Outsourcing

In a marathon meeting that concluded after 3 a.m. Wednesday, the Costa Mesa City Council pushed through plans to outsource the city jail and street-sweeping services to private companies. "Today is a momentous day, a great day," said Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer. "... I know we're going in the right direction, and I think by the time this is over I think the rest of the city will too. " Councilwoman Wendy Leece, who cast the lone dissenting vote in 4-1 splits on the jail and street-sweeping measures, said such an important decision should not be made in the early-morning hours, when most community members have gone home.

The Costa Mesa City Council will consider Tuesday whether to outsource five city services, more than a year since the wheels were first set in motion amid furious protests from city workers and local activists. City staff are recommending Costa Mesa outsource its jail services and street sweeping but keep its animal control, building inspections and video production in-house. Staff recommend that the city contract with G4S Secure Solutions, a worldwide company owned by Danish security firm Group 4 Falck.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite comic books was "What If … "What If Phoenix Had Not Died?"?" If you remember the movie "X-Men: The Last Stand" (2006), you might recall that Jean Grey/Phoenix (Famke Janssen) dies in the end. The comic book dealt with what would have happened if Phoenix had lived. Long story short, her fury swallows up the entire universe. With that in mind, I'd like to play, "What If …" with the cities of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. "What if … Costa Mesa and Newport Beach outsourced their fire departments?"

Costa Mesa spent nearly $700,000 in legal fees through the end of January to defend itself from a lawsuit filed by its employees, invoices show. Total fees have reached $692,379, according to invoices obtained this week by a Daily Pilot public records request. That figure is $186,000 higher than the $505,399 reported on the city's website earlier this week. Such a disparity online was a mistake, however, as the total did not account for the months of July, August or January, according to city Assistant Finance Director Colleen O'Donoghue.

Costa Mesa will keep its Fire Department instead of contracting out with county. Just before midnight Tuesday with a 5-0 vote - nearly six hours into its regular meeting - the City Council motioned to rescind the layoff notices issued to 78 sworn and nine nonsworn firefighters. The move effectively canceled a proposal to use the services of the Orange County Fire Authority, which was expected to absorb most - but not all - of the Fire Department's employees. The firefighters comprise nearly 43% of the 203 city employees who have received layoff notices since March 2011, when the council began its outsourcing research and implementation.

Costa Mesa residents will vote June 5 on whether to adopt a city charter, a proposal that has yielded mixed responses. "We've got to get the tools here to get ourselves back on track, and that's all this charter does," Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer said after the vote Tuesday night. "I'm doing what I truly believe is best for the citizens of Costa Mesa. " Supporters say a charter would provide more local control over governance, while detractors view it as an effort to stop a lawsuit filed by city workers who want to prevent outsourcing of their jobs.

American colleges have responded to harsh criticism that tuition rose four times as fast as the cost of living over the last 25 years — resulting in their graduates leaving school as debt slaves with an average of $25,250 in student loans — by trumpeting that the average starting salaries for college students with bachelor's degrees are still a healthy $48,288. The only problem with this clever statistic is that the average student graduates from college with a liberal arts degree that pays only $35,508.

COSTA MESA — The city will not outsource any of its employees' jobs until March 10 at the earliest, almost a year to the day that workers were first notified of potential outsourcing and six months after employees first expected to be laid off. "It's nice that we know we have a job until March and not January, but now for the employees in this, it's a waiting game," said Helen Nenadal, president of the Costa Mesa City Employees Assn., which...

COSTA MESA — Continuing with his plan to overhaul the city's structure, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer on Tuesday will ask his peers on the City Council to begin the process of making Costa Mesa a charter city with its own set of laws and regulations. But council critics say forming a charter city is a way to avoid the lawsuits over the decision to outsource 40% of city employees. Righeimer said the charter that will be presented to the public is just scaffolding for what Costa Mesa residents would want to see in their own charter, or city constitution.

The earliest that Costa Mesa employees could be laid off as part of widespread outsourcing is Jan. 6 — nearly four months past the initial date when workers were told they could be let go, city officials said Monday. The layoffs are part of a broad city restructuring plan to lower pension costs and increase capital improvement spending. The city first notified more than 200 city employees March 17 that their jobs could be outsourced in six months. In September, the city changed the date, saying no one would lose their job before Nov. 19 as the City Council put city services out for public bidding.