Sunday, August 04, 2013

Skimpy Council Agenda Tuesday

THE ONLY AUGUST COUNCIL MEETING IS TUESDAY
When the Costa Mesa City Council meets for its only meeting in August on Tuesday, the 6th at 6:00 in council chambers they will be staring at the smallest agenda in recent memory, HERE.  We presume the lack of other meetings is due to vacations during the month.

NOT MUCH HAPPENING TUESDAY
In addition to the Closed Session items - 3 of them - that will be heard beginning at 5:00, when the council meets at 6:00 they will have a couple presentations, some Public Comments, Council Member Comments and a Consent Calendar to deal with.  There is nothing scheduled under Public Hearings, Old Business or New Business.

GO FISHING FOR PEARLS...
The Consent Calendar includes several items that might be pulled for separate discussion.  Among those that probably will NOT be pulled are the three warrants - bills paid during July - that actually can be pretty darn enlightening if you take the time to scroll down through them.  You can view #2382 HERE, #2383 HERE and #2384 HERE.  Instead of me culling through them for pearls - I've already done that - why don't you take a few minutes and see if you can find out how much we paid to vendors for the 60th Anniversary Celebration or how much we've already paid to Management Partners for the audit of the Costa Mesa Senior Center operations before it even began?  Or, see if you can figure out how much we've paid to lawyers in these three warrants.  Hint - don't look for Jones and Mayer or Jones Day.

GIMME THE MONEY!
Item 6 is the request for a refund of $1220 by the president of the Catalina Shores Homeowners Association, HERE, for the appeal of the proposed development beside their location.

"BROADWAY" REVISITED!
The next item may get the attention of some of my Eastside neighbors.  Item 7 is authorization for funds for the design of "traffic calming" improvements on East 19th Street, HERE.  Those of us who drive the Eastside streets regularly already know what a disaster  a similar project on Broadway recently turned out to be.  The text of the staff report that has me more than a little nervous reads thus: "The implementation of these traffic calming measures will address speeding concerns by narrowing the street and enhancing its residential nature. The project includes construction of chokers at intersections along East 19th Street. The traffic calming devices will include landscaping elements that will provide features and visual effects of a narrower street." 

HOW DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?
So, we're going to narrow an already heavily-trafficked busy street, which has been made even more so by the project on Broadway!  Yikes!  I suspect a few of my neighbors might wish to make their views known to the council BEFORE we proceed with spending the money on the design.

YET ANOTHER SPECIAL COUNSEL
Item 8 is the retention of a special legal counsel, the Enterprise Counsel Group, for litigation to challenge the State's position on prior payments involving the shut-down of the Redevelopment Agency and related matters, HERE.  Every time we hire another outside legal firm to wrestle with litigation of one kind or another I remember the reason we decided to abandon in-house counsel and hire an outside firm -Jones and Mayer - was because we needed greater litigation strength.  So what happens?  Practically every time we need litigation horsepower it gets farmed out to another firm - for more money.

OOPS!  CAN WE TAKE A MULLIGAN?
The final item, Item 9, is the purchase of 435 new desktop computers replacing old, outdated machines throughout City Hall, HERE.  If you're saying to yourself, "Wait a minute!  Didn't we already do this?", the answer is yes.  The contract for the new equipment replacing 10-year-old machines was approved for another vendor last May, but somehow the successful bid did not include sales tax.  When this error was discovered the city was not able to work out an arrangement with the bidder, so they've returned to request authorization to have the order filled by another vendor - at a higher price.

NEXT MEETING SEPTEMBER 3RD
While there will be a few committee meetings this month, the next council meeting will be way, way out there -  the day following the Labor Day holiday - and it will likely be a loaded agenda.  Seems like vacations have created this August void.



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10 Comments:

Anonymous the 99% said...

go watch corruption in action, live, right before your eyes. don't blink, the money was just exchanged.
Are you a Costa Mesa Resident who wants Responsible Government?
See us at council. listen to us.
outsourcing, charter, growth; all can be stopped if we work together.

8/05/2013 08:35:00 AM  
Anonymous Tamar said...

Geoff,
I’ve never taken for granted the enormous amount of time, effort, and thought you put into keeping the public informed, but I’ve probably never given you the thanks you deserve.

Few people have the patience or detective skills to go searching through the multiple pages of warrants each month—about 70 pages for the upcoming meeting, and I must admit I’m one of the slackers.

So, please, please, please, share with us the pearls that you’ve discovered and give us the answers to the puzzles you gave us.

P.S. Happy Anniversary

8/05/2013 11:46:00 AM  
Anonymous Kathy L said...

to 99%, where can I get in touch with that group? I know there is one, but do you know where they are? I can't remember the name so I can't google it. Thanks.

8/05/2013 02:05:00 PM  
Anonymous the 99% said...

Kathy: of course I know the name, I am a member! cm4rg.org is one way, facebook another, or just come down to any council meeting and meet us personally to see how great we are. we sometimes have a table out front. we are all busy during public comments time at beginning of meeting telling the council how to run this city. don't miss it! if you can't come down to see us talk you can view us (as many times as you like!)on the city's website under cm tv (yep, TV!,tee hee, we are famous), archived videos. there is a drop down menu and you can pick us out under commentators. for many of us this is our big night out and so we go to the beauty parlor, put on favorite clothes, and rehearse during the afternoon. when we accept you to our group you can hang with us while we do that and view the video highlights of us in action. lots of fun and laughs and sharing between sisters. Good gossip and do tells. hope to see you soon. (after 6 months, you are eligible for our "time to start some trouble" letter writing campaigns)Tomorrow night, come see us.

8/05/2013 03:14:00 PM  
Anonymous mulva said...

tamar: I am from the clinic. That is correct. I will simplify all of it for you: the boyz are bad! no need to go through all the reading crap or listen to anything. just go opposite the boyz and you will be ok. everything is miserable, nothing good being done, lies all around, bribes, corruption , secret meetings, brown act violations, illegal meetings, obsessions, amusements, anti resident, anti employees, anti seniors, anti youth, anti dentites, you name it, the boyz on council provide it. they have made us a petri dish and opened a real Pandora's box but there is a God as one council lady exclaimed as she hit Bingo. Got it? There you go!

8/05/2013 03:23:00 PM  
Blogger kwahlf said...

Ten guesses who "the 99%", "Kathy L" and "mulva" is.
Yep, it's the 7th grade boy hiding behind trees and calling out names. His idiotic, caustic writing give him away.He is the boy( not man) of multiple online personalities here, or BOMOP.
He chairs our CM Planning Commission.
It's his payoff for trolling here.

8/05/2013 05:53:00 PM  
Anonymous Troll Tracker said...

My my, the trolls are in full defensive mode. Either someone needs a drink or they have much to hide..

8/05/2013 06:38:00 PM  
Anonymous Kathy L said...

to 99%, thanks, but I got in touch with them today, and was filled in. It appears they are correct in their assessment of councilmen and their friends, with toys in the attic. So, their ranks grew by one, and the "conservative" side now has one more opponent, thanks to your asinine retort.

I have lived in CM for 2 months and definitely see the problem here.

8/05/2013 08:05:00 PM  
Anonymous room for rent said...

Hey, I got an illegal garage apartment for rent, one bedroom, for the 7th grade "no so much a man"....

8/05/2013 08:07:00 PM  
Blogger just wondering... said...

Oh he's got stuff to hide alright....

8/05/2013 08:08:00 PM  

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