City of Costa Mesa Seeks Volunteers

City Seeks Volunteers To Sit On Parks And Recreation, Planning And Senior Commissions

The Costa Mesa City Council is currently seeking interested individuals from the community to serve on the following Commissions:

Parks and Recreation Commission – This Commission assists the City Council and various City departments with issues related to parks and parkways.  There are 2 vacancies each for four-year terms.  Applicants must be registered voters in the City.  For further information, please contact Recreation Manager Justin Martin at (714) 754-5065.

Planning Commission – This Commission derives its power from the provisions of the California Government Code, and has the power, by law, to act upon or recommend to the City Council: 1) the regulation of future growth, development, and beautification of the City in respect to its public and private works; 2) consistency with municipal plans to ensure that future growth and development do not impede upon sanitation, public utilities, and transportation facilities; 3) the location of any proposed buildings, structures or works; and, 4) the design and improvement of proposed subdivisions of the land.  There are 2 vacancies each for four-year terms.  Applicants must be registered voters in the City.  For further information, please contact Interim Assistant Development Services Director Peggy Schneble at (714) 754-5182.

Senior Commission – This Commission serves as an advisory body to the City Council in matters related to the operation of the Costa Mesa Senior Center.  There are 2 vacancies each for four-year terms and 1 vacancy for two-year terms. Applicants must be a Costa Mesa resident.  For further information, please contact Recreation Manager Justin Martin at (714) 754-5065.

Application Process – Residents who are interested in getting involved in local government are encouraged to complete a Committee Application Form from the City Clerk’s Office or from the City’s website (www.costamesaca.gov/apply).  The completed application may be submitted online; mailed to Costa Mesa City Clerk at Post Office Box 1200, Costa Mesa, California, 92628-1200; faxed to (714) 754-4942; emailed to cityclerk@costamesaca.gov; or hand-delivered to the City Clerk’s Office at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa.  The deadline is 5 p.m., Wednesday, January 18, 2017.  Appointments are tentatively scheduled for the February 7, 2017 City Council meeting.   For further information regarding commission appointments, please contact the City Clerk’s office at (714) 754-5225 or cityclerk@costamesaca.gov.

50 Years for Costa Mesa Snoopy House

Costa Mesa’s Snoopy House Hits 50 Years Of Making Families Merry For The Holiday Season

This year, the iconic Snoopy House will mark its 50-year anniversary in Costa Mesa and fifth year at City Hall with an expanded holiday display that will feature a new Main Street look and three nights of snow.

Snoopy House, which features holiday scenes populated by “Peanuts” characters, is a free event available for viewing at City Hall from 5:30 to 9 p.m. nightly from Dec. 10 through Dec. 23.

“It has been an honor to have Snoopy House here these past five years,” Costa Mesa Mayor Steve Mensinger said. “It’s a wonderful tradition that now further connects the community to City Hall.”

The opening night of Snoopy House will begin with a formal presentation by the mayor and City Council members at 5:30 p.m.

In addition, Jim Jordan, whose family started the display at their Eastside Costa Mesa home in 1966, will be honored for the 50-year tradition.

The Jordan family members and friends put together a series of Christmas scenes that eventually took up most of their front yard, side yard and even the roof of their home.

Since its inception, the display has attracted an estimated 80,000 visitors annually.

Snoopy House moved to Costa Mesa City Hall in 2011, when city officials learned the fate of the annual tradition was in jeopardy.

The city of Costa Mesa agreed to host the display and provide other assistance and has been doing so every year since with the help of devoted staff members as well as Jim Jordan and his wife Linda, who have worked to help create the City Hall display for the last five years.

Over the last five years, Snoopy House has added several new features including nightly live music, snow, free apple cider, free photos with Santa and free train rides for children.

To complement the Snoopy House, the city also puts on a nightly light show on the façade of City Hall.

The Santa visits take place each night between 7 to 9 p.m. beginning opening night, Dec. 10, through Dec. 23. Children and their families will have opportunities to receive free photos with Santa.

In addition, several youth nonprofit groups will have booths at the Snoopy House display each night selling beverages and snacks.

OC Fair & Event Center Opens OC Veterans Museum on Nov 11th

Heroes Hall Opening Set For This Veterans Day

The OC Fair & Event Center  will celebrate the Nov. 11 Veterans Day holiday Friday with a public dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Heroes Hall veterans museum at 1 p.m. at the OC Fair & Event Center.

Heroes Hall at the OC Fair & Event Center will be a permanent, year-round museum with exhibitions, performances and educational programs that celebrate the legacy of Orange County veterans and others who have served our nation. The two-story exhibition space will rotate themes semi-annually with each focusing on an aspect of the personal stories and experiences of veterans.

The event free to the public.

The fairgrounds property was once part of the Santa Ana Army Air Base, a 1,300-plus-acre training facility active during World War II. Orange Coast College, Vanguard University, Costa Mesa High School, Davis Elementary School, Tewinkle Park and several commercial and residential areas are also on former army air base land.

The dedication ceremony will be a salute to local veterans and veterans groups including Vincent Okamoto – the most decorated Japanese American veteran of the Vietnam War and a Los Angeles Superior Court judge – and Santa Ana Army Air Base veterans.

Approved by the OC Fair & Event Center Board of Directors in 2014, Heroes Hall is expected to encompass more than 12,000 square feet with indoor/outdoor exhibit space. Crews broke ground in March and the former “Memorial Gardens,” a two-story, 5,000-square-foot WWII-era building, was placed on the site in April to house exhibitions.

Crews have been diligently working on the building and the surrounding courtyard which includes a 50-foot-wide centerpiece designed after the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. military decoration that is awarded by Congress for gallantry and bravery in combat at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

The City of Costa Mesa donated $50,000 toward the construction of Heroes Hall.

Attendees on Friday are also invited to attend the free Veterans + Labor Community Celebration scheduled at the OC Fair & Event Center on the same day from 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Details for the community event are available here.

The Heroes Hall Veterans Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit, provides fundraising support for exhibitions, education, programs and operation. Information about how to become involved and make a contribution is available at ocheroeshall.org.

For more information about Heroes Hall  visit ocfair.com/heroeshall.

Heroes Hall is at the OC Fair & Event Center, which is located off the 405 and 55 freeways at 88 Fair Drive in Costa Mesa. For more information about the event center, please visit ocfair.com, become a fan on Facebook.com/OCFair, follow at twitter.com/ocfair or call (714) 708-1500.

Veterans Day Touch to ARTventure

Second Annual ARTventure Adds A Veterans Day Touch And Expands To Multiple Venues

The City of Costa Mesa’s second annual juried art exhibition, ARTventure, this year will feature a special tribute to coincide with Veterans Day, offering up free photographic portraits to those who served in the military.

ARTventure, which opens on Nov. 11 and runs through Nov. 13, is a fusion of art and entertainment that has expanded to two local venues at SoCo, Cisco Home and the Design Within Reach showrooms.

The Faces of Freedom project, which is run by photographer Jon Haverstick, will be on display during the ARTventure exhibit and veterans who attend on Saturday Nov. 12 can be photographed and become part of the exhibit.

“The Faces of Freedom Project is an ongoing effort to say ‘Thank You’ to the men and women of our military through the medium of portraiture,” Haverstick said in a statement.  “It features elegant black and white portraits of many of the patriots I’ve been privileged to meet over the past few years through a number of veteran outreach events.  Some are people you know. Some are homeless.  Some have passed away since their portraits were made for this project.  All have sacrificed for my freedoms.”

For the event, art is carefully paired with furniture, fixtures, and interior design elements, along with live entertainment featuring musical, theatrical, literary and culinary forms to heighten the artistic experience.

The event will begin with an opening reception and Awards Ceremony from 5:30 to 9 p.m. and that will include hors d’oeuvres and beverages and live musical performances.

Saturday’s festivities begin at 10 a.m. and run to 5 p.m. and will include a pottery demonstration by Costa Mesa High School students. Sunday’s events begin at 11 a.m. and run through 3 p.m. with a performance by the All American Boys Chorus to culminate the event.

Using AlertOC to Prepare for Emergencies

Residents Urged To Sign Up For AlertOC To Get Critical Information During Emergencies

Because September marks National Preparedness Month, public safety officials are urging residents and businesses to prepare for the many hazards that threaten our daily lives and sense of normalcy – most often occurring in Southern California with little to no warning.

Whether it’s wildfires due to the state’s extended drought, mudslides, floods or massive earthquakes, disasters occur rapidly, forcing evacuations and road closures to neighborhoods.

AlertOC, the County’s mass notification system, is a critical link for residents to immediately learn of any required actions, such as evacuating their homes during an imminent fire.

On Thursday Sept. 22, more than two million Orange County residents will receive a call to test AlertOC.

The drill will replicate a large scale, multi-jurisdictional emergency requiring thousands of numbers to be called simultaneously across Orange County’s entire region.

This is the seventh annual regional test of the system and will include 26 participating cities as well as the County’s unincorporated areas.

The distinctive feature of AlertOC is the ability for individuals to register multiple contact methods and addresses.

Registrations of cell phone and alternate numbers dramatically increase the ability to reach the greatest number of community members within minutes.

This enables landlines, cell phones and e-mail addresses to be incorporated into a single notification system.

Residents can do their part to prepare for emergencies by registering for AlertOC.

The time is now to self-register cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses to be a part of the regional test.

For more information or to register alternate phone numbers or e-mail addresses, visit AlertOC.com

Costa Mesa Reports $11 Mil Budget Surplus

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.

Formal Dresses Needed for Marine Wives

Wanted: A Few, Good Formal Dresses For Wives Of City’s Adopted Marines

Once again, the City of Costa Mesa and the Costa Mesa Military Affairs team seek donations of “like new” prom dresses, ball gowns, cocktail dresses and accessories for the spouses of 1st Battalion, 5th Marines (1/5), the Camp Pendelton-based infantry battalion that the city has adopted.

The dresses will be worn at the annual Marine Ball, which takes place in October and celebrates the anniversary of the Marines Corps’ founding.

The collection point for the dresses will be the concierge desk in the lobby of City Hall at 77 Fair Drive. Donations will be accepted now through Sept. 10.

For further information, please contact Dan Baker at (714) 754-5156.

CEO Leadership Award Goes to Officer Lance Healey

Costa Mesa Police Officer Lance Healey was the recipient of June’s CEO Leadership Award.

The city's video team spent some time with Healey, who helps run the Police Department’s highly successful Pre-Academy, to get an idea of what his workday is like. Click on the video below for more: