Blogging With Genis and the Winships, Plus Mayoralty Rumors

Another day of fun and games here in the land of Newport-Mesa.

GENIS DIVES IN!
First, some good news. Former Costa Mesa Mayor Sandy Genis has decided to dive headlong into the wonderful world of blogmania. Her brand new, hot-out-of-the-oven blog, La Femme Wonkita, is now available for viewing. I posted a link for her site over on the right of this page. Those who have followed politics in Costa Mesa in recent years know Ms. Genis as a smart, hard-working, astute student of the process and a woman who is, in her words, "one of the most opinionated people I know". Few would argue with that description. Sandy has stayed engaged in Costa Mesa politics following her tenure on the City Council and demonstrates time after time that she is a force to be reckoned with when she stands before the council to present her view of an issue in her own, special way. I hope she eventually permits Comments to be submitted on her blog because, if history is any judge, her postings will certainly be "comment-worthy". We welcome her arrival and look forward to her future entries.

WINSHIPS PROVIDE QUIPS
Another new link over there on the right is for a Newport Beach-centric blog, Newport Beach Voices. I'm sure many of you in Newport Beach already know of this resource. Among the contributors to this blog are Ron and Anna Winship, who also write the occasional entry on the Orange Juice! blog. They are producers of "Cutting Edge - a talk show" which, in their words, "brings together a provocative group of 'individuals' that uniformly believe in the defense of American liberty and freedoms." I'm happy to provide a link to their blog as a resource to those who are immersed in Newport Beach politics and players.


MAYOR, ANYONE?
I can't close tonight without mentioning the on-going rumors around Costa Mesa about the possibility of a change, soon to be proposed, that would result in the direct election of the position of Mayor in our fair city. Along with those rumblings are a few that indicate former mayor Gary Monahan would be a candidate for that position. There was a time when I thought our young jailer/mayor, Allan Mansoor, might also be a candidate for that job, should it be approved by the voters. However, he seems to be casting his net much more broadly in the Republican Party political pond. For example, last night, Thursday, he was scheduled to be the featured speaker before the meeting of a neighboring county's Republican Party. That explains why he was practicing his stand-up routine at the last council meeting. Trust me, Jerry Seinfeld he ain't!

More Lights and Cat Fights

OK, so the "lights" issue controversy last night was a non-starter. No one chose to pull the issue of additional lights at The Farm Sports Complex from the consent calendar so, without fanfare of any kind, the issue was passed on a 4-0 vote - Eric Bever was absent from the proceedings last night.

I went back to the agenda package to determine exactly what the council had passed, since there were a couple different permutations provided. I also contacted some folks at the city to be sure I understood what happened. In a nutshell, the city will now proceed to install new, permanent lights on fields 3 & 4, retrofit the current lights on fields 1 & 2 with more efficient lights that will more adequately control spill over, and will stub out (run the cabling to the appropriate locations) for fields 5 & 6 for future installation of permanent lights.

This is good news for those folks around town who are scrambling for fields of any kind and lighted fields in particular. Although it would have been a better idea to light all four remaining fields right now, this was a good first step and will take a little pressure off the need for identification of additional fields. There will remain a shortage of adequate fields even after 3 & 4 are lighted and scheduled, though, so the city needs to continue their efforts to find additional suitable locations - particularly since it looks like there will be absolutely no active sports tolerated in smaller parks around our city.

As mentioned above, Eric Bever was absent from the meeting last night, apparently on a family emergency. We, of course, wish him well. However, his absence left a hole in the format - no one to provide comic relief. We all know that Bever considers himself a real stand-up comedian who regularly regales us with his snappy one-liners from the dais. So, last night, his pal, our young jailer/mayor attempted to pick up the slack as he tried to lighten the mood by making wise cracks. He failed. My advice to him is, "Don't quit your day job."

Last night was not without it's funny moments, though. Katrina Foley and Wendy Leece hissed and growled at each other from the opposite ends of the dais. Foley expressed astonishment when Leece took a position 180 degrees opposite her previously stated opinion on the traffic calming issue. Leece fired back that she had every right to change her mind. Ah, the ladies - ya gotta love them!

Also, while on the traffic calming issue, Mansoor seemed to have become the reincarnation of Chris Steel when he lost track of what was happening and almost proposed a motion that was exactly the opposite of what he intended. Yes, it did bring a smile to my face.