Effective or "Touchy-Feelee"

Better roads require 

drive to accomplish

Watching the Mayor and Pro Tem work during the past year brought to mind a Chief of Surgery at a military hospital, many years ago. The staff would all have cancelled and connived to get him as the surgeon for their surgery -- or their family's. However, they cancelled and connived at least as hard to avoid working in the operating room with him.

Excellent work, caustic criticism

He was irascible, demanding, and an extreme perfectionist. Other surgeons feared him, too, because of his caustic criticism of their failings. Morbidity and Mortality conferences, where medical folks meet to discuss cases that went either well or poorly, were well-attended (Chief’s orders) and dreaded (Chief’s presence). No one ate the breakfast supplied at the meeting, and many didn't sleep well the night before M&M conferences.

Dr. Z spared no words on someone who made a mistake – it would be a long time before anyone in the room ever made that mistake again. So, after about a year with Dr. Z as Chief, most surgical staff errors were small and subtle. Surgery was safer, faster, and more competent in all surgical departments. Overflow fastidiousness improved the nursing services, the Medical (non-surgical ill) service and even the housekeeping services.

Dr. Z demanded perfection and improvement – from himself as well as from every member of the staff.

In Costa Mesa 

When we see the accomplishments of the City Council majority we remember Dr. Z’s insistence that every job be done perfectly, or at least close. And that it be done better next time. In Costa Mesa we are seeing roads and gutters being redesigned and repaired and fixed correctly after years of neglect and patching and slurry.

We see the City’s Reserve funds, spent down from $35M by previous councils, being restored dollar by dollar. We see Fairview Park getting some of the attention we promised for it a decade ago – which the Councils since that time have ignored and refuse to fund.

We see award-winning transparency, enforced by ordinance. We see the Westside starting to rise into prominence and importance after years of being ignored. We see the problems generated by the Problem Motels being addressed for the first time since they were identified,tabled and ignored more than a decade ago.

He doesn't talk soft and nice

But, “the Mayor’s harsh” with people who interrupt and delay Council meetings. The Council majority insisted on learning what the employees were being paid to do. (This required “pink slips” per labor union contract, although the Mayor assured the employees that no one was expected to lose their job, regardless of the study’s outcome.) 

Note that teachers face these “pink slips” repeatedly; they’re just part of the procedure required by union contracts. (Yes, some prefer the term “Association Memorandums of Understanding” but there’s no essential difference in meaning, just in length of terms.)

The Mayor and the Pro Tem don’t always talk softly and never talk timidly. They demand excellence for Costa Mesa. They serve the citizens of the City, without capitulation to the agitators and other power brokers. They don’t talk sweetly and pontificate about abstract “good things;” instead they meet their responsibilities as elected leaders.

Accomplishment admired, style -- not so much

Similar to the Dr. Z story above, a lot of cities would like a council majority like ours. But, also similarly, the critics in our City don’t like his manner. They enjoy the improved roads and alleys and parks, but they hate the Mayor who speaks directly, sometimes very directly -- and drives the improvements.

 Perhaps we should all get used to hearing truth spoken “directly” as we enjoy the fruits of jobs done well – and done better every time.