SHOW DOWN LOOMING BETWEEN CITY COUNCIL AND THE COSTA MESA SENIOR CORPORATION?
The short version
This past week, the City Council voted to set up a committee to take a look at the Senior Center. However, the Council gave the Costa Mesa Senior Corporation the option to nix the committee.
If the CMSC does nix the committee, and in effect yells for the Council to get off the lawn, what will the Council do, since the City owns the lawn? Get ready for some drama.
The verbose version
Here's what you need to know about this to wade through the he saids, she saids:
Unlike most cities which run their senior centers with city employees, Costa Mesa decided several years ago to "hire" an outside corporation--called the Costa Mesa Senior Corporation--to run our senior center.
To make it a viable operation, the City leased the building to the CMSC for a dollar a year, does all janitorial and maintenance on the building for free, supplies transportation for seniors and also gives the CMSC more than $ 240,000 per year in cash. In other words, it's a sweetheart deal supposedly between sweethearts who tacitly agree to get along and cooperate for the benefit of the seniors.
So far so good. Then, a couple of months ago, some seniors; the exact number is in dispute--Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece says about 30 seniors, while some associated with the CMSC say it's about 5 or 6 malcontents--apparently had some complaints about the operation of the center and felt, rightly or wrongly, that their complaints weren't being handled correctly.
These seniors then took their complaints to Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece who had the thankless task of being the City Council liaison to the center and who was thus the City Council's Johnny-on-the spot.
Ms. Leece tried to get to the bottom of the complaints to see if they had any merit and she did this the same way any responsible person would do it: she started asking questions.
All that had to happen at this point was for someone to give Ms. Leece complete answers to her questions. That probably would have been the end of the issue and you wouldn't now be reading about this every day in the Daily Pilot or in various blogs.
Instead, Ms. Leece was apparently seen by some as an interloper. Also, at some point, City Councilperson Katrina Foley's law firm was apparently hired to advise the CMSC. We don't know if this hiring of Foley's firm was done before the present controversy or in reaction to it, but that fact will eventually come out if it's relevant.
The question that many observers are asking is why would Ms. Leece be treated as an interloper, if in fact, this is what is going on?
There are several possible explanations. Here's three of them.
1. For some unknown reason, the CMSC doesn't want the City Council to know much about the operation of the Center and wants the Council to let the CMSC handle everything--including complaints from seniors. In this last regard, don't forget that the Council became involved because some seniors said their complaints weren't being taken seriously and they "appealed" to the Council for resolution.
2. The CMSC is afraid the City Council will decide that the City or some other corporation should run the Senior Center instead of the CMSC.
3. Politics. Two of the CMSC board members--Bruce Garlich and Mike Scheafer--were defeated in the 2006 election by Ms. Leece and her political ally Mayor Allan Mansoor; and several other members of the board were vocal supporters of Garlich and Scheafer as well as Katrina Foley.
No doubt, we'll see pro forma denials that politics is involved now that we've broached the subject. Still, it would be naive to not at least raise this issue for a public airing.
At any rate, it seems that once Ms. Leece started asking questions, things began going sideways. Letters and blog posts (mostly anonymous) started appearing in the Daily Pilot claiming that Ms. Leece was on a witch hunt and that the complaining seniors were just a few malcontents.
Then, this past Tuesday, the City Council voted to set up an ad hoc committee, as suggested by Councilmember Monahan, to take a look at the Senior Center.
Mr. Monahan went to great pains to say that this proposed committee had nothing to do with the controversy as outlined above, but that it was just time to take a look at the center.
Notwithstanding Mr. Monahan's comments, and the perhaps coincidental timing of his committee idea, there is still a chance that more drama is forthcoming in the days ahead since the City Council staff report on the committee formation has the following proviso which allows the CMSC board to unilaterally put the kibosh on the committee: "Should the City Council choose to support the implementation of the proposed Committee [it did with its vote on Tuesday], it will only move forward with the support of the Board of the Senior Corporation."
So, as we say in tennis, the ball is now in the CMSC's court. Will the CMSC go along with the committee idea? Or, will they open a second floor window at the Senior Center and yell down to the City Council: "Get off our lawn!"
And, to ask again what we asked at the top of this column, if the CMSC does tell the City Council to buzz off, what will the Council do?
Stay tuned.
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