Eckles and Graham To Lead Parks Commission

NEW LEADERSHIP
A half-dozen residents attended as the Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission met Thursday evening for what I thought would be a short meeting - it wasn't - and elected Vice Chairman Brett Eckles as the new Chairman and long-time commissioner Bob Graham as Vice Chair.  Commissioner Don Harper was absent for the second meeting in the row.

PUBLIC COMMENTS
During Public Comments both Kim Hendricks and Cindy Black spoke about the latest initiative for which signatures are being circulated.  A group called the Fairview Park Preservation Alliance has launched this effort and will be gathering signatures at Fairview Park, and elsewhere, each weekend.  Hendricks displayed a new shirt with the logo of the group which apparently can be purchased for $20.00 and Black presented a slide announcing the signature-gathering effort for this weekend.

Beth Refakes reminded us again of the Eggstravaganza - the collection of candies, toys and plastic Easter Eggs in which they will be place for the Easter Egg Hunt for the children of our adopted Marine group, the 1/5 at Camp Pendleton.  Collections of toys, small, individually-wrapped candies and plastic eggs will continue until March 18 and may be deposited in the footlocker in the City Hall lobby.  Those wishing to donate cash instead can email Dan Baker at City Hall, or call him at 714-754-5156.

Skateboard enthusiast Rocky Evans once again showed up to plead with the commissioners to find a way to extend the hours at the Volcom Skate Park and also to seriously consider a second skate park for the city. 

Jay Humphrey congratulated the new officers and thanked the outgoing Chairman Kim Pederson for his leadership this past year.  He also referred to the Fairview Park initiative, indicating that the acquisition of Talbert Nature Preserve would NOT be prohibited by the initiative.

THE NEW LIBRARY PLAN UPDATE
Next up was the presentation by Architect Steve Johnson of Johnson Favaro, the firm working on the project that will replace the existing Neighborhood Community Center at Lions Park with a brand, new two-story library and convert the existing round Donald Dungan Branch Library into a community meeting venue.

LOTS OF INFORMATION
Johnson showed us several dozen slides demonstrating the various steps and iterations of this project.  Presuming all continues as planned, the project will proceed beginning next year and be completed in 2020.  The existing NCC will be demolished and the new library building built nearby.  Then the rest of the project will commence - including the re-skinning and re-configuration of the old Dungan building and the creation of re-configured parking and new park space.

LOSING MEETING SPACE
According to the plans, we will loose a couple thousand feet of meeting room space, but their analysis says that won't be a problem if we utilize it better.  We were told that every time they do a new library facility the use quadruples.  Commissioner Byron de Arakal asked if that growth was sustained beyond the original launch and was told that use tailed off slightly, but not much.  de Arakal was concerned that we were only adding one parking space while theoretically increasing the use.

"ONLY" $34.5 MILLION!
We will pick up an additional acre of park space onsite, plus add one (1) additional parking space.  And this little project will only cost us $34.5 million!  He did not discuss the financial elements of this plan with the commissioners, but apparently did make a presentation to the Finance Advisory Committee and, according to folks who heard that presentation, a few of the committee members were not thrilled with the cost nor the plans.

JUST A FEW SLIDES
Lucky you, I only included a few of Johnson's slides, but my understanding is that his entire package will be available on the city web site.  One of the nifty features of the plan, shown above, is a food concession outside the buildings, but contiguous to one of them.  It is presumed this would be a coffee/take-out food dispensary.  If you want to see all of the presentation, check out the streaming video on the city web site or on CMTV.

LIAISON APPOINTMENTS
The final business item on the agenda was the appointment of liaison members to two committees.  The results of that selection process resulted in Byron de Arakal retaining his role as primary liaison to the Newport Mesa Unified School District, with Chairman Brett Eckles chosen as his alternate.  Bob Graham was retained as the liaison for the Fairview Park Citizen's Advisory Committee, with member Kim Pederson chosen as alternate.  Before the selection for that committee was completed Parks Project Manager Bart Mejia was asked how long the committee will remain dormant, to which he replied "Until the Parks Master Plan is completed."  That is a date-uncertain right now.

DROUGHT PROBLEMS AND MORE
Maintenance Services Manager Bruce Hartley provided us with a lengthy description of the impact of the drought on our urban forest.  He also told us of the recent accomplishments by his group, and of the pending and current projects.

LOSING TREES FASTER THAN WE CAN REPLACE
Regarding the drought, he told us that we are seeing a net loss in trees - we're losing them faster than we can replace them.  During the discussion he disclosed that there is no longer a source for reclaimed water - that their supplier prefers to dump it back into the aquifer rather than sell it for use on plants.

OUTSOURCING STRIKES AGAIN!
Perhaps the most interesting part of his presentation was the disclosure of a Request For Proposals for the outsourcing most of his organization that's in the works!  Right now his group is diminished from 31 positions to 21, and of those, 8 will be exempt - two people who remove graffiti and six people who will oversee the outsourced work.  The remaining thirteen individuals are being, or will be, absorbed into other city positions.  Hartley told me NOBODY will lose their jobs due to this outsourcing.  Apparently this arrangement was negotiated with the Costa Mesa City Employee Association.

AWARD-WINNING TEAM
During his brief Recreation Manager's Report Travis Karlen told us that he and his staff will be attending a conference in Long Beach next month at which they will receive an award for their "Ranch Program".

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS
During Commissioner Comments Pederson said he was looking forward to the completion of the update of the Master Plan.  He also reminded us of the opening of youth sports season this weekend - little league baseball starts Saturday and soccer begins the following weekend.

Graham told us he still thought we should name the pools in Fairview Park - like the Great Lakes are named - and proceeded to present an "educational" experience for us using overhead slides showing how the Great Lakes work.

de Arakal was concerned about the net loss of trees and the unavailability of grey water.  He also opined that he wanted to get the Fairview Park Citizen's Advisory Committee back to work soon.

Chairman Eckles also mentioned the youth sports events and asked about including school kids in a future meeting.  Recreation Manager Travis Karlen told us that there's a "Youth In Government" program in the works.

The meeting ended at 8:20 p.m., adjourned until the next meeting on Thursday, March 24th.

Celebrating Outsourcing!

REALLY?
The City of Costa Mesa will "celebrate" the outsourcing of our street sweeping operations to Clean Streets by holding a "ribbon cutting" at Brentwood Park at 4:00 today.  You can read the city announcement HERE.

PROBABLY A GOOD COMPANY, BUT...

Nothing against the good folks at Clean Streets - they have an excellent reputation - but this is just another example of celebrating the decline of the perceived value of Costa Mesa city employees and the celebration of contractors - the hired guns who have no ties to our city, no institutional knowledge, no loyalty to the City or its residents, but who are replacing employees with too much frequency.

I GUESS I'LL BE THERE
So, I'll drag my old body, and camera, to Brentwood Park to watch city officials sing the praises of this latest move to reduce the city staff.  I'll hear the platitudes about what a great day this is for the City and watch them plant a tree to commemorate this day and probably see someone take one of those shiny, new street sweepers for a spin.  And I'll think about how this represents just one more step in the plan to outsource EVERYTHING in the city.  I won't be celebrating...

CMTV WILL COVER IT
Costa Mesa Television will be on hand to tape this event for later viewing on CMTV.

Anniversary Of A Tragic Day Approaching

THE WORST DAY...

I've already given you a rundown on the agenda for the Costa Mesa City Council meeting next Tuesday, March 17, 2015.  What I DIDN'T do was remind you that it is also the fourth anniversary of what may be THE most tragic day in the history of our city - the day the then-and-current council majority decided to issue layoff notices to more than 200 City employees to launch their scheme to outsource virtually all services within the city, which prompted young maintenance worker, Huy Pham, to leap to his death from the roof of City Hall.

THE PAIN HAS NOT LEFT
The anguish felt by most City employees, and many residents,  persists to this day. The lawsuit filed about this move remains unsettled four years later. With this entry I offer you a chance to revisit that day and the next few weeks that followed as presented on these pages.  Perhaps it will help you recall those events and some of the positive elements of them.  I provide them to you today, Friday the 13th, because it seems appropriate and you'll have the weekend to wade through the various entries listed below if you choose to do so.  Click on the title to view the entry.

March 17, 2011 - Suicide At City Hall
March 18, 2011 - Costa Mesa Issues Press Release About Huy Pham
March 18, 2011 - Press Conference Pending on Thursday's Tragedy
March 18, 2011 - Mohahan's Prepared Statement Released

TWO VIDEO CLIPS
Next comes two video clips.  The first is the KCAL 9 news clip on the event and the press conference.  It runs about 2:46.  The second is a 10 minute clip of the entire press conference - maybe the most ill-advised and poorly conducted such event I've ever seen.


 
MORE ENTRIES
March 19, 2011 - Of Loving, Lameness And Losers
March 20, 2011 - CMCEA Statement & Memorial Gathering
March 21, 2011 - Two "Healing" Events Scheduled Today
March 21, 2011 - Today The Healing Began - Or Did It?
March 24, 2011 - Lobdell As A Lightning Rod   
March 31, 2011 - Geoff & Steve - Conjoined Twins
April 3, 2011     - "Outsourcing" Polarizes Community
April 5, 2011    - Tonight's Council Meeting Could Get Rowdy
April 5, 2011    - Mandoki Resigns!
April 6, 2011    - "The People" Spoke - Did The Council Listen?

REMEMBERING
Remembrances have been held in Pham's honor, including a tree being planted in his name near the rear of City Hall.  

THE BEGINNING OF THE SLIDE
Since that time we've seen a dramatic shift in the governance of our city.  Those who have been continuously in charge since that tragic date have systematically dismantled one of the best city governments in the county, and maybe the state.

DISMANTLING OF THE CMPD
Perhaps the most cataclysmic change has been with the Costa Mesa Police Department - one of the most highly-regarded law enforcement organizations in the state.  This group arrived and two of them promptly told then-Interim Chief Steve Staveley - a man with more than four decades of law enforcement leadership under his belt at the time - that he didn't need 144 officers to police the city - he only needed 125!  They also completely ignored the consultants hired to perform an assessment of the CMPD, the result of which was an opinion that the proper staffing level was 136.  An interesting sidebar- current Assistant Chief Executive Officer Tammy Letourneau was a consultant and part of that team.

STAVELEY TOSSES A GRENADE ON THE WAY OUT
That was the beginning of the downfall of the CMPD.  It wasn't too long until Staveley had enough.  On June 20, 2011 abruptly resigned, leaving in his wake a scathing memo outlining just why he was taking his action.  You can read my entry, including his entire resignation letter, HERE.  However, perhaps the most memorable segment of that letter reads as follows: "I have never, however, seen a council such as this one. They lack skill, training, education, knowledge, they fail to study (or at least learn). The majority either lies or are so lacking in the necessary skills that they actually believe the junk they say. They act as if they are owners of the business that is the municipal government of the City of Costa Mesa, but they are not, they are merely trustees of these public assets both human and physical and they fail in that role completely. They are in my opinion incompetent, unskilled and unethical."  These words have proven to be right on the money.  Chief Executive Officer Tom Hatch, who had only been in his job a few months, rejected Staveley's characterization of the circumstances and hired another highly-respected law enforcement leader, Dennis Kies, as another Interim Chief while the search continued for a permanent leader for the CMPD.

DISBANDING A.B.L.E.
The first of July the council majority summarily disbanded the Airborne Law Enforcement (A.B.L.E.) organization - the joint venture between Costa Mesa and Newport Beach which had served the communities for four decades and had been the model for municipal airborne law enforcement organizations throughout the country.  Read about A.B.L.E.'s final day HERE.  The loss of that organization - a force multiplier in law enforcement parlance - made the job on the streets just that much more difficult, and it only got worse.

GAZSI ARRIVES...
Early in September Hatch hired Tom Gazsi, a nearly life-long Costa Mesa resident, who brought with him three decades of experience with the Newport Beach Police Department, as the new Chief of the Costa Mesa Police Department.  His choice seemed to be the answer to the unstable leadership in that organization and he went about trying to rebuild morale and making changes - including a revamping of the entire command staff -  to return the organization to it's once-proud position.  However, that was not to be.

MEDDLING
He was handcuffed by the interference, meddling and the toxic atmosphere caused by the current council majority that created great unrest within City government and, in particular, within the CMPD.  Senior officers resigned to other venues or opted for a much earlier than planned retirement.  Over one 12 month period we saw nearly 50 members of the CMPD depart.  That number has grown.  And, the council majority refused to let Chief Gazsi recruit new officers for most of a year, so the department kept falling farther and farther behind the curve.  And the mayor and mayor pro tem sued the men and women of the Costa Mesa Police Department - a case that is still pending. 

 LACK OF SUPPORT CHASES HIM AWAY
After three years trying to manage the organization with virtually no support and with promises made to him going unfulfilled for years, Gazsi finally retired from the CMPD and took a new position as Deputy Chief of Operations at the Port Of Los Angeles Police Department, protecting "America's Port", HERE.  As it stands today, there are fewer than 100 officers able to report for duty - in recent weeks that number has actually slipped to 85.  Specialty units, like the Gang Detail and Narcotics, have been abandoned due to staffing shortages.  The Narcotics unit brought in nearly $1 million per year in asset forfeiture dollars - a revenue source that is all but lost now.  This can be laid right at the doorstep of Mayor Steve Mensinger, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer and the lamest of lame ducks, Councilman Gary Monahan.  Another outstanding law enforcement leader, new Interim Chief Ron Lowenberg, will try to hold the pieces together while a new permanent chief is identified.

TURMOIL CREATES APPREHENSION
Meanwhile, the turmoil throughout City government continued.  Months passed without labor contracts being resolved and when the so-called "Miscellaneous Employees" - the members of the CMCEA who had received those layoff notices nearly four years earlier - finally signed a contract it was an agreement that took them back decades.  It's no wonder at all why so many employees who CAN leave are doing so, and it's not a surprise that recruitment - particularly for public safety positions - is so difficult for The City.

DON'T FORGET WHO IS RESPONSIBLE
So, as we mark the anniversary of the event that actually lit the fuse on this destruction of City Government in Costa Mesa, remember just exactly who is responsible for this debacle - the council majority, who would rather fill potholes than provide adequate public safety.  This is the majority who refused to listen to the will of the people, who resoundingly rejected Jim Righeimer's Charter scheme, and put another such document on the ballot two years later, only to see it also fail dramatically.  On their watch we've spent millions of dollars on legal fees, defending their stupid, ill-advised actions.  On their watch Costa Mesa has become the "Rehab Riviera" of Orange County, with more than a quarter of all sober living facilities in the county falling within its borders.  And, it appears that we will soon become the Medical Marijuana center for the county as well.

HIS PASSING WAS THE BEGINNING...
When poor Huy Pham jumped to his death it was not the exclamation point at the end of a terrible day.  His death was the capital letter at the beginning of the first sentence in a drama that chronicled the beginning of a terrible time in Costa Mesa.  The young man is missed by his peers and family and friends.  Sound government seems to have died with him.  Please do not forget Huy Pham...  mourn for him, and for the government of our city, too.

Political Puffery By The Mayor

THE "SIX P" APPROACH
Over at the Costa Mesa Brief YouTube site, publisher Barry Friedland has given us another very Professionally-Produced Pandering Piece of Political Pontification for his buddy, Costa Mesa Mayor Jim Righeimer.  Further on down in this entry I've provided a link to it so you can watch Righeimer spew his campaign mantra for 2:32, but before we go there, let's take his piece segment-by-segment for some perspective.

TAKING CREDIT WHERE...?
He begins by saying, "We've done a lot of things in the last few years here in Costa Mesa and I wanta tell you just about a few of them."  We are presuming that the royal "we", and that he's taking personal credit for all the things he's about to present... we continue...

SIMPLIFICATION BY SIMPLE MINDS
He then tells us, "The biggest issue to our city is obviously our budget.  In previous years we have spent over 35 million dollars more than we brought in." He conveniently neglects to tell you that the expenditure of reserves during that period was necessitated by the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression 80 years ago!  He and his buddies frequently use the term, "Blew through the reserves." - a simplification of a complex issue by simple, politically-motivated minds.  Those reserves were in place for exactly what happened - created by actual forward-thinking, conservative (not just in name only) civic leaders in the event of such an event.

OK, BUT...
Righeimer then proceeds... "In the last two years we've reversed this.  Last year we saved over 7.1 million dollars on our budget.  In the last two years, 13.4 million dollars."  He goes on to tell you how "we" did that, but neglects to mention the biggest savings came from disemboweling the organization by not hiring people!  He refused to let both the police and fire departments hire replacements in a timely manner and operates with a flawed perception of just how many public safety employees are necessary to actually keep this city safe.  Service levels dropped across the board.

A "MINOR ISSUE" WHEN COMPARED TO LEGAL COSTS
He takes credit for what he refers to as a "minor issue",  a modification of the handling of Workers Compensation claims - a good change that apparently will result in a $500,000 annual savings.  He may consider that "minor" when he and his pals cause the city to spend that much on legal costs in a quarter.

OUTSOURCING THE JAIL
He goes on to say, "We also worked extremely close with our Police Department to reorganize the City Jail, and that reorganization is going to save us 3.2 million dollars over the next five years."  When he says "worked closely" he means that they forced the Police Department to outsource the jail functions to a private firm to chip away at the municipal employee base that he holds in such contempt.

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR
Then he tells us, "One other big issue we had was working extremely closely with the Fire Department to make sure they could be more effective, more nimble and save money."  He then takes credit for the new deployment plan created by Interim Fire Chief Tom Arnold that revolves around the acquisition and deployment of new Paramedic Vans and cites a savings of "over one million dollars a year."  What he doesn't tell you is that, even though we have those new magnificent pieces of equipment, they are not yet deployed because we don't have the staff to do it!  We have TWO deployed and four of those quarter-million dollar units sitting around, waiting.  Even when the department is staffed properly the current plan is to deploy only FOUR of them, with TWO in reserve.  Doesn't make sense to me.  And, the klinker here is that we don't have staff to do it, so the staff of the Fire Department is still required to work horrendous overtime hours - sometimes doubling their normal work schedule - in an attempt to provide safety to the city.

THE CRIMINALS AROUND YOU
He then says, "The other issues we have in this city is to make sure that we keep our city a safe city.  One of the things I always say is 'Crime is caused by who lives in your city and who you attract to your city.'  We've had a big problem with attracting people that weren't good to our city through the motels we've had here."  He goes on to tell us that, "We've worked extremely hard with those motel owners to make sure that they run a tight ship."

BLUDGEONING MOTEL OWNERS
What he doesn't tell you is that he has stated many times that those motel owners had a distorted view of the value of their properties, so he's used code enforcement, police calls and fire department visits to bludgeon them into lowering their expectations.  He's used new ordinances - the Nuisance Ordinance and the Excessive Use of Resources Ordinance - to squeeze those operators so they'll be more compliant when developers come calling.  Tuesday, at the City Council meeting, we'll see the results of those efforts with a proposal to turn the Costa Mesa Motor Inn -  one of those "problem motels" -  into 236 "luxury apartments" located on Harbor Boulevard, across the street from Home Depot and MacDonalds.  Earlier in the agenda we will see the Conditional Use Permit for another of those businesses, Sandpiper Motel, revoked.  It's kind of like watching hunters clubbing baby harp seals to death, for goodness sake!

A WONDERFUL CITY... AND
He closes by telling us what a wonderful city we have, citing the weather, proximity to the ocean and South Coast Plaza, then says, "We just have to make sure that we continue to move forward and spend the dollars we have on infrastructure and parks - things that make our city a nicer place to live - and make sure that those things going forward continue to be funded.  That's what I want to do - that's what I'm going to continue to do here as your mayor here in Costa Mesa."

OK, BUT LET ME ASK YOU, MR. MAYOR
Well, OK, Mr. Mayor.  Your priorities are potholes and parks, not public safety - we get that.  Will those young families you're trying to attract come to a city where the two top elected officials are actually suing the men and women of their police department?  Will they move to a place where, in a fit of pique, the mayor refused to let the Chief of Police hire replacements for most of a year?  We have 28 vacancies - two more highly-skilled officers left Friday for other jobs elsewhere and nearly a dozen officers out with "injured on duty" issues.  As of Monday we will have fewer than 100 sworn members of the Costa Mesa Police Department able to work.  Subtract from that 31 members of the supervisory/command staff and, through the vindictive stubbornness of the mayor and his malleable majority, the CMPD will now operate with fewer than 70 actual officers on patrol!  Will those people feel safer knowing that? 

TOXIC WORKPLACE
Will they want to live in a city where the mayor has created such a toxic workplace for the municipal staff that they leave in droves - particularly in the police ranks?  Will they want to live in a city where Fire Department personnel are required to work horrendous overtime hours because the mayor and his council majority refuse to take a realistic view of the staffing needs of this city?  And, will they want to live in a place where that same mayor then chides firefighters about being greedy - referring to them as "$350,000-a-year firefighters", when those numbers reflected one member of the staff who worked more than 4,000 hours in a year, and were a direct result of THEIR edicts about hiring?

HEAVY-HANDED HEARTLESSNESS
Will those young, affluent families he says he wants to attract want to live in a city where the mayor and his pals illegally - and unnecessarily -  attempt to layoff nearly half the so-called "miscellaneous employees", causing one to commit suicide and a lawsuit that has lingered for almost two years?  How will they feel about a huge chunk of the municipal budget being spent on lawyers to defend their bogus schemes?

OOPS!
Their demands backfired a little when their developer-buddies began having a tough time getting their projects processed.  The staff has been so severely diminished that it's been necessary to spend thousands of dollars for technical support consultants to do plan check, inspections and other functions instead of being able to rely on city staffers - with knowledge and experience in our rules and policies to efficiently do the work.  Then, again, I believe that's the mayor's view of municipal government.  As I've said before, I think he wants to outsource EVERYTHING and leave only a City Manager (grandiosely re-titled "Chief Executive Officer") and a handful of contract administrators to oversee the outsourced operations.  No city employees, no employee associations to deal with - just "contracts" with pals and campaign contributors.

EXPECT MORE...
As we now enter the campaign season - in less than three months we will know who is actually going to run for the two open City Council positions in November - we will see more of this manipulation of the public by Righeimer and his cronies.  If you want to watch the clip I referred to, click HERE.  I could have embedded it in this post, but it starts automatically and I wanted you to read what I wrote without distraction.  You may wish to return to re-read what I wrote after watching...