Yesterday, a young man jumped to his death in Costa Mesa after being given an unnecessary layoff notice. The layoff notices were caused by a highly biased PERS presentation created by City staff, not Cal PERS people or actuaries, that shows the City running out of money due to pensions. Righeimer and company then declared that there's a huge fiscal emergency and all of the public employees must go.
Employees, family and community gathered at City Hall to try to make some sense of what had happened. Councilmember Wendy Leece was there, as was former Councilmember Katrina Foley (now on Newport-Mesa School Board.) Also there was former Mayor Sandi Genis. Sandi hasn't been Mayor for at least 10 years, but she came out to show support and to find out how to help. Newport Rib Company sent over food for the mourners.
Councilmembers Jim Righeimer and Steve Mensinger weren't there because he had to be escorted off the property by Costa Mesa Police after getting into a fistfight. They were told to leave for his own safety.
And where was current Mayor Gary "Skosh" Monahan? Getting his Irish on at Skosh Monahan's, the bar he owns. (This is the bar where FMW worked out the deal for the Fairgrounds on a napkin.) Monahan told reporters that he was sorry, but well, he's gotta tend bar! St. Patrick's Day is the busiest day of the year for him, and he needs to keep his priorities straight.
Newport Rib Company, which has a long history of supporting the Costa Mesa community, sent over a large amount of food, for free, to the mourners. Mayor Gary Monahan, who runs his bar in the same building that did a big catering business when Newport Rib had the property, didn't send over food. If Monahan was too busy tending bar on the biggest night of the year for him, he could have at least handed his credit card to one of his employees (who get hired and fired on such a regular basis that Monahan doesn't feel it any more) and had them call a restaurant and pay for food to be sent over.
And remember this was caused by financial presentations that were crafted to create a crisis. Costa Mesa lies and a man dies.
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