Costa Mesa mayor seeks changes to council meeting format

In his third session as Costa Mesa’s mayor on Tuesday, Steve Mensinger will suggest a series of changes to the council meeting format, including a slightly earlier start time and a revise of the public comment period.

Under Mensinger’s directives, which would need majority approval, council meetings would start at 5:45 p.m., 15 minutes earlier. Public comments on matters not on the agenda would be accepted around 6 to 6:40 p.m., allowing more than a dozen to speak for three minutes.

The new structure would alter the format set up by his predecessor, Mayor Jim Righeimer. That system allowed 10 randomly chosen people to talk early in the meeting and those not picked to speak at the end.

Most meetings have 15 public commenters or fewer, Mensinger said, making the 40-minute period sufficient.

He said his ultimate goal is to get the “business of the people” — public hearings, old business and new business — started by 7 p.m.

“Every mayor’s got a different style, a different approach,” he said. “I think if everybody works together, we can get all the comments taken care of.”

If public comments threaten to go beyond 6:40, Mensinger said, they could be allowed then or continued to the end of the meeting.

“It will be a case-by-case basis,” he said.

Mensinger added that he wants to see attendees with agenda-related concerns waiting less.

“People who are coming have been working on projects, sometimes for two or three years,” he said. “They’re coming to get their work done ... it’s not fair to have them sit out there for two hours because council members or the public want to say the same thing over and over.”

Mensinger’s proposals have already sparked the ire of council critics, including Eastside blogger Geoff West, who compared Mensinger to a “big dog” marking “his turf.”

West wrote Dec. 30 on his blog, A Bubbling Cauldron, that Mensinger is attempting “to leave his personal footprint squarely on the neck of concerned residents by tinkering with an already-flawed public commenting system to potentially make it even more onerous.”

Other critics, primarily the dozen or so City Hall regulars, called Righeimer’s system a stifling of their First Amendment rights and an example of a council that couldn’t handle criticism.

Righeimer contended that he was trying to be fair to everyone and help city move business along.

Mensinger noted that his changes also include limiting the personal remarks of the council members, also to three minutes.

He added that those who cannot attend Tuesday nights can speak with him in a variety of unofficial ways. He said he plans to have regular Sunday meeting times, a “walk with the mayor” on Fridays and coffee get-togethers upon request.

“The key is if you really want to solve an issue, I’ll make myself available for you,” Mensinger said. “If you want to get in front of the cameras and make a political statement, that’s not the way to get things done. But that’s your right.”