A Small Crowd Remembers Huy Pham's Death

REMEMBERING HUY PHAM
Friday night, on the 6th anniversary of Huy Pham's tragic death at City Hall, a small group of friends, co-workers and activists met on the east side of of the building near the employee entrance where Pham died to spend a couple hours remembering that young man whose life was cut short.

FEW MANAGERS ATTENDED
Fire Chief Dan Stefano and Public Services Director Raja Sethuraman were among the city management team in attendance.

GENIS WAS THERE
Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Genis attended and mingled with the small crowd, sharing stories of the event and other events since that day.

NAGHAVI ATTENDED
Former Public Services Director and Deputy Chief Executive Officer Peter Naghavi also remembered this day and attended, bringing flowers and lighting a candle in Pham's memory.

EGANS AND LEFFLER
Others included former Planning Commissioner and member of the city legal team, Eleanor Egan, and her husband, Tom - a former member of the Newport Mesa Unified School District Board of Trustees.  Robin Leffler, President of Costa Mesan's For Responsible Government, the group that helped sponsor this event, also attended.

HELEN NENADAL
Former Maintenance Supervisor Helen Nenadal, who spent the past few years as an employee as the President of the Costa Mesa City Employees Association (CMCEA) before retiring the end of 2013, attended and shared wonderful memories of her time working with the City and of Huy Pham.  You can read what I wrote about her retirement HERE.  She's shown here with Naghavi and others.

VISITING THE TREE
At one point several of the attendees walked around to the west side of the building to visit the tree that was planted in the lawn there in Pham's memory a year after his death.  Some wondered why no plaque has been placed to memorialize his passing.  Seems like a very good question.

FEW STAFFERS TOOK THE TIME
By the time I left just before 6:00 p.m. the crowd had thinned.  It was interesting to note that, with the exception of those mentioned and shown in the photos, few staffers nor managers even slowed as they passed the makeshift memorial site.  Of course, so few of the existing staff were onboard at that time that I suppose this lack of interest is understandable.  It was sad that not a single member of the City Manager's staff made an appearance by the time I left.

A WATERSHED MOMENT RECALLED
It's a shame that more folks didn't make it to this small remembrance.  Huy Pham's tragic leap to his death on that date was, in my opinion, a watershed moment in Costa Mesa's history.  It marked the downhill slide orchestrated by Jim Righeimer, Steve Mensinger and with a willing accomplice in Gary Monahan - who likely spent last night the same way he spent St. Patrick's Day six years ago - pouring beer for celebrants in his gin mill.

WE WILL BE BACK...
Because of the importance of this sad event, there will be more than a few of us who will NOT let the City forget it.  We'll be back...

High Quality Early Education

TOM AND "HQEE"
A little more than a week has passed since Tom Egan - community activist (half of the formidable Tom and Eleanor Egan duo) and former member of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board of Trustees - published an excellent commentary in the Daily Pilot on the value of High Quality Early Education (HQEE), which can be read HERE.  And, like so many children in our educational system, it slipped through the cracks in my busy life and I just finally got around to reading it.

HELLO!  ANYBODY HOME?
Egan's observations in that commentary are so spot-on that I thought I'd find many comments supporting his views and, perhaps, a few that didn't.  However, ten days since publication and there are zero comments.  Astounding!  Then, again, we're in the middle of one of the most heated political seasons in my memory, so folks probably don't have time to contemplate an issue without a political scalp at stake.

I UNDERSTAND
I, personally, understand the value of an early jump-start on education.  As the first born in my family, with loving and supportive parents who understood the value of an education, I spent hours on the lap of my mother or my aunt, reading with them from the Book House For Children series that my folks bought when I was about three years of age.  Those twelve books were tiered for progressive (not in the political sense, but in the practical sense) learning from early nursery rhymes through about the sixth grade level.  And, of course, this was in the days before television, so by the time I started kindergarten I could read every word in every one of those dozen volumes and understand the contents.

THANKS, BUT...
Thanks to Tom Egan for bringing this very important subject up front for us to consider.  Too bad so many of us seem uninterested...

Costa Mesa Employee Compensation Report

 NUMBERS NOW AVAILABLE
As I mentioned briefly in an earlier post, the 2012 Costa Mesa City Employee Compensation Report is now available for viewing on the city web site, HERE.  And, if you want to compare it to the 2011 report you can view that one HERE.



MISLEADING USE OF "FACTS"
Some will recall that certain members of the City Council went berserk when this listing was first produced last year.  They and many of their sycophants - in an election year - misrepresented the numbers to pillory "greedy union employees", always failing to mention that the reason many of the persons they criticized were members of public safety organizations and the council at that time refused to permit the leaders of the Police and Fire organizations to staff at reasonable levels.  That refusal led to mandatory overtime in those organizations to provide adequate staffing for our safety, which pushed individuals up the compensation list.  Many times now-mayor Jim Righeimer referred to a "firefighter earning $350,000" - a lie of the first magnitude.  He was referring to Fire Battalion Chief Bill Kershaw, who was at the top of the 2011 list because he worked more than 4000 hours during that year.  And, that "$350,000" number included almost $70,000 in pension costs - not dollars he put into his pocket.  And, Righeimer conveniently rounded the numbers up - Kershaw's number, including the pension costs, was actually $346,167.60.  Kershaw is #2 on this year's list, at $296,733.97 but you can be sure it will come out as "$300,000" as critics flap their jaws on this issue.

FORGOTTEN REIMBURSEMENT
Another fact conveniently neglected was that much of the overtime that shows up in the public safety staff numbers overtime attributed to instances where firefighters were sent to wildfire locations as part of our mutual aid agreements and we are reimbursed for that cost.  Similarly, when members of the police department work overtime to provide contracted support for the Orange County Fair those costs are also reimbursed to the city.

NEW FIRE STRUCTURE WILL SAVE MONEY
The much-delayed Fire Department restructuring plan proposed by Interim Fire Chief Tom Arnold, based on the presentations made months ago, will save a lot of dollars.  We hope that plan, one we're told is being fine-tuned for presentation at yet another study session, will finally be approved and implemented.

FOLKS AT THE TOP
As you scroll down the list you'll find Police Chief Tom Gazsi at the top - a bargain by anybodys estimation.  You'll also see outgoing Interim Director of Economic and Development Services and Deputy CEO Peter Naghavi, who's numbers include almost $50,000 cash out for unused leave and vacation in anticipation of his departure this year.  He was supposed to depart at the end of the year, but agreed to stay to help select his replacement and aid in the transition.

LOOK AT "OVERTIME HOURS"
Here's an interesting exercise for you.  This year the report includes an "Overtime Hours" column.  As you scroll down the list you'll find fourteen (14) of the first 22 persons listed show more than 1,000 overtime hours.  Continue to scroll and you'll see that nearly half of the top 41 persons listed - 20 - show overtime hours greater than 1,000 hours.  Those hours represent time spent on the job that most would prefer to spend with their families.  The overtime is necessary to keep us safe.

NON-SWORN STAFF
CEO Tom Hatch, during his comments last Tuesday at the council meeting, addressed the reduced staffing levels by observing we have more non-sworn staff today than we did previously.  Well, most of those positions were ones that had been canceled during the budget crunch, then re-filled recently.  Those folks, as wonderful and dedicated as they are, cannot go out and snatch up criminals like the shotgun bandit earlier this week. They can't go out and work effectively with the multiple gangs in our city.  They can't jump into a patrol car or onto a motorcycle to snag DUI offenders.  They won't be out patrolling the illicit massage parlors mentioned at the last council meeting or working the "problem motels" in our city.

POLICE STAFFING
The Police Department had, just a few years ago, 164 sworn positions.  Today the authorized strength is 131, which includes 5 "grant officers", the funding for which was from federal grants for only 5 years.  The last City Council - the core of which is still in control - ignored their own consultants and former Interim Chief Steve Staveley, both of whom said the bare minimum staffing level should be 136 - 140 would be better - and slashed the budget to its current level.  And, of course, they disbanded the A.B.L.E. helicopter program - the model for municipal airborne law enforcement organizations throughout the country.  Are we safer today?  Of course not!  The year end crime statistics, HERE, clearly demonstrate that fact.

OUR "JIFFY LUBE GUY"
So, as you scroll down the Employee Compensation List and questions arise, just take a deep breath and think about what those numbers really represent.  Before you force your blood pressure off the charts because Billy Folsom - #315 on the list - earned $82,000 last year before he retired, understand that you're looking at 30 years of service and a man who could keep every vehicle in the fleet running.  This is the man referred to derisively by Righeimer and his sycophants as a "Jiffy Lube Guy."  Of course, that derision has nothing to do with the fact that Folsom was an articulate outspoken critic of the council's outsourcing scheme (he says, tongue in cheek).

COUNCIL MEMBERS
In case you're interested, you can find the City Council members listed way, way down the list.  Wendy Leece is #461, with a total comp. number of $32,386.28.  Gary Monahan is just below her at #462 with the same dollars.  Steve Mensinger is at #464 with at total comp. of $31,590.63 and departed Eric Bever is at 466 and $31,106.78.  Mayor Jim Righeimer is at #530 with a total comp. number of $1,322.07.

COIN - TRANSPARENCY OR A CLUB?
The City is about to launch negotiations with the General Employees - the members of the Costa Mesa City Employees Association (CMCEA) - immediately.  Their contract expires in a week.  We'll find out very soon just how Mayor Pro Tem Mensinger's COIN ordinance, HERE,  is going to work and whether it will facilitate openness and timely negotiations or become an anchor and a club used to flog employee organizations into submission.  I'm hoping for the former.

HAVE FUN
Have a great weekend as you peruse the Compensation report.  I'll look forward to your observations.

Tom Egan Hits Them Where It Hurts

A LITERAL WAKE UP CALL
You Daily Pilot readers out there awakened yesterday and found a biting commentary penned by Tom Egan, long time Westside Costa Mesa activist and part of the very effective husband and wife tag team of Tom and Eleanor Egan.  You can read in it's entirety HERE.

A LISTING OF FAILURE
Egan, who jokingly refers to himself of a "man of few words" and occasionally posts prescient comments here, provides the readers with a summary of his views of actions taken over the past couple years by the Costa Mesa City Council - the majority of which is still in control.  In this essay he surgically dissects the many, many missteps made by this council majority including preferential treatment by a favored lobbyist; the use of expensive but ineffective lawyers; questionable contracts for consultants and the ill-fated charter scheme that was eventually overwhelmingly defeated at the ballot box last November.

READ AND LEARN
Lest you think the essay is just the ravings of some disgruntled gadfly, understand that Egan - a retired engineer - served our community as an elected trustee of the Newport Mesa Unified School District, and that he and his wife have been founding activists bent on improving the Westside of our city.  This tome is worth a read by ANY resident of this city, to remind them of what's been going on here lately.  I suspect there have been some angry conversations in Mesa Verde this weekend.