Fingers Crossed - A Short Council Meeting Tonight?

HOW WILL IT SHAKE DOWN?
One never knows what to expect from the Costa Mesa City Council these days, so I'm trying to not get too excited about the possibility of a short meeting tonight.  Of course, on April Fool's Day, anything is possible.  The agenda for the meeting may be viewed HERE.  The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m., with a SPECIAL CLOSED SESSION scheduled to precede it at 4:00 p.m.

WILL THERE BE A QUORUM THIS TIME?
It will be interesting to see if they actually hold that closed session.  You may recall that at the last meeting two weeks ago Gary Monahan was a no-show, so they couldn't get a quorum for the closed session to discuss the contract with the Costa Mesa Police Officers Association - Mayor Jim Righeimer and Mayor Pro Tem Steve Mensinger are not permitted to participate in those negotiations because of their bogus lawsuit against the men and women of the CMPD.  So, will Monahan show up this time?

CMCEA ISSUES
Also scheduled to be considered in the closed session are labor negotiations with the Costa Mesa City Employees Association (CMCEA) and the lawsuit between that group and The City.

CONSENT CALENDAR
The regular session includes a few items on the Consent Calendar.  Item #3, Warrant #2512, HERE, seems fairly straightforward.  A few items of interest are shown below:

• Liebert Cassidy Whitmore - $18,307.50 for PD and CMCEA labor negotiations and 60th Anniversary investigation.
• Accountemps - $4,113.76 for Temporary Services for Treasury and the Pension Oversight Committee.
• Atkins North America - $6,757.00 for an Environmental Impact Report on Baker Street.
• Enterprise Counsel Group - $12,465.66, for litigation.
• Management Partners, Inc - $6,448.00 for Interim Management Services.
• Mobile Home Improvement - $10,865.00 for 1973 Newport Boulevard (?)
• Albert Grover & Associates - $18,968.00 for (?)
• FTOG Inc - $2,880.00, for Interim Buyer
• Government Staffing Services, Inc. - $4,400.00, Temporary Services Project Manager

BUS SHELTER ADVERTISING
Item #4 on the Consent Calendar, HERE, deals with the renewal of the Bus Shelter Advertising Agreement that will include services, maintenance and compensation for bus shelters throughout the city.  From the tone of the staff report, more cleaning is required these days - I presume it's due to the large numbers of homeless folks who inhabit many of those shelters.

MORE PLANNING HELP
Item #5 Development Services Director Gary Armstrong requested this - an amendment to a Professional Services Contract for Planning Consultants to try to keep up with the current and anticipated demand.  Development Services is short of staff, is in the recruitment process, but it will take several months due to the current backlog in Human Resources.  This request revises the current contracted cap of $100,000 to $255,000.

SHARING CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
Item #6, HERE, is an interesting subject - the agreement with the State of California to share Business Tax Information.  In theory, by participating in this program in which the State will provide information on businesses which may not have applied for business licenses, the City will collect more fees.  Ten Orange County cities already participate in this program.  Also, in theory, we should be able to capture unpaid business license fees more efficiently.  Curiously, since this is generated by the Finance Department, no estimate of the cost of participation is given, and no estimate of additional revenues anticipated are provided.

PROSECUTION SERVICES CHANGE - WHY?
Item #7, HERE, is interesting.  It's a modification of the agreement between the County of Orange and The City for Prosecution Services.  Currently the District Attorney makes the call about prosecuting a criminal complaint.  Once an item is referred to the DA the ball is in his court to determine whether it will be prosecuted.  This new agreement, which also changes the fee schedule that we pay for such services, give the City Attorney first crack at determining whether to prosecute a case or not.  I find myself wondering what prompted this change - maybe the Steven White case?  And, how will this change our agreement with Jones and Mayer, our contract City Attorney?  Will we be paying them more, or will they just outsource the prosecution as they seem to be doing with so much of our work these days.

RENEWABLE ENERGY
The final item, #8, HERE,  is the consent by the city to inclusion of properties within the City in the California HERO Program, which finances distributed generation renewable energy sources, energy and water efficiency improvements and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.  Fascinating... read the staff report.

SMALL LOT ORDINANCE - AGAIN
There are no Public Hearings scheduled, but the second reading of the Small Lot Ordinance is on the agenda again as Old Business #1, HERE.  You may recall that at the last council meeting Monahan was absent - no reason was given - so this item was continued because a vote would have likely resulted in a 2-2 tie - which would have meant it would have failed.  Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing since this ordinance basically codifies developer-friendly issues in the codes that they've been griping about for years.  Of course, those codes were installed to protect our property values and insure a livable community.  The discussion on this one will be interesting, again.

REWARD
New Business #1, HERE, is a request to approve the posting of a $10,000 monetary reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder of Gary Smola, who was killed in his home on August 12, 2004.  The investigation has turned up no leads.

COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS
The final item on the agenda, New Business #2, HERE, is the selection of nineteen (19) individuals to fill vacancies on the following committees:

• Cultural Arts Committee - 4 regular member vacancies (2 two-year terms and 2 one-year terms) and 2 alternate member vacancies (1 two-year term and 1 one-year term).
• Historical Preservation Committee - 6 regular member vacancies (5 two-year terms and 1 one-year term and 2 alternates (2 two year terms.
• Housing and Public Service Grant Committee - 3 regular member vacancies (3 two-year terms, reducing the committee to 9 members).
• Costa Mesa Senior Corporation Board of Directors - 2 representative vacancies (2 one-year terms).

YOUR GUESS?
I have no clue how long this meeting will take.  It is possible that we could be out of there shortly after 8 p.m., but one just never knows...  I'll report when it's over.

Hang On! Here We Go!

The Planning Commission meeting Monday night was a particularly interesting adventure. This was the first meeting with the "5 improvers", or 4 improvers and a question mark, depending on how you view Jim Righeimer.

At the beginning of the meeting the assembled throng was treated to a mini-concert by a group of wonderful young children from Rea School. They led the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag, then sang the National Anthem and other patriotic songs. It was a nice touch. Apparently, although it didn't come through to the viewers at home, there was an accompanying Powerpoint presentation on the large screens displaying a recognition of the contributions Bill Perkins and Bruce Garlich made during their six year tenure on the commission - a very nice touch.

In the middle of this concert I received a telephone call from another observer, wondering if I was watching. He also wanted to know if I shared his feeling of irony at those bright, eager, mostly brown faces singing patriotic songs in front of the "improvers" on the dais, some of whom were almost certainly wondering how many of those children were in this country illegally. I, of course, shared the same question...

I couldn't help thinking about those children in the context of our current municipal immigration debate. I found myself wondering how many of them will find themselves separated from one or more parents in the near future as the parent is interrogated after a minor infraction - jaywalking, wrong-way-bicycle-riding, etc. - and end up being deported because they cannot produce adequate identification.

The meeting itself was just a little surreal. Following the mini-concert Donn Hall, serving as vice chairman of the commission, clumsily made presentations to Bruce Garlich and Bill Perkins acknowledging their service on the commission before being bounced by the new council majority. Hall's well-intentioned, but inept, attempt at a gracious presentation fell well short of the mark. He didn't even give Garlich and Perkins a chance to acknowledge the presentations and to say thanks to the many people gathered to honor them. I found myself cringing as I viewed the proceedings. That would not be the last time I would cringe that night.

After all that hoopla they finally got around to electing new officers - Hall as Chairman and Jim (I'm a realtor here in town) Fisler as Vice Chairman. Some will remember that Hall is a former mayor of Costa Mesa who, during his tenure two decades ago, tilted at more than his share of windmills.

Right off the bat the guy who resembles my theoretical character, Your Neighbor, stood before the commission and tried to sell them on the wisdom of the creation of a marina in the Santa Ana riverbed - a pipe dream that was first floated by Hall two decades ago and failed to gain consideration. Hall took this guy's lead, acknowledged that he is "right" - a truly scary concept!

Hall, in his role as chairman, finally got around to introducing the new commissioners, Jim Righeimer and Sam Clark.

You knew this was going to be an interesting meeting when they decided to consider the last item on the agenda first. Good grief! Hall, crusty curmudgeon that he is, ran what can only be described as a loose ship last night. He seemed not particularly concerned with protocol and did a marginal job of controlling the flow if dialogue - frequently allowing comments to be shouted from the audience. This does not bode well for the future. He's shown us in the past that he cares little for the formalities so important for proper decorum and deliberation on the commission. With him in charge now the commission needs to be watched carefully. He demonstrated a penchant to attempt to consider and vote on items not on the agenda, for example.

In what may be an omen of things to come, Commissioner Eleanor Egan - a long time improver - attempted to derail the first item discussed. She launched a long and tedious presentation about how that particular project didn't fit her idea of the Mesa West Urban Plan. Fortunately, Hall slowed her momentum down long enough for Don Lamm, director of Development Services, to leap to the rescue and remind the commission that the urban plan didn't preclude industrial development, only provided a mechanism to insert residential into that primarily industrial area. Any industrial property owner in that area should be very, very worried. This sure looks like the improvers are going to try to change the rules - that agreement that was hammered out over a year's time by the Westside Revitalization Oversight Committee (WROC). I'm not surprised. You will recall that I've frequently reminded all residents to watch their backs, that their rights may be the next trampled by this mob. Well, this is only the beginning.

A note about Righeimer. He seems like a very smart fella, who is obviously up to speed on planning issues. I'm withholding judgment on him for a little while longer, but I suspect he'd be a good guy to have in this role - if his appointment hadn't been such a transparent example of political patronage. Time will tell.

As provocatively entertaining as the Planning Commission meeting was last night, the City Council Study Session this evening promises to be even more fun. I'd love to have the boxing glove concession for this one. I find myself hoping that Katrina Foley and Allan Mansoor are sitting at opposite ends of the table, to avoid the possibility of nose-to-nose dialogue. Stay tuned.