Council Meeting Replay Schedule

IN CASE YOU WANT TO VIEW THE MEETING

Because the last Costa Mesa City Council meeting was packed with interesting, controversial items, and because Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer had another intellectual meltdown and probably violated confidentiality laws... and because, curiously, the streaming video of that meeting is not yet available, as a public service I provide you with the replay schedule of that meeting for the next few days.

WATCH THE FUN
It's fascinating to watch Righeimer ignore the rules, and watch Katrina Foley - who knows more than a little bit about the law - try to get him to shut his yap.  It's entertaining to watch Mayor Steve Mensinger unable to control, and to pound that gavel Righeimer gave him to call for a break.  It's interesting to watch Righeimer ignore City Attorney Tom Duarte's admonition about keeping comments VERY general in nature, several times.

IMPORTANT AGENDA ITEMS, TOO
In addition to that entertaining bit of theater, three very important items were on the agenda Tuesday night.  The future of the Costa Mesa Motor Inn was first up, followed by the second reading of the latest Group Home Ordinance and, finally, the proposal to spend $35 million to build a new library, convert the current library to a meeting space and add an acre of open space to Lions Park.

HERE'S THE REPLAY SCHEDULE
The following is the schedule that will play on Channel 3 on Time Warner Cable and Channel 99 on ATT UVerse.  Righeimer's rant begins about an hour and 15 minutes in...

Excitement Anticipated At City Council Meeting

ANOTHER INTERESTING MEETING AHEAD

As mentioned in my previous post, the Costa Mesa City Council meets again on Tuesday, November 17, 2015 beginning at 5:45 p.m. in Council Chambers and, although there are few items on the agenda, once again we anticipate a contentious and, perhaps, long meeting.  You can read the complete agenda HERE.

CONSENT CALENDAR
Early in the meeting the Consent Calendar will be considered.  As most know, these items - ten (10) this time - are theoretically considered as a group, with one vote.  However, a staff member, council member or member of the public may "pull" an item for separate discussion.  If that happens the council forces the consideration of those items at the very end of the meeting.  Many times, when a meeting runs long, they will have out waited concerned citizens who leave before their chance to discuss an issue they feel is important.  It's just another method to stifle dissent in our city.

WARRANT 2546

So, let us talk about a few of the items on the Consent Calendar.  Item #3, HERE, is Warrant 2546, which lists bills recently paid.  I'll list a few of the items that caught my attention.  They're listed in order as they appear on the Warrant, if you wish to plow through the document.

• Admin Sure Inc - $41,387.10 - Wkr Comp Admin Svcs Oct-Dec 15
• City of Huntington Beach - $22,330.00 - Helicopter Svcs, Sept 15
• Clean Street - $57,524.98 - Street Sweeping Svc, Sept 15
• G4S Secure Solutions - $57,607.56 - Jail Svcs, Sept 15
• Jones & Mayer - $155,118.38 - Legal Svcs, Various (Many)
• Keolis Transit Services, LLC - $16,036.02 - Sr. Mobility and Medical Transport
• Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth - $23,150.20 - Legal Svcs, Various
• FTOG - $3,462.50 - Procurement Consulting, 10/12-22
• Filarsky &Watt LLP - $3,793.10 - Legal Svcs, Sept 15
• Government Staffing Services, Inc. - $9,525.50 - Temp Svcs
• Keyser Marston Associates, Inc - $5,692.50 - Consulting svcs
• LSL CPAS - $576.00 - COIN Fiscal Analysis Svcs, Sept
• Mercy House - $5,994.92 - Mental Health Outreach Consulting
• Pacific Municipal Consultants - $4,200.00 - Consulting Svcs for Group Home
• Time Warner Cable - $11,130.17 - Internet for Sr. Center
• Civil Source - $27,482.00 - Construction Mgr, Aug 15

Of course, there's much, much more on that warrant.  We continue to rack up legal fees - this time it was over $180,000.

NEW HEAVY EQUIPMENT

The Consent Calendar also includes some very hefty equipment purchases.  Item #4, HERE, is for the purchase of a new dump truck for $181,344.16.  Item #6, HERE, is for the purchase of a new asphalt patch truck for $173,044.96 and Item #10, HERE, is for the purchase of two (2) Fire Engines for $1,340,961.44, which totals nearly $1.7 million. 

RESIDENT-ONLY PARKING

Also of interest are two requests for "resident-only" parking in sections of the city.  This is becoming a regular occurrence, particularly in light of the tendency of those in charge to permit higher density housing throughout the city.  These two requests are from our neighbors in the Halecrest community, Item #7, HERE, and Item #8, HERE, requesting such restrictions on Parsons Street.

COSTA MESA MOTOR INN - AGAIN

Although there are NO Public Hearings scheduled Tuesday, there's still plenty of action ahead.  Old Business #1, HERE, is the second reading of ordinances involving the re-zoning and a general plan amendment for the replacement of the Costa Mesa Motor Inn with 224 luxury apartments.  The first reading brought out demonstrators and many speakers opposed to this project, primarily because it eliminates affordable housing.

SOBER LIVING ORDINANCES REDUX
Old Business #2, HERE, is the second reading of ordinances involving group homes in other than R-1 residential zones.  This item is also very controversial and also brought out many speakers for the first reading, including one operator who haughtily told us "You don't even know where we are!"  Other proponents of the sober living industry - a $35 billion business - told us we will see many more lawsuits, which I don't doubt for a minute.  So let's talk about this one for a minute.

ACTIVISTS JUST KEEP DIGGING
Activists concerned about the proliferation of sober living homes in our city - we are told by city officials that Costa Mesa has many, many more such facilities than other Orange County cities - have dug into this issue and done their own investigations.  They have informed city officials when they discover previously unknown sober living facilities and worked hard to be sure city officials are aware of goings-on with many of those sites.

HOW BIG IS THE PROBLEM?
This weekend I was provided with information you may find interesting, including the graphic below, which gives a snapshot of sober living facilities in our city.  According to those who provided this information to me, the 83 blue points on the map are state licensed facilities - the "State of California, Department of Health Care Services Licensed Residential Facilities and/or Certified Alcohol and Drug Programs" report dated November 1, 2015 was used to determine those locations.  The 218 red points are unlicensed sites compiled by community activists.  For a better look at this map click HERE, which will take you to the Google map used and allow you to expand it for greater detail.

COMPARING NEIGHBORING CITIES
Additionally, the person who prepared this map also looked at how many licensed facilities exist in surrounding communities and, using 2013 population figures, found this information:
Huntington Beach (pop. 197,575) has 19 facilities registered with the state.  That's one for every 10,399 persons.
Santa Ana (pop.334,227) has 34. That's one for every 9,830 persons.
Irvine (pop. 236,716) has 4. That's one for every 57,929 persons.
Newport Beach (pop, 87,273) has 19. That's one for every 4,593 persons.
Fountain Valley (pop. 56,707) has 6. That's one for every 9,451 persons.
Costa Mesa with 83 (pop. 112,174) has one for every 1,351 persons.  
That should get your attention.  So, let's see how this discussion goes Tuesday night.

FINALLY, THE NEW LIBRARY/COMMUNITY CENTER
The final item on the agenda, New Business #1, HERE, is the consideration of a new Donald Dungan Library, Neighborhood Community Center and Park Improvements at Lions Park.  The council will hear this delayed presentation and be asked consider building a new library; renovate the existing Donald Dungan Library to be used as a community center; the demolition of the existing community center and proposed parking and landscape developments.

WE'RE TALKING BIG BUCKS!
They will also be asked to approve a further development and direct staff to return with an update on the funding options.  We're talking more than $30 million - even greater if they consider one of the options that includes costs for a new Fire Station #1, on the other side of town.

BIG DECISIONS
And, authorize the Mayor to execute a second professional services agreement with Johnson Favaro for architectural services for nearly $3 million for a five (5) year term, with a two year option.

LONG-TERM IMPLICATIONS
I just hope this issue isn't heard after midnight, because this council - and most councils - seldom make good decisions after that hour.  And this issue has some HUGE financial implications - costs the taxpayers will be forced to swallow for the next two or three decades, depending on the choices selected.

Library/Community Center Meeting Canceled

PRIORITIES!
Remember that study session I wrote about the other day - the one at which many aspects of the potential new library and community center would be discussed?  You do?  Well, so did a couple dozen residents.  Unfortunately, not enough council members showed up to form a quorum, so the meeting was abruptly canceled.

STAFF AND CONSULTANTS AT THE READY
When I arrived at around 4:30 for the 5:00 meeting the consultants and some of the city staff were present as well as community stalwart, Beth Refakes.  This meeting was to have been preceded by a special closed session to discuss litigation.

GENIS AND FOLEY
We saw Sandy Genis come scampering into the council chambers about 4:45, then skitter back out, heading for the closed session.  Katrina Foley showed up just before 5:00.  I don't know the whole story, but was told that Mayor Steve Mensinger was on time for the closed session, but no other council members made it, so he waited fifteen minutes, then bailed out.

ACTIVISTS ARRIVED IN TIME
So, there sit expensive consultants and representatives from the county library service, which actually manages the Donald Dungan Library, kind of tapping their fingers, waiting for something to happen.  Just before 5:00 p.m. those folks who had arrived by that time - most of the hard core library activists who have attended each of the meetings and are active participants in the process were in the room.  Brad Zint from the Daily Pilot showed up, only to be told of the cancellation.

POSTPONED TO A FUTURE DATE
We were told by senior city staffers that this meeting would likely be included in a regular council meeting in the near future.

POOR FORM
I don't know what happened today, but it's pretty poor form to have everybody BUT the council show up for an important meeting.  Maybe the mayor had a football practice to attend as a run-up for the Battle Of The Bell Friday night.  Regardless, this is just another example of some screwed-up priorities and disregard for the residents of this community.

City Council To Study Library/Comm. Center Tuesday

EXPECTING A CROWD...
The Costa Mesa City Council will hold a Study Session in City Council Chambers at City Hall beginning at 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, October 13, 2015, to discuss, provide comments and direction to staff on the Donald Dungan Library and Neighborhood Community Center Project.  You can read the agenda for that meeting HERE, and the full staff report HERE.

TELEVISED, TOO

Because this meeting will be held in Council Chambers, it's my understanding that it will be televised live on CMTV - Channel 3 on Time Warner Cable and Channel 99 on ATT UVerse, and be available on streaming video on the city website.

THE NEXT STEP
This process has been going on for most of this year.  The consultants have held meetings, digested input and have boiled down options for the council to consider.

STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS
Staff recommends that the City Council provide comments and direction on the following staff recommendations for the Donald Dungan Library and Neighborhood Community Center Project, specifically regarding the following:

1. Review and consider the recommended option to build new library building; renovate existing Donald Dungan library to serve as the new Neighborhood Community Center (NCC); demolition of the NCC; and proposed parking and landscape developments in two (2) phases.

2. Review and consider proposed funding options.  This could be bond measures up to $34 million, depending on the option chosen.

3. Consider an amendment to the Professional Services Agreement with Johnson Favaro for a three (3) year term with an option for an additional two (2) two-year extensions, in the amount of $1,209,125 for architectural services for the Donald Dungan Library and Neighborhood Community Center Project, City Project No. 800015

TWO (2) MINUTES TO SPEAK 
If you attend and choose to speak in this issue you'll be given two (2) minutes to present your views.  See you there.

Important Study Session Information!

WESTSIDE URBAN PLANS AND GENERAL PLAN

On Tuesday, September 8, 2016, the Costa Mesa City Council and the Planning Commission will hold a joint study session to discuss the Westside Urban Plans and the Land Use Alternatives of the General Plan.  I won't be surprised if the Fairview Developmental Center property is an important part of this discussion.  Considering the land rush of development going on in the city for the past couple years, and the specter of the so-called Smart Growth initiative that might be on the ballot next year, this discussion should be of interest to anyone at all interested in the future of development in the city.

NEW LOCATION!
This meeting has wisely been re-located from City Hall to the Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Avenue (Lions Park).  The meeting begins at 5:00 p.m.  There should be more than adequate seating for all interested in this study session, which typically will be a more casual kind of discussion of these important issues.

RIGHT AFTER LABOR DAY!
I know this notification is early, but it's time to mark your calendar.  I'll notify you again shortly before the Labor Day holiday, since this meeting falls on the first work day after the holiday.

The New Library Outreach Is Complete - Off To City Hall

FINAL MEETING LAST NIGHT
The final community outreach effort by the consultant architects and others working on the plan to improve library facilities at Lions Park is now complete.  I've written about previous meetings HERE and HERE.  Last night fewer than three dozen residents attended the final workshop to hear about the progress made so far and to provide input to the consultants as they prepare to offer their findings and recommendations to the Costa Mesa City Council sometime in July.

CONSULTANTS PROVIDED INFO
Recreation Manager Travis Karlen kicked off the evening right on time by introducing consultants Steve Johnson and Jim Favaro, who took over from there.

THE RECAP
Favaro gave a recap of the earlier meeting, reminding us why this project was launched - the shortage of library space - and spoke about the poor condition of the two existing buildings in question, the Neighborhood Community Center and the Donald Dungan Branch Library.  He also provided us with a timeline of progress so far.

 

ALTERNATIVES

Johnson took over and led the discussion about the alternatives - to renovate or rebuild each of the facilities.   He talked about the relative costs of each step, whether renovating or rebuilding, and provided a sequence of events that could be followed.  Each of the images below shows phases that could be taken.  

PHASE 1

In order, the first project - building the new 2-story library building adjacent to the existing NCC could happen and the entire process could stop there.

 PHASE 2
The next phase would be the rebuild/renovation of the existing Donald Dungan Library into a community meeting facility - and the process could stop there.

 PHASE 3
The third phase would be the completion of the parks/parking changes.

 COMPLETED PROJECT
All three projects, when completed, would cost over $34 million, building in factors for cost increases over the time period.

PARKING RESOLVED
Some significant assessment of the parking situation has been done.  The results, with the addition of 15 spaces near the Historical Society building and adding a few more spaces along Park Avenue, actually resulted in a net increase of 1 space over the current number.

THE COSTS
This chart shows the cost estimates to build/renovate each building/project.  The "Total Project Cost" includes the furniture, fixtures and technology infrastructure necessary to complete the projects.

 

THE VISION

These two images are artist renderings of a possible look to the new library building.  The first one is viewed from Park Avenue.

 This view is from approximately the location of the airplane at Lions Park.

 GODDARD CONCERNED ABOUT COMMUNITY WILL POWER
A dozen members of the public stepped up to the microphone to offer opinions or ask questions covering a wide range of issues.  Library supporter Art Goddard was the first to speak and he expressed concern about the anticipated cost of this project as viewed by the consultants.  He expressed concern that the community would lack the will power to move forward with such an expensive endeavor and looked to the consultants for ideas about a scaled-down project, utilizing the existing buildings.  He phrased it as "Option Zero" - where much less would be done and still improve our library situation.  The answer given was that the financial threshold was so low - $100,000 - and the change of use  from a meeting room to library was viewed by the government regulations as so significant that major changes to the building - the NCC - would be mandated.

CONCERN ABOUT CURRENT USERS LOSS OF SPACE
Resident Kathy Esfahani expressed concern about the loss of the use of the NCC by long-time user groups and was told that the City  had "granular data" on how the facility was used.  Earlier we were told that it was only used to about 1/3 capacity about 1/3 of the time.   Steve Johnson told us that the four major users of the NCC were consulted during their planning process.  We were also advised that the City had much more meeting space available around town that was being significantly under-utilized.  The plan would be to end up with about 8,000 square feet of meeting space between the two new proposed buildings.

BETH HAD A BUNDLE OF QUESTIONS
Uber-activist Beth Refakes - who attends more meetings than anyone else I know and takes great pains to make carefully-crafted observations, comments and suggestions, addressed several issues.  Speaking about the open space on the plans, she observed there had been moves afoot to use space in Lions Park as a skate park and/or sports field.  She wondered about the costs.  She observe that the proposed design was not compatible with other nearby buildings - citing The Triangle and The Courtyards, right across the street.  She opined that the relocation of the recently-refurbished airplane would be a bad idea.  Johnson agreed and that was off the table at this point.  She also observed about the NCC that she attends meetings there frequently and it's "always busy".  She also observed about the shortage of parking NOW, and that some of the nearby neighborhoods have resident-only parking.

MORE QUESTIONS
CEO Tom Hatch sat quietly in the audience with others, listening to the presentations and the questions.  He heard others ask about how long the project might take - two years was the answer, assuming certain mileposts could be met.  A question was asked about the budget - the financial target for this project - that was originally given to the consultants, because early conversations led us to believe it might be in the $5-7 million range.  The answer was that they were just working at the direction of their client - the City.  Others expressed concern about the building design - not meeting their personal preference.  A question was also asked about alternative sites being considered for the community meeting facility... none were.

HATCH COMMENTS

 At the end of the meeting Hatch wrapped it up by making several observations, some of which seemed relevant and others just seemed kind of off the wall.  He spoke of his gratitude to the members of the community who participated in this process.  He was surprised at the cost projections, which took him off into a kind of stream-of-consciousness exposition of capital projects and sales tax.  He explained that sales tax - primarily from South Coast Plaza and the car dealerships - account for 46% of the current budget revenue, and that it could be a capricious (my word) source if income.  He emphasized that we shouldn't plan on it always being there - and cited the economic downturn earlier in the past decade.  He mentioned that this budget will set aside 6.5% of the General Fund budget for Capital Improvements, then talked about the needed repairs and replacement of Fire Stations.  He said we set aside $1.6 million toward Fire Station #1, but that it would need $7-10 million to rebuild it.

FACILITIES CONDITION
He mentioned other city-owned facilities, indicating the Mesa Verde Branch Library had immediate needs, but that the Senior Center was  OK for now.  Then he said something peculiar - that "if the City Hall remained where it is, it would require another $5-10 million to make it work for another 50 years".  I found myself wondering where that thought came from?

BOND FUNDING?
He then found himself talking about the Victoria Street widening project that was funded by bonds that were still being paid off at the rate of $1.2 million a year for the next four years, and suggested perhaps a library could be built using similar funding mechanisms.  He seemed to be saying we could just plan on paying that $1.2 million downstream after the Victoria Street bonds were retired.  He talked about "front-loading" the cost as much as possible.

A HOMELESS DETERRENT?  HOW?
An observation... Once again, veiled comments were made by the consultants that the placement of a new library situated as they showed it could some how magically resolve the problem of the homeless folks who currently infest the park.  When I arrived at around 5:45 there were more than 40 people stretched out on the grass throughout the park area.  When I left at around 8:30 there were fewer, but not many fewer.  There seems to be a thought that having windows facing the airplane section of the park will somehow discourage homeless folks from hanging out there.  However, there has never been any kind of anecdotal evidence to that fact.  In fact, I'm told by those close to the situation that the opposite is true - that homeless folks near the Historical Society building actually "perform" for the "audience" in that building from time to time.  I found it distracting to the discussion of the other issues.

MARKING TIME UNTIL JULY...
The meeting ended with Karlen offering a tour of the Dungan Library building.  I didn't see if anyone took him up on it or not.  So, now we just wait to see what the consultants present to the City Council in a month or so.  It's hard to imagine that this meeting will not find itself in the budget discussions on Tuesday evening, when the 2015-2016 Fiscal Year Budget is approved.  We'll see.