Brief Planning Commission Meeting Yields Info

EARLY AND INTERESTING
The Costa Mesa Planning Commission meeting Monday night went about as anticipated.  It started on time and finished just before 8 p.m. - a nice change.

CANDY FOR THE 1/5 MARINE KIDS
During Public Comments Beth Refakes reminded us that the Candy Drive is underway for the families of the 1/5 Marines at Camp Pendleton.  There's a collection point in the City Hall lobby and every piece of candy must be individually wrapped.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Ann Parker asked for clarification about her appeal of the Solid Landings issue, citing the fact that Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer had called her a liar in a public forum.  It was confirmed that Commissioner Stephan Andranian was the only commissioner who expressed interest in appealing the issue, but changed his mind at the last minute, forcing Parker to dash to City Hall and post the fee to get the item appealed, which was successful.  She also address other sober living venues in the city.

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS
Stephan Andranian said he was honored to participate in the Joint Study Session last week and complimented the staff.  He also responded to Ann Parker's comments, affirming he was planning to appeal the Solid Landings issue, but changed his mind at the last minute.

Tim Sesler chided Parker for her attitude at the speaker's podium, admonishing her that she'll get more accomplished with sugar than vinegar.

Colin McCarthy started off by saying he's hearing an undercurrent of criticism of the staff and he doesn't understand it.  Maybe he's hearing that on the Costa Mesa Public Square, because I don't hear it at all.  He told us he was proud of the Building Inspection group.  He praised the Joint Study session, calling it "illuminating".  He addressed the Westside Plans, saying that he was getting tired of hearing complaints about them.  He said, "I'm not interested in hearing discussions on Westside plans.  That ship has sailed."  Really, Colin?  So, one more exposition by a member of the folks in power that they don't want to hear a dissenting voice.  Well, tough!  You're still going to be hearing from folks if they don't like what you're doing.  Get used to it or get out.

Chairman Rob Dickson thanked Beth Refakes for the information on the Candy Drive and asked her to be sure another video of the event is produced this year.  He also praised the Joint Study Session and the staff for the work they put into it.  He also mentioned that, during the month of August, 11,000 building permits had been pulled - substantially more than a year ago.

Vice Chair Jeff Mathews had nothing...

NEW FIRE PLAN SUBMITTAL CHECKLIST AND GUIDELINES
The new Fire Plan Submittal Checklist and Guidelines presentation was pulled from the Consent Calendar and Fire Chief Dan Stefano and Fire Prevention Specialist Dave Hollister were ready to answer questions about this new, valuable document.  The whole presentation, including questions and observations, took about five minutes.  Kudos to Chief Stefano and Hollister for the production of this important guideline.

PUBLIC HEARINGS
As expected, the first two public hearings were continued to a future, un-named, date.

APPROVED - WITHOUT UNDERGROUNDING
#3, the design review and subdivision of  two new 2-story residences at 288 E. 15th Street, should have gone right through without much discussion but the developer was thrown a curve at, literally, the last minute.  Apparently, at 4:00 Monday afternoon, he was advised that the City wanted him to underground the utilities to his project.  Based on some quick investigation he learned it might cost $200,000 - something he had not anticipated.  At one point he said that, if forced to pay for the undergrounding, he might just have to walk away from the project.  It was anticipated that the two units might sell, based on his other projects in the City, from $1.1 - 1.175 million each.  In the end the commission moved the project forward without the burden of undergrounding the utilities.

APPROVED - WITH UNDERGROUNDING
#4, the 10 unit 2 and 3 story residential development at 527-531 Bernard Street, was a different story.  Most of the commissioners were also uncomfortable about the new undergrounding requirement, but they ended up passing the project WITH the requirement of the utilities being undergrounded with some qualifying language that went something like the utilities would be undergrounded "to the extent logistically feasible".  The Director of Development Services will determine the feasibility issue.

UNDERGROUNDING
All the commissioners, during both discussions, expressed angst about having this issue sprung on them at the last minute.  Most expressed the need for more specific direction from the City Council on this issue.  Undergrounding is VERY expensive, which is the reason the idea has stalled.  However, to do it piecemeal like this - in 50 foot segments, as was described at the meeting - makes little sense.  IF there is an intention to enforce some kind of an undergrounding edict, there needs to be more formal discussions on the issue, including input from the public.  Both items felt very loosey-goosey - not the way business is normally done.

BIG JERRY GONE
The biggest news that came my way Monday was word that former consultant and, theoretical, new city employee Jerry Guarrancino is no longer with The City.  Apparently this news broke in a special staff meeting last Friday, with no more information available at this time.  It's my understanding that his Code Enforcement staff will be folded into the regular Code Enforcement organization, at least temporarily, until a decision is made about whether, and how, to fill his slot.  You might recall that he spent more than a year working in various jobs as a consultant, including acting as Interim Assistant Development Services Director during Claire Flynn's absence - and being paid a lot of money doing so - before a position was created that seemed specifically crafted for him.  We don't know what prompted his departure, but the curiously quiet circumstances only adds to the speculation.  And, it's unclear whether he actually ever did become an employee, since his consulting gig was to have shifted from one vendor to his own consulting practice.  It's all very strange.

Brief Budget Study Session Yields Bombshells

DON'T BLINK!
In what may be the shortest City Council Study Session ever, this afternoon the Costa Mesa City Council heard all they needed from Interim Finance Director Steve Dunivent on the city's mid-year budget performance in 45 minutes flat!  Actually, it would have been much shorter but for Mayor Jim Righeimer's direction near the end.  More on that in a minute.. wait for it.

THE DETAILS
You can read the staff report HERE, which also includes links to some very interesting attachments.  I covered those and provided specific links in my previous entry, but here they are again:  (Just click on the name)
1. Analysis and Recommended Uses of the FY2012-13 Surplus
2. Mid-year Budget Report Summary—General Fund
3. General Fund Revenue Chart
4. Budget to Actual Analysis—General Fund Revenues
5. General Fund Total Expenditure Chart
6. General Fund Salary & Benefit Chart
7. Budget to Actual Analysis—General Fund Expenditures
8. Contingency Funds

SPARSE "CROWD"
As you can see from the photo, the crowd was "sparse" - a kind way of saying that virtually nobody gives a rat's rear end about the condition of our finances.  Only four residents showed up.  They, plus sixteen city staffers and two journalists, were in the auditorium .  I counted myself as a resident.  Councilmember Wendy Leece was absent.  Unfortunately, this is pretty typical of these kind of meetings.  In years past when Allan Roeder would conduct a "Community Budget Workshop" following the approval of a budget there would typically be three or four residents in attendance.  This meeting was televised live on CMTV, but the recorded version is not yet posted.

 Dunivent spoke of the budget surplus and showed charts that were not part of the printed agenda report.

He gave us examples of his recommendations for the use of the surplus.

He spoke of the anticipated increase in projected revenues.

And how those funds might be used.

And he guided a discussion of anticipated expenditures in this year's General Fund budget.  Again, for specific details read the attachments linked above...

HATCH CHALLENGED...
However, the most interesting part of the evening for me came at the end, right around 5:00, as council members chimed in with their thoughts.  CEO Tom Hatch, when pressed for more details on issues, kind of acted like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  Steve Mensinger and Gary Monahan challenged him to produce some specifics on a few issues.  Monahan said he wanted, "hard numbers, not hunches."

OPENED MOUTH, FORGOT TO ENGAGE BRAIN
Then Righeimer began his little exposition by starting with this sentence fragment, "The City is fifty-some years old..."  Really?  After all the turmoil about the 60th Anniversary Celebration and he still doesn't know how old the City is?!  How is it possible that he can be so vacuous?  Good grief!  He just keeps on having these "Linda Blair" moments - he opens his mouth and out comes his stream-of-consciousness "guacamole".

INCREASE FEES AND CREAT NEW ONES!
Now that he had my attention he went on to tell us that he wanted us to consider increasing Park Fees and Planning fees and establish Undergrounding Impact Fees and a Library Impact Fee - all of which would be levied on developers who come before the city to build stuff!  Yep, that's what he said!  In fact, I'm going to paraphrase him - you can check it when the video feed is available - he said, "As the economy goes up we need to put a little drag on that." - meaning take advantage of developer interest in the city to squeeze more dollars out of them - which, of course, would just be passed on to buyers of their homes, etc.  I guess that's his strategy to attract young families to the city - slap so many developer fees on new homes that only the rich can afford them.

UNDERGROUNDING - DOA THEN AND NOW
That "Undergrounding Fee" is interesting.  Those who pay attention will recall that former Mayor Allan Mansoor also floated that scheme - to underground all utilities throughout the city -  a few years back.  At the time, based on numbers from the utilities involved, it was projected to cost in excess of a half billion dollars!  A couple years later that estimate was bumped up to a cool Billion!  I can't even begin to guess at what it might be now.  And that was just the city costs - the homeowners would have to pay for the utilities to go from the street to their homes.  Righeimer prattled on about a "utility districts" - like Newport Beach has done in the past.  Well, that idea was also blasted out of the water several years ago and it sure isn't going to fly now.   I'm getting very tired of him trying to morph Costa Mesa into Newport Beach or Irvine with his elitist, let-them-eat-cake attitude.  If that's what he wanted when his political career stalled in Fountain Valley (that means when the voters rejected him) he should have moved into one of those cities, not Costa Mesa.

MOVE THE LIBRARY TO THE COMMUNITY CENTER
More on that "Library Impact Fee"... he also said that he wants to set aside "a couple hundred thousand" to investigate the possibility of moving the Donald Dungan Library at Lions Park into the Neighborhood Community Center - which he implied was underutilized with "a few meetings and birthday parties on the weekends", and then use the current site of the library as a "nice, round meeting room".  Now, that's one of the strangest things I've ever heard him say - and that's saying a lot!  It's my understanding that booking space at the Neighborhood Community Center has been very difficult lately.  Monahan chimed in to say that it should be a state-of-the-art library with heavy emphasis on computers, etc.  The only reason I can think of for Righeimer to want to basically shut down the Neighborhood Community Center is because it provides a venue for discussion of important issues - and those discussions never work in his favor.

HAS HE LOST HIS MIND?
So, in a year where we anticipate Righeimer will run for re-election, today he - theoretically a conservative Republican - advocated for the establishment of two (2) brand new assessments and increasing several others.  I'm not sure if he has completely lost his mind, but he's sure going to lose support of his pals in the OC GOP by recommending fee increases!  Who knows - maybe we're witnessing political suicide...

ONCE AGAIN...
This is going to be a VERY interesting year in Costa Mesa...

Undergrounding Utilities - R.I.P.

At their study session on January 9, 2007, the Costa Mesa City Council was advised by a representative of Southern California Edison that, for all intents and purposes, any chance of using "Rule 20" money to place utilities underground in our city is dead. Well, maybe not dead, but certainly frozen like a cryogenically-processed corpse until at least 2011 because of the unavailability of those dollars. Based on comments made at the study session, the Public Utilities Commission doles out those dollars based on whatever whim hits them at the time. Also, they've changed the rules recently, which requires Edison to retract an agreement it had made with the city to extend it's eligibility for those funds.

So, unless the council finds a way to fund the undergrounding of utilities beyond this source of finance, it looks like Mayor Mansoor's pet project has bit the dust. This is actually good news for Costa Mesa. The last time this issue was discussed a few months ago, the same Edison representative told the council that costs for such projects had risen dramatically - four times the estimate he provided two years ago. Instead of costing around $800 million to place utilities underground city-wide, it would be more like $4 billion - with a big B. Those kinds of dollars, if financed with bonds, would place a burden on the backs of the great-grandchildren of Costa Mesa kids currently in kindergarten.

Unfortunately, the mayor was absent from this particular study session, so there is no way to assess his reaction to this news. I'm confident that he won't let it be put to rest without an attempt at resuscitation.

I agree that our city would look much nicer with all the wires underground. However, as is the case in our personal lives, the city can't have everything it wants regardless of cost. I, for example, would love to have a Ferrari, but I can't afford it. Neither can the city afford to place the utilities underground when the costs are so exorbitant.

I expect to hear from our neighbors in Newport Beach with their stories of undergrounding specific neighborhoods. I think that's just dandy - one more reason to envy them. The fact is, Newport Beach is a much wealthier city than Costa Mesa, with two-thirds the population but a budget that is 50% greater. Ah, those property values and the taxes they generate! So, while we certainly do appreciate their advice based on their experience, we're working with a very different set of circumstances - and pockets that are just not as deep.

All is not lost, though. The Edison folks tell us that wires on poles are much easier to repair in the event of a break.