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fluff, v.t. = to arouse a pornographic actor for a sexual scene.
– Urban Dictionary.
How far hath the O.C. Weekly‘s star journalist R. Scott Moxley – bane of B-1 Bob Dornan, nemesis of Crazy Dana Rohrabacher, the man who helped bring down “Little Sheriff” Mike Carona, a one-time role model for all of us aspiring Orange County bloggers, investigative journalists, and muckrakers – FALLEN.
In his latest opus Scott describes a group of union officials leaving Costa Mesa Council alpha dog Jim Righeimer‘s office with “forced smiles.” Next, it was Scott’s turn to go in, and when HE was done he came out smiling even bigger than the union guys… and then went on to pen a paean which Riggy has most certainly already mailed to all his friends and enemies, after saving out a copy to frame and hang on his wall.
In Scott’s enamored telling, James Martin Righeimer is “a gentleman” who is “detail-oriented, willing to question all spending, and fearless,” as well as a “proud Reaganite” determined to “confront budget woes head on,” and a “Christian conservative” to boot. (Why always the necessity to mention a politician’s religion, anyway?)
I never dreamed I’d be in a position to remind Scott Moxley of this well-known fact, but apparently I am now: Scott, not everything a politician tells you is the gospel truth.
“Don’t look at the carpet:
I drew something awful on it.
See.”
– Bowie, Breaking Glass.
One of the first fallacies that jumps out at you in Scott’s piece is the poisonous description of dissenting conservative Republican Costa Mesa councilwoman Wendy Leece, a description still glistening with the unmistakable spittle of that red-faced reprobate Riggy:
“Councilwoman Wendy Leece, a recipient of generous union financial support, is alone in arguing that taxpayers can’t pay police and fire employees enough.”
“Can’t pay them enough?” Okay, FIRST OF ALL, Wendy spent two grueling years negotiating with police and firefighters on wage cuts and benefit contributions to save the city money, and eventually came up with a deal that will save strapped Costa Mesa $3.6 million a year. Pay cuts AND added employee contributions to their benefits and pensions. So the portrait of Wendy dying to pay cops and firefighters as much as possible is a malicious and mendacious caricature. Also: this deal was approved by not only Wendy and her then-colleague Katrina Foley, but also current Mayor Gary Monahan, the slippery leprechaun who somehow stays immune to all Republican criticism. Then-candidate Righeimer tried everything he could to derail this deal, wanting to be able to re-negotiate everything from scratch once he got onto the Council, which would have cost the city half a million or so just to start with. Thank God he and his OC GOP pals (Baugh, Fleischman, Mansoor, Bever, Bucher) failed.
Leece, Riggy’s new punching bag.
It’s also inaccurate to say she “received generous union financial support.” First of all, not to split hairs, but the police and firefighters in Costa Mesa are not represented by unions but by “associations” in which membership and dues are voluntary. And Wendy’s campaign never directly received any support from them, she never solicited any support from them, and she was unaware of the fact that in the final days of the campaign these associations donated to a PAC named “Costa Mesa First,” which, formed to combat outsider meddling in the town, quickly put up some last minute yard signs and mailers for both Wendy and Chris McEvoy. (An action which was more anti-Righeimer than anything else.) So it’s at the very least deceptive to paint Wendy as a paid-for union shill. But that is what Riggy wanted Moxley to write.
There’s silly stuff here too – I see Jim is still peddling his ridiculous story about police “intimidating” his volunteers, “trailing and photographing” them? We looked at that incident back when it happened – remember, that absurd press conference on Newport Boulevard, filmed by Barbara Venezia, which popularized the phrase “the Costa Mesa STINK-EYE?” Maybe Scott missed all that. Just to fill him in, a couple of Riggy’s friends (one of whom was Councilman Bever) were up on a hill, on private property, attaching big signs to a fence. A couple of cops, not sure if these men had permission to do that, snapped a photo, standard practice when a possible violation (trespassing or littering) is occurring. They then called their boss, Chief Shawkey, “There’s a couple of guys up there putting signs on private property and we think one of them’s a Councilman,” and the Chief said not to worry about them. But Bever and his friend put on a real clown show for the press a few days later, whining about “intimidation” and the cops giving them “stink-eye” (which must have required a lot of imagination given the cops’ standard dark glasses.)
This was a few weeks after a peeved Planning Commissioner Riggy, already behaving like he ran the city, pulled over at a police DUI checkpoint and berated the officers for conducting an operation he found inconvenient. For Scott to call this fellow a “gentleman,” – indeed, this entire sober statesman profile – is somewhat comical to those of us who’ve watched Riggy in action over the years. His effort to derail the October police-&-firefighter agreement so that he could be the one running the process later was identical to what he’d done earlier with the Fairgrounds Swindle, threatening both Katrina Foley and the Pot Stirrer that if he couldn’t be on the negotiating committee he would somehow “Blow the deal up.” (Right around the time that he accidentally called The Voice of OC’s Norberto Santana and left a message intended for someone else, illegally sharing “confidential” information about the Fairgrounds negotiations.)
More serious False Assumptions
More basically, there are some real false assumptions which allow Scott to swallow Riggy’s nonsense whole. If you read the whole article, you’ll get the impression, as you’re intended to, that Costa Mesa’s budget is disastrously in the red, that this is largely due to the swollen pay and benefits of those greedy public employees, and that Riggy & gang’s efforts to bring those bastards to heel are both appropriate and necessary. Well…
Moxley:
City officials, who’d gone on a spending spree for more than a decade, found themselves staring at a $16 million deficit at the beginning of this fiscal year, even after having already depleted $35 million in reserves.
First of all, “spending spree?” What rock has Moxley been hiding under? Costa Mesa’s revenue fell off a cliff after the bankster-induced financial crisis led to the Great Recession, and revenue fell far more steeply and far faster than it had in any previous recession. Every revenue stream dropped, with sales tax hit hardest. Costa Mesa’s revenue dropped like an anchor.
And so, step by step, year by year, Costa Mesa cut its services, cutting over $30 million a year from its budget, and relied partially on its “rainy-day” reserve as it also pared employees and reduced services – exactly what a reserve is intended for.
And as our plucky town faced a grim budget picture, it found that its over-reliance on sales tax, without a balanced revenue stream, had been a mistake. Neighboring cities had broadened their tax base, with utility taxes, increases in busisness license taxes, and hotel taxes.
Costa Mesa had relied on its auto dealers and South Coast Plaza. And as we noted last year, the city’s hotel fee had for years been an absurdly low 6% – compared to other OC towns’ 10% – until voters raised it in November. Similarly, CM’s insanely low business licensing fees range from $50 to a high of $200 – the result being that South Coast Plaza’s Nordstrom – the most profitable Nordstrom in the world – pays only $200 a year to the city (in contrast with the Mainplace Nordstrom’s which pays Santa Ana $50,000 and gets along just fine.)
Well, like I said, last year Costa Mesa residents passed Measure L, raising their hotel fees to 8%. (This measure was specifically presented to them as an option to avoid losing services – a fact to which Riggy’s crowd turns a conveniently deaf ear.) Right now, with hotel tax, sales tax and property tax revenues ALL INCREASING, Costa Mesa’s budget is ESSENTIALLY BALANCED… and the city STILL has over $40 million in reserve. The “Budget Crisis” is phony – a phony excuse to do what these politicians have been wanting to do for decades. Another use of the “shock doctrine” on the working class.
Moxley, undaunted:
Also alarming to Righeimer is this projection: In five years, one-fourth of the city’s budget will be devoted to retired-employee pensions, some of which top $250,000 or more annually.
“This projection?” Projection from where, from whom? Interesting ellipsis, Scott. It’s from city staff obedient to Riggy and gang, about as trustworthy as the Iraq intel made to order for Cheney and Bush. Fact: This “Pension Crisis” is phony – the money Costa Mesa will have to pay on pensions is actually going to DECREASE over the next couple years, since CALPers (where the contributions are invested) has already recovered $50 BILLION in value after being hit bad by the Bush Recession.
Yes, the pliant City Staff presented a PowerPoint that shows rapidly escalating costs beginning 2012-3, but they can’t come up with any correspondence from CALPers actuaries that confirm their over-the-top projections. As we sometimes say, there are three types of lies – Lies, Damn Lies, and PowerPoints.
Outsourcing – Panacea or Magical Thinking?
So, as we’ve learned, OUTSOURCING city jobs is the weapon of choice for Riggy and gang in their war against city workers. This month, in a typical ready-fire-aim maneuver, hundreds of workers were given pink slips, allowing the city to get rid of all or some of them in six months, during which time they will study whether it’s feasible to outsource these jobs to out-of-town private contractors. (During this period, many fine workers with such an uncertain future ahead of them will no doubt look for other work.)
This outsourcing is at best a mixed bag. Wendy Leece points me to government code dictating that city jobs can’t be outsourced just to save money: it must also be shown that the private contractors can do the jobs MORE EFFICIENTLY. Ignoring this language will open the city up to lawsuits; but the Council, apparently egged on by wingnut attorney Mark Bucher (who is also Riggy’s inseparable brother-in-law) doesn’t seem to be concerned about that possibility. These folks love lawsuits – as much as they whine about the budget, they’re always eager to spend public money on friendly lawyers, bringing more publicity to their ideological crusades, and building bigger name recognition for their own political careers.
By the way, Costa Mesa already outsources many services where it makes sense. If the City, for example, is doing large projects like road repairs, specialized jobs like traffic signal maintenance, or once-a-year jobs like tree trimming, it can get a better value with competitive bidding and outside contractors.
But distinguished OC progressive and former Fountain Valley Mayor Gus Ayer tells me there’s a fundamental rule in outsourcing decisions: “If you don’t know how to manage your own operations, you don’t know how to contract them out. And your vendor will be waiting to profit from your ignorance.” There are plenty of examples of failures in government outsourcing recently and locally, whether it’s landscape contractors for the County at Mile Square Park hiring illegal immigrants, contractors for Tewinkle Lake failing to perform and leaving us to clean up filtration problems, or the over-budget “design-build” contract for the 22 Freeway that was far from complete at the grand opening.
Gus adds, “There’s nothing in the background of any of the Costa Mesa Council members that indicates they have any clue how to manage complex government operations. Two of them, Righeimer and Mensinger, have been on the Council only a few months.”
And that brings up an essential difference between the demonized Wendy Leece and the white knight Riggy: Wendy’s lived in Costa Mesa forty years, knows all the workers, and is motivated solely by love for her city and its people; whereas chronic carpetbagger Righeimer, having finally found a town that would elect him, has only been here a little over four years and seems to want to use Costa Mesa for two things – scoring ideological points, and hopscotching to higher political office.
Costa Mesa – Wisconsin Writ Small?
That was a title I was going to work with a couple weeks ago. There are a lot of parallels between what the cross-eyed celebrity Governor Walker is doing in Wisconsin with what Riggy’s trying in Costa Mesa, and I’m sure Riggy would cream his jeans at the comparison.
There’s the sudden no-holds-barred all-out assault on public workers, right out of the gate of the new administration. There’s the justifying that assault with purposely-created revenue shortages. There’s the campaign of lies and deceptions, as we saw above. There’s this: both blitzkriegs are directed by outsiders with a larger battleground in mind: Wisconsin as part one of the Koch Brothers’ plot to kneecap workers in all fifty states; Costa Mesa as Scott Baugh’s petri dish for trying out what he’d like to do to all OC cities. (It’s said Riggy’s Newport office adjoining Baugh’s has a private door connecting them so the two ideologues can mingle that much more freely and undisturbed.)
I see a couple of differences though, which actually reflect better on Riggy than on Walker. For one thing, Riggy is pretty much doing what he promised he would do throughout his campaign, whereas Scott Walker nefariously concealed his agenda of eviscerating workers’ bargaining rights. Also, Riggy at least has the balls to go after the higher-paid police and firemen, while Walker sought to divide and conquer the workforce by exempting those guys and focusing on less-powerful, more Democrat-supporting teachers and janitors.
Most notably, in stark contrast to Wisconsin’s amazing, energizing display of support for workers, in Costa Mesa there is virtually no pushback visible from workers and their allies. Obviously, Wisconsin is a state with a vibrant labor-friendly culture and history, while in Costa Mesa many of the demoralized workers actually have a history of voting Republican and drinking the anti-worker Koolaid. And the OCEA, which “represents” most of the city workers that are not police or fire, is not exactly rising to the occasion. Very disheartening.
Eulogy for Moxley.
I’m not one of those guys who picks some established journalist to throw darts at, just to make myself a name, like a certain young guy we all know does, comically, with Gustavo. No, I type this with sadness: R. Scott Moxley’s metamorphosis into a reactionary apologist for Orange County’s establishment has been as unmistakable as it’s been slow and inexorable.
During the Davis recall, when Moxley endorsed rightwing nut Tom McClintock for governor, we all rolled our eyes and figured he was being provocative and eccentric. He assured us that he was just a fan of McClintock’s fiscal conservatism, and that we could count on the Dem legislature to take the edge off Tom’s Talibani social positions. That passed…
Last year when Rackauckas and the Schroeders fired reformist firebrand Todd Spitzer for obviously petty and nepotistic cause, the first reaction of most of us progressives was to back Spitzer against the sclerotic, incestuous and corrupt establishment forces arrayed against him; Moxley surprised us all by heaping ridicule and criticism on Todd while doting fondly on the foibles of T-Rack and S-Kang.
And in recent years, as local Republicans attempted the greatest land heist in the county’s history (the Fairgrounds Swindle,) and as Republican darling John S Williams wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in his Public Administrator fiefdom while preying on bereaved citizens to patch up his dwindling budget… Moxley aimed all his fire at modestly hinky Irvine Democrat Larry Agran and his no-bid consulting contracts, refusing to even mention Larry’s name without the word “slimy” attached.
And so, this latest worshipful James Righeimer stenography clinches it: R. Scott Moxley is officially one of them now. But we will never forget the old R. Scott Moxley, who set a standard to which all shitkicking OC scribblers could repair: Long live THAT one!
Another brilliant article, Vern.
It’s sad when the so-called alternative press in Orange County reads like the right-wing daily. Moxley was as sycophantic in this article as Frank Mickadeit.
One correction.
It’s likely that there will be a bump in Costa Mesa’s CALPers contribution in 2012-2013, and it will be bigger if CALPers lowers their discount rate this morning. But there is no reason to expect it to be as dramatic as was presented in the Council Powerpoint.
Maybe it’s time for Costa Mesa to hire a full-time Finance Director instead of relying on some guy named Bobby to fudge the numbers on demand.
IF there really is a financial crisis in CM – WHY hasn’t a finance director been hired, appointed or recruited? Beyond anything else, a strong, competent finance director is essential and there’s no one capable in the finance department except to say yes to anything the CEO and Council wants.
Finally….someone speaking sense….. Exactly, if CM were in such dire straits then you would think a Finance Director would be at the top of their list….
Truth is CM is not in dire straits…. 1.4 which increased to 1/6 when CEO Hatch hired all his consultants
Maybe the gravitational pull of right wing dogma has an effect on folks there in Orange county…You know-like droopy jowls, baggy eyes, turkey necks. Just living close to closed-minded, selfish chauvinists rubs off on once temperate and objective youth. That’s the case here in San Diego county. A bastion of retired people seeking the sun and out-of-work military servants. Daryl Issa has been busy buying as much real estate here as his deep pockets can get away with. Nobody questions it. Nobody questions shit anymore….so heavy…..so tired…so old..Where’s Moxley?…..Hand me my BenGay…………
things must be bad IF (and I doubt they did)they cut the budget 30% as you say and they still are facing financial troubles. Wendy may not have solicited CM First $$ but she sure did get a lot of help from them. She also got help from the OCGOP whom she DID solicit (begged and pleaded is a better term) for support. I have no dog in this fight but it appears to break down into two philosophies: spend most of your money on public safety employees who will then use their association to help you get elected and neglect infrastructure, after school programs, parks and recreation, etc. OR cut their pay and retain them (or outsource them) and have monies available for capital improvements. If you cut their pay you may lose them all to all the other cities that are clamoring to hire more cops and firefighters at high pay (where are these cities anyway?) and then hire new people at reduced pay/pensions. There will be lines around the block for firefighter positions even at reduced pay. Police may be a different story, seems recruiting them is a little more difficult maybe because they don’t get paid to shop and work out.
deadwhitemale
The point is that Costa Mesa is not in fact facing the financial troubles that Riggy describes. The 15 million deficit that was forecast for the year ending in July is now down to 1.4 million, and still shrinking, although Riggy and his buddy appear to want to spend hundreds of thousands on consultants and piss away a small fortune in lawyers fees.
Costa Mesa does have the same cash flow problems that other cities have, where they do need a hefty cushion to cover expenses until the state pays them their share of property taxes and the share of sales taxes that were replaced by property taxes in the triple flip. But when you talk listen to Mensinger whine about how the city will be almost out of cash in November, remember that they will once again have plenty of cash in December.
stilldeadwhitemale…….it’s simple math, we are paying 2011 bills with a 1976 revenue stream.That was the last time this city raised business fees. This council believes that to raise revenues and business taxes is a threat against the free market. So as the article states we recieve $200 a year from our #1 Nordstroms and Santa Ana recieves $50,000 thiers at MainPlace. Times that by a thousand and you get some of the picture.
It’s not the fact we pay employees the same rates that they are paid in other cities. It’s not pensions and public services. In fact , that’s all a city should provide. They erroneously claim that 88% of city revenures go towards employees, as if that is a BAD thing. Well that is the cities “Product”. Services provided for the residents.They don’t make “widgets”, they have staff issue permits and perform analysis and studies, apply for grants ,and maintain enforcement standards. Without a paid trained professional staff, those services wouldn’t be ,well, worth the paper they were printed on.
As to our public safety, we have the finest response times in the state. We’ve done this for decades without hidden fees in HOA’s, mello roos, etc. etc. We haven’t had to resort to watered down protective services, contracted out through the county, without any direct city oversight. I’m proud of that and would hate to see us lose it. Especially, when this is all about political dogma.
Not too mention that the people like Righeimer and Mensinger, Bever, and Monahan all have spotty track records when it comes to running stable businesses.
It’s stated pretty clearly by Former Mayor Gus Ayers ” “If you don’t know how to manage your own operations, you don’t know how to contract them out. And your vendor will be waiting to profit from your ignorance.”
These guys know that……but it’s to their political friends and contributors that will be profiting…… at the residents expense.
Vern, I almost feel sorry for you because it seems that the pain you express is real. However, I never pegged you for a black helicopters guy – you, and the person you got the rumor about Jim and Scott’s offices from, have obviously never been there. The two offices are separated by a large conference room and unless there is an invisible or underground tunnel connecting them, it would be impossible for there to be a “secret” door connecting them. You’re better than taking a bogus cheap shot like that – I hope.
OK, Newb, I’ll take your word for it. You hear that, person who told me that rumor? Apparently it’s just a rumor.
Has a metaphorical truth to it though. Just like when Krassner’s “The Realist” published an expose of LBJ making love to JFK’s head wound on Air Force One. It’s not true but it’s “true.”
ESL question Vern: Is “metaphor” synonymous with semaphore?
If it is than “LBJ making love to JFK’s head wound” would not make sense because 9mm caliber in bony opening would prevented him to imbue in which case Krassner could not publish in “The Realist” but “The Idealist” which of course would not create in your mine such cockamamie Pavlovian fear and alarm.
I do not know if you do understand but I am sure that Winships would.
You raise some fair points, brother Stan. I wish the Winships would weigh in on this.
Didn’t Newbie just verify that they do share office space? Plus, isn’t a conference room made for meetings? Plus, let’s not forget the big picture here. Righeimer does really dirty things. Moxley should have dug deeper like Norberto Santana.
Aside from doing dirty things, Righeimer is at best a deficit building George W. (just because Obama is doing the same thing doesn’t make it any better). Wendy Leece, along with most incumbents in Costa Mesa (Monahan, Foley, Mansoor, etc.), can easily get elected without a Scott Baugh endorsement. Righeimer, with barely any history in the city, needed it bad.
Unfortunately there was some bad timing involved. Alan Mansoor needed a Scott Baugh endorsement if he were to rise up out of Costa Mesa politics. Mansoor threw Costa Mesa under the bus during his ascension by helping Scott Baugh get the incompetent Righeimer elected.
Moxley DID work in D.C. under the Reagan and Bush administrations…some of his best pieces are non-politics related.
Yeah, show those credentials to Dornan, Carona, Eddie Allen, Jeffrey Nielsen blah blah blah…yours just might be the stupidest insinuation ever uttered on the OC media and blogs–and that’s saying a LOT.
“and that’s saying a LOT.”……… Hmmmmm
Say more!
LOT is not enough.
Oh, nooooo! Years ago Moxley DID work in Washington for Republican presidents?!?!?! I guess the reason you left out that he also worked in DC under Bill Clinton’s administration is because that additional fact would have undermined your stupid implication.
And CalPERS rejects the change in the discount rate at the committee level this AM, with an expectation that the board will affirm the decision.
A small increase in contributions from state and municipal employers will still be necessary, ranging from 0.3% to 1.3%, according to Mr. Milligan. The increases for state employers would be effective July 1; municipal governments’ increases would be effective July 1, 2012.
A lower assumed rate would have been felt by municipal public safety agencies, whose percentage of employer payroll going toward pensions would have risen by 3% to 5%, according to Mr. Milligan’s pre-meeting report. The state would see between an estimated 1.7% and 2.3% increase in employer contributions. .
Calling Bobby in Costa Mesa. Time to update that PowerPoint. The Phony Costa Mesa pension crisis is over.
http://www.pionline.com/article/20110315/REG/110319958
So, Newbie, let me get this right… you’re saying that Baugh and Righeimer don’t spend a lot of time together because there’s a “large conference room separating them”, right? And let me ask you.. just where is YOUR office in this building? Some of us have been watching Righeimer and Baugh for more than just a few minutes… we understand that Baugh is Gepetto and Righeimer is his Pinocchio. We’ve seen the results of the string-pulling. You’re going to have to come up with a much bigger shield than a “conference room” to deflect the impact of this relationship.
Will a real boy emerge?
Here!
Geoff you are so right on relative to the shield of “the large conference room” defense.Absolutely pathetic! These two are thick as theives,Piggy doesnt wipe his backside without asking Baugh how many sheets of tp he may use.
Vern: that you’re going after Scott shows you know not of what you speak of. And I like how everyone now forgets what an anti-Mexican dingbat Wendy Leece was during the Mansoor days. So it’s okay for her to trash Mexicans as long as she fights for unions? Disgusting—and typical of our so-called OC progressives who worship at the altar of Loretta because she’s not Dana, and dismiss Agran’s sins as much ado about nothing. And y’all wonder why your party is a joke here…
So, Gustavo, other than your off topic ad hominem attacks against Dems, where did Vern get it wrong?
Moxley’s article sucked.
Vern was substantive.
Moxley had his facts straight; Vern, God bless his soul, bloviated.
Gustavo, you are known for being a one issue columnist. You missed the whole point of the article because of it. When the issue of sending citizens of other countries that have committed felonies back to where they are a citizen of comes up again, that would be a good time to talk about how you are for people coming here illegally. That, and and how we should all forget about how pathetic the Mexican government is at taking care of her people in a sustainable fashion.
It’s too bad more journalists don’t cover the reason why so many Mexicans leave an otherwise beautiful place to live and help come up with a workable long term sustainable solution. I would think Mexicans, Americans, and the whole world would be better off if they did.
Actually, I cover many issues, and that you focus on one shows more about you than it does about me.
Gustavo, this is the same Gustavo that writes the “Ask a Mexican” column? Scott Moxley and Norberto Santana cover many issues as do most other journalists. However, you seem to focus in on things just affecting Mexicans or Mexican-Americans and not issues that affect the rest of our brothers and sisters.
Not exaclty true. Gustavo writes a very good food column in the OC Weekly (“Hole in the Wall”) showcasing a lot of non-corporate mom and pop establishments in Orange County. These are establishments that would not normally get any publicity because they don’t have the multi-million dollar PR ad capaigns of a TGI Friday’s or Applebee’s. Nor are these establishments exclusively Latino.
I actually enjoy reading his (Gustavo’s) columns. His responses on “Ask a Mexican” are pretty damn funny. And his rips on that Food Network douchebag Guy Fieri (Diners, Drive Ins and Dives) and Sheriff Joe Arpaio are priceless.
As for Moxley, I agree with Gustavo that it’s unfair to write his eulogy based on one column. He’s done a lot of good in OC investigative journalism for a long time. He’s actually one of the few reporters in this county that is not afraid to take risks and does not act as the cheerleader for Orange County partisan hacks because they have a D or R in front of their name. He’s almost like our own version of Salon’s Glenn Greenwald. An equal opportunity offender.
I hope Moxley continues to nip at the heels of Boss Agran, Sukhee Kang, Donald Bren and the frauds that comprise the Not So Great Park board/Irvine City Council. Unfortunately, the voters in MasterPlannedistan (Irvine) are “Living the Dream.” As in they are in too much of a deep slumber to give a rat’s ass about being taken for a ride.
Gustavo is also right about the convenience politics that is played way too much by the Democrats and Republicans in OC. Hell, I saw enough of that this past year on the Yes on 19 campaign between the people who considered themselves Democrats or members of the OC 9/12 Tea Party chapter (mostly DeVore for Senate supporters) that were a part of our campaign to write a book or three. The same could be said for the almost non-existent anti-war movement in OC after O’Bummer and GI Joe got elected. We’ll vehemnently criiticze Bush for his handling of the Middle Eastern wars but look the other way when O’Bummer decides to keep Gitmo open, escalate the Afghan war and is seriously considering sending the Air Force to Libya. By the way, I’ll bet that you can count the number of OCYD members or signs that criticize O’Bummer’s interventionist foreign policy at this Sunday’s antiwar vigil in Irvine on one hand.
To quote Gustavo: “And y’all wonder why your party is a joke here…” The Paul Wellstone campaign workers and supporters that I went to college with in Minnesota, as well as the late Senator who was a dear and close friend of mine, were a hell of a lot more consistent in their stances and convictions than most of the people who consider themselves “progressive” or “liberal” in the Orange Curtain. The difference is that Paul Wellstone actually won an election in spite of the odds that were laid before him (two to be exact). The Wellstone supporters that I knew weren’t afraid to call out their own and hold people within their own party accountable for their actions. I just don’t see that conviction here with either party. (Mike Glover, Sharon Toji, Tony Bushala and Allan Bartlett are a few exceptions from each respective party that come to mind) Instead, I hear that “oh, that’s disappointing” or some pathetic apologist clap trap. And with blind faith, both major parties keep electing civil liberties stripping/Patriot Act/Drug War/REAL ID supporting idiots like DiFi, Boxer, Rohrbacher, Calvert et al. with myopic hopes that maybe they’ll see the light change their minds.
Tell you what, you can keep the “progressive” label. I’d like to have the “liberal” label back please.
Guy Fawkes, Gustavo is known for Ask a Mexican, not Hole in the Wall.
Au contraire! Gustavo is the author of the Hole in the Wall column in the OC Weekly food section. Unless there is a clone of Gustavo Arellano floating around writing reviews of mom and pop establishments.
Regardless of what he writes or what he is known for, I actually enjoy reading Ask a Mexican in the OC Weekly. The real fun is watching him piss people off. There are people that say they can’t stand him and his Ask a Mexican column. If they can’t stand him, why do they keep reading his column? Obviously, he’s been successful at what he’s done for many years. It shows because you keep reading his column and get a obvious rise out of it. Not in a sexual nature, mind you….but if you do get somewhat aroused by it, you won’t get any judgment or words of damnation from me.
And you keep coming back for more….(no sexual connotation intended)
And also JT, much as I agree with you that GA’s changing the subject to immigration here is a red herring, and that he shouldn’t be sticking up for Scott on Costa Mesa issues he’s not familiar with…
Gustavo HAS done some other great things, just as Scott has – one of the biggest is his vast body of work on OC’s Catholic Church child molestation abuses. Credit where due…
I am wrapping up all unanswered comments on this post because I’ll have a new one this weekend on Costa Mesa. The Huy Pham suicide casts all of this in a new light of urgency.
I expected you to stick up for Scott, Gustavo. I was all, “When’s Gustavo gonna come over here and stick up for Scott?” But THAT comment was a real subject-changer. How did immigration come into it? It wasn’t in Scott’s article, and it wasn’t in mine. I condemn Wendy’s record on thoughtlessly going along with all Mansoor’s immigrant-bashing measures, and she knows I do. I didn’t mean to make her out to be a saint, just correct on sticking up for city workers as well as fiscal sanity.
If you’d told me a year ago I’d be “going after” Moxley and sticking up for Wendy, I woulda said you were crazy. I obviously put a lot of thought into this, and the article that finally provoked this has to be one of Scott’s worst.
My impression of Wendy is that she never bothered questioning the Republican line … until she could no longer ignore the utter injustice of the way the workers she knew were being treated (along with the Fair being stolen) and she finally started questioning the OC GOP orthodoxy. Whatever it takes to make that happen, it’s a rare thing to see at the age of 70+. I think it’s time to ask her to revisit her record on immigration votes, and see if she’s had any second thoughts. I think I’m probably the guy who should do that. But it’s still a whole different subject.
In any case – ringing endorsement of Riggy, Gustavo! (Who also backed all the anti-immigrant stuff too, but wasn’t in office.) There really is nothing good you can say about him, and he didn’t deserve Scott’s positive, uncritical coverage.
Let’s see what else… It’s funny you also change the subject from my defense of a conservative Republican on one particular issue, to a condemnation of knee-jerk partisan Democrats which I would actually join you in. Do you need me to post a few links of my articles that have been critical of Loretta? I keep high expectations for her. It’s true that I minimized Agran’s transgressions, but only in comparison to John Williams, Dave Ellis, Dick Ackerman, and the other Fairground Swindlers.
That’s enough for now. Is Scott gonna come over and play?
My point is that all this adulation of Leece is convenience politics at its worst. Where were all the people who know praise her as a paragon of common sense when she was with Mansoor? It’s those same people who are now piping in here (and if you notice the comments, Righeimer’s people aren’t happy with Scott’s story, either).
Me, with Riggy? You must’ve missed the AirTalk clip where I called him a carpetbagger.
“now,” that is…as for Scott? Ready to destroy another Republican—and then, you’ll praise him for that. Again: convenience politics at its worst.
You don’t have a clue about Costa Mesa politics if you can’t tell the difference between Leece and the rest of the council. Leece wanted to deport citizens of other countries that have committed felonies. What’s wrong with that? Are you pro child molester and rapist? Maybe the law can be amended so that they can stay at your house instead?
I’ve been reluctant to take this bait, since my article (and Scott’s article) have nothing to do with immigration, and also nobody is “adulating” Wendy when we merely stick up for her on this one burning issue.
BUT. She read all this the other day, and texted me: She wants to remind people that she spends most of her time teaching at juvenile hall school – for free of course – and that most of the kids she teaches there are Hispanic and “many of them are PROBABLY undocumented.” And she “does not regret her vote to have an ICE agent in the jail” which she contends “makes Costa Mesa safer.”
We can argue about whether that does make Costa Mesa safer or not, but the above is not in the same ball park as Mansoor’s consistent use of immigrant-bashing to get votes (much as it may have looked like the same thing to some of us at the time.)
And calling Riggy a carpetbagger? Well, that’s calling a duck a duck, but carpetbagger is down toward the bottom of the list of Riggy’s offenses.
Yeah, I took the bait. It bothers me when someone who doesn’t understand Costa Mesa politics makes such statements. Thanks Vern for reminding me what the post was about. I think Moxley is a great writer. However, I have to agree, he didn’t do enough homework on this one. It’s only because he has been such a good investigative reporter in the past, many of us had hoped he would have stated the things you stated.
Hey Guy Fawkes,
Moxley takes risks?
How come he never posts a picture of himself? Is it because he’s a scared little coward, or is he afraid he will be recognized from his craigslist m4m personal ads?
…just wondering.
Vern, your statement about CalPERS figures is flat out wrong. I have read both of the most recent actuary reports for my own city (Fullerton) and they very clearly show a $192 million unfunded liability and dramatically increased contribution rates starting next year. I can’t imagine that Costa Mesa is much different, if not worse.
Did you see the latest report Quimby references above?
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2011/03/the-once-great-r-scott-moxley-fluffs-jim-righeimer/comment-page-1/#comment-160821
I admit that stuff’s above my head, but it sounds to me like things are looking up there.
http://www.pionline.com/article/20110315/REG/110319958
Sorry Vern, but you have misinterpreted that article. It’s complicated, but here’s the short version:
CalPERS realizes that it’s $500 billion short on future pension obligations. There is no pending fix for that shortfall, but in order to keep the problem from getting worse, the head actuary says “Maybe we should lower our long term earnings expectations to a more realistic number.”
Pension payments are already set to shoot up over the next few years, and this adjustment would cause it even more short term pain. By not lowering earnings expectations, CalPERS has chosen to perpetuate the problem rather than fix it.
Also, we still “owe” $500 billion that we do not have any way of paying.
Oh great, the really big whopper comes out that CalPERS is “really $500 billion short of its obligations”.
This might only be true if the great recession turns into a permanent depression and corporations worldwide never turn a profit again, or if CalPERS abandoned all fiduciary responsibility and invested only in low-yield bonds.
The amateur studies that have forecast this kind of obligation have relied on discount rates that actuaries can’t legally use because they would be fiscally imprudent.
See http://www.calpersresponds.com/downloads/key-observations-lh-report.pdf
for some quick answers to the Little Hoover commission, which chose to use outdated numbers from close to the market bottom of the great recession.
CalPERS definitely has challenges, and local governments have huge challenges because of the very high cost of funding absurdly high public safety pensions. But they are long term problems that can be fixed over the long term, and through negotiation and changes in state law.
And this is exactly what just happened in Costa Mesa, where employees started picking up a larger share of the pension cost, saving the city $3.6 million a year.
So Quimby, you think CalPERS will be able to invest its way out of this hole?
Increased contributions from employees are just a drop in the bucket that MIGHT keep the problem from getting worse, but there is no way they will fill that massive gap that already exists.
So what is Costa Mesa’s unfunded liability, anyway?
Travis,
Don’t put words in my mouth. There are real problems with public employee pensions that require a lot of work for literally thousands of agencies and pools throughout the state.
The pension “crisis” is being deliberately, and quite dishonestly overblown by a bunch of Republican partisan hacks who realize that this is the only issue that polls well for them. Go to the video of the Costa Mesa City Council meeting of February 6th, and then try to figure out how Bobby arrived at his numbers. There’s no source material – just a PowerPoint that arrived sui generis. Public record requests by multiple people have yet to produce the actual correspondence of the CalPERS actuaries that would show the accuracy of his work.
Before you rant on about your phony massive gap again, consider this. Last year CalPERS paid out 2 billion more than it took in from employer and employee contributions, but had investment gains of 25 BILLION, and currently has invested assets of around 230 BILLION. These aren’t government bonds, but instead a substantial stake in the world investment market, private and public.
A single year’s gain matters little in the light of a problem that CalPERS’ own analysts say will bring us to financial ruin over the next 30 years. I’m not sure why you keep bringing it up without any numerical context to the whole problem. You are either mathematically challenged or just being woefully disingenuous.
What is Costa Mesa’s unfunded pension liability?
While CalPERS rates are increasing, Costa Mesa employees are increasing their contributions to the cost of pensions by 3.6 million a year, so that the real cost of pensions to the City of Costa Mesa is declining in 201-2012.
A Powerpoint presentation at the Costa Mesa study session showed costs skyrocketing in the two following years, but nobody has come up with any, like, correspondence from CalPERS actuaries to validate this. At least that is the way I read this.
Ask your city for the latest annual CalPERS reports. They explain everything.
Don,t Vern! This is a classical EPR article, named after its authors—Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen.
Same as here the EPR article had highlighted the strange nature of quantum entanglement, which is a characteristic of a quantum state that is a combination of the states of two systems (for example, two subatomic particles), that once interacted but were then separated and are not each in a definite state.
To further illustrate the putative incompleteness of quantum mechanics, Schrödinger describes how one could, in principle, transpose the superposition of an atom to large-scale systems of a live and dead cat by coupling cat and atom with the help of a “diabolical mechanism”. He proposed a scenario with a cat in a sealed box, wherein the cat’s life or death was dependent on the state of a subatomic particle. According to Schrödinger, the Copenhagen interpretation implies that the cat remains both alive and dead (to the universe outside the box) until the box is opened. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrödinger's_cat
Loretta’s Mexican or anti-Mexican moves were dependent on the state of a subatomic particle
Please do not open the box.
Vern;
If your wife of twenty years made you delicious meals every single night until tonight, and you don’t like the dish she carefully prepared, would you divorce her then and there?
It’s pretty clear this is a very personal, very important issue for you. But you’re jumping the shark, and, frankly, sounding juvenile when you say that Moxley has turned to the Dark Side.
You’ve trusted and respected his journalism for years, but now that you’re not happy with his conclusions, he’s dead to you? “I HAVE NO SON!”
If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?
Read my last five paragraphs or so, it wasn’t just this one article.
Of course maybe he’ll do another masterpiece or two and I’ll decide I overreacted… but this one really sucked.
Alex,
Block that metaphor!
Or eat something before you comment/
Gustavo’s defense of Moxley is just plain pathetic.
Attacking Sanchez and Agran is completely irrelevant to the issues at hand.
Moxley bought every frigging lie that Righeimer pitched, and it’s not hard to do the research to show what a liar Riggy is.
Sad.
Thanks!
Vern, I’ve appreciated some of your work but if you actually wrote this post, it looks like your copied several paragraphs from union comments posted on Moxley’s original online article at OC Weekly. If so, that’s pathetic. I’ve read the article in question and think there’s plenty for both sides. I’ve also read comments blasting Moxley for being anti-Righeimer and pro-GOP. That should get a hearty laugh at the next meeting of the county’s Republican Central Committee. Of course, rabid left-wingers and right-wingers can’t stomach the idea that Orange County’s best investigative reporter isn’t always going to attack their chosen villains and tout their chosen heroes. He goes after everyone, as it should be. I don’t necessarily always agree with Moxley’s stances, but–given what he’s done for the county: Carona, Dornan, Agran, Rackauckas, Spitzer, Rohrabacher, Chris Cox, TCA, Sanchez, cop corruption, Ochoa, etc–I don’t question his honesty or his desire to provide valuable information to the public. By the way, the blow job reference was disgusting–something so cheap that I would have expected that from nut-job conservatives and not you. You should be ashamed. While you were standing safely on the sidelines twiddling your thumbs and opining, Moxley was out there digging into corruption involving powerful people and exposing it regardless of political party. Personally, I wish Orange County had 10 or 20 R. Scott Moxley’s. In fact, I’d bet your $1,000 that former OC Sheriff Mike Carona–a Republican, by the way, supported by many high-ranking Democrats, is smiling at your attack on him. Then again, perhaps he hasn’t yet heard about your attack. He’s sitting in a federal prison and best I recall it was Moxley–not the Los Angeles Times or OC Register or KCAL or Dateline NBC–who first had the balls to tell us we had a dirty sheriff.
Hm, not sure if you read the whole piece or not, now. I did give Scott credit for all those things – in the past – that you named off. You are right, there are some absurd comments on the online article accusing Scott of being a pro-union liberal; it just shows the poor reading comprehension of some rightwingers, and how people are still kind of assuming the Weekly is progressive (no longer a safe assumption.) And the few sentences you recognized from that comments section – describing the recent fiscal history of Costa mesa – those are not “union comments” but written by a knowledgeable friend of mine whom I credited elsewhere in my article.
I gave Scott plenty of credit for stuff he did in the past, and I agree we need 10 or 20 writers like the Moxley of yore. I myself aspire to be one. (And fluffing isn’t necessarily a blow job.)
Vern: We haven’t been progressive for the diehard Dems like yourself since we turned against Loretta in 1996, not even a year into our publication’s history. Then we single-handedly took out Dornan. We are who we are, and we’re happy with that—and our readers.
Singlehandedly took out Dornan? You are delusional Gustavo.
Well, I would say that ‘Tavo is bloviating, except he says I’M bloviating.
Great news for Costa Mesa that the cash problems are over !!! (and the earthquake is over in Japan too)
I just reread the piece: “one of them”? Vern, you know not what you speak of. Oh, and ask Scott about what a flip-flopping fool Todd is—he’s as much a knight in shining armor as Bill Hunt was.
Wendy and Todd are no knights in shining armor. In this county (maybe you noticed) you sometimes have to pick your shades of gray. I know what Scott’s said about Todd, and there’s truth to it. But right now I hope he helps break up & bring down the established Republican hierarchy here, that’ll be good for everyone.
And when only one person is right, on one important issue, like Wendy is on the Costa Mesa workers – and all her colleagues and the press along with the Weekly are trashing her – I’m gonna stick up for her, even if she’s been dead wrong on some other things in the past.
The real sycophantic fluffing going on is being done by you, Vern, for calling Spitzer a reformist firebrand despite all evidence to the contrary, and criticizing Moxley for failing to do the same.
As Moxley pointed out, after years of calling Rackauckas evil, he pussed out of an electoral fight and agreed to spend the next four years- at least – performing fellatio upon Tony, Mike and Susan. Yes, “her,” too.
God bless Moxley for calling him out on it.
And shame on you for believing that people are reformers based on empty rhetoric, and not their actions.
Through all of this, call it union bashing/busting, taxpayer revolt or whatever, nobody is talking about the 20 Fire Captains making upwards of $200K equaling about $3.5M annually in a city of 120,000 is CRAZY. These are just the Captains. The Batallion Chiefs are pulling down more and working LESS.
The hyperboyle on the web is a real distraction from the issue.
As a disclaimer, I am a HUGE supporter of the CCPOA. There is a group whose members REAL LIFE and death everyday. But, the Costa Mesa Fire Department or the Orange County Health Care Agency……Come on these guys are on the tit.
If we could get some responsible discussion going (OJ’s the only place that could happen removing The Red County rhetoric, The LOC tail chasing and the VOC as an extension of The OCEA.) We might be able to come up with a fair agreement on the pension issue.
“We might be able to come up with a fair agreement on the pension issue.”……… Hmmmm
And then what?