Following a blitzkrieg assault on the governmental process, on March 6 the four-man super majority of the Costa Mesa City Council voted to place Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer's Charter on the June 5 ballot.
This document, barely nine pages long, was cobbled together by Righeimer alone, apparently in a fit of pique because he's been unable to affect his misguided efforts to disembowel the municipal employee associations under the guise of budget and pension reform.
The process to create a charter typically takes much longer than a couple of months. Although state law allows a city council to create a charter, typically the document is carefully crafted by an elected citizen committee, which designs what amounts to a constitution for a city, taking into consideration the special circumstances facing the city.