SOME COSTA MESANS WILL SOON BE HOWLINGWith absolutely no one in the audience speaking against the measures, the Planning Commission last night passed a couple of new rules that will eventually bring many people to City Council meetings to complain.
1. If your single family detached home has a straight-in garage from the sidewalk, and if you've extended your paved parking area in front of the garage to the left or right of the garage to park extra cars, you soon won't be able to park cars on those areas or you'll get a citation from code enforcement.
As passed by the Planning Commission, the new rule won't require you to remove that paved area (usually concrete); you just won't be able to park cars there.
2. If your car blocks a public sidewalk as it is parked in your too short driveway in front of your garage, you'll get a citation from code enforcement.
Both of the above measures will now go to the City Council for a first and second reading. This means they will become law within about a month unless the City Council votes them down.
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ICE DETAINERS FOR FEBRUARY
The CMPD reports 33 ICE detainers for the month of February 2009. Costa Mesa just got that much safer.
In February 2008, there was only 1 ICE detainer due to the construction at the police station.
If you're on our email list, and want to see the full reports, please send us a note.
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CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION TODAY
Council will hear a presentation by a labor attorney on the proper way to negotiate with the four City employee unions concerning opening their contracts (officially, Memorandums of Understanding or MOU). LINK
Basically, the City is in a financial mess because of the recession and needs to cut expenses.
Most of the City's expenses (about 75%) are in salaries and benefits for City employees. To make any meaningful cuts that will keep the City in the black requires that something be done about employee expenses.
Either the employees agree to open their contracts and take some pay and benefit cuts, or the City will have to lay off employees or have unpaid furloughs or maybe close down City functions for several days a month or...?
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LATINO K-MART SHOOTER STILL ON THE LOOSE
The CMPD has not been able to identify and arrest the Latino male who shot a man in the K-Mart shopping center parking lot last week.
Some unconfirmed reports indicate that there may actually be two Latino suspects with guns in that immediate area around Harbor and Wilson and extending over to Wallace and perhaps further west.
If you have any tips, call the CMPD at (714) 754-5252. You can remain anonymous.
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WE SURROUND THEM
Citizen revolt?
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NATIONAL POLICY INSTITUTE (NPI)
Another pro-European American organization hated by anti-white bigots.LINK
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DALAI LAMA LAMENTS GENOCIDE IN TIBET
China has been swamping Tibet with Chinese in order to blend away native Tibetans. LINK
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IRA GUNMEN OUT AGAIN
Real IRA on the move in Ireland.# # #
NEWSPAPER GIANT MCCLATCHY CUTTING ANOTHER 1,600 JOBS
Newspaper industry on death watch. LINK
The CM PRESS recently took a casual look at the number of employees at a local newspaper, and then at the number, size and type of ads in the newspaper (which indicates revenue). Say no more.
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NEW STORY POSTED 8:11 PM 3/10/09
CUTS COMING TO CITY HALL
From comments made by councilmembers at today's City Council study session, it seems likely that one of the first things to be cut because of the economy will be employee overtime.
Last year, Costa Mesa employees took $6,611,778.90 in overtime pay alone. During that period, several employees made more than $ 60,000 each just in overtime.
Mayor Mansoor was noticably displeased to learn that the City's employee unions had failed to respond to his request for a letter indicating that they're willing to open their contracts.
The City is expecting at least an $11 millon dollar shortfall in revenues this year, but according to the City Manager, we should have the actual figures for sales tax revenue any day.
Some believe the $ 11 million dollar figure is optimistic because it is based on national figures showing retail sales tax off 5%, and is also a months-old projection.
Not only have things gotten worse since that projection, but Costa Mesa is something of a special case in that the City derives most of its income from sales tax rather than from property tax as is the case in some other cities.
It also seems likely that there may be employee layoffs in the offing.
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
