Spinnin' The Judge's Ruling And More Lopez

WONDER WHY WE'RE IN COURT?
After the battle of press releases Tuesday afternoon, there is no doubt in my mind why the City of Costa Mesa and the Orange County Employee's Association, representing the non-public safety Costa Mesa employees, are in court. They can't even agree on what the judge said Tuesday, for goodness sake!

THE JUDGE RULES, KINDA...
Judge Barbara Tam Nomoto Schumann issued a ruling from the bench, which apparently will be followed up in writing soon. So, what to do the opposing sides think? Well, you tell me!

TWO VIEWS
Below are two press releases issued shortly after the ruling. The first, sent out by OCEA spokeswoman Jennifer Muir just after 4 p.m. today, gives us one view.

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MUIR'S TAKE ON IT

Judge stops Costa Mesa layoffs

SANTA ANA, CA – Expressing concern about a looming layoff date, a Superior Court judge this afternoon told attorneys she would issue a preliminary injunction precluding the mass layoffs of municipal employees within the City of Costa Mesa.

Nearly half the City’s workforce received six-month layoff notices on March 17 after the Costa Mesa City Council majority voted to outsource their jobs. At the time, the City Council had not studied the cost of outsourcing or the negative impacts to community services, and they still have failed to do so.

The Orange County Employees Association, on behalf of the Costa Mesa City Employees Association, filed a lawsuit in May to stop the layoffs.

“This is a positive outcome, but it is only one step toward holding this Council accountable,” OCEA Communications Director Jennifer Muir said. “It will prevent the City from laying off employees to outsource to the private sector. At least temporarily, it removes a dark cloud from over the heads of City employees, their families, and the entire community. ”

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The second one, fired off by Costa Mesa's Bill Lobdell an hour later, gives us his take on it.

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LOBDELL'S VIEW

Judge rules Costa Mesa can continue outsourcing process, but can't lay off employees until after all 'proper procedures' are followed

COSTA MESA, CALIF.—Orange County Superior Court Judge Tam Nomoto Schumann ruled today that the City of Costa Mesa can continue its exploration of outsourcing many of its services, but can’t lay off employees until all “proper procedures” were followed.

The Court didn’t make a finding that the City wasn’t following “proper procedures.”

The preliminary injunction was sought by the Costa Mesa City Employees’ Assn., which filed a lawsuit in May to stop the potential outsourcing of 213 employees. In March, Schumann denied a temporary restraining order to stop any potential layoffs.

Schumann didn’t specify what exactly the proper procedures were, but Costa Mesa City Attorney Tom Duarte said the City has and will continue to follow the law and provisions in the employee association contract while it explores the viability of outsourcing services. The association’s contract mandated a six-month notice if City jobs were outsourced. The City began issuing the notices in March.

“We are following the proper procedures,” Duarte said. “This ruling doesn’t affect the City’s ability to research outsourcing possibilities and, if it’s prudent, to outsource City jobs down the road.”

Under the judge’s ruling, the City can continue to request proposals for outsourcing from other agencies and private companies and weigh whether the outsourcing is viable. If the City decides to outsource a service, it would meet with the Costa Mesa City Employees’ Assn. on the impacts of the outsourcing and, with the “proper procedures” followed, lay off the affected workers.

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MAYBE SOME ENLIGHTENMENT ON WEDNESDAY
So, I guess we're left to our own devices to figure out just what is happening. I will, however, follow-up with lawyers from both sides tomorrow if at all possible to see if they will, or can, slow the spin down just a little bit so we laypersons can try to figure out what happens next.


LOPEZ SIGNS IN AGAIN WEDNESDAY
In the meantime, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez gives us his third in what looks like a mini-series on Costa Mesa's travails with his column in print on Wednesday, HERE. He gives us some pretty provocative quotes to contemplate and kind of affirms how we got here in the first place - meetings at Skosh's bar, sipping suds and designing strategy.

Lopez Ventures Back To Costa Mesa - Almost

TRYING TO SET STEVE STRAIGHT
Well, our old buddy, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, ventured back into Costa Mesa last week to get his mind squared away by our two purveyor's of truth, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer and Steve Mensinger. Apparently they thought he got it wrong HERE when he wrote previously about their attempt to make up for not being able to implement real pension reform by getting rid of many of those employees who are eligible for those darn pensions. That first column generated over 400 comments and the old hit counter is still spinning.

COFFEE WITH CLOWNS
Lopez presents his view, HERE, of having coffee with the two of them - he refers to them a couple times as "Frick and Frack" - and that reference made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt! Yes, sir - our two wannabe saviors of our city certainly have performed like those two buffoons on ice from yesteryear - except without the skills.

CHOKING DOWN THE "TRUTH"
I suspect Righeimer and Mensinger will be less than happy with their attempt to set the record straight by enticing Lopez to have coffee across the border in Newport Beach - a rock-throw from my house, by the way. Yes, Kean's coffee is wonderful, but it doesn't help you choke down the kind of stuff they were feeding him - obviously.



THEY WON'T FOLLOW HATCH'S PLANS
So, now we wait until Tuesday, when an extended Study Session will present CEO Tom Hatch's balanced budget and a full explanation of the plan to restructure the Police Department. I don't think the council, headed by the aforementioned "Frick and Frack", (chuckle) will go along with Hatch's plan in either case. I think they are going to continue on with their own plan to gut our once-proud Police Department, ignoring the best professional advice they could find, and leave the residents of our city at the mercy of the criminals among us.

BUDGET DISSATISFACTION
And I think they will demand more cuts by Hatch and his dwindling staff of managers to provide a much larger cash reserve so they can buy up motels throughout the city and make it easier for their developer buddies to make big bucks on them.


ARE WE THAT BLIND AND STUPID?
It's really hard to imagine that they really think the public is so blind and stupid that they don't see through what they're doing here. They're taking the mantra handed down by the GOP - MY GOP - and use those skills that they used to ride two divisions of SunCal Companies into the ground to do the same for Costa Mesa. I'm not sure what it's going to take for the voters of this city to wise-up.

Add Lopez To The Mix

MICKADEIT'S TAKE ON COSTA MESA MEDIA COVERAGE
I'm sure many of your read Orange County Register columnist Frank Mickadeit's column on Wednesday, June 1st, HERE, in which he commented on the media firestorm that has overtaken Costa Mesa in recent months. Of course, he's played his own part in throwing fuel on that fire, but that's his job.

STEVE LOPEZ HOPS ABOARD
Well, here's an assignment for you. On Sunday find a copy of the Los Angeles Times and look for their uber-columnist, Steve Lopez' byline. He's jumping onto the bus with a special column on Costa Mesa, too! Over the past couple days he's made the rounds in our city, talking with the movers and shakers - and the moved and shaken, too. I include myself in that latter group.

HE OF "THE SOLOIST' FAME
Most of you know of Lopez, if for no other reason than he was played by Robert Downey, Jr., in "The Soloist", a hit movie made from his Los Angeles Times series on homeless musician Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, (portrayed by Jamie Fox in the film). You can see the "60 Minutes" clip with host Morley Safer about that story HERE.



WITH TREPIDATION, LOOKING FORWARD TO IT
Personally, I'm eager to see just what Lopez comes up with that has not already been said dozens of times over the past six months. He's a terrific writer, but there's always some trepidation when ANY journalist gets his hooks into you because the danger of a mis-quotation is always a very real possibility. So, while I'm away at the wedding this weekend your assignment is to find Lopez' column - it's probably going to be posted online late Saturday night - and report back.