A Week Until The 60Th Anniversary Kick-off!

A WEEK TO GO!
Just a friendly reminder that a week from now, Friday, June 28th, the Costa Mesa 60th Anniversary Celebration kick-off weekend will be underway.

LOTS OF HARD WORK...
Dozens of volunteer committee members and city staffers, led by Committee Chairman Mike Scheafer, Vice Chair Melinda Lowery and Public Affairs Manager Dan Joyce, have spent thousands of hours cobbling together what certainly looks like a wonderful way to officially kick-off the 60th birthday party for our city.

IMPORTANT LINKS
You can visit the official web site for this celebration, HERE.

You can see the venue map, HERE.

You can see the schedule of events, HERE.

You can see the map showing road closures, HERE.

A GREAT WEEKEND OF  FAMILY FUN
This is going to be one fantastic weekend, with music for everyone - even folks my age - exhibits, food and fun.  And, except for the big bucks entertainment, it's all free!  Well, the food's going to cost you, but you can have a lot of fun for ZERO bucks.

COMMUNITY INPUT
Oh, yes... there will be a booth set up so you can provide your own, personal input for the General Plan Update that is being conducted.  Look for Snoopy, who apparenlty found an early summer gig this year.

GREAT MAGAZINE DISTRIBUTED TODAY
I don't know if you saw it, but a very slick, glossy magazine published for the celebration, showed up with my local newspapers today.  I don't know which one it fell out of, but it's very cool and provides some super historical perspective on our city.  Kudos to former Daily Pilot publisher Tom Johnson and his crew at Johnson Media for a job well-done.

A BLAST!

So, neighbors, be sure to include some time for a visit to the celebration next weekend.  It's going to be a blast!

Briefings, Finances, Pensions, Celebrations, Cops and Cars

EASY WEEK?  HA!
I thought this was going to be an easy week, hoping for a reduced schedule so I can whip this darn cold.  Ah, but it is not to be.

CEO BRIEFING 

First, The City of Costa Mesa finally released another CEO E-Briefing from Tom Hatch, HERE.  Here's a list of what's on it.  Go to the link above for details:

SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING
Tuesday, April 30th, there will be a special City Council Meeting in council chambers beginning at 4:30.  You can read the agenda HERE.  It looks like this one is going to be a closed session, from which they typically don't return to report out, but you just never know.

FINANCIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
Before that meeting starts, though, the Financial Advisory Committee will meet in Conference Room 1A beginning at 3:30.  The agenda for that one is HERE.  Of note is council member Sandra Genis' Wendy Leece's request to review Business License Fees.  The public is welcome at these meetings.  Since several members are also associated with the Mesa Water District, which is exploring ways to modify their investment policies to include higher-risk investments, and since our committee is exploring using a middle-man to handle some of our investments, these meetings may be enlightening.

PENSION ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Wednesday, May 1, 2013, the brand new Pension Advisory Committee meets, also in Conference Room 1A, but at 4:30.  The announcement is HERE, but no agenda is available now. NOTE: Agenda now available HERE.  I suspect they will elect officers and begin to chart a course for the future.  Perhaps they will discuss the recent announcement by Cal PERS that it has approved employer rate hikes of 50% over the next few years, HERE.  They might also discuss recent announcements like the one HERE, in which the San Jose City Council discovered it cannot afford to bail out of CalPERS for current and former council persons - too costly.  And, they will certainly discuss the announcement last week that CalPERS investments have surpassed prior record highs, HERE.  Should be an interesting launch for this group.

60TH ANNIVERSARY COMMITTEE MEETING
Thursday, May 2, 2013, at 5:30 in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) adjacent to the Police Station, the 60th Anniversary Celebration Committee will meet again to discuss the fine-tuning of their plans for the launch weekend.  You can read the agenda HERE.  Vice Chair Melinda Lowery will be in charge of this one.

TIPPING A FEW COPS
Also on Thursday and overlapping with that meeting is the Tip-A-Cop event at the Claim Jumper at South Coast Plaza.  From 5-9 p.m. the meals at that fine restaurant will be served by members of the CMPD and all tips provided to them will go to the Special Olympics.  And, no, boys and girls.. it doesn't mean you get to push a cop over - as in a popular pastime back in Jim Righeimer country - cow tipping.

FIRST FRIDAY ROAD SHOW

Friday, May 3rd, is the latest installment of the First Friday Roadshow - the classic and hot rod show in the City Hall parking lot beginning at 6:00 p.m.  As usual, there will be lots of great classic cars, music and food via a food truck - and it's free (the show, not the food).

 ORANGE COUNCIL MARATHON!

And, last but not least, Sunday, May 5th, is the Orange County Marathon!  Go HERE to their website for all the information, start times, road closures, etc.  This should be a very fun event and the weather report calls for a warm weekend, so stay hydrated, folks.

60th Anniversary Committee Making Progress

 EXCELLENT PROGRESS
The latest meeting of the Costa Mesa 60th Anniversary Committee Thursday night showed excellent progress.

LOWERY AND JOYCE
The meeting, chaired this time by Vice Chair Melinda Lowery with the absence of Chair Mike Scheafer, again broke into sub-committees to further flesh out budget issues and begin working on time lines.  Public Affairs Manager Dan Joyce, on hand to help answer questions, will compile the results of these efforts and coordinate the activities next Thursday, at what may be the final meeting of the month for the group.

FINE-TUNING THE NUMBERS
Tentative budget numbers compiled by the individual sub-committees indicate a financial requirement of somewhere north of $270,000 for all anticipated events.  Those numbers will be fine-tuned by Joyce and the committee and the whole package will be presented to the City Council at it their meeting on February 5th.

DEDICATED VOLUNTEERS, WORKING HARD
From our observations of the planning going on over the past couple weeks, the volunteers and staffers assigned to this task are working hard with very good progress.  After all the planning is finalized and the council signs in with comments and financial commitments the real hard work begins.  That's when more volunteers will be required to help the committee complete the events being planned.

 CONTACT CHRISTINE
As stated last week, folks and organizations interested in volunteering for one or more of the various events should contact Christine Cordon at City Hall by email at CHRISTINE.CORDON@costamesaca.gov or by telephone at 714-754-5121.

Events This Week

THE BIG GAME!

First, of course, is tonight at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN - the National Championship Football game between the University of Alabama and the University of Notre Dame.  Notre Dame by 10!  Go Irish!!!

JON SMITH CELEBRATION

Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 8, 2013 has a couple interesting events for your consideration.  First, at 4:00 in front of the Costa Mesa Police Headquarters at 99 Fair Drive Chief Tom Gazsi will host a "yellow ribbon-cutting" ceremony to officially welcome back offier Jon Smith from his year-long tour in Afghanistan.  I wrote about it HERE.

FIRST COUNCIL MEETING OF THE YEAR

Later that evening the first city council meeting of the year - the kinder, gentler era - will be held in council chambers at City Hall.  The closed session begins at 5:00 and the regular meeting begins at 6:00.  I wrote about it HERE.

60TH ANNIVERSARY COMMITTEE 

On Thursday, January 10, 2013 the Costa Mesa 60th Anniversary Committee will meet again to flesh out sub-committee assignments and get started with the heavy lifting of planning the celebrations.  Long time activist Mike Scheafer and volunteer Melinda Lowery will lead this group of nearly three dozen volunteers.  I wrote about his election HERE.  The meeting, which is open to the public, begins at 5:30 in the Emergency Operations Center, adjacent to Police Headquarters.

Scheafer & Lowery To Lead 60th Anniversary Planning

RIGHEIMER'S PEP TALK

 The second meeting of the Costa Mesa 60th Anniversary Committee last night at the Emergency Operations Center was kicked off by Mayor Jim Righeimer, who gave a short pep talk to the committee before turning it over to CEO Tom Hatch.   

SCHEAFER AND LOWERY WILL LEAD THE COMMITTEE

Long time activist Mike Scheafer was elected to be the Chairman of the committee.  Melinda Lowery was named Vice Chair of the group.  Scheafer is a nearly lifetime resident of Costa Mesa, current Director of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, former member of the City Council and Parks and Recreation Commission, long-time member of the Lions Club and has headed up the Fish Fry festivities for many years.  Lowery is a member of the Costa Mesa Historical Preservation Committee and has a long history of volunteerism.  You can read their individual submissions of qualifications HERE.

A FULL AGENDA
Following the election of the officers Hatch led the discussion of the very full agenda, HERE. 

ONLINE WEB DISCUSSION BOARD
The Web Discussion Board is now up and available for use.  Communications Director Bill Lobdell, shown here with Christine Cordon chatting with Public Affairs Manager Dan Joyce who attended the meeting in a little box.  Sorry, couldn't resist.  You can find it at the city web site, HERE.  Committee members and interested members of the public are encouraged to sign in and participate in the discussions of the many facets of putting together the 60th Anniversary celebration.

EVERY THURSDAY IN JANUARY
This committee will meet every Thursday of January to get a running start at the planning process.  At the next meeting participants in the various sub-committees will be assigned and chairpersons of each sub-committee will be selected.  Also, a recruitment for community volunteers to help with each of the sub-committees will be launched shortly.

SUB-COMMITTEES
The sub-committees are:

• Marketing, Advertising, Branding and Public Relations
• Arts Program
• Sponsorships and Fundraising
• Outreach Programs and Community Events
• Youth Programs
• Volunteers
• Kick-off Event
• Closing Event
• Educational Programs
• History Program
• Sustainability

DETAILS COMING SOON 
Based on the conversations last night, the group is aiming for a major event to be held on the actual 60th anniversary date of the city's incorporation - June 29, 2013, which conveniently falls on a Saturday.  The use of the "Diamond Anniversary" as a theme image was discussed. Other events will be held and existing events will be invited to participate in the overall celebration.  The details will be fleshed-out during the meetings this month.

MENSINGER AND LEECE REPRESENT THE COUNCIL

Mayor Pro Tem Steve Mensinger and Councilwoman Wendy Leece represent the City Council on the committee and both attended the meeting last night.  They kept a low profile, except when Mensinger - in response to a question about financing of events - kind of poo poo'd the difference between $50,000 and $75,000.  It was a curious statement.  It's premature to even discuss finances because only the skeleton of a program exists today.  Once the sub-committees begin doing their jobs a much clearer picture of the needs will begin to form.

SMALL, BUT ENTHUSIASTIC, GROUP

So, we are off and running.  Although fewer folks attended the meeting last night than the first one last month, much of that can be blamed - at least in part - on the proximity to the holidays.  Fewer than 40 people attended the meeting last night, but they were enthusiastic and ready to get to work.  We'll see how things begin to come together during this month.