First, apologies for the long hiatus — life sometimes intervenes, as do day jobs (what annoying things!). And in fairness the City Council took their traditional long August break as well, so it’s been fairly quiet on the city news front.

But Fall is upon us and it’s time to get back to business.

Consent Calendar: What is the Orange County Grand Jury, and why is the City “responding” to it?

Besides the humdrum items approving contract extensions and refreshing appointments, we got two consent calendar items that approved the City’s responses to reports by the Orange County Grand Jury. As a (former) East coaster I admit I was baffled by the concept of a grand jury that did something other than indict ham sandwiches. If you are as confused as I am, the grand jury in this context is a board of volunteer residents organized by the County of Orange that conducts investigations into all kinds of governmental affairs. The intent is to provide a watchdog organization “to ensure the county is being governed honestly and efficiently and county monies are being handled appropriately“.

Sounds great, if only you can get any governmental agency to pay attention to the grand jury’s findings. But don’t worry: California, never be satisfied with voluntary action, mandates that local governments take note and issue formal responses within 90 days of a report’s publication. So instead of ignoring these reports, cities instead spit out pro forma responses that get shunted to the consent calendar with zero discussion.

Behold, the majesty of the California system.

So what was so important to eat up hours and hours of staff time preparing responses few will read? Apparently: the State of California’s organic waste reduction mandates are mostly the Costa Mesa Sanitary District’s problem, and people experiencing mental health crises on our streets pose unique challenges for the police. Yawn.

But… Where is the e-bike response?

The reason I even glanced through these reports at all is that I noticed a while ago that the grand jury spit out a report on e-bikes, titled ominously “E-Bikes: Friend or Foe?” Costa Mesa is listed as a jurisdiction required to respond, and if I’m reading the report correctly, the City’s deadline is September 18, 2024. Naturally, the City Council’s next meeting is… September 17th. In other words, assuming this item shows up in the Consent Calendar for the next meeting, the City Council will be cordially invited to have no comments or concerns whatsoever about this item under pain of causing the City to miss its reporting deadline. Sigh.

Well, you wanted ownership housing: Developer proposes turning the quirky Trinity Broadcasting property into tract homes (and townhomes!)

Readers of this blog know that the former Trinity Broadcasting Network building was the subject of another redevelopment proposal earlier this year (the owner wanted to turn it into an event center), and that I mused at time that, if that proposal ended up getting bogged down in the approval process, it might flip back to being a multifamily housing site. And lo and behold, here we are with a proposal from Meritage Homes to develop both single family detached housing and attached “flat”-style townhomes.

The majority of the City Council’s general plan screening very high-level discussion was about aesthetics, impacts and ways to leverage the project for improvements to Bear Street and to nearby Shiffer Park, which makes sense. And before I get into a bit a sidebar, let me say I’m delighted that this site will be used for housing instead of a venue for car shows.

But I can’t help but highlight comments from Council Member Loren Gameros (whose district includes the property), as I think his candor unintentionally illuminated the murky realities of local development:

I just want to start off by thanking the developer who came to us with this idea. After speaking with the owner of the property, a lot of developers came and all they were offering were high density apartments. And let me tell you, they were going to stack them high and dry. They did not care about the impact on the community, they were going to try to get as many [units] in there as they could. And after speaking with local residents in the area, a lot of them said well, “I want to see R-1 housing in there.” And I said, “I do not see how a developer is going to come in here and put affordable R-1 housing.” Meritage came in, spoke with us (the Mayor and I, and Staff) and listened to what we had to say. I asked, “what is the likelihood that you could put some kind of housing that would not impact the surrounding residents?” Because the surrounding residents, all of them, are in R-1 housing.

(emphasis mine).

So… before we get a real plan before the Planning Commission, before even a General Plan screening involving all of our elected City Council, we have two Council Members and City Staff going off on their own and “suggesting” ideas to a property owner and a developer. Suggestions that undoubtedly carried a whiff of threat, and that in turn substantially reduced the number of units that would ultimately be built on the site. And we wonder why we have a housing shortage.

Once again, our complete lack of interest in rezoning our Measure K sites, of which this is one, comes back to bite us. Property owners are obviously excited that they have the potential to develop their properties again. But they are also unsure about what will actually get through the city approval process which, absent clear rules, will come down to the whims of the relevant electeds and appointeds. Consequently they’re favoring for plans that get informal early head nods from influential officials like the Mayor, the relevant Council Member, and of course the Staff itself. Not exactly the heights of transparency one might hope for.

But kudos to Council Member Gameros. In his zeal to get credit for fending off the dreaded apartment building, he gave us a great look into the unaccountable backroom where our property deals are really being struck.

Finally: City Council get a pay raise. Just “because”

I already vented my spleen on this one when it was up for consideration last month. As before, the City Manager was proposing an across the board increase in City Council salaries after the November elections from about $904/month to about $1,492/month, to both adjust the compensation for inflation (the rate hadn’t be touched since 2009, which the Council took a pay cut in the teeth of the Great Financial Crisis) and to bring it up to levels comparable with neighboring cities like Newport Beach and Huntington Beach.

Unfortunately, the City Council’s discussion of this item was just about as underwhelming as I expected. Council Member Don Harper was clearly ticked at the idea that City Council Members should paid anything for the privilege of representing one’s neighbors. His noblesse oblige was underscored by his grand gesture earlier in the meeting to publicly donate his entire accrued salary — over $150,000, real money even in this economy — to local charities (Working Wardrobes, Orange Coast Christian Learning Centers, and Slammers FC, if you are curious — all great causes).

But not everyone on the dais shared his vision of public service. Council Member Andrea Marr was visibly annoyed at the — perhaps classist? — notion that volunteerism was one of the qualifications for office. “If we want people from different walks of life, if we want people who maybe can’t afford to make $150,000 donations, then we’ve got to pay people for their time,” she quipped. Ouch. Both Council Member Marr and Council Member Harper then took turns talking over one another, in what wasn’t the most productive conversation.

At the end of the day, the Council supported the City Manager’s proposal 5-2, with Council Member Harper and a surprisingly quiet Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Harlan voting no. Perhaps Mayor Pro Tem Harlan surmised that there was no reason to bring this item forth at this time (recall a pay raise was suggested at a City Council retreat three years ago and happily shelved since) and that it was a trap vote.

Which it was. Good on him not to take the bait.