On Thursday the Costa Mesa City Council held an “Emergency Meeting” to “correct” the language of their Charter Ballot Summary that was approved at a prior hearing. While Righeimer (Little Ceasar) and his drones characterized the change as correcting a clerical error, their action seems to more likely be a slight-of-hand move to change the summary after reviewing the ballot arguments submitted by the Charter Initiative opponents.
Geoff West, over at A Bubbling Cauldron, has a detailed review of what happened at the meeting last night. Here is a highlight from his commentary.
A SET-UP…
It was VERY clear to the 35 people in the audience what was going on. Righeimer was using his position of authority to stifle dissent of his Charter and to deceive the voters, once again. I doubt if anyone in the audience this afternoon actually believed Barlow’s protestation that she didn’t know a thing about the arguments. With the exception of the subterfuge to hide the reference to no-bid contracts, the other changes could have been as an administrative modification without the need for a council meeting.
Read West’s entire commentary here.
This is just another example of how Jim Righeimer is willing to do anything to fool the voters of Costa Mesa into buying his B.S. about the benefits of his Charter Initiative. I wouldn’t be surprised if their slight-of-hand maneuver will end up in court, costing Costa Mesa taxpayers even more money in legal fees. Why isn’t the Costa Mesa Taxpayer’s Association outraged over this? The answer is simple, they are not a group formed to protect the Costa Mesa taxpayers, their sole purpose is to advance the political careers of Jim Righeimer and Colin McCarthy.
While the story of the photo below is unrelated, the image is very appropriate as a descriptor of Righeimer’s attempt to line through and rewrite the dead Raccoon that is his Charter Initiative.
Righeimer’s an amateur who needs to go do something else. His puppet Bever should slip away and go sell his used furniture.
The meeting was 48 minutes of drama! Katrina Foley almost got tossed out by the Sergeant-at-arms because she challenged Righeimer’s interrogation of the Director of Public Works using the argument against Jim Righeimer’s Charter as a song book.
We need to reach as many voters in Costa Mesa as posslble about this “slight of hand” trick Riggy is pulling on the voters. What they think they MAY be voting on, IS NOT WHAT THEY ARE GETTING.
Yes! We need to reach as many voters as possible. talk to your friends and neighbors. If they don’t know, they can’t make an informed choice. Just talk to 5 or 10 people you know and let them know what’s going on.
This charter has the no-bid contracts AND purchasing land mine built-in, plus several ‘More power to us” clauses where the council can change a lot of rules by “ordinance or resolution”. A lot of people don’t understand that an ordinance is referendable, but a resolution is not, the voters are SOL. 99 year leases for city owned land (parks, for example) is one they’ve reserved for themselves, and given themselves the right to decide by resolution that, for example, they could approve a hotel complex at Farview park and the public would again be SOL. And theres so much more hidden in there!! so much more!!! Most of the voter rights are stripped away by what the cahrter doesn’t say, by protections not adoptedto protectour rights and our city. If it’s not restricted by the Charter, the powers grated to council are to be “Broadly construed” and wont be allowed to be reviewed for 10 years!
Help Costa Mesa get back to sanity. Vote out the M’s, vote in some good folks, vote NO on a charter so bad they are now trying to hide it’s true nature from the voters.