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As you may remember, last we left our heroine Costa Mesa Councilwoman Wendy Leece, she was still undecided on how she would vote Tuesday night – whether to accept the offer of over $4 million in savings from the Costa Mesa Police Association (and other groups) that would be on the table that night, or bow to OC GOP pressure to reject that offer, restart negotiations down the road with the new (possibly Riggified) council and try to force even more concessions from the cops?
And the OC GOP pressure against Wendy was mighty and relentless. I have a copy of the e-mail from thuggish wingnut lawyer Mark Bucher (of Stink-Eye press conference fame) that probably generated most of the harassment, but it’s so full of bullshit I don’t want to reprint it here. Addressed weirdly, “Please forward this to everyone who believes in freedom,” it provides Wendy’s home number and e-mail, instructions to harass, and also makes it clear that it IS all about electing Righeimer to the Council.
So Tuesday night’s Costa Mesa City Council meeting was sure not one I was going to miss; having missed the bus I sprang for a taxi, and it was one dramatic, suspenseful and riveting spectacle. Would Wendy cave to the pressure, attempt to find some sort of middle ground? And what about fellow Republican Gary Monahan who’s been going rogue on the OC GOP as well? Would he continue to think of his city first? And how come the GOP doesn’t care what Gary does and just picks on Wendy?
Tuesday night
As usual, the Potstirrer produced such a thorough and entertaining description of the meeting (entitled “The City Wins – Lemmings Lose“) that all I have to do is add my own impressions.
Racist with a new cause. (Caricature from the Weekly's Bob Aul)
I finally had the dubious pleasure of hearing Martin Millard speak – the unabashed white supremacist and probable puppetmaster of Allan Mansoor on all things immigration-related, who has made a new bid for relevance by jumping into the labor-bashing business with both feet. Millard was one of three or four speakers to trash Wendy for her daring to complain about the GOP pressure she was getting. He bizarrely compared her to someone who wants to join a church but doesn’t believe in God, and then whines that the church wants to excommunicate her for not believing in God. In this case, evidently, the GOP is the church, and “God” is the act of taking away cops’ and firefighters’ benefits and pensions. Also, DAMN, what a self-righteous, self-satisfied, smug prick Martin Millard is!
- Jon Fleischman, GOP hack and bully, does NOT appreciate this photoshop.
And he wasn’t the only one. During the long closed session that interrupted the meeting, with absolutely nothing else to do, I decided to introduce myself to “blogging” uber-hack Jon Fleischman, who absolutely hates the Orange Juice mainly because of the famous photoshop of him to the left. But I have to say that, up close, this really is exactly how he looks, but with a bigger gut.
Jon was there expressly to intimidate Wendy and document her heresy, sitting in the front for the whole meeting and giving her the “Stink-Eye” (which is especially toxic in Costa Mesa these days) and video-taping her every time she would open her mouth. During breaks he would run outside and giggle cell-phone reports to his GOP superiors, which I managed to overhear a couple of times.
I don’t think he liked me.
Anyway you could see Wendy throughout the meeting trying to find some kind of compromise, some middle ground, between accepting the police’s offer and rejecting it outright – for example, “continuing” the question to another meeting. It’s just that really nothing of the sort was possible. As City Manager Roeder explained, going back to square one with new negotiations would take many months while costing the city $250,000 a month.
On top of that, the only legal way for Costa Mesa to actually reduce all its employee contracts and wage scales the way the OC GOP wants to do would be for the city to declare bankruptcy and void all city contracts, as Vallejo in Northern California did. THIS is what the Party insiders want for Costa Mesa?? NO THANK YOU!!!
So long story short, Wendy and Gary both ended up doing the right thing, accepting the workers’ offer, saving their city from bankruptcy, and drawing a standing ovation. The speeches BOTH of them gave explaining their yes vote were thoughtful and heartfelt – I’ll try to get them on YouTube for you. (I hadn’t thought much till now of Monahan, who usually votes lockstep with Mansoor and Bever; now I kind of want to go by his restaurant Skosh Monahan’s and get to know him.)
So, how would the OC GOP exact its punishment on Wendy?
Then, you could almost hear the angry GOP insiders all across the county, jumping up and down in rage like Rumplestiltskin. What would the first volley against Wendy entail? The answer came first thing the next morning, when she was “summoned” to an “emergency hearing” before the GOP’s (LOL) “Ethics” committee, immediately conjuring up images of Stalinist or McCarthyite show trials, or the Inquisition.
Quite presumptuously (as a Democrat not even living in Costa Mesa) I called and left Wendy a message, congratulating her for standing up for what she knew was right, and encouraging her to ignore the summons. “Let them pull their endorsement, let them send out a nasty mailer, but they have no right to order you around like that. You don’t work for them, you work for the voters of Costa Mesa! And you have a campaign to run.” I assume a lot of other people told her the same thing.
(Note: Wendy is something of a Juice friend, having appeared on our radio show to discuss Costa Mesa and Fairgrounds issues; I also know her from when she and Katrina Foley were the only politicians working to derail the sale of the Fairgrounds.)
Late that night I was pleasantly surprised to get a call back from her. Sure enough, she didn’t go to the hearing, and would not have gone in any case without a lawyer. She appreciated the support she was getting from me and so many others. She said that her promises last month to the Central Committee while getting their endorsement had been misquoted and exaggerated, and expressed great frustration over the fact that – far from caving on pension reform – the police’s offer she’d accepted WAS 
pension reform, just not as extreme as the OC GOP wants. She complained correctly that she’d been working hard at the negotiations with the cops for weeks and was privy to countless details that these GOP busybodies weren’t. And she said that although she’ll always be a proud and loyal Republican, she doesn’t want the OC Republican Party running Costa Mesa. Ouch – now that is some HERESY!
Baugh, Apoplectic.
Can an e-mail be “apoplectic?” Because that’s how I’d characterize the message Scott Baugh, anti-labor jihadist and OC GOP chair, sent out to his loyal followers the next day, ordering them NOT to vote for Wendy and ONLY to vote for Riggy. He went on to express great regret that there was NO TIME for the Central Committee to meet and withdraw its endorsement before the election.
Enter the amazing Speedy Un-Endorsers, Atlas PAC!
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Atlas-PAC … UN-ENDORSE!!!
Who is the Atlas PAC? Funny, I just found out TWICE yesterday morning. As my unlikely pal Chip Hanlon of Red County describes them,
“…they’re thought of around here as sort of a junior Lincoln Club: conservative, a membership made up of respectable young professionals from around O.C., a group headed up by a guy who most folks around here seem to like. Bottom line: good folks.”
(And I imagine these young professionals like to carry around a copy of Atlas Shrugged to impress other young conservatives in the cafes they haunt.) Thank God, the group is small, young, and nimble enough that even if Baugh’s Central Committee couldn’t pull off a presto un-endorsement, Atlas PAC could – and DID un-endorse Wendy first thing yesterday morning, in an e-mail to all their peeps!
My unlikely pal.
The other time I heard about Atlas PAC was maybe an hour earlier, when my unlikely pal Chip Hanlon forwarded me a two-part story he’d just written, busting them for funneling money (at a slight profit) from the OCEA (union) into ads attacking Shawn Nelson on behalf of his opponent Harry Sidhu – a Republican I’d last seen backslapping with Union bigwigs at the OC Labor Federation’s Labor Day bash! D’OH!
Could this lightning-quick un-endorsement of Wendy be intended as a penance for the Atlas PAC’s big pro-labor faux-pas?
And on and on it goes, where it stops no-one knows. Chip seems to have tagged the responsible party for hooking up Atlas PAC with the OCEA as one of two labor-friendly Orange-city RINOs, Jon Dumitru and/or Denis Bilodeaux – both of whom he’s been ripping regularly for waste and hypocrisy. (My unlikely pal Chip, with whom I disagree on most every issue, has been doing some most excellent RINO-ripping lately.) But I can’t get into writing about Orange city politics; this story is long enough and I don’t want to be stuck up in Orange after the buses stop running and have to spring for another taxi.
I’m just going to continue to watch and chronicle the crazy unpredictable spectacle of
the Orange County GOP’s rifts and tectonic shifts,
as its Jacobin leadership tries to pry its members away from
the money, the power, and the actual importance
of public safety workers.
Phu Nguyen after being endorsed by
Orange County and Costa Mesa police and firefighters.
The great thing about Leece is she doesn’t answer to the highest most powerful force in Righeimer’s universe, money. She simply cares about what’s best for her city. Unlike Righeimer, she’s for local control of our city. Righeimer’s ideology reminds me of how America revolted against England a la no taxation without representation. Costa Mesa will be in debt to all of Righeimer’s friends from outside our city for years to come if he wins. Win or lose though, Righeimer and Baugh ran a dirty campaign that not many people would be proud of. Leece always took the high road and can be proud. She has more courage than I have ever seen from the dais in a long time.
“But I have to say that, up close, this really is exactly how he looks, but with a bigger gut.” HAHAHAHA bonus points!
Vern, my crooner pal, you did a great job of characterizing the events – you took my baton and sprinted across the finish line! 🙂 I received an anti-Leece mailer to day from the OC Republican which included a little note from Scott Baugh ranting about her “breaking her pledge” to the OC GOP. He encouraged us, the recipients, to “call Wendy and let her know how you feel about her promises and votes.” Well, I’ve done just that! I called Wendy and thanked her for keeping the promise made to the voters when she was elected 4 years ago that she would serve Costa Mesa to the best of her ability. With her vote Tuesday she did exactly that. She didn’t bow down to the fat cats who head MY Orange County Republican Party – she represented the best interests of Costa Mesa – FIRST! She, Katrina Foley and Gary Monahan spit right in that stink-eye Fleishman was delivering from the front of the auditorium and voted to do what was best for our city.
You’re correct – to do what Jim Righeimer and the OC GOP wants would require Costa Mesa to file for bankruptcy and throw out all contracts, including the labor contracts. Vallejo tried that in the spring of 2008 and it’s still in bankruptcy and the city is in chaos as lawsuit after lawsuit is filed. As I said in a recent Daily Pilot letter, the OC GOP are like locusts. They will land, devour everything alive and vital in our city, then fly off to greener pastures. They don’t care a whit for Costa Mesa – they only care about their dogma.
By the way, loved the photoshop version of Fleishman – not very far off, at all. 🙂
Martin Millard needs a good therapist. From what I can see by his pathetic behavior EVERYTIME he speaks at council meetings…he has major issues….probably from childhood.
People that are that angry live sad empty lives.
Most insightful, chucklesome observations my likely pal.
Wendy’s letter to the Daily Pilot today:
I kept my promise.
When I was elected in 2006, I promised the residents of Costa Mesa that I would be fiscally responsible. My vote on Tuesday night to approve employee agreements means we will not waste another $253,999 each month for not having agreements. Over four years we expect to save $7.2 million through reductions in employees’ take-home pay.
Being fiscally responsible means negotiating with employees in good faith realizing no deal is perfect. Our employees have agreed to contribute between 5 and 8.52 per cent of their pay towards their retirements. They broke ground on pension reform in Costa Mesa by coming forward with this offer.
Another agreement with our general employees involves a “2nd tier” whereby new hires will get less retirement pay but work more years to earn it.
Some wanted to delay the vote. Delaying the vote would have cost us more money with attorneys’ fees if we entered into “impasse.” That might have been a long, dark tunnel with many unknowns and not in the best interests in a fiscally responsible city.
I promised the residents of Costa Mesa that I would keep the peace in our city and to respond to them quickly in emergencies. Wednesday morning our employees, including our police and firefighters went to work serving our residents. They did not have to worry about how they might have to make ends meet. They’re out there doing their job for us and we are paying them to do it well.
I regret that those who disagree with me have resorted to false accusations and mistruths. I have a responsibility to the people of Costa Mesa who elected me as their city council representative.
As an elected official, I review the facts, I negotiate in good faith and I am true to my word and commitments. I do not need to apologize for doing what I was elected to do.
You have my word.
Wendy Leece
Costa Mesa
http://www.dailypilot.com/news/opinion/tn-dpt-1030-mailbag-20101029,0,5866018.story
Vern,
Ms. Leece forgot to mention that her vote broke her promise to support a defined contribution (401(k)-like) plan for new hires (according to the Register). The contract she approved contains no such plan, but rather the same disastrous defined benefit plan for new hires that has California in the mess it is in. She also forgot to mention the $26,000 the union dumped into a group supporting her the day before her vote on the union contracts (also via the Register). But since it’s a union making the donation, it has to be ok, right?
the whole story and why some people feel leeced: good for Wendy for voting her conscience, that is her right. but you should know the real Wendy, the Wendy that begged for support and endorsement from the ocgop. she is allowed to change her mind but really had no reason to run to the local newspaper before the vote and throw the ocgop under the bus for “pressuring her” to keep her promise. vote the way you want wendy, but there was no reason to run to the press to disparage the ocgop, the ones she went begging to a month earlier, to try to cover her backstab to them. Just do the backstap, you are allowed that in my mind. But to also manipulate the press to get at the ocgop makes it seem like she was lying all along and plotted that she could get the absentee gop vote, then change her mind and get the lib vote at the polls. brilliant! yu all deserve her, just don’t trust her. ocgop knew she was weak, voted not to endorse her first but she lied and backstabbed. glad to give her to you
Well, number one, she feels that she didn’t renege on anything she promised to the Central Committee. I’ll try to get more details for you there. We all want pension reform, Tuesday’s offer was pension reform, just more modest than Baugh & Riggy wanted. (Actually since I wrote this article a few hours ago, I’ve become more and more convinced that what they really want is bankruptcy for Costa Mesa and then to build it back up from scratch their own way.)
Number two. Don’t you think we sort of overuse the expression “throw under the bus?”
The idea of subjecting a behemoth political party that runs the damn county to a little embarrassment or criticism … is pretty far from the image of throwing a fragile human being underneath a twenty-ton vehicle.
Vern has it pegged. Baugh would’nt mind at all if he bankrupted Costa Mesa.
I don’t think Baugh is the threat to bankrupt Costa Mesa. absurd. the threat is from the pensions and high salaries don’t u think? At least Baugh is stepping up to fight the union threat to our city and state.
Well, you can only cut salaries so much. We need to attract quality law enforcement to this city. Having wages that are lower than Irvine, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, etc. would create a problem in the long run. The better quality officers will eventually leave for better paying gigs. Why work in a high crime area when it pays the least?
JT,
Do you realize that approximately 60% of the full-time employees in Costa Mesa made more than $100K last year? Do you really think that is what is needed to compete with Newport, Irvine and the other cities? Costa Mesa residents should be very afraid of future budget deficits when these employees begin to reach retirement and drain the City’s coffers.
Costa Mesa will have to pay less. But how much less? So, let’s say total compensation (salary, health benefits, retirement, etc.) for an accountant averages to be $75K a year in other cities. Should Costa Mesa pay $50K in total compensation? It will save short term but the first thing a good accountant will do is try to apply elsewhere.
The reality is the current council majority all say they are fiscal conservatives yet they are the ones responsible for the deficit. Righeimer should be blaming the current council majority but he is not because they are trying to help him get elected. Righeimer is a joke. He’s horrible with money. He also wants to turn Costa Mesa into one big communist HOA. Leece and McEvoy are the only ones that will do what’s best for Costa Mesa.
But did she do the right think for the wrong reason? Until this week, Righeimer was the odds on favorite to get the most votes. With all the union money going to Chris McEroy (Sp?) Wendy probably saw herself losing.
But the papers reported this morning that a few hours before her vote, the union made an additional $26,000 contribution to the Costa Mesa First group and like magic hundreds of “Re-Elect Wendy Leece” appeared overnight.
Hm, a “Costa Mesa First” group? Would like to hear more about that.
E-mail response from an old well-connected friend (and centrist Republican) :
Vern,
Great post. you hit the nail on the head with Fleshboy.
I will bet dimes to dollars that Jerbal is on the periphery smelling out the wordsmithing opportunities. Especially with respect to the $256 million line item veto on Stage 3 childcare and the Speaker’s contribution of $6 million and his parallel request that the State First 5 Commission and the County First 5 Commissions reallocate $54 million of their funds to cover stage 3 childcare for women graduates of CalWORKS.
Do I see money out of Jerbie’s pocket? This guy is scum and is a good example of why the CRP is in shambles state wide. What do you think would happen to Fleshboy and Jerbie Cunningham if Maldonado was elected to Lt. Governor? A moderate centrist as the titular head of the state CRP? Amazing to think?
With both Whitman and Fiorina going down in flames by wide margins, I will be looking forward to attending the postmortem that UCB IGS does after every gubernatorial election (the last was with the Angelides and Schwarzenegger campaign staff) and the consistent review by experienced watchers (from both Stanford and Berkeley) that moderate Reeps get elected state wide-ideologically purist Reeps running statewide go down in flames. The best example is Schwarzenegger and Poizner who ran centrist statewide campaigns in 2006 and were elected hands down.
The interesting thing here is that a Tom Campbell-Abel Maldonado ticket would have beaten a Brown-Newsom ticket hands down. The internal polling indicates, given the state of the economy in California and the anger of all voters, that Campbell would have shown his tremendous grasp of the state fiscal condition and his policy options for dealing with it and beaten Brown 55-60% to 35-40%. The ideological purists cannot handle the reality of that fact. What butfresses this is the tremendous bleed of Republicans away from Whitman to Brown and the huge turn of registered Republicans to decline to state registration.
And yes, if you are wondering, I did vote for Brown over Whitman and Boxer over Fiorina. The key was experience and seniority over a huge lack of experience in how our democracy works.
More on Costa Mesa First
From Friday’s OC Register:
Employee unions donated $26,000 to Costa Mesa First on Monday, the day before Leece cast the deciding vote on a controversial contract extension for the unions. The unions were granted three- and four-year extensions Tuesday, even though the city has slashed services and burned through reserves during the economic downturn.
Since then, Costa Mesa First has blanketed the city with blue and orange signs promoting Leece and McEvoy.
Millard is an a$$hole. What has he actually done for Costa Mesa?
Hey David, yeah we blanketed the city with signs , than about eight hundred were stolen…