CM PRESS # 299

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IT'S OFFICIAL--COPS VOTER GUIDE ENDORSES JIM RIGHEIMER

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STEVE SMITH OVER AT THE DAILY PILOT GETS IT RIGHT ABOUT JIM RIGHEIMER

Link

Here's a preview of Smith's column: Jim Righeimer is good for Costa Mesa and is needed on the City Council.

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WE RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE ABOUT LAST NIGHT'S VOTE--WE'VE REMOVED IDENTIFYING INFORMATION FROM THE MESSAGE BECAUSE WE WERE NOT SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED TO GIVE IT

You can always count on union workers that have seniority to throw the newer workers under the bus. The vote last night was a vote to protect the 85% of the workers who will not be laid off.

Union members always talk about the solidarity they have with all of their fellow brethren who belong to the union. But when it comes down to it, they would rather have a fellow union member lose their job then take one dime less themselves. They are very selfish.

As an employer I know how painful it is to let go of an employee. You work with them every day. You know their wife and kids. You also know that the chance of them getting work in this environment is slim. There is a good chance they will lose their home and dislocate their family. I lose sleep every night before I have to give someone the bad news. But as a business owner I have a responsibility to my other employees to keep the doors open. If the company fails, everyone is out of work.

As Alan Roeder said last night, and then dismissed as being too draconian; if everyone takes a 17% pay cut, everyone keeps their job. The vote last night was a vote for layoffs.

The city cannot become insolvent. We have to make the cuts necessary to keep the doors open.

I wonder if the three that voted for the contracts will have the guts to vote for the layoffs. We’ll see.
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$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ To Costa Mesa's employees. (80%)

$ $ To fix streets and do all the other functions of government. (20%)

Yup, that makes sense. If you're the gang of three: Foley, Leece, Monahan.
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BUTTINSKIES ON PARADE
HERE'S A LINK to an article of ours that is now appearing in the DAILY PILOT.  We didn't even know it was there until someone just called us and told us about it.  We missed it because our original title of "Buttinskies on Parade," was changed by the Pilot  to "Lido Isle should stay out of Costa Mesa races."
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Congratulations to Wendy Leece and Gary Monahan--all your lefty pals are gloating about you selling out the citizens of Costa Mesa to out of town unionists and big government tax and spend liberals

Say, maybe you two can put your heads together with your BFF Foley and figure out how to use even more than 80% of our budget to pay the help.  Why not go for 95%? 

Oh well, if Costa Mesa declares bankruptcy, the contracts will go away and we can hopefully start over with some smarter people on the dais. Maybe even with people who keep their word. 
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COSTA BELL

As we reported in Issue # 298, on a three to two vote the City Council approved  flawed contracts with the employee unions last night. Allan Mansoor and Eric Bever stood firm for the citizens of Costa Mesa and voted against the contracts, while Wendy Leece, Katrina Foley and Gary Monahan gave away the store.

If your eyes glaze over with all the numbers being thrown around and if you're confused with the claims and counter claims, we think a close reading of this well written column in the OC Register (that we  also cited in an earlier CM PRESS) will not only explain things for you, but will also make you mad as hell. LINK

To us, the most telling parts of that OC Register column are these two paragraphs:

"Other figures from the[Government finance] almanac depict a city [Costa Mesa] that spends much more on salaries and benefits than the average city.

"In 2007-08, the statewide average for cities was 47 percent of the operating budget spent on salaries and benefits; the median figure was 49 percent. Costa Mesa's figure was 80 percent that year, and 78 percent for the fiscal year just ended."

You read that right.  Costa Mesa uses about 80 percent of the budget on salaries and benefits, but the average for the state is only 47 percent.

In other words, once Costa Mesa pays all the help, it only has 20 percent left to pay for roads and everything else, while most other cities have 53 percent left to pay for roads and everything else.

That's right. We pay 80 cents out of every dollar for the help and only 20 cents for roads and all the rest of the things we need.

Costa Mesa has become a new baby Bell where most of the money received by the city is going to employees.

Folks, these figures above are very important.  In private industry you can often tell whether a business is being run right or not by comparing its statistics to similar businesses. 

For example, a business consultant who is asked to help a business be successful will look at the rent cost, the cost of the product, the cost of employees and related factors. 

It doesn't matter what the business is. There are tables of these percentages for every business. If you have a tire store or restaurant or day care center or computer factory, there are statistics that will tell you if something is out of whack by comparing your expenses to similar businesses. 

In Costa Mesa, what is out of whack are our employee costs.    Why can't Costa Mesa deliver the usual government services at the same percent as other cities? Something smells.

Again, the average for cities in California is 47% of budgets going to employees, but in Costa Mesa it is 80%. [Some say it's actually higher than that]

You'd have to be a moron or Wendy Leece, Katrina Foley and Gary Monahan, to not understand this is nuts. But as Mark Twain would have said, I repeat myself.

WALCOM TOO DUM TOWNN

The old saw holds that people get the government they deserve. In this vein, I wrote a short story once about a town in which the I.Q. of  the residents suddenly dropped by a few points overnight and then kept dropping week by week.  Soon, things started going to hell.  It wasn't just a few big things, but over time there was a cumulative effect of this. Things just got out of whack.

The residents started denying what their own eyes were telling them about their local government officials.  They were easily duped. 

Government officials would tell them that sewer lines breaking all over the place was normal and that streets full of potholes was the standard and it went on and on.

Soon, the government officials could do the most outrageous things, but as long as they smiled and covered those outrageous things with reams of official sounding reports and bureaucratic double-speak, the people bought the lies. 

And, the people were so dumbed down that no one bothered to compare what was going on there to other towns.

Folks, Costa Mesa has become that fictional town I wrote about. When citizens buy the crap that 80% of our budget should go to pay the help and only 20% for everything else the government does, we have become those low I.Q. folks in that fictional town.
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Those are our opinions.  We have to rush now.  We have to get a second job so we can pay the help.