranger Lorna Lyttle, safely back from her tour with the United States Army, selling raffle tickets.

BAO - WHAT A GUY!
We also saw one of my favorite people in the world - officer Kha Bao - king of the DUI arrests - decked out in his SWAT garb.  We had a chance to visit with him about his role as lead officer for the Police Explorers - a job he loves.

GREETING
We found our way to our table and were promptly greeted by Park Ranger Ortiz and friend, making sure we were being treated right.... we certainly were.

FOLEY-SWANSON CLAN
We plowed through the delicious meal and, as we were about to depart, saw a familiar trio sit near us.  How is it possible that Katrina Foley is just EVERYWHERE?  I swear she's triplets!

A TABLE FULL OF TROUBLE
We saw many other friends enjoying the event and came across this table of rowdies, almost certainly preparing to make trouble.  I learned later that one of those lovely young women - the one giving us the "V" sign - was having a birthday celebration, too.  That explained the firetrucks outside.

BACK OFF, FELLAS!
As we left and were saying goodbye to many of our police officer friends and thanking them for their service to our city these three young fellas apparently mistook me for some kind of a miscreant, so I just took things into my own hands and put them where they belonged! :-)

GRACIAS, AND KUDOS
Thanks to the staff and management of the Claim Jumper for hosting this wonderful event last night, and to the men and women of the public safety organizations for helping collect funds for a very worthy event.

Wisdom Prevails - Flyers Extended 5 Years

A GOOD MOVE...
At the meeting of the Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission Thursday night wisdom prevailed as the commission voted to extend the agreement between the City and the Harbor Soaring Society (HSS) 5 years, not the one-year originally proposed.

SANITY PREVAILS

Following a step-by-step description of the proposed changes in the language of the agreement, HERE, by Parks Project Manager Bart Mejia, and brief presentations by members of the HSS, a discussion was held on the controversial language apparently added to the agreement by the City Attorney that imposed the responsibility on the HSS to enforce rules on ALL flyers at the park, not just their members.  After a short discussion, which included the possibility of bringing the issue back again once the questionable segments were further vetted by the City Attorney, Chairman Byron de Arakal took charge and made a motion to extend the agreement for 5 years and without the controversial language mentioned above.  The motion passed unanimously.  It was nice to see sanity prevail.

FIELD USE
Next up was the new Athletic Field Use and Allocation Policy recommendations, HERE.  Recreation Supervisor Lisa McPherson led the discussion of the changes, which can be seen in an easy-to-understand redline version, Attachment 1, in the staff report.

CHANGES....
As you might have expected, this one took a lot more conversation and presentations and opinions by representatives of several user groups.  Many of the changes were purely cosmetic, updating the titles of departments and positions within the departments, but some were quite controversial and took some serious fleshing out.

WAIT, WHAT?
For example, on page two, under section II, DEFINITION OF TERMS AND FEES, in the section defining Resident Status, there appeared this new sentence:
Special residency status is assigned for Group 1's that have any students attending any school (private or public) within the boundaries of the Newport Mesa Unified School District.

TIGHTENED DEFINITION
After examining that statement, including with user group representatives like Mark Arblaster (shown) it became very clear that it was quite problematic and had the potential to permit a user group with only 1 participant attending ANY school within the NMUSD to qualify as a Group 1 user.  This certainly was not the intent, so - after several discussions with user group representatives - the language will be modified to narrow-down the definition to mean only youth baseball - Little League and Pony League.

LIGHTED FIELDS TO BE EXPANDED
The other VERY significant change that was made during the meeting was the modification of the fields to be potentially lighted.  This has been a HUGE sticking point for de Arakal ever since he took his seat and he and others in the community have been working hard to find fields that could be lighted for youth soccer practice.  AYSO 97 representative Brett Eckles was among those participating in this discussion.  The upshot of the meeting last night was that several schools were added to the roster of fields to potentially be lighted - Woodland Elementary, Lindbergh School, Kaiser School and Back Bay High School.  In addition, Harper School - which has been lighted recently - was removed from the roster.  It is de Arakal's plan to develop some kind of a rotation program for lighted fields - a kind of "share the pain" program, as described by Commissioner Dean Abernathy.

COMPENSATION
You can read the summary in the staff report for the remainder of the issues addressed, including the exclusion from Group 1 status those that compensate local executive staff and/or board members.  Friday Night Lights representative Scott Mahaffey had been the center of that controversy and addressed  it last night.

TREES
The proposal to remove four trees from property adjacent to a Swan Drive home was approved.  The tree request for Princeton Drive was denied.

THINGS ARE LOOKING UP
The Maintenance Services Manager's Report by Bruce Hartley was interesting to the three of us left in the auditorium.  He mentioned that, for the first time in many years, his group is nearly fully staffed.  Five new employees have recently been hired and only one vacancy exists.  This has permitted the organization to move more briskly with projects that had stalled because of staffing issues.  He mentioned completing more than 33 park and facility improvement projects and that the proposed Fiscal Year 2014/2015 budget will include $294,000 for "small" parks/facility projects.

KNAPP REPLACEMENT RECRUITMENT
Interim Parks and Community Services Manager Penny Loomer reported that the recruitment for a permanent replacement for the departed Bob Knapp is moving forward.  Interviews will be conducted on May 14th and it is hoped to have a new person in place by July 1st.

ACKNOWLEDGING LYTTLE
Before closing the meeting de Arakal mentioned that Park Ranger Lorna Lyttle has recently deployed to Afghanistan, and is one of many members of the city staff who also serve in military reserve units.  He praised her citizenship and wished her well during her anticipated 11 month absence.