Wednesday, January 12, 2011

CM PRESS # 376

HAVE YOU NOTICED ALL THE BILLIONAIRES WHO HAVE BOUGHT OCEAN GOING YACHTS?
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You think they just like boating?  That wouldn't be our first guess.  We think it's a matter of being able to be free of any particular nation by heading for international waters and also to be able to skedaddle to a friendly nation if things get hot in the nation in which they live.
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HOW ABOUT A COSTA MESA VS. NEWPORT BEACH ALL STARS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAME EACH YEAR AS A COMMUNITY FUND RAISER?

Take the best players from Newport's two high schools, put them on one all star team and have them play the best players from Costa Mesa's two high schools from one Costa Mesa all star team.

Anyway, that's an idea that is starting to make the rounds.  If it happens it could start a new tradition.

Any thoughts on this?
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TIME TO INVESTIGATE THE DHS
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Using misleading and false reports on so-called "hate groups," to smear conservatives.
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REPORT FROM YESTERDAY'S CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION ON THE BUDGET

When all is said and done, the City is still stealing from the rainy day fund, and robbing Peter to pay Paul as it has for the last couple of years. 

 However, cuts in city employees (down to 498 today from 611 in fiscal year '07-'08), plus other cuts and some increased projected revenue shows that in fiscal year '10-'11 Costa Mesa is projected to take in $91.8 million and spend $93.2 million.  Yes, that's still spending $1.4 million more than we're taking in, but it's better than the $7.3 million more spent than we took in during '09-'10. 

The CM PRESS thinks we can do better by continuing to right size government and by getting rid of nanny welfare state freebies that the City has been handing out year after year, sometimes to illegal aliens. We also think there's still too much overtime in some departments and we believe that one fire station can be eliminated.

The CM PRESS has attended many of these budget meetings, but this was the first one with the new City Council, and we have to tell you we're impressed with the no nonsense attitude that we heard from most on the Council.

It sounds to us as though this new Council means business and isn't going to have smoke blown up their skirts and isn't going to be lulled to sleep with bureaucratic double speak.

Eric Bever told staff at the meeting that he wants them to find $ 3 million more in cuts, and that he wants Costa Mesa City salaries brought in line with state wide averages (right now, Costa Mesa pays more than most other cities in the state).

Jim Righeimer spoke about the "new normal" budget and about [shifting priorities] to fix our infrastructure such as roads.

Steve Mensinger wants the City to come up with a fixed percentage for the fund balance [that's the rainy day fund].  Mensinger said this after Righeimer had tried to nail staff down to what the percentage should be and was given a series of fuzzy answers about how it should be as much as possible.

Gary Monahan wants staff to come back with more information on employee retirement and pension benefits and any increases that the City will have to bear.

Wendy Leece...well, she was there.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

1 comment:

  1. Regarding the football game... Before it happens, the district needs to stop the unlimited transfer of CM students to Newport schools simply because their parents request it. Once we get our star players back, we can talk about a game.

    ReplyDelete

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