Outsourcing

An injunction that temporarily stopped Costa Mesa from privatizing some city services will go to the state Supreme Court, city officials said Wednesday. The City Council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday to appeal a lower-court ruling that has prevented the city from outsourcing workers to private companies until a lawsuit filed by employees is heard. Councilwoman Wendy Leece dissented. It is up to the state's high court whether to hear the petition or let the lower court's decision stand, said attorney John Alexander Vogt, private counsel representing the city.

The battle for Costa Mesa's government burst onto the stage Wednesday night as challengers and defenders of the City Council sparred at the Feet to the Fire forum. Three City Council candidates portrayed the current majority's outsourcing plans as reckless, while two sitting councilmen and their ally said they seek to reform government and save taxpayers money. The forum at the Neighborhood Community Center drew about 250 people, the most vocal of whom cheered on the council critics.

Shading in the outlines of broad ideological arguments, the seven candidates for Costa Mesa City Council laid out two opposing platforms Wednesday night. They spoke at a forum hosted by the residents group Mesa Verde Community Inc., in front of about 250 people at the Costa Mesa Community Center. Three candidates support the current council majority's moves to reshape local government, while three oppose its tactics. The remaining candidate straddles both sides. This election is a pivotal one for Costa Mesa, as three of five council seats are up for grabs and residents will choose whether the city converts to a charter form of government.

The TeWinkle Athletic Complex will not be managed by a private company. The Costa Mesa City Council this week nixed a proposal that would allow an athletic entertainment company to rehabilitate and manage the public sports fields next to Davis Magnet School off Arlington Drive in exchange for the right to sell beer at adult softball games. The city had tapped Big League Dreams to work with a city task force to remodel the park. The city would have needed to conduct noise and traffic studies to move forward with the proposal and gain school district approval, due to the park's proximity to Davis.

The city of Costa Mesa may scrap its plans to bring in a private company to remodel and run the TeWinkle Park Athletic Complex, according to the agenda for Tuesday's City Council meeting. The council in December appointed a task force to work with Big League Dreams to overhaul the park. The residents group hasn't met since April, when it approved a concept that has since made no progress. The deed to the park on Arlington Drive, however, apparently requires additional approvals if the city wants to retain a private group to run it. The federal government gave the city the title to the park in 1949.

The city of Newport Beach this week took a preliminary step toward outsourcing the operation of the city jail to a private company. The city requested bids from providers who could operate the jail. Police Chief Jay Johnson said the move could reduce the jail's $1 million annual budget by 30% to 40%. The jail, located at Police Department headquarters in Newport Center, would not move from the area as part of the outsourcing proposal and no police personnel would be laid off, Johnson said.

An eighth candidate with a quality-of-life message has added his name to a growing list competing in November for three of Costa Mesa's five City Council seats. "I feel that the seniors don't have representation, that the animal lovers don't have representation in the majority," said Al Melone, a retired certified public accountant. "I want to look out for the little guys being marginalized and disenfranchised. " Melone, 66, who runs his own asset recovery business, wants to avoid the divisive rhetoric sometimes heard from the council dais, though he said he aligns himself with some of the plans for the city.

In Poor Richard's Almanack, Benjamin Franklin popularized the idiom we love to quote but have a difficult time applying to our daily lives: Haste makes waste. As children, we frequently heard this admonition from parents and teachers. Take your time, do it right the first time. With math teachers, in particular, it was often followed by another directive: Show your work. But we are busy people, and it's rare to focus on one task at a time. One of my friends lamented recently that, with a full schedule of work, tending to three children and trying to keep her home livable (let alone clean)

The Costa Mesa City Council voted Tuesday night to send out a modified version of its request for bids to outsource facility maintenance, despite a warning that the move could violate city policy. "The people who would actually perform the work have no input if [the modified request for bids] actually lists the work currently being performed," said Jennifer Muir, spokeswoman for the Orange County Employees Assn. speaking on behalf of its subgroup, the Costa Mesa City Employees Assn.

More than a year's worth of policy decisions are coming full circle Tuesday when the Costa Mesa City Council will likely approve a budget that is heavy with infrastructure spending. What started as a budget surplus and became a deficit is now considered a balanced budget, one that's ready for approval for fiscal year 2012-13 with nearly $20 million in street, sidewalk and parks spending. Since early last year, the council majority has been pushing to scale down the city's payroll in order to boost spending in capital projects.