City Council Member Sandra Genis and City staff, along with more than 400 local leaders from throughout California, gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 11 for the Southern California Association of Governments’ California Housing Summit, “The Cost of Not Housing.”

The event brought government, business and community leaders together to address the state’s housing crisis and share strategies for addressing it. The summit opened with a panel of experts familiar with the housing crisis, who discussed why California is experiencing a housing deficit, and the extent of its economic, environmental and social costs.

Breakout sessions investigated different avenues for mitigating the housing shortage: funding strategies including incentive programs state-authorized systems, integrating housing into planning at all levels and public engagement to demonstrate community benefits of housing projects.

The summit concluded with a call to decision-makers across the state to build stakeholder partnerships and say “yes” to housing.

The Public Services Department advertised the “Bristol Street Improvement project” for construction with a scheduled bid date of Oct. 31, 2016. This much-needed improvement project will extend along Bristol Street from the I-405 Freeway to Newport Boulevard and includes roadway resurfacing, new storm drain catch basins, new landscaped medians, new traffic signal installation, and a storm water diversion project.

This project represents more than $6.5 million in improvements with funding coming from various sources including Federal, State and County agencies, gas tax and local funds.

This project will provide a smoother ride along this stretch of Bristol Street, better operational conditions for vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and improve the water quality of the Back Bay area by providing treatment for some of the storm water runoff.

Construction is anticipated to begin in early 2017.

The Costa Mesa City Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing Proposition 57 and joined a growing chorus of cities, law enforcement officials and district attorneys who oppose the ballot measure that will reduce prison sentences and allow more opportunities for convicted felons to apply for parole.

Click  here to read the resolution.

Also, in a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown, Costa Mesa Mayor Stephen Mensinger took direct aim at the statewide initiative, which is backed by the governor.

“Proposition 57 will undermine the work that has been put into stopping sexual assault, domestic violence, and human trafficking and weakens legislation protecting victims,” Mensinger wrote. “Important legislation such as the Victim’s Bill of Rights, Mary’s Law, Californians against Sexual Exploitation Act, and the Gang Violence and Juvenile Crime Prevention Act will become weaker if Proposition 57 passes.”

Click here to read the entire letter.

Costa Mesa joins the League of California Cities, prominent Police Chiefs, District Attorneys and law enforcement agencies and associations throughout the state in ardent opposition to the Proposition 57, which appears on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Like many cities in the state of California, Costa Mesa is feeling the effects of statewide laws and ballot measures that aimed to lessen the prison population but have in turn put more criminals back on the street prematurely.

According the League of Cities, California has experienced increased and sustained property crime in the aftermath of the 2011 public safety realignment and the passage of Proposition 47 in 2014, leading to an increasing number of crimes being treated as misdemeanors, aggravating a pre-existing shortage of beds in county jails, and resulting in an increasing number of offenders being at liberty on the streets of California’s cities.

The league also points to reports in the Los Angeles Times that show violent crime rose in California by 10% in 2015, a figure corroborated by crime statistics maintained by the state’s Department of Justice, which indicate that over 15,000 more violent crimes occurred in California in 2015 than in 2014.

At its Oct. 4 meeting, the City Council voted 4-0 to approve a resolution officially opposing Proposition 57, citing its potential to further increase levels of violent crime.

As campaign season heats up and political signs are prominent throughout the city, residents may not be aware that the City Council adopted a new ordinance this year governing the placement of campaign signs.

Under the new ordinance, political campaign signs are now considered “non-commercial portable signs” in the City of Costa Mesa.  Non-commercial portable signs are defined as: Any sign which can be moved from place to place which is not permanently affixed to the ground or to a building that is not used for commercial purposes.

Examples of non-commercial signs generally include, but are not limited to, signs that promote a political or religious viewpoint, and signs commenting on public officials(s) or matter(s) of public discourse.

Non-commercial portable signs may be displayed in Costa Mesa if they comply with Costa Mesa Municipal Code Section 13-123.

To learn more about non-commercial portable signs and commercial portable signs, here is the link to the Sign Code.

Below are answers to some Frequently Asked Questions about political signs and the new ordinance:

Q: When may non-commercial portable signs be posted?

A:   In the six weeks before the upcoming Nov. 8 election, non-commercial portable signs may remain in the public parkways without any weekday restrictions.  Non-commercial portable signs may also be placed on private properties, subject to the same time frames as those placed in public parkways — including the six-week extension before the election.  Commercial portable signs are still only allowed to be installed in the public rights-of-ways between 6 a.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Sunday.

Q: Where may the non-commercial portable signs be posted?

A: The signs may be posted on any landscaped parkway, or on private property with the consent of the property owner, lessee, or occupant.

Q: Where are non-commercial portable signs not allowed to be posted?

A: Signs may not be posted on:  Utility poles; roadway signs; traffic control boxes; bus shelters; in tree wells; center median islands; overhanging a curb, sidewalk, or driveway or anywhere that obstructs visibility of pedestrian or vehicular traffic; within 15 feet of a fire hydrant, intersection of an alley, street, or highway; or within 15 feet of a driveway.  Additionally, they may not be posted in front of public facilities such as libraries, schools, city hall, and parks and must be placed a minimum of 100 feet away from any polling place.

Q: What happens to non-commercial portable signs that are not legally posted?

A: City staff will remove signs posted in violation of the Municipal Code.  Signs will be stored for 10 days and then can be disposed of unless the owner of the seized sign contacts the City’s Code Enforcement Division within that 10-day period.

Q: When must non-commercial portable signs be removed?

A: Signs must be removed within 10 days after the election.

Q: How will a sign owner know whether the City or a vandal removed a sign?

A:  Signs removed by the City are tracked and stored as noted above.  The owner can contact the Code Enforcement Division at 714-754-5623.

Q: What are the size limits for non-commercial portable signs?

A: In public rights-of-ways, signs may not exceed 5 square feet in area with a maximum height of 3 feet above grade.  On private properties, non-commercial portable signs may not exceed 5 square feet in area with a maximum height of 6 feet above grade.

Q: Are there any restrictions regarding non-commercial banners?

A:  Since the Sign Code is currently silent as regards to non-commercial banners, they are subject to the same requirements as a commercial banner except that no permit is required.  They may be placed only on a building or freestanding sign; identification must be placed on signs; they may be installed up to 6 weeks before the applicable election; and they must be removed within 10 days after the election.

Q:  Does the City require a security bond to be posted to ensure removal of non-commercial portable signs following the election?

A:  No, the City does not require a security bond for non-commercial portable signs.  However, the owner of the signs must affix their name, address, and telephone number on the sign prior to installation.

Maximum area permitted for:

• Residential zones:  0.5 square feet per dwelling unit/100 square feet maximum per site
• All other zones:  0.5 square feet per lineal foot of building frontage facing the street; minimum 25 square feet per tenant with a maximum of 75 square feet per tenant.

If you have any further questions, please call Code Enforcement at 714-754-5623.

City officials plan to christen the new Harbor Boulevard Cornerstone Bike Trail on Saturday Oct. 8 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and bike parade that will begin on the new multipurpose trail and continue along for a 3.75-mile trek.

The event will take place between 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. near the intersection of Fair Drive and Harbor Boulevard.

Parking will be available in the Fairview Developmental Center parking lot.

At the event, a dedication plaque will be unveiled that contains the names of the City Council members, City CEO and City Engineer.

The mayor and members of the council are expected to be in attendance.

Immediately after the plaque unveiling, members of the public can take part in a free bike registration and a raffle for a new bike. In addition, the public is invited to participate in the bike parade.

The improvements to the trail, which spans the west side of Harbor Boulevard between Fair Drive and Merrimac Way, consisted of the removal of the old asphalt trail and concrete sidewalk, and construction of a 12-foot wide, colored concrete multipurpose trail.

Low-level lighting and a new irrigation system has been installed and the turf was replaced with drought tolerant shrubs, ground cover, boulders and mulch. Sixteen Queen Palms and 31 box trees have also been planted.

The OC Public Works department has begun work on the Lower Santa Ana River Sand Management project. The project involves removing up to 840,000 cubic yards of accumulated sand in the lowest 3.5 miles of the Santa Ana River to maintain design flood protection. Beach compatible sand will be taken to various beaches within Orange County for beach nourishment. This is a reoccurring maintenance project that was last done by the Army Corps of Engineers in 2004/05.

This current maintenance effort began late August/early September this year and will take about six months to complete. As part of the 2004/05 maintenance work and this current work, the county’s contractor needs to close off the east bike path between PCH and Victoria/Hamilton bridge to the public because the contractor will be using this reach of the bike path for access to adjacent staging areas and access to equipment within the river. The west side bike path/trail will remain open. The contractor will prepare and implement a bike/pedestrian detour plan.

A bike detour plan sign will be installed at various locations along the Santa Ana River east levee. The metal sign will be installed at both ends of the closure and three locations upstream for advance notification to trail users. The county will post this detour map on the OC Parks website and OC Public Works website to inform the public of the upcoming closure. This sign is in addition to the DETOUR and TRAIL CLOSURE signs installed at both ends of the closure.

The city of Costa Mesa has launched an online interactive Road Condition Map for residents and commuters to lookup road conditions and future streets rehab schedules on City streets.

Click here for the map and a tutorial on how to use it.

The Road Condition Map application shows streets in different colors based on 2015-2016 road condition PCI (Pavement Condition Index).

The results rated from Very Good (blue) to Very Poor (red).

Commuters can highlight the street and click to see details on the road condition and future rehab schedule for that specific street segment they selected.

This application is created by city staff members from the Public Services Department and Information Technology Department.

Road condition information and future rehab schedule are part of the city’s over all Capital Improvement Projects (CIP).

All information will be updated annually or sooner when there is an update.

Beginning Monday Sept. 26, Costa Mesa Sanitary District will conduct mostly night operations to install a new pressure sewer main (force main) from the west side of the Harbor/Wilson intersection to the east side of the intersection to increase reliability and life expectancy of the sanitary sewer system. The force main is a critical component of the infrastructure and the method of construction is the least disruptive of the available options for installation.

The project will last approximately four weeks and the majority of the work will be performed during night time hours in order to minimize disruptions. Sewer service will not be interrupted during the project, however, traffic impacts will occur and residents and businesses are encouraged to use the pre-arranged detours. The District and its contractor will attempt to minimize inconveniences and complete the work in an efficient and expedient manner. The District apologizes in advance for any noise and inconveniences that may occur.

A combination of sound fiscal policy and a thriving retail environment, along with expenditures lower than anticipated for a variety of factors, has resulted in a significant budget surplus of an estimated $11 million for the City of Costa Mesa.

At the end of the last fiscal year on June 30, 2016, the city’s revenues totaled more than $122.5 million while expenditures were $111.4 million. That surplus represents 9 percent of the total revenues.

 “We have made concerted efforts to keep our spending under control while still providing great customer service to our residents by rebuilding our older infrastructure, investing in new capital improvement projects and hiring top-level staffing in city departments,” said Mayor Steve Mensinger.

The mayor called this a proud moment for the City of Costa Mesa.

 “A significant amount of hard work, difficult decisions and favorable business conditions have resulted in this environment for success,” he said. “Many people deserve thanks for their contributions, especially my fellow council colleagues, commissioners, city staff, the business community and Costa Mesa residents.”

Indeed, the City Council now has the opportunity to determine where to allocate the surplus money and could follow its established policy of using surplus funds to increase reserves, reduce pension debt and increase expenditures on capital projects.

The process for the last two years has been for staff to bring a recommendation to the City Council’s Financial Advisory Committee around November or December and the City Council review the Committee’s recommendation as part of the council’s Mid-Year Budget Review in February.

Based on the City Council’s policy and based on prior budget discussions, staff will likely recommend that the committee increase the general fund reserves by $2.66 million, which will immediately allow the city to reach the Council’s $55 million reserve goal.

The council can also recommend a number of measures, including paying down pension debt and other debt obligations as well as funding projects and enhancing various community priorities.

Speaking to a crowd of about 150 spectators in front of City Hall, Police Chief Rob Sharpnack announced that Costa Mesa will join other law enforcement and social services agencies in the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force to crack down on sex trade criminals who are leaving a wake of young victims throughout the county.

“It’s truly an honor for the Costa Mesa Police Department to join this effort,” Chief Sharpnack said as he urged members of the public to report incidents of human trafficking that they may witness through the National Hotline number at 1-888-3737-888. “You can be the one to help a victim find safety and new hope.”

Sharpnack announced that human trafficking is on the increase in Orange County and Costa Mesa Police will assign one full-time officer to the human trafficking detail.

“It’s the second largest criminal enterprise in the world and it is the fastest growing,” Chief Sharpnack said.

https://youtu.be/xEoN2Rc4ZLI

Chief Sharpnack was joined by Mayor Steve Mensinger, Anaheim Police Deputy Chief Julian Harvey, Director of Victim Assistance Programs for Community Services Programs Lita Mercado and District Attorney Tony Rackaukus at a press conference in front of City Hall on Friday morning Sept. 9.

Also in attendance were Councilmembers Katrina Foley and Jim Righeimer and many law enforcement personnel from throughout the county.

“Costa Mesa will do everything in our power to combat human trafficking in our city, as well as support this important regional effort” Mayor Mensinger said.

Mercado’s group, the Community Services Programs based in Santa Ana, cofounded the task force in 2004, which consists of law enforcement personnel from Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, Irvine, the California Highway Patrol, the OC Sheriff, the FBI, Homeland Security, the U.S. Attorney and OC District Attorney office.

Since 2004, the task force has worked to identify the origin of the victims and how they wound up being part of this tragic trend. Only a little more than 20 percent come from Orange County, though much of the trafficking occurs here with the pimps using Beach and Harbor Boulevards as major corridors.

The task force aided and provided assistance to 580 sex and labor trafficking victims.

In addition the task force not only goes after the pimps who brutalize these young victims and exploit them as sex slaves, but also those who pay to have sex with them.

“We now have the purchasers of sex in our sights,” Anaheim Deputy Chief Harvey said. “We will be looking for you and you will go to jail.”

District Attorney Rackauckus also noted there was an uptick in violence against those kept captive and he provided gruesome details of some of the injuries these young women, and in some cases children, receive. He said that his office has experienced more and more gang members, many from the Fresno area, taking part in these illegal activities and he vowed to put the perpetrators behind bars.

“We are working to get them the longest sentences possible so we can put them out of business,” he said.

Click here for more information and links to data on the OC Human Trafficking Task Force website. And click here for more information on Community Service Programs.

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Maintenance Division staff, in coordination with CleanStreets, recently performed pressure washing on 19th Street to clean up areas that were becoming increasingly dirty and unhealthful. And in recent weeks, the city has also worked Clear Channel to clean up some of the bus benches and shelters throughout the city, which had also become health hazards.

For the early morning pressure washing, City workers picked up all the debris left from the homeless prior to washing. Also, using two graffiti trucks, CleanStreets accomplished quite a bit in two hours prior to the start of rush hour.

They pressure washed the soup kitchen area, which was extremely filthy and covered in gum, and then pressure washed the entire length of west bound 19th from Meyer to Pomona, which included The Tower.

They then pressure washed the east bound sidewalk from the Senior Center all the way to McDonald’s. Most of the wash water was directed into the adjacent City shrub planters, with the sweeper picking up any water that went into the street in the areas without landscape. While the city did its best with the steam cleaner, it was only able to remove small amounts of the gum that had accumulated.

Everything was completed in two hours. Residents with street sweeping requests are encouraged to call 714-327-7471 or the Street Sweeping Hotline (Parking Enforcement): 714-754-5290.

At a recent City Council meeting, Charlene Kass, a resident of The Master’s Circle in Eastside Costa Mesa, alerted the city about construction related issues she and her neighbors were experiencing from the construction taking place at the Santa Ana Country Club.

Kass said the residents of her neighborhood were dealing with dust, dirt on the roadways, a large dead tree that they felt should be removed and other construction related concerns.

Members of the Development Services team reached out to the Joseph Wagner, general manager of the country club to address the issue.

Wagner met with Kass, gave her a tour of the course and an update on the construction, which is now complete.

He reported to Development Services that the issues have been resolved and that Ms. Kass was glad to see the tree that appeared dead was now growing leaves and it will be saved.