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This just came in from the OCEA: Superior Court Justice Tam Nomoto Schumann has issued a temporary injunction against the Righeimer gang’s planned layoff/outsourcing of half the city employees’ jobs which had been planned for September. Prevatt has a more thorough discussion of the legal arguments against the layoffs here; in short
California law prohibits General Law cities like Costa Mesa from outsourcing services except under very narrow circumstances. The employees contend that the City’s action to outsource nearly all city services (except police) exceeds the power granted to municipalities and clearly violates California law, Additionally, the City’s contract with the Employees Association prohibits this type of mass outsourcing under the terms of the agreement, which doesn’t expire until March 31, 2013.
Evidently Judge Schumann found these arguments at least somewhat compelling or she wouldn’t have issued the temporary injunction. Here’s the OCEA press release:
.,Judge stops Costa Mesa layoffs.,m.
SANTA ANA, CA – Expressing concern about a looming layoff date, a Superior Court judge this afternoon told attorneys she would issue a preliminary injunction precluding the mass layoffs of municipal employees within the City of Costa Mesa.
Nearly half the City’s workforce received six-month layoff notices on March 17 after the Costa Mesa City Council majority voted to outsource their jobs. At the time, the City Council had not studied the cost of outsourcing or the negative impacts to community services, and they still have failed to do so.
The Orange County Employees Association, on behalf of the Costa Mesa City Employees Association, filed a lawsuit in May to stop the layoffs.
“This is a positive outcome, but it is only one step toward holding this Council accountable,” OCEA Communications Director Jennifer Muir said. “It will prevent the City from laying off employees to outsource to the private sector. At least temporarily, it removes a dark cloud from over the heads of City employees, their families, and the entire community. ”
Good!
Judges are running free market economy.
Judges and stupid Brown will do what Osama could not!…… To nuke the California.
-Enjoy
By hook or by crook (more likely by crook) Righeimer is bent on destroying everything great about Costa Mesa. First it was his disingenuous plan to have Costa Mesa go into debt to buy the fairgrounds. Then his communist HOA laws. Then his manufactured budget crisis to make it look like the city had to file for bankruptcy. Now it’s his plan to outsource everything which will give him the potential to receive kickbacks from all of those contracts that are up for grabs. What’s worse is that all of those maintenance contracts will go to contractors that abuse cheap illegal immigrant labor.
At last nights city council meeting, once again it was proved that the so-called budget crisis in Costa Mesa is smoke and mirrors. They have over $14 mil +change laying under the sofa cushions. Meanwhile the City Council is complaining about cash flow and how desperate they are , how they have burned through thirty mil in reserves. All the while sitting on $26 million that could be used to help pay the bills. You can’t declare banckruptcy with tens of millions in the cookie jar.
The outsourcing hasn’t produced one RFP that the residents can look at. Not one. I feel thier plan is to dump 18 proposals all at once. Bury the residents with mounds of data and little time to go over it.
Nice way to run a city………the residents are aware of what is happening.
We don’t like it.
Gericault, point to one part of the $26 mil that is available. I watched the silly presentation from the union accountants last night, and previously, when that poor woman couldn’t defend it. It’s all gimmicks and accounting tricks to deplete your reserves. It’s a complete joke. The union just wants more of my money to go into the union coffers. The residents are tired of it. We support our Council and will support outsourcing of some City services. The residents are getting tired of seeing our City trashed by the out of town union and its paid PR reps who will do whatever they can to keep our broken system in place.
You didn’t watch it Tuesday night……..It was presented by the auditor. Mr Roti himself. Mensinger didn’t try any of his bullying tactics with this guy. Well he did, but then he got smacked down and retreated quickly behind his smirks.You should watch it again.
They,ve been burying money in vehicle replacement funds for years and then not even using those funds to replace the vehicles.
Those funds can be used to pay bills. When the council complained that they have no cash flow, that was false. They had over $16 million that could be used to cover expenditures, they just weren’t using it. Those very same funds could have been used to not dip into reserves but they chose to instead dip into reserves.
Don’t speak to me of what the residents want or are doing……..I have been out walking precincts and talking to residents every weekend, and I get messages and phone calls everyday. What started as a few of us has snowballed into hundreds.Almost every activist and neighborhood leader in this city, aside from McCarthy, has attended a meeting or voiced their outrage at this bad business approach.
This little experiment is going to cost you dearly……….trust me .
Time to dissolve the city.
Orange County is massively over managed, time to start paring down the Hugh amount of government weight and waste.
The world did not end when Pontiac became part of General Motors, and the world did not end when the USA took over General Motors. After all of the stockholders lost everything and the bond holders lost everything, a New General Motors was created.
Some people kept their jobs, not as many as before.
Cities do not have Rights, they have responsibilities to provide local services. When the cities can not provide local services at a reasonable cost, then roll it up, and dissolve for the good of the people.
No, the world probably won’t end because of unethical and corrupt behavior by the Costa Mesa City Council. Look at how Mexico manages to survive.
The Improvers are a meaningless group of bigots that take marching orders from a POS in Mesa North.
Hopefully this ruling will be quickly overturned and the City can continue its good works.
You know, if Righeimer was head of a large American corporation, he would immediately send all manufacturing jobs to China, all service jobs to India, and all jobs requiring a physical presence would be handed off to contractors that abuse illegal immigrant labor. That’s neo-con ideology, not conservative ideology.
If this news from the Prevatt and the OCEA union is accurate about the existence of state law limiting the ability of cities to contract out and the terms of the current city-union labor contract, then the ruling of the court is really a no-brainer. It is simply a follow the law, and contracts are binding, ruling and should be expected. And if the facts are as presented then one has to wonder about the integrity of electeds that seek to violdate the law and the terms of contracts. However, if Prevatt -OCEA has misrepresented the facts in their writings then that would be another story.