Fairview Park Committee Goes On Hiatus With A Dull Thud

OPTIMISTIC FLOOR PLAN
Arriving a little early at the Victoria Room of the Neighborhood Community Center last night for the most recent - and maybe final - meeting of the Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee I was surprised by the optimistic number of chairs arranged for the event.  You can take the time to count them from this panorama shot, but my best guess was that just over 100 seats were available for attendees.  Fewer than half that many were actually used.

SMITH AT THE HELM...
Vice Chairman, now identified as "Acting Chair", Steve Smith kicked the meeting off following the roll call which saw member Anna Vrska absent due to travel complications - she's stuck in Munich - with a glib statement that "the rest of us are here because we didn't have a good excuse."  Nobody in the "crowd" of fewer than 20 people at the time laughed, which kind of marked the way the meeting would proceed.  The remaining other six members of the committee were present: Smith, Ron Amburgey, Terry Cummings, Dennis Popp, Lee Ramos and Frank Davern.  Council Liaison, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer, was absent and his alternate, Sandra Genis, showed up well into the program.  A footnote: former Chairman Dr. Richard Mehren attended the meeting and sat quietly observing the proceedings near the front of the room.

...AND STAYED THERE
Smith then addressed the issue of possibly electing a new Chairman, citing the fact that this may be their last meeting for at least a year.  Nobody nominated anyone else, so Smith proceeded to conduct the meeting.

MEJIA PRESENTS...
We then heard the Staff Presentation conducted by Parks Project Manager Bart Mejia on the "field" related issues that the staff had been working on since January - the February and March meetings were canceled.  Unlike in previous meetings, there would be NO vote by the committee as to whether they would recommend them being forwarded to the Parks and Recreation Commission or not.  The three issues that would be presented were:

 Mejia would just present the staff report and that would be that.

OVERVIEW AND CONSTRAINTS
He began with an overview of the Southeast Quadrant of the Park - the final remaining chunk of land to be considered.  He then spoke briefly of the Constraints that were faced when considering placing fields of any kind in this quadrant.

BURROWING OWLS
He spoke of the biological resources thought to be part of this section of the park, including the burrowing owl and other species.

POSSIBILITIES
He then went through several slides showing possible sites for playing fields within the existing infrastructure - mainly the Orange County Model Engineers tracks and buildings.

FEASIBILITIES AND IMPACTS
Based on the staff analysis he presented the following thoughts about the feasibility of certain types of fields in the existing configurations:

GRADING THE ENTIRE SITE
He then went through the scenario if the entire Southeast Quadrant was to be graded to overcome some of the topographical constraints that currently exist, and the Model Engineers infrastructure was to be relocated.

"IF"..."AND"...
The result was the following configuration, which he stated would be the best use of the land IF fields were to be considered AND if funding could be found to do it. As you can see, this configuration provides parking along Placentia, relocated the Model Engineers facility slightly, and includes (1) a synthetic turf field, (2) two youth ball fields), (3) a multipurpose field overlaying the ball fields and (4) two soccer fields.

IMPACTS AND COST
The impacts to the Master Plan are shown below.

THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!
And that was that!  Following the short - ten (10) minute - presentation by Mejia, Chairman Smith said, "And that fulfills the requirement assigned to us by the council." He told us the PowerPoint presentation would be available online shortly and we moved on without comment from any of the members.  It was bizarre, since this analysis took many, many hours of staff time to prepare and has the potential to make the greatest impact on the park, yet none of the members were permitted to make any kind of observations.  I found myself thinking about just how frustrating this must be for the staff, which has toiled for nearly two years on this project.

PUBLIC COMMENTS
Smith then opened up the meeting for Public Comments, limiting each speaker to two (2) minutes each.  From my vantage point I got photos mostly of backs of heads, so I'll just try to give you a short summary of what most speakers said.  Let me say right up front that 20 speakers - about half the number in the room -  addressed the committee in two segments because Smith botched up the first segment.  Of those speakers, only two were in support of playing fields anywhere in the park.

Mary Spadoni led off with a quote from member Ramos from a Feet To The Fire Forum last fall in which he said he wanted to keep the park as it is, and accusing him of lying to the public in a campaign because he voted to proceed with the analysis of playing fields on the Southeast Quadrant.

Jay Humphrey briefly thanked the committee and staff for all the work they'd done and said he was looking forward to the committee reconvening in 2016.  He encouraged them to continue to be involved with the consultant hired for the update of the Master Plan, and to look into the acquisition of the Fairview Developmental Center property.

Gary Stickle, a professor from UCLA, spoke of the protected species and the Native American artifacts, calling Fairview Park our "Stonehenge".

Patricia Martz - a frequent speaker at these meetings - observed that "capping" of the area to make fields was inappropriate because they are sacred burial grounds and kids shouldn't be playing on burial grounds.

Terry Koken stepped up and chided Popp about his birthday, then stated that Fairview Park should be left the way it is.

Lynn Redmond spoke about the project his son, Christian, was completing in the park - replanting native plants, and thanked those who supported the project by helping and contributing.

Beth Refakes thanked the committee for their efforts, but suggested that we had the cart before the horse because we had not done a needs assessment first.  She suggested that if the decision was made to move forward with playing fields, particularly in light of the probable costs, then the issue should be placed before the voters.

Cindy Brenneman also stepped up and said the park should be kept natural.

Ann Parker chided Ramos for lying to the people and suggested that he was just a plant by Mayor Mensinger and Righeimer on the committee to sway it toward playing fields.

Gay Royer spoke of her personal experience with development on Native American locations.

Kim Hendricks said no data had been presented that showed a shortage of playing fields and said the committee failed to listen to the public.

Lou Desandro identified himself as "the other side" - one of those in support of playing fields in the park.  He said those speaking didn't represent the majority of residents, then suggested that the Southeast Quadrant be converted to playing fields, "because the rest of the park is natural".

Steve James, a professor from Cal State Fullerton, suggested that the Native American sites are too precious to be defiled, and that the park should remain natural.

Cindy Black identified the committee as "tools" - of the council and suggested that Ramos and Davern didn't know anything about the park when appointed.  She suggested that big campaign contributors - "Argyros, Segerstrom and Buck Johns" - should provide some cash to identify other sites for playing fields.

Margaret Mooney also cited Ramos campaign comments and noted how quickly folks were supporting lighting, but said it should be done at other venues, not Fairview Park.

Robin Leffler thanked the committee for their work, then observed the lack of a needs analysis and suggested that the committee should remember they are to serve all the people.  That took us to 7:00 p.m.

FORCED TO DO THE RIGHT THING
A half hour later, just as the meeting was about to close, Smith was forced to permit four other speakers to exercise their time because of his screw-up.  When originally challenged about it his response was, "It's not my problem!"  Not very "leaderly", to say the least.

Anyhow, a pair of soccer moms stepped up with their two little girls in tow and pleaded for the park to remain natural.  The children spoke, too.

John Rubright - an AYSO supporter and the only other "pro-fields" speaker - stepped up and chided those who wanted to keep Fairview Park natural.  He chided the OCME site, stating that it "was not natural".  Rubright has spoken before to the committee and each time he doesn't serve his side well because he doesn't present a compelling argument for more fields.

Cindy Black stepped up (again) because Smith had screwed up earlier on the  final agenda item and refused to let the public speak to it.  She said 'No" to the trail.

The final public commentor was self-described Soccer Dad and AYSO referee, Kevin Shannon, who strongly recommended that Fairview Park be kept natural.

EAST FAIRVIEW CHANNEL TRAIL
Back to 7:00 p.m.  The final item on the agenda was the consideration of a possible East Fairview Channel Trail.  No member indicated an interest in discussing it and Smith failed to permit public comments on it but the committee voted, 5-1, to have the staff prepare a study!  They won't hear about this for a year.  This was a major boneheaded move on many levels and showed a tremendous lack of leadership on Smith's part.  Interesting, since he has been openly critical of former Chairman Mehren's leadership but did virtually nothing to help him for the past nearly two years!

CUMMINGS IS CORRECT
As the committee began winding down it was time for Committee Members comments and Cummings led off with a prepared statement.  He observed that the February and March meetings had been canceled and he didn't know why.  He observed that Mehren and Eckles were gone, so the committee was down to seven members from nine.  He observed Senate Bill 639, which placed Fairview Developmental Center in play, was in the works and that the city should be considering that venue for any new playing fields.  He made four points:
1 - The FDC property would be free of environmental or cultural complications.
2 - It would be a great project for new State Senator John Moorlach to champion.
3 - Sports Fields should be made a priority for the property and the consultant dollars for the Master Plan should be diverted to investigating the acquisition of the FDC property.
4 - Leave the existing Master Plan in force and adjourn to 4/1/2020.

AMBURGEY
Ron Amburgey had nothing to say.

POPP
Dennis Popp expressed disappointment in the personal attacks.

RAMOS
Ramos said he was suprised that it became "Lee Ramos Fan Night", referring to several critics.  He said he does believe in passive parks and criticized member "Varska" - he meant Anna Vrska, but added a vowel to her name - for taking up staff time demanding statistics.    He defended his knowledge of the park by stating he walks it three days a week.

DAVERN
Davern, who replaced deceased David Stiller midstream, responded to criticism by Cindy Black, indicating he DOES know about Fairview Park, having hiked "280 miles" there.  He said, to her, "I've yet to see you there."  He said he formed his opinion about the need for more fields by talking with the people he encountered in the park - "mostly Latinos" - who said they need playing fields.  He said 99% of the residents don't attend these meetings.  Well, duh!

SMITH
Smith then said, "The real losers in this year-long delay are the kids of the community."  He cited the need to continue moving forward, particularly with the school district, to find more fields.  He thanked the City staff for their hard work.  At that point, as he was about to adjourn, we had the followup Public Comments.

UNCLEAR FUTURE AND THE BROWN ACT
Then, at about 7:30, the Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee folded up its tent and departed.  Nobody knows when - or even if - this group will meet again to discuss the future of Fairview Park.  And, since the committee has NOT been disbanded, the members are still governed by the Brown Act, so if, for example, Ramos, Popp, Amburgey and Davern gather and discuss this issue they will be violating the Brown Act.  The City Council should disband this committee to remove that burden for the unknown period of time into the future and, if necessary, re-constitute it in the future.

SOME THOUGHTS
A couple observations.  This committee was hastily-created by a council majority intent on finding a way to develop playing fields in Fairview Park, and stacked the membership toward that end.  I doubt if they, the council, actually thought it would take nearly two years to reach this point, and then to basically have nothing they were looking for to show for all the time and effort.

PREMATURE
This effort - which was premature at best, because there was no data presented at ANY TIME to demonstrate the need for more playing fields anywhere, much less in Fairview Park - should not have been launched in the first place.  The update of the Master Plan of Parks and Open Spaces was pending and this effort should have been subordinated to that process. 

VAST MAJORITY OPPOSE FAIRVIEW FIELDS
I've attended almost all of the meetings of this committee and among the things that have been consistent is the ratio of members of the public who spoke out against playing fields versus those who stepped up to ask for them.  The numbers were overwhelming from the very beginning.  One would think - with the organizational skills of the youth sports groups - that they would have eventually rallied THEIR troops to present THEIR side of the issue to the committee.  That effort was feeble to the point of being almost non-existent.  Where the heck were they?

WORK THE RIGHT PROBLEM
I'm NOT saying we don't need more places for kids to practice organized sports, and actually to just "play".  In recent months the pro-fields groups have uniformly acknowledged that the shortage is in "lighted" fields for kids to practice - not "game day" fields on which to compete.  Well, if 10% of the effort expended with this committee had been spent working with the school district to hammer out an agreement about field use and lights thereon, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

WORK ON FAIRVIEW DEVELOPMENTAL CENTER
In my view, THAT is where our municipal energies should be aimed right now.  And, I agree with Terry Cummings - the City should be making EVERY effort to line up our ducks toward acquiring the Fairview Developmental Center property when it becomes available - and NOT to just have it become more congested, rabbit-warren type housing that we're seeing sprout up all over town like mushrooms.

SO LONG, FAREWELL...
So, farewell to the men and woman of the Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee.  All of you - current and past members - worked long and hard and actually DID accomplish a lot over the past 20 months.

...AND THANKS
And a HUGE thank you to Ernesto Munoz, Bart Mejia, Yolanda Summerhill, Fariba Fazeli and the rest of the City staff for the thousands of hours spent on this effort.  Good job!

Mayor's Arrogance Knows No Bounds

THE ROOKIE'S PETULANCE
Tonight in the Daily Pilot, HERE, Bradley Zint presents us with the story that Rookie Mayor Steve Mensinger wants to conduct a "community consensus survey" regarding the future of Fairview Park.

A STACKED COMMITTEE
The Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee has met for the best part of two years on this issue.  That committee was stacked with enough cronies to sway the agenda toward increased playing fields if push came to shove.  The ratio was further tilted when Frank Davern replaced the deceased David Stiller.

ARROGANCE
Mensinger is quoted by Zint as saying, "Some people want nothing.  Some want trails.  Some want sports fields.  This is an opportunity for the community to come up with a consensus solution, as opposed to what's happening now: rhetoric and misinformation."  What a crock!  Mensinger mentions "condos and casinos", but I've heard nobody utter those words at the meetings.  That's just a red herring to open up this issue.

MENSINGER HEARD, BUT IGNORED, THE PEOPLE
Until he was elected mayor Mensinger was the council liaison to the committee.  He sat through most of the meetings.  He saw the turnout of residents and others interested in the welfare of Fairview Park.  I sat through most of those meetings, too.  I heard those voices.  I heard the experts talk about the protected species and the sacred Native American grounds within the boundaries of the park.  I also heard representatives of youth sports groups who wanted to carve out a few more playing fields in the park.

A LENGTHY, THOUGHTFUL PROCESS
I watched the process by which the committee set about fulfilling what they thought was their charter.  I watched as they submitted thirty-five (35) separate issues to be discussed as possible additions/refinements for the park.  I watched as they took each quadrant at a time and made careful, reasoned decisions on each of those issues for each quadrant.  I watched as the staff prepared lengthy reports for their consideration.  I've written about each of those meetings.

HOME STRETCH - THE SOUTHEAST QUADRANT
Having addressed the other three quadrants and having made few changes, the committee is now down to the home stretch - consideration of the future of the Southeast Quadrant - the one most likely to have the playing fields advocates salivating because it represents the biggest chunk of relatively level ground left.  It does include the Orange County Model Engineers (OCME) train infrastructure - which has been an institution in the park for decades and for whom the agreement was just extended for another five (5) years.

TRAINS AND FIELDS CANNOT CO-EXIST
Addressing that last issue, the trains, Mensinger is quoted by Zint as saying that if sports fields are added, "the trains aren't going anywhere" and could be incorporated alongside the fields.  Well, that issue has already been flogged at length and none of the pro-train guys think that's possible without extensive and very costly reconfiguration of the tracks and other infrastructure.

PROTECTED SPECIES IN JEOPARDY
Zint properly points out the fragile, protected vernal pools and the Native American sites within the park.  Mensinger has demonstrated by his direction to the city staff to carve out a path cutting directly through protected vernal pools - home to the San Diego Fairy Shrimp -  in the Southwest Quadrant, that he really has no concern for the natural elements of the park.  That decision/direction has cost the city nearly $20,000 in mitigation efforts and has U.S. Fish and Wildlife carefully assessing our ability to be responsible stewards for the entire park.  It is possible that they could impose sanctions on the City and individuals for that act of vandalism and severely restrict our ability to do ANYTHING in the park.  That shoe is waiting to drop.

ACT OF A SPOILED KID
This move by Mensinger is nothing more than that of  a spoiled little kid seeing that he is not getting his way, so he's going to chuck the entire process the committee has undergone for nearly two years and try to cobble together a "consensus" to finally get playing fields at the park.  He clearly has not listened to the speakers at the many, many committee meetings - he seems to do that a lot.  He tunes folks out when they are saying something he doesn't like or bores him.  It's as though if it doesn't involve youth sports, then it's not worth his time.

COMMITTEE IN DISARRAY
The Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee is in disarray right now.  Chairman Dr. Richard Mehren - a man who has chaired not only this committee, but the previous iteration of it for fifteen years and was largely responsible for The City of Costa Mesa acquiring the park originally - resigned in a huff at the end of the January 7th meeting.  Member Brett Eckles was appointed to the Parks and Recreation Commission and must give up his voting position on the committee.  That leaves Vice Chair Steve Smith, quoted extensively in Zint's article; Anna Vrska; Terry Cummings; Ron Amburgey; Frank Davern; Dennis Popp and Lee Ramos on the committee.  I think it's safe to say that the last four on that list could be considered "pro-fields", although Ramos professed to want to keep the park "natural" on the campaign stump, yet voted to have staff move ahead with plans for fields on the Southeast Quadrant at the January meeting.  Actions speak louder than words.

FEBRUARY MEETING CANCELLED
The meeting scheduled for this month was cancelled because of  botched noticing.  It's just as well, because the staff was having a hard time putting together proper reports requested for the committee to consider.  They were field use options, which presented special challenges for the staff.

FIRST WEEK OF MARCH SHOULD BE INTERESTING
The next meeting would be on Wednesday, March 4th, the day following the council meeting at which, Zint tells us, Mensinger will pitch his idea for a "survey" to the City Council.  I'm thinking both meetings will be filled with interested parties on both sides of the issue.

LIKE RIGHEIMER'S CHARTER DEBACLE
In my view, this is very much like Mayor Pro Tem (pronounced eMPTy) Jim Righeimer's tenacious disregard for the voice of the people on his twice-defeated Charter scheme.  These guys seem to get their minds made up BEFORE public input and just keep charging ahead, even though the will of the people is clear.

NOT NECESSARILY INSANITY, BUT...
That old saw, sometimes attributed to Albert Einstein, about the definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result - might seem to be a clever jab right about now.  Unfortunately, it's unclear that Einstein ever said that and Psychology Today refutes it.  What is probably more accurate is that this is a sign of Perserveration, which they define as the pathological, persistent repetition of a word, gesture, or act.  This is not to be confused with Perserverance - the steady persistence in a course of action in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

FURTHER...
They go on to say, "Some forms of dementia, traumatic brain injury, anxiety and OCD can cause people to perseverate.  They repeat words and tasks or try repeatedly to solve problems, but are left frustrated and unsatisfied.  They're not necessarily insane, but stuck in a non-productive pattern due to a glitch in brain function."  Uh, huh...  And, near the end of the article I read, HERE, they say, "So how do you tell the difference?  Perseveration feels compulsive, hopeless, helpless, automatic and unsatisfying.  There is a desire to stop, but stopping doesn't feel like an option.  Perserverance feels like striving toward a nobel goal, and whether or not it's reached it there is virtue in the effort.  Perserverance is a strong, valuable quality.  Perseveration is a troubling issue needing clinical attention."

A TANTRUM
So, this move on the part of our Rookie Mayor is basically a little tantrum, demanding to get his way and changing the "playing field", so to speak, to do so.  The discussion of this issue will be illuminating next month.  We plan to be at both meetings to report the results.

Fairview Park Committee Chairman Resigns!

AN EXCLAMATION POINT TO A CONTENTIOUS EVENING
At the end of a meeting of the Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee Wednesday evening, following three hours of contentious public comment and spirited discussion between the members of the committee, Chairman Dr. Richard Mehren - the man who was largely responsible for the City of Costa Mesa acquiring the Fairview land originally and who was the chairman of the first Fairview Park Advisory Committee for seventeen years in addition to manning the helm of this committee for nearly two years - abruptly resigned.

(Dr. Richard Mehren (right) shown with Vice Chair Steve Smith)

PENT-UP FRUSTRATION
Dr. Mehren, who has been very clearly in favor of keeping Fairview Park in a natural state and obviously opposed to any of the schemes proposed to convert all or part of it into active sports venues, chose to close the meeting with a prepared statement, part of which included a comment that it "was something I've wanted to say for some time."  As we leaned forward to hear because many of the members of the audience and the committee were already in departure mode, Mehren said, "This committee should never have been called the Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee, it should have been called the Fairview Park Mayor's Advisory Committee because the mayor stacked it with six members who were in favor of playing fields."  And with that he gathered up his papers and left the room, leaving dropped jaws behind him.  As Mehren departed one audience member near me muttered that "At least one of them has some balls."  I had to smile because that "mayor" - now Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer - was at the table as primary liaison to  the committee for the first time.  I suspect he was not happy.

 (Mayor Pro Tem Righeimer on left)

NEW CHAIRMAN NEXT TIME
According to Deputy City Attorney Yolanda Summerhill, who provides staff legal support to the committee, the committee members must select a new Chairman at their next meeting.  The City Council must now decide whether to replace Mehren and the process to be used.  When member David Stiller, who was not in favor of playing fields in the park, passed away last year the council replaced him with Frank Davern, who is in favor of playing fields.  Mehren's departure has the high probability of further shifting the balance on the committee if another person favoring playing fields in the park is chosen.  It all may be moot, since this committee has almost wrapped up it's assignment after nearly two years of meetings.

STANDING ROOM ONLY
As anticipated, even without Mehren's departure, this meeting had plenty of other drama.  First, it played to a standing-room-only crowd.  Seats were provided for 100 people, but more than 150 packed the venue until one of the walls was removed late in the proceedings to provide seating for them.  Bradley Zint of the Daily Pilot and Jordan Graham of the Orange County Register were in attendance.  You can read Zint's article HERE.

MOST AGAINST ANY DEVELOPMENT
During the Public Comments segment of the meeting that began shortly after the six o'clock start time, more than three dozen people spoke.  More than 90% were clearly against placing any playing fields within the boundaries of the Southeast Quadrant - or anywhere in the park, for that matter.  Those who spoke in favor of playing fields were representatives of youth sports organizations, each of whom bemoaned the dearth of adequate fields within the City.  A few acknowledged that the shortage was actually of lighted fields for the most part.  That issue is NOT within the purview of this committee's scope of work, although it is foundational to the attempt to snag some of the land within the park for fields.

 FEARLESS
Many of the speakers have become regular attendees at these meetings and spoke with gusto and concern.  There were more than a few new faces, though, who addressed the committee with passion and trepidation.  One young fellow, James DeLaO, marched right up to the microphone, held it in his hand and told the committee that, while he was a baseball player, he didn't think there should be playing fields at Fairview Park.  Interestingly, his father later spoke and advocated for fields in the park.  

"THE LETTER"...
One interesting speaker early in the segment was Vicki Snell, new Newport Mesa Unified School District Trustee for Area 1, which is part of Costa Mesa.  She had the unenviable task of delivering to the committee the letter signed by District Superintendent Dr. Fred Navarro and Board President Martha Fluor, which I mentioned in my earlier post, HERE.  A copy of the letter is contained in that entry.  As it turns out, the letter may not have been what it appeared to be, according to Snell.  It appears that Navarro and Fluor may not have actually understood what this meeting was all about, and what the charter of this committee actually is.  After her brief 3-minute presentation she was asked by Vice Chairman Steve Smith to step back up and read the letter into the record in it's entirety, which she did.  A later speaker, Laurene Keane, told us she had been in contact with Fluor during the day and affirmed that the letter was not what it appeared to be.  Of course, that's problematic, since we have the two highest ranking people in the school district firing off a last-minute missive to the committee, city council and Parks and Recreation Commission without a clue.  I suspect they, did, in fact, understand what they were doing and may use this event to leverage some kind of change - monetary or otherwise - in the Joint Use Agreement.  We'll see.  I've been told by some sources who should know that the City should probably be contributing substantially more to the District for maintenance of fields than is presently prescribed in the JUA.

MOST COMMISSIONERS PRESENT
By the way, 4/5 of the Parks and Recreation Commission were in the room during this meeting.  Chairman Byron de Arakal and Commissioner Don Harper were in the audience and Dean Abernathy and Bob Graham were at the committee tables.  I did not see Commissioner Kim Pederson.

 (Byron deArakal (right) shown with Estancia Principal Kirk Bauermeister)

OTHER OPTIONS

Suggestions from speakers included carving up part or all of one of the two municipal golf courses to use for playing fields.  Others suggested the pending availability of all or part of the Fairview Development Center as possible venues for sports fields.  Still others suggested that any attempt to carve up segments of the park would likely violate the trust deed in force from the purchase.  Others observed that artifacts from Native Americans were all over the park and properly assessing them and mitigating possible damage could take years and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

CONSIDER THE LEGACY
Resident and almost councilman Jay Humphrey spoke to the committee and reminded them of the legacy they will be leaving for their children, grandchildren and their children, too.  He suggested anything that would place hardscape - paving, etc. - would damage that legacy.

PROTECT THE ARTIFACTS
Professor Patricia Martz - a frequent attendee to these meetings and archaeologist of some renown - reminded the committee of protected areas within the park and, specifically, within the Southeast Quadrant.

STICK TO THE PLAN
Kim Hendricks, a teacher with a passion for the park, again spoke and quoted from the current Fairview Park Master Plan to remind the committee of the constrictions they're working with.

MEHREN CUTS THE SPEAKER'S TIME
At about 6:35 Mehren arbitrarily decided that speakers would now get only two minutes instead of three because it was his intent to begin the business part of the meeting promptly at 7 p.m.

MONEY...
Among the subsequent two dozen speakers was Flo Martin, who suggested that we "follow the money", then spoke of the Great Park boondoggle and of the near loss of the Orange County Fairgrounds and TeWinkle Park to private developers

Public Comments ended at 7:15.

THE BUSINESS...
Parks Project Manager Bart Mejia then gave an overview of the process to get to this point and described the remaining six items to be discussed last night.  The committee would consider each of them and decide if more staff analysis is necessary for further consideration or to just not move forward with the item.  The six items to be considered are these:
 1 - Baseball/Softball Facilities
 2 - Soccer/Football Fields
 3 - Multi-use Athletic Fields
 4 - OCME Track Expansions/Improvements
 5 - Basketball/Handball Courts
 6 - Roller Hockey Surface

SPLITTING THEM UP...
Then member Ron Amburgey - who was one of two members who originally had most of the 35 original items place on the list - suggested that all six should be considered at one time.  After some discussion by the committee it was decided to split the items into three distinct groups for consideration.  Those would be items 1-3 in one group; item 4 by itself and items 5 and 6 as a group, so that's how they then proceeded.  Before they began public comments Mehren told the committee and audience he felt all the items violated the Fairview agreement and would vote NO on all of them.  The crowd cheered.

BROAD DISAPPROVAL
Sixteen people spoke during the "comments" segment of the discussion of items 1-3, although several used their time to speak on broader issues that they couldn't cover earlier due to time constraints.  Sometimes the will of the people seems very much like water.  Even though you might attempt to dam it up, it can usually find a way past that dam.  They spoke of the loss of habitat for animals in the park, the use of water to grow playing field grass, the damage grading would do to Indian artifacts.  One speaker reminded the committee that splitting the elements for discussion won't mitigate the damage done.  One speaker, who said he was a tribal leader of local American Indians, spoke vehemently against any development in the park and, at one time, looked directly at Righeimer with a comment about development.  Righeimer brusquely told him to "speak to the body" - ever the class act.  The ratio for and against fields in this segment was the same as earlier.

TIME EXTENSION(S)
After more than 20 minutes of public comments the committee then began discussing those three items.  Smith reminded them that the 8 o'clock hour was approaching, so the time was extended to 8:30.  It would later be further extended to 9:00.  Brett Eckles - a strong advocate for playing fields - tried to be the voice of conciliation and asked for compromise.  He attempted to provide some valid statistics for the committee to consider, and spoke of the need for more maintenance of existing fields.

PUFFING AND BLOWING
The ever-pompous Dennis Popp suggested that he needed more expert opinion from Civil Engineers before making a decision to recommend fields or not, so he wanted to shove these three items forward so the staff could bring back more information.  He attempted to cite his nurse training, but - as is usually the case when you try to read his pathetic blog - he just didn't make any sense.  Of course, it didn't help his case much when he accused the audience of being immature and scolded them for their behavior.

RAMOS, THE CHAMELEON

Lee Ramos, in one of the few times he's spoken out on issues, went off into what sounded like a deflated version of his campaign stump speech, during which he made a back-handed comment to Mehren and closed by reminding folks of his Hispanic heritage - "my culture owned this land at one time" - before stating that "we need to find a way."  Later a speaker looked directly at Ramos and spoke of a man who had recently come to her door campaigning and told her flat out how he felt about issues in Fairview Park, then voted the opposite tonight.  She was fuming!  Fortunately, enough people saw through Ramos' campaign rhetoric and did not vote for him in November.

COMMITTEE A WASTE OF TIME AND RESOURCES
Anna Vrska observed that this committee, while it includes many fine people, has been a waste of time and resources.  She observed that they had not been provided with sufficient or accurate information with which they could make decisions.  I was not surprised, since she has regularly asked for statistics from the staff which seemed not to be provided.

THIN, PARTISAN, VOTE MOVES THEM FORWARD
Finally, just after 8:30, the committee voted, 5-4, to ask the staff to bring back an analysis of those three items for the committee's consideration at the next meeting.   Ramos, Popp, Amburgey, Eckles and Davern voted YES.  Mehren, Smith, Anna Vrska and Terry Cummings voted NO.

NO TRAIN EXPANSION

Following a discussion of item #4, the expansion of the Orange County Model Engineers footprint, Ron Amburgey moved to approve it, but received no second, so it died and will receive no further consideration.

HARD SURFACE IDEAS QUASHED
Items 5 and 6 received a similar fate.  Seven members of the public spoke to this issue - none in favor of moving them forward -  and Amburgey could receive no support for his motion, so it died for lack of a second.

FINAL ITEM STARTED, THEN CONTINUED TO THE NEXT MEETING
I was astounded when they actually began the final agenda item, a discussion of the East Fairview Channel Trail, shortly before 9:00.  I thought for sure they would shove that item off to the next meeting.  Nope,  Mejia delivered a short staff report, showing maps, etc. and no members of the public spoke.  THEN it was decided to put it off to the next meeting.  Then Mehren delivered his bombshell news and Smith adjourned the meeting.  Whew!  So, back we come next month, on February 4th, when a new Chairman will be selected and the future of this committee will be clarified.

COSTA MESA BRIEF ON THE CASE
Almost forgot... Barry Friedland was on hand with several cameras to capture the evening's event.  He tells me that the video of this meeting should be up on his Costa Mesa Brief YouTube Channel, HERE, within the next couple days.  Look for it Friday.