An Interesting Election Season Ahead

UNLIKE ANY OTHER
We have before us an election season that will likely be unlike anything we've ever seen in Costa Mesa before - and part of it has nothing to do with what's on the ballot.

WHO KNOWS HOW MANY COUNCIL CANDIDATES?
Yes, we will likely see 8-10 candidates vying for one of the three city council seats being contested.  It is presumed that both incumbents, Mayor Steve Mensinger and Councilwoman Sandy Genis, will run and likely hold their seats.  Gary Monahan's finally termed out again - it's about darn time! - so it's really his seat in play.  Lee Ramos has announced he's running - again.  Former councilman Jay Humphrey says he's running again and hopes to be the victor for Monahan's seat.  You will recall that he lost a seat in the last election by only 47 votes.  Barrister and former candidate John Stephens says he's running again - he lost by 155 votes the last time he ran.  And, the one-note-samba, Al Melone says he's running again and has zero chance of winning.  And the official date for pulling papers is still months away!

MULTIPLE MEDICAL MARIJUANA ISSUES
The ballot will contain a lot of "stuff".  We will certainly have two (2) medical marijuana issues - probably three because the city is making noise about resurrecting Monahan's initiative, or something like it, to take control of that issue.  And, it's possible there will be a state-wide recreational marijuana initiative, too.

DUELING "GROWTH" INITIATIVES
And then there's Costa Mesa First's Smart Growth Initiative.... that's not really the name of it, but the actual name is too long and I prefer this one since it's accurate.  The power elite - and developer-friendly - members of the City Council have decided to have the city staff create a competing issue in an attempt to defeat the Smart Growth Initiative.

MAYBE A FAIRVIEW PARK INITIATIVE...
Signatures continue to be gathered by the Fairview Park Preservation Alliance for an initiative to protect that 200 plus acres and the protected species and irreplaceable artifacts from development.

...AND TWO BOND ISSUES
And, it is possible that there will be two bond issues on the ballot totalling more than $50 million in obligations for the voters to consider.  The first - a bond to rebuild our main library/community center complex at Lions Park - may be for around $34 million.  The second, Jim Righeimer's vindictive, punitive $20 million bond for affordable housing, is clearly being placed on the ballot at great  expense as an in-your-face move against affordable housing advocates.  When it fails - and it likely will fail - he will waive that defeat in their faces and - as he's said already - dare them to bring affordable housing before the council again.

All that will make November 8th very interesting.

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA
However, I'm most concerned about the impact of social media on this upcoming election.  We've seen council majority-friendly folks create a Facebook page following the model used in Huntington Beach the last time around.  This page - CLOSED page, falsely using the term "public" in it's name when it's anything but public - allegedly has over 6,000 members who apparently engage in group-think exercises where only one side of issues is permitted.  Folks may not even view the activity on that page unless permitted membership.  And, worse, denizens of that page skulk out to other OPEN pages and provoke folks to write critical comments and, if they're also members of that CLOSED page, they may be bounced off for those unrelated transgressions.  Meanwhile, character assassination takes place and misinformation is spread without an opportunity to rebut.

THE POWER ELITE PROMOTE THIS DECEPTION
What worries me the most, though, is the fact that several members of the council majority - all of them, actually - are frequent posters on this page.  And, many of their appointees also participate regularly.  Council members and commissioners who participate also tout the page as "THE" place to get good information and have good discussions on important issues - from the dais of their respective groups.  It's obvious that there is a growing assumption by them that they think they are seeing the true will of the people on that page - a blatant false assumption, since it's closed to many of us who have differing viewpoints.

STIFLING PUBLIC PARTICIPATION...
This sad commentary is a perpetuation of the institutionalized stifling of public participation on issues in this city.  The City Council has discouraged public comments by arbitrarily limiting the number who may speak early in meetings and forcing the remainder to wait until the bitter end - sometimes well into the next day - to have their views/grievances heard.

...SEVERAL WAYS
Similarly, they force items pulled from the Consent Calendar to be trailed to the end of the meeting, too, so if a person wants a clarification on, for example, a particular expenditure on a Warrant, that information will not be discussed until the end of the meeting.

BLOCKING PUBLIC AWARENESS
And, the council majority has forbidden Award-winning Costa Mesa Television from recording ANY candidate forums this cycle.  In years past those forums were important to each election and, although a couple hundred people attended most of them, many thousands more could watch the taped replay at their convenience and see the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates.

SEMI-PRIVATE MEETINGS
Rather than entertain issues important to everyone in the appropriate venue - a City Council meeting - the Mayor has chosen to have tightly-controlled,  semi-private gatherings on Sunday afternoons where residents can meet with him in small groups to discuss their issues.  There are no reports from those meetings and City Staff are required to attend on one of the few days they might spend with their families.

MISUSE - AND PERHAPS ILLEGAL - OF CITY STAFF
And, now we have rumblings that members of the City Council have been personally assigning city staffers to observe and harass members of the public who are legally going about collecting signatures on petitions for initiatives they hope to place on the November ballot.  If true, this is clearly a misuse of the power of their office and a misuse of staff resources at a time when they are severely strained due to under staffing.

KEEP ON SPEAKING!
One can only hope that members of the public will continue to bring issues to light that are important to the entire city - not just developers, who will hit and run - even considering the considerable obstacles being placed in their way.  We hope they will continue to step up and speak up - the stakes are too important to permit the power elite to quash public participation.

TO THE POWER ELITE - STOP WHINING!
We know the power elite read this blog - they whine about the content and comments frequently.  So, to them - stop whining and pay attention to the voices of your constituents!  That's your job!

Why The "Revised" Agenda For The Planning Commission Meeting?

WHAT IS MISSING?
In my previous entry we addressed the meeting Monday evening of the Costa Mesa Planning Commission and I made a slight reference to the big item on it - the General Plan update and the Draft EIR - as being the "remaining" items on the agenda.

IT WAS ON FACEBOOK, SO IT MUST BE TRUE!
Well, what I meant by that was the agenda had been published earlier and it included another item.  However, for some inexplicable reason (tongue in cheek here), it has been rescheduled.  That item involves two sober living facilities side-by side - that's against our ordinances - at 165 East Wilson.  Read the brief summary of the item HERE.  It's been rescheduled for the Planning Commission on April 25, 2016.  Planning Commission Chairman Rob Dickson posted a vague reference to this on Facebook - apparently the official city record of proceedings in our town these days.

WHY, WE ASK?
So, what caused this rescheduling?  Did it have anything at all to do with the settlement of the lawsuit between the City and Solid Landings last week?  I read the brief summary and wonder how the heck this thing is being considered in the first place?

MARKING TIME, WAITING FOR THIS ONE
So, we'll wait two more weeks to see if the Planning Commission will approve the request to violate our ordinances... or not.

Of Thin-Skinned Sycophants And Liars

THE FUTURE DOES NOT LOOK BRIGHT
We're only two weeks into this new year and the tone for the near future has been set by supporters of the current council majority... and it's not pretty, my friends.

HOLD YOUR NOSE IF YOU VISIT...
Much as I really don't want to drive traffic to his almost incomprehensible site, over at CMCONSERVE, which uses the apparently copyrighted phrase "the right perspective in Costa Mesa", the blog operator - the pompous pontificator Dennis Popp - takes exception to comments made by speakers - more than three dozen of them - at the recent Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Meeting.  Popp, the portly blowhard who is a member of that committee and was a major functionary on Lee Ramos' disastrously unsuccessful council campaign last fall, so dislikes the critical comments presented by those folks that he compares them to terrorists!

"ACTIVISTS ARE AL QUAIDA TERRORISTS"!
That's right, terrorists!  In his entry of January 10, 2015, HERE, titled, "Fairview Park Activists/Terrorists", and sub-titled, " Fairview Park Al Quaida", there is little doubt that he is serious in his comparison to those folks who wish to keep Fairview Park in a natural state and not add playing fields to terrorists.  I encourage you to read this bilge-pretending-to-be-literature for yourselves, but will give you a little tease first.

STUPIDITY...
Speaking about those dissenting voices he says, "However, for a group of activists, collecting data about fields is the moral equivalent of mortal sin or maligning the prophet."

...ON DISPLAY
He goes on in a subsequent paragraph to say, "Like the disparate groups of radical Muslims, activists don't agree much about."  Really, Dennis?  Well, I can tell you one thing - those activists who spoke last Thursday evening agree that they don't want to see playing fields carved out of Fairview Park.

DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE
He goes on to defend Ramos' vote to move forward with the three items on the agenda that dealt with playing fields and criticizes the person who stood and called Ramos out for telling her one thing during the campaign and voting 180 degrees different that evening.


DON'T DARE CRITICIZE THEM!
Popp's rant perfectly represents the attitude of the current council majority - they are big fans of his work, apparently.  He, and they, clearly cannot abide ANY form of criticism.  That's the problem when the council majority stacks committees with thin-skinned sycophants - they can't take it.

HE'S FORGOTTEN HIS OATH
Popp has implied in the past that he's a combat veteran.  For that service to our country I sincerely thank him.  However, he apparently has forgotten the oath he, and the rest of us who served in the armed forces of this country, swore to at the time.  We swore to support and defend the constitution of the United States of America from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  That includes free speech.  He's about my age, so maybe he's suffering from early-onset dementia, but I remember that oath as clear as a bell.

CHATTING WITH THE ROOKIE
On a related topic, today was the first opportunity for residents to "Meet the Mayor" at City Hall on a Sunday afternoon.  The plan was for folks to show up between 2-4 p.m. to spend some quality time with  Rookie Mayor Steve Mensinger one-on-one instead of presenting their comments, concerns and grievances to him and the rest of the council on the record during Public Comments at regularly schedule council meetings.  Due to an unanticipated, but very welcome, family social engagement I had not planned to attend.

AN UNANTICIPATED STOP
However, on the way home from lunch at one of Costa Mesa's best restaurants with our guests we did swing by City Hall to see what kind of a crowd showed up.  While they waited in the car I scampered up to the lobby steps and was greeted by the charming Sharon Rodelius, Executive Secretary, who was on hand to direct residents to their meeting with Mensinger.  She told me that a few people had showed up and were all on the 5th floor.  Apparently CEO Tom Hatch also had to blow off part of his Sunday, because he was up there, too. 

A QUICK STOP
My conversation with her lasted less than two minutes, then I returned back to the car and our guests, who had to head back home.  I was pleased that some folks had actually showed up to chat with Mensinger and wondered what the outcome of those meetings might be.

LIES...
Then, later this evening, a friend informed me about a lie published in the Costa Mesa Public Square Facebook Group page.  Julie Mercurio, who is now apparently the Admin for that site - I guess my friend, Bruce Krochman, has handed it off to her - published a scurrilous statement on that page.  I can no longer read what's published there because I'm no longer a member and the permissions have been changed since she took over.  To see comments you have to be a member.  Again, another example of the kind of "transparency" these folks work with.

...AND MORE LIES
The comment, under her byline, stated the following:
The first Meet the Mayor was today and 19 people showed up!!! I read there was great feedback which is good news!  The more disturbing news is that Geoff West who is a blogger in town was walking around outside with his camera and as one person termed it was "creepy".  Why would he not come in.
He denigrates so many so often, what would make him opt to lurk outside taking pictures vs coming in?

THE TRUTH
Well, I was not "lurking" and I had no camera with me.  Lies.... I spent 5 minutes, max.,  from the time I left our car until I re-entered it and the time not spent walking to and from the car was spent standing on the steps outside City Hall, chatting with Sharon Rodelius.   I "wouldn't come in" because I had nothing to say to the Rookie.  At the time I was there - around 2:40 p.m. -  eight (8) people had arrived and gone to the 5th floor and none had yet returned.  Heck, I didn't know if Mensinger had locked them in a room someplace, for goodness sake!  Only kidding... lighten up!

BE ON THE LOOKOUT
Since this "Julie Mercurio" person - I'm not even sure that's actually her real name - seems to be an untrustworthy sort, willing to spread falsehoods willy-nilly,  I suggest you use caution if you encounter her.  In case you wonder what she looks like, here's a little "selfie" I took of us in happier times at a council meeting this fall.  Hint: she's not the chubby old fella in the photo.

MORE LIES AND ACRIMONY AHEAD
So, it looks to me as though the next several months are going to be filled with more acrimony rather than the harmony many wish for.  That's a two-way street and it certainly won't happen when the spokespersons for the majority continue to puff and blow and prevaricate.  Too bad.

Saying Goodbye To Facebook

REMEMBER THIS ONE?

In the grand scheme of things this little bit of information is not "newsworthy", but it's important to me and, after all, this IS my blog.  More than a year ago, HERE, I wrote about why I was considering leaving Facebook.  As you scroll down through all those "maybes" I included you'll understand my mindset then and, for the most part, now.  Go ahead and read it, then come back and finish this one...  I'll wait...

CHANGES

Back?  OK, since I wrote that piece a few things have changed.  One, I have many more "Facebook friends" than I did at that time and, most of those additions are folks I wouldn't know if I tripped over them.  That doesn't mean they are not lovely people and I suspect the reason most of them asked to be friends is because they liked something I wrote, so I'm grateful for that interest.  Some of them are folks to whom I sent a "friend request" because I was interested in them.  My decision is NOT about them...

MEDIA CONVERSION TO FACEBOOK COMMENTS

Something else has happened.  Both of our local print and online media outlets - The Daily Pilot and The Orange County Register - finally got tired of dealing with the avalanche of comments on their articles and the time it took to edit them so they took an easier way out - they washed their hands of it - requiring all commenters to be on Facebook.  They apparently assumed there would be a good deal of self-editing if people actually had to attach their names to their comments.  From that standpoint it has seemed to work out.

ABDICATING CONTROL OF CONTENT

However, in doing so both of those fine newspapers have abdicated a significant chunk of their "content" to an outside entity that has no skin in the game.  The "comments" are no longer governed by the standards established by the respective newspapers - they belong to Facebook and Facebook defines the rules of the game,  controls who gets to play in their sandbox, and for how long.  An algorithm in the Facebook server farms decides whether a complaint about "abuse" is valid or not and, apparently arbitrarily, punishes those who violate that algorithm.  These fine publications have allowed thin-skinned whiners and an algorithm in a server farm decide what is appropriate for publication on their digital space.  There are 1st Amendment issues at play here that I can't begin to resolve.

RELEVANCE AFFECTED

The result of that control is that the comments in both of those publications have diminished in their relevance, which is a shame.  Yes, there are still some interesting comment threads, but I recall the "good old days" when a 100 comment thread on a Daily Pilot article was not unusual and, for the most part, those that made it through the editing screen used to maintain civility on the site produced some pretty darn relevant discussions on the issue at hand.  Not so much anymore.  I do admit, though, that in the case of the Register comments, some became so vile, nasty and mean-spirited that they were virtually unreadable.  Hence, the change to Facebook.

A MARKETING TOOL

As I mentioned in my earlier entry, I joined Facebook originally to have an additional marketing tool for my blog.  That worked out just fine.  I have many more readers than I did four or five years ago and the page views will probably hit 1 million in January.  Of course, much of that is due to the contentiousness of local issues over the past few years and part of that growth is certainly due to my new "friends" on Facebook.  Thanks for that.

DESPITE THE LOSSES, I'LL SAY ADIOS TO FACEBOOK

But, after much contemplation and consideration about what I will be giving up - watching sweet Caroline grow up before my eyes; the opportunity to tease my friends Anita and Rusty about their persistent photos of each other with wine glasses half full (or empty, depending on your viewpoint); the ability to be in contact with my great-nephew, Nathan, when he's deployed in dangerous places around the world; those spontaneous musings by my friend, Byron, about his kids and the evolution of their lives, photos of his artistic meals and his brilliant analysis of issues when he chooses to engage himself in them, plus all the other snippets of the lives of others I see every day - I've decided to cease my participation on Facebook.

NO LONGER IN THE MOSH PIT

I realize that once I pull that plug I will no longer be able to post comments on articles that provoke me in our local media.  I will no longer be able to spar with those who don't share my viewpoint.  On the positive side, I'll no longer be jumping from status page to status page, trying to see what everybody is talking about.  It's just plain exhausting.  I'll still be able to submit letters and commentaries - unless corporate policy turns that over to an algorithm, too - but won't be able to keep that ball rolling once I give it the initial kick.  That will be up to others.  I can live with that...

TENDING MY CROP

There are many reasons why I've made this decision.  One of them is because, at my age, I'm losing real "friends" at an increasing pace and that bothers me - a lot.   There are just so many minutes in each day, but I find myself casually immersing myself in the lives of strangers instead of tending to the real friendships I've spent decades nurturing.  The recent ninth anniversary of the passing of my best friend since we were five years old probably helped me tighten my focus on what is really important.

FACEBOOK'S INTRUSIVENESS

Another reason is the growing intrusiveness of Facebook in my life.  I don't like the seemingly constant changing of the rules of the game.  The whole "Instagram" thing recently got me thinking about this a lot.  Life today has plenty of complications and the pace - especially for an old fella - can be overwhelming.  I read "1984" back when it was just a clever bit of fiction.  Today, well... you make the call on that.  I'm disappointed that Mark Zuckerberg and his team at Facebook continue to manage their company like they were still back in their college dorm room.  I'm not comfortable having a guy who still acts like a pre-pubescent, pimply-faced teenager being able to exercise so much control over my life.

CUTTING THE CORD
So, sometime soon - probably the first of the year - I'm going to cut my tie to Facebook.  The link to this post will be there and I will continue to market my blog there until the day I officially snip the Facebook umbilical cord.  I will probably never forgive Zuckerberg and his minions for devaluing the word "friend" in our society, but I do appreciate the acquaintanceship of those of you who have communicated with me on Facebook - my "after Facebook" friends.  If you care to engage in a discussion on issues of the day that I address on my blog, you are welcome to do so.  If you don't want to wrestle in that particular mud pit, here's an email address where you can reach me - thepotstirer@earthlink.net.  I'll be happy to hear from you on any issue that you feel is important or just to chat, but it won't be on Facebook.

AND YOU, TOO...

Those of you who are "before Facebook" friends already know how to reach me at other email addresses and, of course, I always look forward to your thoughts and wise counsel.

WHO CARES?!
"Who gives a rat's rear about West deciding to bail out of Facebook?", you ask.  "What an arrogant, self-absorbed SOB that West guy is to think anyone cares!", you say.  Well, you're probably right on both counts, but I thought there might be one or two people - "Facebookians", as my nephew refers to them - who might wonder about my disappearance from the Land Of Zuckerberg, hence this explanation.

STILL IN THE GAME AFTER SOME NECESSARY TIDYING-UP

As I said above, I'm not going to stop expressing my opinion on issues I feel are important, but my life was becoming much too cluttered and this is one step in the housekeeping I need to do.  Soon, with mixed emotions, I'll bid Facebook a not-so-fond adieu and just keep on moving forward. 

 Happy New Year to you all....

Why I'm Considering Leaving Facebook

ORIGINALLY A GOOD IDEA...
I've been giving a lot of thought recently about Facebook. When I joined up I did so mainly because I wanted another way to advertise my blog. I wasn't planning to make "friends" of folks I'd never heard of before.

And, as it turns out, it has been a handy vehicle for staying in touch with distant friends and relatives.

BUT...
However, as each day passes I find it harder and harder to find enough return on my investment of time to make it worthwhile.

MAYBE...
Maybe it's because it gets harder every day to pretend some of those 179 people listed as friends on my Facebook page are actually "friends". Heck, I don't even know many of them, for goodness sake.

Maybe it's because Facebook has diluted that word - friend - to the point where it's practically meaningless.

Maybe it's because the recent changes on Facebook make me feel even more manipulated than before.

Maybe it's because I've found myself spending way, way too much time scrolling through Facebook, gleaning little snippets of peoples lives - and feeling a little like a guy hiding in your closet.

Maybe it's because I've decided that I don't REALLY want to know so much about so many people who are barely acquaintances.

Maybe it's because folks just seem to post whatever stream-of-consciousness thoughts that might float through their heads, ignoring the fact that many strangers are going to be reading them. Even worse, their boss may be reading them.

Maybe it's because I've received the amusingly inconsequential "punishment" of being "de-friended" by a couple boneheads who don't like my take on their role in local politics.

Maybe it's because of this Toyota commercial:



Or, Maybe it's just the case of an old fella not being able to keep up the pace anymore.

ZUCKERBERG WON'T MISS ME
I don't think founder Mark Zuckerberg will miss my presence on Facebook - he's too busy trying to figure out how to spend the billions of dollars Facebook is pulling in these days.

PONDERING...
So, I've decided to give Facebook a few more weeks. We're turning the old cauldron down to simmer for a few days for a little "decompression time". Comments on the blog will be slow to get posted for awhile. As we approach Halloween - maybe sooner - I'm going to decide whether I want to remain a "Facebook Friend" or not. I'll let you know...