CM PRESS # 550

New Story: Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 6:30 PM--Scroll Down (LA TIMES)

END OF THE WORLD HAS TO WAIT UNTIL JUNE

When the Large Hadron Collider was turned on in September, an electrical problem forced it to be shut down almost immediately for repairs.

Now, it appears that the LHC will be turned on again in June of '09.

No doubt, the kooks who say the LHC will create black holes that will grow and swallow up the earth will be back at it between now and then.

LINK

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SPEAKING OF KOOKS

Get ready for local kooks to claim that the LHC is a plot against "immigrants" in Costa Mesa and get ready for their pals at the almost daily Daily Pilot to run with the story replete with quotes from Katrina Foley.

We imagine this from the almost daily Daily Pilot: "We asked Katrina Foley what she thought about the LHC and she told us that because the machine operates at temperatures near absolute zero that this is a secret code for ICE in Costa Mesa. 'Can't we all get along?' asked Ms. Foley as she was preparing a plate of lasagna to take to the family of the latest crime victim in Costa Mesa."

"Ms. Foley went on to say, 'We need more singalongs paid for by taxpayers and more flowers in front of gang headquarters in the slums.

'The gang members are just misunderstood. If we give them some alternative activities, they'll become productive non-citizens. I'm thinking maybe we'll start a croquet team for gang members. In fact, I've put this item in the budget and it'll only cost citizens of Costa Mesa $300,000 per year.

'Now, this is what I call real crime prevention. Don't let anyone say that Katrina Foley isn't tough on crime.'"

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BEYOND LEFT AND RIGHT--JUST BEING LOGICAL

Good grief! Now there's another LA TIMES editorial that is logical. Read it HERE.

Maybe we can lay it at the feet of all the layoffs at the TIMES, or maybe it's the influence of Sam Zell. Got us. But, whatever the cause, we now find ourselves in agreement with the logic, if not always the conclusions, of far more editorials in the TIMES than ever before.

It's not just because the TIMES is saying things that we necessarily agree with, because it isn't, at least not in all cases. What seems to be happening is that the people writing these editorials are now actually taking intelligent, logical, consistent, honest positions on things instead of just pushing a particular ideology.

The new TIMES editorials remind us a little of the way law students are taught to think about various hypotheticals--it doesn't matter what your conclusion to a hypothetical is; what is important is whether or not you logically argue to that conclusion.

These days, the TIMES is at least arguing logically. And, that's a big improvement over past years.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 549

GOP IN TROUBLE IN CALIFORNIA

Here's a column that says Republicans are in big trouble in California.

We agree.

Yes, we're Republicans here at the CM PRESS--Reagan and Buchanan Republicans. We're not George Bush Republicans.

And, if you ask us, we won't mince words. The reason the GOP is in trouble is because of George Bush. Bush has been a bull in a china shop since he took office.

We find it laughable that Bush flakmeisters such as Rush Limbaugh continue trying to convince people that Republicans such as Bush are good for the country. Good for the country? Nonsense.

Almost 5,000 Americans have now died in Iraq, and for what? Iraq was never our enemy. When we leave Iraq, the country will become an Islamic Republic more against the U.S. that it was before we started this war. We removed the guy who was keeping the place secular and hanged him. Pretty dumb.

Look at the economy. It's a mess. The U.S. has been deindustrialized and that means there are fewer people actually making things here. We have a paper economy of middlemen. It's a house of cards and it's falling.

Look at the automobile industry. What you usually don't see in reports about the automobile industry is that it's not just the people who build and sell the cars who are in trouble.

It's also all the tiny contract machine shops and outside vendors by the many millions who are having problems. If you don't build cars, then Joe's Machine shop that makes a certain pin that holds the brake pads in the brake caliper on your car has to lay off workers. And, Jim's Powder Coating shop has to lay off workers because he's lost his contract to powder coat some tiny flange that you never heard of and probably never even saw underneath your car.

We heard Limbaugh on the radio the other day attacking Barack Obama because Obama said something in a speech (we're paraphrasing) about how when he's President he'll set the big picture goals and his staff will carry them out. Limbaugh went on and on about how this shows poor leadership.

In fact, however, what Obama suggested is the way it should be. A leader initiates and those under him implement what he has initiated. If they don't do the job, then you can them and put in people who will do the job.

Ultimately, the President is responsible. And, he can always delegate some of his authority, but he can never delegate his responsibility.

The good news for Obama and the Democrats is that they won the election. The bad news for them is also that they won the election. They've inherited a mess that they'll have to clean up. And, the mess was caused by Republicans, no matter what Limbaugh and the other flaks may say.

As we wrote in a national column years ago, politics is not a football game as those such as Limbaugh seem to think. You don't just root for your team--the Republican team or the Democrat team--when they're incompetent boobs, and you don't keep trying to defend their incompetence.

Are we so stupid as a people that we support Republicans or Democrats when they have bad people leading or when they have horrible policies? Are we just rooting for the names and the jerseys because they're "our team," or are we smart enough to realize when we're rooting for dopes?

If the GOP wants to win elections, then it had better start standing for the right things and it better start bubbling up a better quality politician.

In the column linked to above, you'll see that some are saying the GOP has to start taking part in local elections. We also agree with this.

However, the GOP had better understand the lessons of Costa Mesa. The effort must be from the bottom up, not the top down.

In the just past election in Costa Mesa, the one really strong GOP party guy was Jim Righeimer. And, he lost even though he had the support of all the suits and the big money in the party.

Righeimer had failed to establish his bonafides among the average voters in this city. He was a top down Republican instead of a bottom up guy such as Monahan and Bever and before them, Mansoor and Leece.

And, while the GOP suits helped with the winning campaigns of Monahan, Bever, Mansoor and Leece, these four aren't really your typical GOP insiders. They started as grassroots activists and never lost touch with the community.

The message these four carried was that Costa Mesa can be improved to be a safer and nicer community. Voters listened.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 548

FOR BREAKING NEWS SCROLL DOWN

POSSIBLE EXPLANATION OF WHY THE LONELY OLD MAN IS ONE OF NATURE'S DEAD-ENDERS--Go ask the Mayflies

(Photo of Domenico Annibali, (1705-1779) a castrato)

New research points to pollution as the cause of why some men are sterile. LINK

Living under the flight path of JWA can't be good if you want to avoid pollution.

But let us now be specific and learn of bigger truths by speaking of a very small creature who claims to be a man. Yes, we shall now consider the sad case of the Lonely Old Man as though he is a real person living in our city. Of course, if you are a long time reader, you already know that he is not a real person at all. He is fiction.

Let us speculate. Can pollution--possibly from airplanes--explain the Lonely Old Man,or was this lifeless,hapless and effete character just born without the right equipment or hormones--a castrato and eunuch from birth?

No sooner do we ask the question than do we reply that pollution can't be the cause of the Lonely Old Man being a dried up husk. And, fear no contagion, dear friends. The Lonely Old Man can't spread his condition in its fleshly components, but can only spew the hatred that is the result of his condition. And, when he does so, try to contain your laughter when he drools his hatred from his flaccid lips. He is to be pitied by the kind of heart. He is also something to scrape off the bottom of your shoe.

It seems likely that nature neutered the Lonely Old Man at the same time she gave him a deficient brain. After all, pollution doesn't account for the flabby, soft, overly-pale, eunuch-like flesh and the less than masculine voice.

We figure one of the reasons that this sad character never speaks at public meetings and hides in the shadows is because he doesn't want anyone to hear his sissy voice that is a dead giveaway that he lacks gonads. That, and the fact that he's a coward--but that goes with the lack of virility. The sap didn't rise, as we say in the Northwoods.

We suspect that the Lonely Old Man doesn't even have to shave.

Now, we know we should be kind to people who are just born a certain way, and generally we are, to a fault. But our fictional Lonely Old Man is so nasty and full of hate, that sometimes it's necessary to not just sit back and listen as this churl tries to be an important person all the while failing as he has with everything else in his life. He just can't perform. He has life-force dysfunction. And, there are no pills to cure it.

The Lonely Old Man serves us as both a metaphor for extinction and as an archetype for the fall of civilizations. He represents that which is putrid, decrepit and rotting. He, in his person, illustrates the symptom and the disease. He is as the Romans were before the fall.

A weak mind in a weak body describes him.

Nature generally says "Go forth and multiply." In this guy's case she said "Go forth and subtract." From two shall come zero.

But the Lonely Old Man gives us an example of deeper things and about the meaning of it all and is thus worth considering as a parable.

There is much more to existence than the here and now, and the latest wine and cheese party with the lefties in our little corner of the world--Costa Mesa. Some people, such as the Lonely Old Man, don't have the intelligence to understand this. But understand it or not, it is reality that we are all just here for an eyeblink and then we're gone.

Life is like baking soda and vinegar. The fizz doesn't last long before the chemical reaction stops. And, in the case of the Lonely Old Man, the fizz never really started.

We think the Lonely Old Man, in his few cogent moments, may realize his mortality and he has become increasingly bitter with each passing year.

As with others of his type, the Lonely Old Man lacks the things of life. He has no imagination, no creativity and no vitality. Life is not within him. What he writes is obvious and derivative. There is no spark and no originality. There is no verve, no joy of existence, no vitality, no energy. He's old and he's tired and he may have been thus since birth.

The ways of nature are clear to those with the eyes to see. And what such eyes see is that the Lonely Old Man is extinction walking. He is a dead end. Natural selection has not asked him to dance.

Consider the Mayfly as one example of what nature tells us. In some species of this insect its adult life span is just thirty minutes while in others it's a full day. In most cases, it doesn't even have a proper digestive system. It doesn't need it because it doesn't live long enough to eat. Its purpose as an adult is to reproduce--to make more like itself--to pass on its genotype and phenotype so there will be more just like it in the next generation.

That's also the purpose of all living things: make more like yourself. Pass on your genotype and phenotype. Everything else is just window dressing. The purpose of life is to make more life.

When we speak of survival of the fittest, we must look at each generation to see who has survived. Those who survive are the fittest.

The Lonely Old Man has no children and will have no children. By definition this means he is not the fittest. He will be missing from the next generation. He is the last of his line.

But, dear friends, as we said before, the Lonely Old Man is just a fictional character. Still, fictional or not, he presents a parable about life for those who understand.

When those such as the lonely old man speak of doing this or that for the sake of the future, we wonder if they understand in any part of their dim brains that they have no future. The future is completely without them. They are missing. We do not go into the future with words that we write or speak or with things we build. These do not contain us.

There is only one way to go into the future. The Mayflies understand.

There is more life in one wing of one Mayfly who will live 30 minutes as an adult than in the entire body of the Lonely Old Man who has been taking up space with his oafish and lifeless presence all these sad years of his living dead existence.

If you have a choice, do not be as the Lonely Old Man. Be a higher life form. Be as the Mayflies. Make life.

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BREAKING NEWS--Monday, December 8, 2008, 2:45 PM

LA NOW GOING AFTER ASSETS OF GANG MEMBERS

Are you listening Costa Mesa City Council? Costa Mesa can do the same thing under this new law. LINK

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TRIBUNE HAS DECLARED CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY

May still go forward with buying the OC REGISTER. Will almost daily Daily Pilot be affected?

LINK

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ARTICLES OF INTEREST

REMEMBER THIS NEWPORT-MESA SCHOOL DISTRICT FRAUD CASE?

LINK

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 547

UH OH, TRIBUNE MAY BE NEAR BANKRUPTCY

The Tribune Company, the parent of the Los Angeles Times and the almost daily Daily Pilot, has more problems. LINK

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 546

Updated: Saturday, December 6, 2008, 7:00 PM--Scroll Down (Prop 8)

CRAIGSLIST FOUNDER HAS SOME ADVICE FOR NEWSPAPERS

Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, was interviewed by the LA TIMES recently and gave what we consider to be some pretty good advice.

We think Newmark is especially on target when he talks about the importance of "hyper-local" newspapers (think almost daily Daily Pilot) and also when he muses about hyper-local newspapers and blogs (think, ahem, even if we do say so ourselves: CM PRESS) being "community organizers."

Read the whole interview here.

And, speaking of the LA TIMES, we know it's having problems, like most newspapers these days, but we're starting to see more and more in the Times and on its website that we find interesting and quotable. We think the Times is adapting.

Unfortunately, we can't say as much about the OC REGISTER.

Lousy editorial decisions, stale content, poor quality of some of the writing (and the thinking that should precede the writing), the cluttered website, the constant sophomoric slogging of "freedom" and the Reg's brand of libertarianism via knee-jerk, predictable opinions by low I.Q. types, may all culminate in the death of the Reg if changes aren't made over there on Grand Ave.

Come on Reg, ADAPT! Freshen things up. You can't bore people into reading your newspaper.

We know you're making some small tentative changes over there, Reg, but time is working against you. Get some extra caffeine in your coffee and move faster. Zell's Angels are itching for a rumble.

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RELIGIOUS GROUP SHOWS SUPPORT OF LDS CHURCH OVER PROP 8

LINK

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 545

New Article (Gangs), Friday, December 5, 2008, 3:30 PM scroll down.

MORE THAN 30 DAILY NEWSPAPERS FOR SALE

(Readers and advertisers leaving at warp speed)

According to a story in the Denver Post, there are now more than 30 daily newspapers for sale in the U.S. and there are few buyers. LINK

Every time we read something like that we shudder. We like newspapers. And, we even like the almost daily Daily Pilot and hope it doesn't go under.

We still believe that local dailies and almost dailies such as the almost daily Daily Pilot have a better chance of surviving than the big papers so long as they truly serve their local communities.

And, just how do local dailies serve their local communities so that people will want to read them? They publish what the readers want to read. More readers means more advertisers and that's what makes money for a newspaper.

If a local newspaper is out of step with the local community such that it alienates its readers and advertisers, then it's not going to last very long in today's business climate. There are too many other choices for readers.

For example, if you run a local newspaper in a conservative community and you constantly insult conservatives, you may find readers and advertisers leaving at warp speed.
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LA TIMES RIGHTLY PRAISES THE DEFEAT OF THE GANG INITIATIVE IN LA

Editorial in LA TIMES, December 5, 2008 LINK

Relevant part:

Measure A was put on the ballot by politicians who calculated that the presidential race would drive liberal voters who favor tax increases for social programs to the polls. Yet the programs it would have funded would have supported a new gang initiative whose effectiveness hasn't been evaluated, and the city has a shameful history of wasting money on questionable anti-gang projects. The close vote showed that Angelenos are willing to tax themselves to keep kids out of gangs, but many doubtless wanted to see more evidence that their money would be spent wisely. If the city returns to voters with a well-thought-out package of programs that have been proved to succeed, there's every reason to think they'll open their wallets.

Unfortunately for LA, the programs that will bring real results are ones that will remove the habitats of the gangs--a removal of all the slum housing.

We say "unfortunately," because that's almost an impossible task in LA. They waited too long and the cancer has now spread all over the city.

Costa Mesa, by contrast, just has a few habitats for gangs and if the City takes proper action, these habitats can be removed.

We've said it before: All living things gravitate to where they're comfortable.

And,where living things find comfort becomes their habitat. It's the same for alligators as it is for human beings.

If you destroy the habitat of alligators they'll quickly move to someplace else where they feel comfortable.

If, on the other hand, you just try to remove the alligators, and leave the habitat, you'll have a never ending job, because the alligators you remove will quickly be replaced.

The key is the habitat.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.




Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 544

BRADY RHOADES TAKES US TO TASK FOR TAKING HIM TO TASK

(Once again, this is not a photo of Brady Rhoades. It's a photo of Pee Wee Herman. Really.)

We must have struck a nerve over at the almost daily Daily Pilot, because Brady Rhoades devoted his latest blog entry to the CM PRESS.

Of course, as you might expect, Mr. Rhoades starts getting things wrong right away in his own, ah, Looney Tunes way.

Here's what Mr. Rhoades wrote:

The philosophical musings of Wily Coyote (sic)

[WE COMMENT: "Wile E.Coyote," is the correct name of the character. Geez, Mr. Rhoades, he's a Looney Tunes character so you should know that. Sigh.

Mr. Millard took me to task in his blog CM PRESS (# 543) for saying the Costa Mesa City Council should — at some point anyway — appoint Katrina Foley as mayor.

[WE COMMENT: Yup. We did that. If Rhoades actually lived in Costa Mesa and had his family here, he might understand why we took him to task.]

First off, I laugh every time he posts a picture of Pee Wee Herman when referencing me.

[WE COMMENT: Separated at birth, no doubt.]

When I think of Millard, it is usually accompanied by a visual of Wily Coyote.

[WE COMMENT: That should be Wile E. Coyote, Mr. Rhoades.]

Only Millard isn’t chasing the roadrunner; he’s chasing those dastardly immigrants who are responsible for all the ills of society. Imagine thousands of roadrunners. And most of the time, his efforts blow up in his face. Cue the dumbfounded look.

[WE COMMENT: "Immigrants?" That should be "illegal aliens," Mr. Rhoades. And not all the ills of society, but a major factor in Costa Mesa's high violent crime rate.]

(snip)

At any rate, Millard says the Daily Pilot “would rather write about Katrina Foley taking a plate of lasagna to the family of a man killed in a drive by shooting or about her planting flowers in front of a gang infested slum” than write about the success of the city’s efforts to clamp down on illegal immigrants.
[WE COMMENT: That's right. That's what the almost daily Pilot would rather write about as indicated by the many things we've seen in the paper. And, again, they're not "illegal immigrants," they're "illegal aliens."]

“You see,” he goes on, ”that’s how liberals think. What’s important to them is not stopping the killings before they happen, but the compassion you show after a killing–even if the conditions that led to the killing were allowed to continue by the liberal in the first place.”
[WE COMMENT: That's right. That's what we wrote.]

Thus, according to Millard, we at the Daily Pilot are all liberals and as liberals we, by extension, all think alike.

[WE COMMENT: Nope. We didn't say you're all liberals, but the paper does have a lefty and liberal bent. This is shown by the choices you make in what you publish. For example, the almost daily Daily Pilot doesn't publish the ICE stats. And, the paper never did report on the charity that was discriminating against non-Latinos and which had the Feds descend on them.]

Of course, he’s wrong on both counts, but that never stops those overly-simplistic types who paint the world in broad brush blacks and whites, ignoring the gray in between, not to mention the gray matter between their ears.

[WE COMMENT: That's funny. The CM PRESS often writes about how some writers at the almost daily Daily Pilot aren't capable of nuanced thinking and seem unable to distinguish between different things, but instead take a ham handed approach to what they write about.]

Further, he could pick up the phone and call me. I’d be happy to talk to him about my political leanings (I’m a registered Independent).

[WE COMMENT: Being a registered Independent doesn't mean you're not liberal and your political leanings show in the paper. Katrina Foley as mayor? Good grief! There's a political leaning right there.]

(snip)

Be sure to read Pee,er, Brady's full blog LINK.

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CM PRESS # 543

New Article: Thursday, December 4, 2008, 2:40 PM--scroll down

BRADY RHOADES THINKS KATRINA SHOULD BE MAYOR
LINK

(That's not Brady Rhoades on the bike. Honest. It's Pee Wee Herman.)

Brady Rhoades over at the almost daily Daily Pilot thinks that Katrina Foley should be mayor, because, ah, because, er, she's been on the City Council for some time.

Sorry, Mr. Rhoades, it takes more than just being there to get the gig.

Many improvement minded voters in Costa Mesa believe that Ms. Foley simply has the wrong world view to make a good mayor of Costa Mesa and that if she had that position she'd use it as a bully pulpit to turn Costa Mesa away from genuine improvement.

It's been a slow process, but Costa Mesa is now moving in the right direction and we need a firm hand on the rudder to make sure we keep heading in that direction.

Mayor Bever did a good job as mayor when he took over from Mayor Mansoor and now that Mr. Mansoor is back in the jaybird seat, we expect things to continue moving in the right direction.

Unfortunately, the improvement majority doesn't get all the credit that they should. That's because many of the things that they have done, are things whose impact one can only speculate about. These Councilmembers have often acted to head off problems before they became problems in a sort of a stitch in time saves nine way of thinking. If you see conditions that might lead to a fire and you change those conditions so there is no fire, you won't get credit for putting out the fire that didn't happen.

For example, how many gang killings and other crimes have been prevented since the improvement majority brought an ICE agent to Costa Mesa? There's no telling. We do know that violent crime in Costa Mesa has fallen. We do know that many illegal aliens have been deported. We do know that we haven't had any recent gang killings.

Does the almost daily Daily Pilot give credit to Mansoor and company for this? Nope. The paper would rather write about Katrina Foley taking a plate of lasagna to the family of a man killed in a drive by shooting or about her planting flowers in front of a gang infested slum.

You see, that's how liberals think. What's important to them is not stopping the killings before they happen, but the compassion you show after a killing--even if the conditions that led to the killing were allowed to continue by the liberal in the first place.

Look, you don't have to be a genius or be prescient to understand that if you allow decrepit slums with gangs, that you'll end up with gang shootings at some point. We live in a cause and effect universe and things have trajectories and probabilities. Why not head off the problems before they begin?

Any intelligent and fair minded person who looks at Costa Mesa today will have to admit that it is a safer and nicer city than it was just a few years ago. And, it didn't get safer and nicer all on its own.

But there's much more work to be done and it has to be done each and every day.
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THE TRUTH ABOUT HATE CRIMES (From the Baltimore Sun)
LINK
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 542

NEW MAYOR AND MAYOR PRO TEM
At last night's City Council meeting, Allan Mansoor was selected as Mayor and Wendy Leece became the new Mayor Pro Tem.

MOST CONSERVATIVE COUNCIL IN MEMORY
One activist told the CM PRESS that Costa Mesa now has the most conservative City Council in his memory.

We would add that it's also the most improvement minded Council ever, and we're hoping to see some major improvements in the quality of life for citizens over the next few years.
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GRASS IN SEMI-DESERT COSTA MESA
At last night's City Council meeting, a homeowner told the Council that he had received tickets because his lawn is not green. He wondered why the Council talks about conserving water and then, when a citizen does conserve water and the grass dies, the citizen gets a ticket.

The CM PRESS agrees with this homeowner. Ever since we first moved here, we've thought it absurd that we should try to maintain grass in this climate. The CM PRESS believes the City should make more of an effort to encourage native plants instead of grass.
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UPDATE:---THE TWO FOUNDATIONS--WHO'S MINDING THE STORE?
(Where's OUR money, who's watching it, who's getting it, and for what purpose?)

As we previously reported, when the CM PRESS attempted to write a story about the Costa Mesa High School Foundation, we seemed to hit, if not a brick wall, then at least a bramble bush. All we wanted to know was that citizen money was safe and was being used for proper purposes. What we learned did not reassure us.

Here's the background:

In 2003, as part of the deal to allow the Segerstrom Company to move forward with its Home Ranch Project and the sale of part of the ranch to IKEA, the Segerstrom Company gave the City of Costa Mesa (read the citizens of Costa Mesa), two million dollars to be used to start the Costa Mesa High School Foundation and the Estancia High School/Tewinkle Foundation. Each Foundation got one million dollars.

This two million dollars belongs to the citizens of Costa Mesa. It was bargained for as compensation for the citizens of this city having to put up with traffic and other matters relating to the development of Home Ranch.

The two Foundations were then to put the money in safe investments or the bank and use the interest or proceeds of the money to support various school related projects at Costa Mesa High School, Estancia High School and Tewinkle School. This has worked out to between $ 40,000--$50,000 per year being doled out by each foundation.

No tax forms for 2006 and 2007
For our story, the CM PRESS first took a cursory look at both foundations and immediately discovered that while the Estancia High School/Tewinkle School Foundation had filed all its tax returns (990's), the Costa Mesa High School Foundation hadn't filed its tax returns for the years 2006 and 2007.

No annual reports or audits
We also discovered that the Costa Mesa High School Foundation had never filed a required annual report and audit since the Foundation was started in 2003. We didn't check on the Estancia High School/Tewinkle Foundation in this regard, but it now appears that Foundation also didn't file annual reports or audits.

What the Foundations agreed to do--the letter of the law
Here's the actual language setting forth this reporting requirement from the By-Laws of the Costa Mesa High School Foundation (we believe the By-Laws of the other Foundation are similar or are identical):

Section 5.7 Annual Report and Audit. The board shall cause an annual report to be furnished to the directors and the City Attorney of the City (the"City Attorney") not later than one hundred twenty (120) days after the close of the corporation's fiscal year. The annual report shall be accompanied by an audit thereon of independent certified public accountants which shall be made available to the public. The annual report shall be in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America...." (emphasis added).

We ask the Council to look into this
At the November 18, City Council meeting, the CM PRESS told the Council about the above and asked if the Council would look into it. After getting blank stares and silence from four Councilmembers, Mayor Pro Tem Mansoor jumped in and asked the City Manager to provide the Council with a short memo on the subject. The CM PRESS asked for a copy of any memo when it was prepared.

We get a memo
Early yesterday morning, December 2, after not hearing any more on the subject and after not receiving a memo, we emailed the City Manager's office and asked when we might expect to see such a memo.

Then, about two hours before the start of the City Council meeting, we received a copy of a memo dated December 2, from Marc Puckett, Director of Finance, to the City Manager.

In the memo, Mr. Puckett discusses how an audit might cost $5,500 dollars per foundation, and "Therefore, in light of the audit cost, I agreed to accept the Form 990-PF Return of Private Foundation [tax forms] reports that are required to be prepared and filed annually with the Internal Revenue Service by each foundation in lieu of the audit report." (emphasis added).

WE COMMENT: We're not sure how Mr. Puckett got the authority to agree to this. He's the Director of Finance, not the City Attorney. The reports were supposed to go to the City Attorney (see Section 5.7 above). In addition, an annual report and audit is not the same as a form 990. Furthermore, as far as we know, a city employee can't just decide all on his own to change the reporting requirements set up by the City Council and which are memorialized in By-laws.

Mr. Puckett then writes that the Costa Mesa High School Foundation hadn't filed its 990's for 2006 and 2007.

WE COMMENT: We surmise that Mr. Puckett learned of this from the CM PRESS after we had written about it in an earlier edition.

Mr. Puckett, in his memo to the City Manager, then writes that "[T]he Finance department has CPAs on staff that can conduct an audit and prepare pro forma financial statements for the purposes of fulfilling the requirement in the foundation agreement if the City deemed it necessary to do so."

WE COMMENT: Wait a minute. Section 5.7 requires an annual report and an audit prepared by "independent certified public accountants." It doesn't say the City, that has apparently not been providing oversight of the Foundations,can now prepare an audit. And, why should taxpayers pay for City staff time to prepare such an audit or audits? This should be paid out of Foundation funds. That's part of the deal.

Mr. Puckett continues: "[S]taff...is in the process of assisting in the preparation of a cash receipts journal, cash disbursements journal and pro forma financials for each foundation."

WE COMMENT: Hold on. This isn't the job of City staff. How much time is this taking and how much is this costing citizens of Costa Mesa? The City should provide oversight, not be doing the work. And, the Foundations were set up in 2003, and these things are just now being done--six years later?

Checks over $ 5,000 are supposed to be co-signed
One of the other requirements for the Foundations is that any checks over $ 5,000 must be co-signed by Mr. Puckett.

In a conversation the CM PRESS had with Mr. Puckett on October 1, Mr. Puckett told us that he does sign such checks but that he hasn't seen very many above the $5,000 amount.

However, in his December 2, memo, Mr. Puckett writes: "...Estancia-Tewinkle Schools Foundation has technically violated this section by preparing one check to Estancia or Tewinkle Schools for the sum of grants to be distributed that year and then letting the schools cut individual checks to each of the award recipients. Individual grant awards did not exceed $5,000."

WE COMMENT: Huh? "Technically violated?" You bet. So, who got the money? What year or years are involved? How much money is involved? Is it the full $ 40,000 to $50,000 per year? This could amount to as much as $ 250,000 for just one foundation since 2004.

HERE'S WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE:

1. Proper audits and reports showing where all the money went and to whom--and we mean with actual names of who ultimately received the money and the specific purpose for the grant.
2. Sufficient detail in the above reports to show that all the money was used for proper purposes. 3. Proper oversight in the future.

City Council can take the money back
If the City Council believes the Foundations are not properly using the money, the Council, as per the agreements, has the right to take the money away from the Foundations.

Ultimately, ensuring that money owned by the citizens of this city is safe and is used properly is the responsibility of the City Council. It is the Council that owes a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of this city. It is the City Council that should be minding the store.

--DEVELOPING--
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 541

FLOPSY WANTS TO BE MAYOR
(This is not a photo of Flopsy)

Flopsy Foley wants the other City Council members to appoint her as mayor tonight.

LINK

Flopsy as mayor would be a step back to the days when lefties were working overtime to screw up Costa Mesa and make it an illegal alien sanctuary.

Hopefully, the improvement minded members of the Council will keep Flopsy pushed way off to the side of the dais where she belongs.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 540

OBAMA NAMES RETIRED MARINE COMMANDANT AS WHITE HOUSE SECURITY ADVISER

Retired Marine General James Jones was named today as the White House security adviser.

Jones is credited with starting the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program in the Marine Corps. This system, known by Marines as Mick-Map, combines some non-lethal techniques with some of the usual Marine Corps lethal hand to hand combat techniques and encompasses a belt ranking system as found in many martial arts.

Photo on top is the logo of MCMAP. The second photo is of a couple of Marines practicing the techniques after having been pepper sprayed in the face.

The bottom photo is of a Marine (in black t-shirt) instructing a couple of Navy Seabees in the proper MCMAP techniques. The Marine's belt with the red stripe indicates that he is a Black Belt and is Instructor Trainer Qualified.

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Thanks for reading the CM PRESS