Late-night decision by Costa Mesa City Council could have waited

Geoff West

Once again, the City Council bit off more than it could chew, and

once again, it resulted in the exercise of some pretty poor judgment.

At the City Council meeting, which began Sept. 7 and ended Sept.

8, the “leadership” chose to juggle the agenda and place extremely

important issues at the end of the meeting.

That decision meant a discussion regarding the configuration of

the beleaguered legal department did not begin until midnight. By

that time, what was a standing-room-only crowd five hours earlier had

dwindled to a few die-hards at the end, so the decision on this

critical issue was made in a “public forum” in name only. This issue

was not time-sensitive, so it could have been deferred to a later

meeting, when a larger cross-section of the public could have had a

chance to make their voices heard.

Sadly, Mayor Gary Monahan chose to plow ahead. So, at 12:50 a.m.,

Sept. 8 -- after almost an hour of debate -- the council voted 3-2 to

disband the in-house legal department and to begin negotiations with

outside firms to contract these services. Mike Scheafer was the swing

vote, with Allan Mansoor and Chris Steel voting no.

I’m not saying this may not have been the right decision. As even

the most casual observer of city matters over the past couple of

years can tell you, the city has been embroiled in one costly legal

issue after another -- including a lawsuit by our own city attorney.

Clearly, time was ripe for change and the two-member subcommittee

assigned to study this issue -- Mayor Monahan and Councilwoman Libby

Cowan -- spearheaded the charge. It’s curious that these two members,

lame-ducks, chose to make this change as they head off into the

sunset.

Cowan chose not to run again this fall and Monahan will soon begin

his last two years of what will probably be a dozen in office. It’s

also curious that they were reportedly among those listed in the

lawsuit by former City Atty. Jerry Scheer. To further compound this

display of poor judgment, the council began deliberating changes to

the appeals process at 1 a.m. -- another issue that could have easily

been deferred to a future meeting.

This apparently nearly drove one of the few observers remaining,

former mayor Sandra Genis, to tears and had her quoting Abraham

Lincoln near the end. Actions like these are the reason there are a

dozen people running for City Council this time around. By delaying

important issues until the wee hours in the morning, the council

effectively stifled most anticipated disagreement by the public.

The proverbial smoke-filled room the Brown Act was designed to

forestall was replaced by a sleep-deprived decision-making process

early that Wednesday morning. To paraphrase Genis as she addressed

the council on this issue, shame on them.

* GEOFF WEST is a resident of Costa Mesa.