Costa Mesa native America Arias recently was the recipient of her second Emmy Award winning the Best Newscast-Evening Larger Markets at the 45th Annual Northern California Area Emmy Awards ceremony.

Arias, a news producer for KCRA 3 News in Sacramento, was honored along with anchors Gulstan Dart, Edie Lambert and Anchors reporters Melinda Meza, Kevin Oliver for their coverage of two major wildfires that triggered massive evacuations and left many Northern California communities in ruins.

The news crews covered three counties, looking into evacuations, the emergency response, and the fire’s rapid growth.

This is Arias’s second Emmy Award. She also won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Daytime Newscast while working for KFSN-TV ABC 30 in Fresno.

“I feel incredibly blessed and proud to work with a talented and passionate team at KCRA-TV,” said Arias, who grew up on Costa Mesa’s Westside and attended Newport Harbor High School. “Thanks to everyone in front of the camera and behind the scenes who made this possible. It’s an honor to produce a show alongside so many talented people who worked tirelessly to create a smart, polished and award-winning newscast.” 

Click the links here to see the winning newscast and her acceptance speech.

Interim Recreation Manager Justin Martin has been named as the city’s new Recreation Manger.

Assistant Chief Executive Officer Tamara Letourneau announced that the vacant Recreation Manager position would be filled by Martin. Serving as Interim Recreation Manager for the past several months and with extensive knowledge in youth programming, teen programming, camps, contract classes, recreation needs and parks, Martin is the perfect candidate.

Martin has been the city’s Recreation Supervisor since December 2014 and filled the roll of Interim Recreation Manger over the last few months with a seamless transition.

“Justin brings many years of experience in recreation to this position,” Letourneau said. “He has shown the ability to create a vision and lead a team to accomplish that vision with the utmost professionalism, integrity and creativity.”

With his extensive knowledge of the community and programming, Martin will continue to shape the city and it’s recreation needs through his new role.

With the  departure of Public Services Director Ernesto Munoz, CEO Tom Hatch has brought aboard public services veteran James G. Ross as the interim director.

Ross, who started working with the city on Monday June 13, has supported municipalities and public agencies at an executive management level for the past 34 years, specializing in public works and water departments.

He has managed staffs of more than 400 people and oversaw capital improvement program budgets of $200 million. He has served on the board of directors and has been president of the Public Works Institute for the League of California Cities.

Ross has previously been the Executive Director of Public Works for the City of Santa Ana, the Principal Projects Manager of the city of Irvine, Associate Engineer for the City of Costa Mesa and engineer jobs for the Port and City of Los Angeles.

Mayor Steve Mensinger, on behalf of the City Council, has sent a sharply worded letter to two high ranking legislative leaders announcing the city’s opposition to a proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown that would eliminate city regulations and review of specific affordable housing developments.

The city is asking Assembly Member Adrin Nazarian, chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee and state Sen. Richard Roth, chair of the Senate Budget Subcommittee, to put the brakes on any legislative action that would pass the governor’s proposal, saying it undermines local government and public engagement and will increase the public’s distrust of government.

“The City of Costa Mesa is supportive of efforts to increase affordable housing opportunities for California’s residents, especially in Orange County,” Mayor Mensinger wrote. “However, your proposed language to streamline affordable housing weakens the ability for local governments to review or approve projects in their communities.”

To see the full text of the letter click here.

The Public Services Engineering Division received news that longtime fellow employee, Bart Mejia, has been promoted to City Engineer.

Chief Executive Officer Tom Hatch, alongside Public Service Director Ernesto Munoz, announced earlier today that the vacant City Engineer position would be filled by Mejia. With more than 28 years of professional experience in engineering and project management, including the past 25 years of dedicated service to the City of Costa Mesa, Mejia will make a smooth transition into his new role.

“His soft but firm personality, professionalism and dedication make Bart an ideal choice to lead the Engineering Division of our Department,” Munoz said. “He has been intimately involved with the development of the Fairview Park Master Plan and managed the construction of many of the Plan’s elements.”

Mejia is a registered engineer in the State of California and a graduate from California State University Long Beach, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering. Mejia has also completed post baccalaureate courses from the Water Resources Specialization in the Master of Science in Civil Engineering Program.

With his already active role in many of the city’s public works projects, Mejia will continue to shape the city through his vision.

As part of the city’s outreach to residents regarding the voting district measure on the November ballot, there will be two more Community Meetings on Wednesday June 15 and Saturday June 18 with Demographer David Ely.

Further, citizens who are interested in submitting their own district maps can do so online here at the city’s Voting District Formation web page. Once you click on the link, scroll to the bottom of the page under Distributing Kit and click on the link that says Instruction on drawing your own map.

Below are the dates, times and locations where the meetings will take place:

On Tuesday June 7, Costa Mesa Mayor Steve Mensinger honored longtime resident Kirk McIntosh with the Mayor’s Award for his years of involvement as the director of the annual Pilot Cup soccer tournament.

“You’re one the people who make our city special,” Mensinger said, noting that the event had 213 teams competing this year. “For Kirk and his legion of volunteers to pull off a tournament of this magnitude every year is extraordinary.”

The Pilot Cup started 17 years ago and was the brainchild of McIntosh, a father of five soccer playing girls. He presented his idea to Daily Pilot editors and publisher Tom Johnson and the rest is history.

McIntosh, who attended the meeting with his wife Sue as well as some of his children and grandchildren, said the event wouldn’t be possible without volunteers.

“As we all know it’s nice to be recognized and I wish I could bring some others up here as this event requires a lot of volunteer participation.,” he said. “But there is a lot of happy kids and happy families. I thank you for this award and I’ll share it with the other folks who should also be up here.”

The Pilot Cup originally started with only 500 players but has grown to 2,500 players from third to sixth grade and every school in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District competes as well as local private schools.

Less than 24 hours after yesterday’s mainline break, the line is repaired and Fairview is open

Fire Department Management Analyst Alma Reyes was the recipient of May’s CEO Leadership Award.

Our video team spent some time with Reyes to get an idea of what her workday is like.

Northbound Fairview Road (Baker Street to McCormick) is closed due to a Mesa Water District (MWD) water main break.

Northbound traffic will be detouring at Baker Street.

The Bismark Way neighborhood will be affected by the water main shut down.

Public Services is working with Mesa Water District on the road closure, signal timing and  traffic control and coordination.

Our Engineering Division will be assessing the road condition and determining the extent of the damage.

 The duration of the closure has not been determined at this time.  

Two of the four community meetings with demographic mapping expert David Ely, of Compass Demographics, are set to begin this week on June 2 and 4.

The meetings are designed to introduce residents to the concept of districts and give them an opportunity to discuss and interact with others on the district mapping process.

These two meetings will be identical; attend the one most convenient for you.

Neighborhood Community Center
Thursday, June 2, 2016, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
1845 Park Ave. Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Halecrest Park
Saturday, June 4, 2016, 10 a.m. to noon.
3107 Killybrooke Lane Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Translators will be present to assist with language needs in Spanish and Vietnamese.

R.S.V.P.’s are requested, but not required, to help plan for the number of attendees and translation needs.

For more information or to R.S.V.P., please email districtelections@costamesaca.gov or call the City Clerk’s office at (714) 754-5225.

At the May Meet and Greet, City CEO Tom Hatch presented Management Analyst Alma Reyes with the CEO Leadership Award.

Reyes has been with the City of Costa Mesa since January of 2011, where she began her first job as a Management Analyst for the Public Services Department. In April of 2013, she transferred into the Parks and Community Services Department to serve as both the Management Analyst and Recreation Supervisor.

In November of 2015, Reyes moved into the Fire & Rescue Department to serve as a Management Analyst and Chief Dan Stefano praised her passion for public service, team value orientation and engaged professionalism.

She provides support to the Fire & Rescue Department in the following areas: Budget preparation, procurement of supplies and equipment, processing invoices, contract administration, managing/tracking funds, monitoring of department budget, and special projects (i.e. CIPs).

She also serves in various city committees.

Prior to working in Costa Mesa, Reyes worked for 10 years for the City of Hawaiian Gardens in various areas of local government including: Administration, Public Relations, Public Safety, Public Works, Recreation, Code Enforcement and Finance.

In addition to honoring Reyes, CEO Hatch welcomed three new employees, recognized three more for promotions and congratulated Public Services Director Ernesto Munoz on his upcoming retirement.