CM PRESS # 731

Eleanor Egan

WE TOLD YOU MS. ELEANOR DIDN'T LOCK MR. TOM IN THE ATTIC

If she did, he's escaped and reached a computer again and has sent off his latest, greatest idea to the Daily Pilot HERE.

Mr.Tom wants a "court" of Costa Mesa citizens to be able to rule on what the City Council does.  Honest.

Yes, we think Mr. Tom is serious with his suggestion. No, we don't think he's joking.

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PROPOSED CITY CHARTER MEETING TONIGHT 1/4/12

City of Costa Mesa staff will hold an informational meeting on the proposed City charter, or local constitution, at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 4, at the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center.
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COSTA MESA CITY COUNCIL MEETING LAST NIGHT (1/3/12)
[Some photos from the CM PRESS stock photo file and some taken last night]

Dear Readers:  The CM PRESS does not wish to engage in personal attacks, being the kind and genteel people that we are, however, we do think you'll get a better feel for people and events in Costa Mesa if we offer our subjective color* commentary from time to time.  And, with that in mind, we offer the following.

* [The chorus of Good White People sing: "Psssst, he said the word 'color,' pass it on."]


A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WEST


Geoff West

 GEOFF WEST--As he did at an earlier meeting, West yelled a greeting to us from across the room last night in what sounded to us like a strangulated pre-pubescent voice. [Well, that is how it sounded to us.  Maybe he has a cold.]  We do wonder, however, if there's some connection between our perception of his voice and the fact that he always seems to be on the verge of hysteria--think Chicken Little--over any changes being made by the good Councilmembers.  As usual, this guy didn't speak at the podium. He prefers to hide behind his computer and complain about everything the good Councilmembers do. We think he wants to be our pal. But, he seems to have a problem over the fact that we're in MENSA.* This is something that we don't usually mention, but we did mention it a few times years ago in some toss away context or other. Nevertheless, West seems to have internalized this. Funny, of all the thousands of words we've written, he seems to have most remembered and fixated on MENSA.   Say, West, geez, we don't want to set you off, but did we ever send you that newspaper photo of us when we were on the genius GE COLLEGE BOWL TV Show? [CM PRESS stock photo]

* All ribbing of West aside, we don't mention it much because we don't believe standardized I.Q. tests are really reporting what is claimed, and we also believe there are several types of I.Q.  And, most importantly, we think we're pretty dumb, and we'll be the first to tell you that. If we have been mistaken for being intelligent it's because we read a lot and seem to remember odd trivial things such as DeLaval invented the rocket nozzle or Bucephalus was the name of Alexander the Great's horse.  But as George Bernard Shaw claimed about himself, we don't seem to remember things that may be practical unless they interest us, and not much that is practical has ever interested us.
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Jay Humphrey

 
JAY HUMPHREY--This guy used to be on the City Council several years ago and now he's a frequent critic of the good Councilmembers who are straightening out the city from the screw ups of past Councils.

Last night, Humphrey whined because Colin McCarthy had written a piece in the Daily Pilot that pointed out that Perry Valentine, a former city employee, gets a nice pension, and that Valentine now always seems to be critical of the good Councilmembers and their attempts to get pension costs under control. It sounded to us as though Humphrey was calling for the Council to somehow stop McCarthy's free speech rights.
 [CM PRESS Stock photo] [This corrects name spelling]


Perry Valentine

 PERRY VALENTINE--This is the guy mentioned above who used to work for the city but who is now retired and who gets a nice pension.
At last night's meeting, Valentine suggested that columns appearing in the Daily Pilot under the names of some of the good Councilmembers may actually be ghost written, and Valentine, by golly, doesn't want his tax money going to a ghost writer. At a previous meeting, Valentine absurdly requested that Councilmember Steve Mensinger recuse himself from a youth sports matter because Mensinger and Mensinger's wife are active in youth sports and have been for many years. The CM PRESS then went to the podium at that earlier meeting and pointed out how silly this recusal request was and how citizens of Costa Mesa should want our politicians to be involved in the life of this city, and that if Mensinger were to recuse himself from all his volunteer work in the city that he'd be recused most of the time.  In the end, Mensinger did not have to recuse himself. [CM PRESS Stock photo]


Colin McCarthy

  COLIN MCCARTHY--On the Planning Commission and also the head of the Costa Mesa Taxpayers Association. One of the good guys who wants Costa Mesa to be improved.  Expect him to run for the City Council this year.
[CM PRESS stock photo]



Geoff West and Billy Folsom

GEOFF WEST & BILLY FOLSOM--Billy Folsom works for the city as a mechanic and he mostly works on police cars and police motorcycles as far as we can tell. [CM PRESS photo taken 1/3/12]

He and Geoff West appear to be good friends.

Folsom was Bill Perkins' campaign manager in a failed  City Council attempt  by Perkins a few years ago. Perkins no longer lives in Costa Mesa.

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Those are our opinions.  Thanks for reading them.