Commentary: Let’s be done with free spending, neglected roads

At a recent Costa Mesa City Council meeting, Councilwoman Katrina Foley raised a great point about the need to have prioritized goals for the city.

To expedite my colleague’s request, I’ve asked city CEO Tom Hatch to schedule in the near future a council study session where we can come up with a list of the top priorities that our city government needs to tackle.

Over the past four years, our City Council, under the leadership of mayors Eric Bever and Jim Righeimer, passed conservative budgets that resulted in significant surpluses.

We’ve made major progress in replenishing our reserves, which past councils had dipped into during the recession to the tune of more than $30 million. And we’ve reinvested in neglected infrastructure, as evidenced by the smooth roads, repaved alleys, fixed sidewalks, landscaped medians and improved drainage systems throughout our city.

We’ve also made progress on some serious problems that had been ignored for years if not decades: problem motels, homelessness and issues surrounding some group homes. And we’ve started to replace aging and overcrowded apartment complexes, junkyards and rundown businesses on the Westside with quality housing projects that are making Costa Mesa one of the hippest cities in which to live.

As a businessman who has run several $100-million-plus companies, I understand the need to establish priorities so that everyone clearly sees the organization’s goals and knows where to put the human and financial resources.

I think the city’s top priorities should include a holistic approach to public safety, the hiring of additional police officers, the building of a new central library, and continued emphasis on infrastructure investment, transparency and fiscal conservatism, including balanced budgets and the buildup of our reserves.

We can never go back to the old days where we overspent on unsustainable employee pensions, neglected our infrastructure and spent freely from our reserves.

I look forward to the City Council and community taking up this conversation.

STEVE MENSINGER is the mayor of Costa Mesa.