Costa Mesa Layoffs go the way of the Dodo Bird

On Tuesday, the Costa Mesa City Council directed the city manager to rescind the remaining 70 layoff notices which were issued on March 17, 2011. The council’s decision made that earlier decision extinct. That decision, almost two years ago, launched a pitched battle between the Costa Mesa Employees Association, represented by Orange County Employees Association, and the council majority led by council member Jim Righeimer.

After losing a vacant council seat, and almost losing that of majority member Gary Monahan, as well as losing the majority’s bid to make Costa Mesa a charter city, Righeimer declared that it was time to move on and work with the employees association. For their part, OCEA expressed it’s desire to also work with the city to identify better and more efficient ways to conserve tight budget resources.

It is still unclear what will happen with the lawsuit that was filed by OCEA on behalf of the city employees to stop the layoffs. The trial regarding the suit had been on hold while the city spent more than a million dollars to appeal the Superior Court injunction that had prevented the city from moving forward with its layoff scheme.

But for now, the Costa Mesa layoffs, which have made that city ground-zero in a GOP war on municipal public employees in California, have gone the way of the now extinct Dodo Bird.

Also on Tuesday, Council members Jim Righeimer and Stephen Mensinger were elected Mayor, and Mayor Pro Tem respectively.

2 Comments

  1. Your “Dodo” reference seems somehow perfectly appropriate, particularly when reading the last sentence.

    The new “kinder, gentler” council took only a few minutes to demonstrate that it is neither. It only the second stanza of the same old song, played by the same old “musicians”… gonna be a long couple of years.

  2. West is right.
    Napoleon Righeimer won’t give up until he ends up in political Elba.
    We’ll be there, resisting his fascism, until he is defeated for good.

Comments are closed.