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.

What's Coming Up This Week?

COSTA MESA LIBRARY FOUNDATION FUNDRAISER AT MIMI'S MONDAY!
Well, first thing off the bat, the Costa Mesa Library Foundation is having a fund raising dinner opportunity for you Monday, August 17th (tonight, for most of you reading this early Monday morning).

Yep, this is another chance for you to grab some great grub and participate in a contribution to the foundation. This one is at Mimi's Restaurant, 1835 Harbor Blvd., in the Courtyards Center. The event is scheduled from 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. and you MUST bring a flier to Mimi's and present it with your check to be sure the money is properly earmarked for the foundation. You can visit the Costa Mesa Library Foundation web site HERE for more information about the event. There's a link to a PDF file for the flier... just print it out and take it with you. See you there..

MASSAGE LICENSE MORATORIUM
The Costa Mesa City Council will hold another meeting Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall. Among the items on the agenda is yet another public hearing on the current moratorium on massage licenses and permits. The staff is recommending an extension of this moratorium for another 10 month and 15 days.

RETIREMENT ENHANCEMENT ORDINANCE
They will also give a second reading to the ordinance amending the city's agreement with CalPERS to provide for an additional 2 years of service. The approval of this item will facilitate the early retirement of several dozen city employees as part of the "10-point plan" to balance the city budget for this fiscal year.

PUBLIC SERVICE MEMORIAL
And, the council will hear the proposal by the Parks and Recreation Commission to create a "City of Costa Mesa Public Service Memorial." While this seems like an idea worth discussing, the timing seems off considering the precarious condition of the city's finances right now.

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.