Category: Politics

Word come down this afternoon that no more travel claims are to be approved by the accounting department at the Department of Corrections. The stated reason is that the State of California is out of money. Will IOUs be starting soon? Is the State still hiring? (They were last month.) Stay tuned!

August 3 update:
Just in case you were wondering, my department is still doing job interviews today to fill new positions.

Scott Adams, the creator of the comic Dilbert once wrote a whole book about the idea that there is a right way, a wrong way and the weasel way. Last night the weasel way was on full display at the Elk Grove City Council meeting. A special meeting was called by Gary Davis, Jim Cooper and Steve Detrick for 6 pm to strip Sophia Scherman of her role as Mayor of Elk Grove.

Scherman—not willing to “go quietly into that good night”—called as many of her supporters as she could and invited them to the meeting. As a result, not only was there standing room only in the back of the room and along both sides of the council chambers but both overflow areas were full also. Seeing the outpouring of support for her, Scherman’ accusers like the Pharisees and Sadducees of old, decided their best tactic was to move the special meeting from preceding the regular council meeting to the dead of night. As a result about 75 percent of the supporters had gone home by the time the four and a half hour delay was over.

Once the agenda was completed for the regular meeting, the three accusers were finally forced to do the deed they had threatened. When given the opportunity to explain their actions they bravely took a pass and choose to go straight to public comment. Many members of the public that endured the previous four plus hours then had the chance to state their support for Scherman and ask that these three councilmen reconsider their actions.

Cooper, Davis and Detrick all took turns verbally pummeling Scherman for calling a special meeting last week to talk about a group home for juvenile sex offenders in the city. Scherman was frequently accused of “strong mayor tactics” for calling the meeting and other un-named actions that she had taken as mayor. The only evidence presented was that Scherman followed Robert’s Rules of Order and the others didn’t like being bothered with the increased level of involvement that Scherman was asking them to display. Apparently their idea of limited government was being left alone so their involvement was limited.

Perhaps part of the friction was that Detrick, Davis and Cooper were upset with Sophia for acting more from her emotions. She looks at things as a mother and grandmother. Sophia responds to issues from her heart. If these married, middle-aged men haven’t figured-out that women see the world differently, I really pity their wives.

All three men are wannabes. Earlier this year, Davis wanted to be a congressman—until his party threw him under the bus. Cooper wants to be Sacramento County Sheriff but not bad enough to avoid stupid public displays like this and Detrick apparently wants to be mayor.

The three men reminded me of playground bullies taunting a small child and trying to cow her into submission by the force of their combine wills. In the end, none was willing to throw a punch. Knowing that the first man to drive the political knife into Sophia would be simultaneously ending his political future none had the guts to make the motion to remove her. Instead they kept punting to the next person like a slow motion version of the proverbial hot potato game. Trying to end this farce, Pat Hume motioned to end the meeting. The motion was defeated. All three wanted more. Like three alley cats toying with a wounded mouse they kept taking more verbal swipes at Scherman.

After all the boys had their turn to speak, Scherman read from a prepared statement. Then it really hit the fan.

After about 45 minutes of this, the city attorney even tried to suggest some language to make special meetings better fit the schedules of the three combatants but they wanted more. Steve Detrick especially wanted unconditional surrender from Scherman. He didn’t get it and Detrick kept doubling-down.

In the end, and yes there finally was an end, nobody motioned to remove Sophia Scherman as mayor. After an hour and a half, Hume finally got the others to agree, however reluctantly to end the meeting. The only clear winners were Pat Hume and Scott Jones—Cooper’s opponent in the sheriff race.

Davis, Detrick and Cooper took a crack in the community and turned it into a fissure. The unresolved episode of last night has the potential to color the political landscape in Elk Grove for many years. My wife, a fifth generation person from Elk Grove, said it had been many years since that number of old-time residents has assembled in one place. These three threw a grenade last night but others are likely to pull the pin and throw it back.

More as developments warrant.

-30-

The Elk Grove City Council plans to remove Sophia Scherman from the office of Mayor at their July 28th meeting. Word has it that three member plan to forcibly remove Sherman and replace her with one of their own; presumably Steve Detrick the current vice-mayor. The three members pledged to remove Scherman are Steve Detrick, Gray Davis and Jim Cooper.

It is interesting that sheriff candidate Jim Cooper would spend time in the middle of his campaign to “take-out” the only female on the council. Scherman is the one member that is most often seen at community events and she is the most accessible member on the council. Scherman had even endorsed Cooper in the Sheriff race. As a result of Cooper’s duplicity she has withdrawn the endorsement.

Cooper had better not be doing this on ethical grounds since he has fought tooth and nail to keep from releasing his personnel record at the sheriff department because it is known to contain evidence of his misconduct while a deputy of the department. Cooper has also taken members of the Council to the Sacramento Grand jury to intimidate them into giving him what he wants on the Council. Simply put, he is a thug with a badge that uses his position on the sheriff department and on the council for furthering his political and personal aims.

Gary Davis, the man who would be a Democrat congressional candidate had things gone his way is also involved in this affair. He is the only one of the three that could stand for election in November. I don’t know if he has filed for re-election although it is probable.

Steve Detrick is two years into his first term. Steve has had his ethical challenges on the Council. One of the more notable things is the new Catholic Church in Elk Grove. He has been firmly on both sides of the issue while it was before the council. It is reminiscent of the John Kerry quote I was for it before I was against it.

I will be at the meeting tomorrow and plan to speak on Sophia’s behalf. I hope this blows-up in Cooper’s face. Unfortunately, on boards such as this, the fix is often in before public comment is ever heard. The council just goes thru the dog and pony show to make the public feel better before doing what they damn well please.

You know the situation is bad when the words of the pop-culture icon Rodney King come into your head ringing loudly, “ Why can’t we all just get along?”

California Department of Corrections just finished another two day firesale on travel claims. Only July 22 and 23, any travel reimbursement claim with a value of $500 or less was approved with no documentation (ie receipts). The money was yours for being in the work queue.

You may be asking why? So I will explain. You see, in this era of computers and automated processes; it’s just too difficult to figure-out how many claims in the system are being carried on the books from one fiscal year to the next. To keep it simple, management decided that anything under $500 had to go. This was their way of cleaning up the books. To ease the feeling of lack of GAAP, the mantra of “we will conduct a post-audit as receipts come in” was once again invoked. The dirty little secret is that there is no way to track claims for a post-audit. When this has been invoked in the past, it simply means ignore it and resume business as usual the next day.

Monday, July 26th is the actual date when the carry-over number will be calculated. However, there are no plans of allowing claims for the new fiscal year to be approved for payment until the budget is passed. So what the travel office plans to do for the next few months is sketchy at this point.

Oh, yes! Your State government is still hiring employees in the midst of the $19 billion deficit.

Mark Williams is in trouble for trying to write a parody of the NAACP after the group passed a resolution that claimed the Tea Party is racist. Anybody that has actually cared enough about our country to go to a Tea Party rally would know that is a crock. The Tea Party is concerned about limited government, lower taxes and the government obeying the Constitution. None of the Tea Party issues is about race.

Unfortunately, the NAACP is not really concerned about people of color. They quit that plank of their platform decades ago. No, the NAACP is concerned about using race to advance Liberal politics. What Mark was harkening back to is the Mason Weaver book, “It’s OK to Leave the Plantation.” Weaver—who is black—wrote the book in 1998. Here is Amazon link to the book Its-OK-Leave-Plantation
The Amazon Product Description is,

This book discusses the “plantation mentality” that is causing Americans to become co-dependent. It is historical however does look at the authors personal journey from a Berkeley militant to a conservative businessman.

The NAACP holds folks back. They always oppose the advancement of conservative blacks. If a black is not liberal then they are not defended by the NAACP. In fact, by attacking conservative blacks, the NAACP provides “cover-fire” for liberal white politicians to oppose blacks that achieve by individual effort. Recently, the NAACP has been strangely silent when Barack Obama has supported white politicians over black ones in many Democrat primaries.

The NAACP is about holding blacks back, allowing them only to achieve at the rate of the lowest common denominator. It is a top-down organization interested in control. Have you never wondered why blacks vote over 90 percent Democrat in every election when they owe their freedom and civil rights to the Republicans? In exchange for this, the Democrat Party allows them a place at the table. And when given a choice of supporting a qualified black or the choice of the party bosses in the Democrat Party, they will categorically support in Democrat.

William’s blog may have misfired but his instinct that the NAACP is a group of hypocrites still stands. Clearly, the racist ones in this discussion are the NAACP. Somehow the NAACP propagates the myth that only whites can be racist. In actuality, the NAACP is really trying to say that anybody that opposes Barack Obama is a racist. Their logic goes something like this: Obama is black; the Tea Party has many white people in it and they oppose what Obama does so therefore the Tea Party is racist. The NAACP will not concede that Obama might be wrong. Hey guys, I don’t care if Barry was green and looked like Shreck, it’s his policies to which I (and the Tea Party) object.

The NAACP is the ones keeping blacks down not Williams or the Tea Party. His attempt at parody may have made folks upset but is what Williams tried to say that much different than some statements of Bill Cosby a few years ago? Cosby got much the same treatment as Williams. It’s the NAACP that is keeping their members on the plantation. It’s those that find success outside the NAACP that can expect the wrath of this sorry excuse for a civil rights organization.

Thanks to George Runner, California wins one for the Gipper. SB944 is signed into law. This bill enacts the following:
February 6 of each year is designated and set apart as Ronald Reagan Day, a day having special significance. On Ronald Reagan Day, all public schools and educational institutions are encouraged to conduct exercises remembering the life of Ronald Reagan, recognizing his accomplishments, and familiarizing pupils with the contributions he made to this state.

The Governor shall annually proclaim February 6 as Ronald Reagan Day.

Obama commits billions to solar firms

Under pressure to spur job growth, president says two solar energy companies will get nearly $2 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to create as many as 5,000 green jobs.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20009656-54.html

Let’s do the math. 2 billion (if I get all the zeros right) is $2,000,000,000 divided by 5,000 is $400,000 per job.

How many of the 5,000 green jobs are paying the employees $12 per hour? That’s about $23K annually so where did the other $367,000 go?

At that rate of spending ($400,000 per job), how many hundreds of trillions will Obama need to spend to get the United States back to under 4 percent unemployment from the 18 ½ percent that we have now?

The Sacramento County Republican Party (SCRP) is once again acting much like the Keystone Cops. The tone deaf, authoritarian leadership of the group has resulted in their website going down. Why because they won’t pay their bill for web hosting. And that’s not all!

Member Ken Henderson designed and hosted the site at his own expense. After a few months, SCRP leadership said they wanted a more professional looking site with more ability to upgrade content. Henderson offered them a package for about $1,000. They refused to offer due to cost.

The leadership was not very grateful for Henderson’s contribution and started grumbling. They weren’t happy that he wouldn’t drop everything and do updates to the site when they demanded it. He offered—at a reduced rate—to give them the level of service that they demanded but the committee refused. The concept of paying customers that help Henderson cover his bills getting preferential treatment just made them angry. Henderson told them that they would have to pay for the hosting of the site. Monthly bills we submitted to the Committee for web hosting.

The relationship between SCRP and Henderson continued to deteriorate. Finally, at the May meeting Chairman Susan Blake publically threw Henderson under the bus. She went on at length detailing the perceived lack of service provided by Henderson because he was putting other customers first and not doing things per the committee’s request. Clearly the committee’s idea of a schedule “was we need this done now”. Blake severed the relationship and then announced that they needed a professional person to do their website and give them the level of service that they demanded. A search would commence at once to find a new website designer.

At the June meeting, Blake introduced a proposal for a new website design from a professional vendor. This proposal was introduced on the heels of a Treasurer’s Report detailing the fact that income to the committee was anticipated to be reduced to a trickle by December with virtually no foreseeable income for 2011. Blake’s aggressive negotiation resulted in a deal with the new vendor for a mere $3,800. This proposal was put to a vote of the committee and passed with only one NO vote, mine.

Later in the meeting, Blake was considering an agenda item to fill a vacancy on the committee. She admitted that the proper meeting notice was not sent to members and asked for a suspension of the Bylaws so the vacancy could be filled. This request was granted and the vacancy was filled.

OK so how can the vote to enter into a $3,800 contract for web services that they admittedly cannot afford be valid when later in the same meeting the Chair admits the meeting was not properly noticed? The so-called Parliamentarian at the meeting sat completely silent during this whole discussion.

This week the stuff finally hit the fan and the SCRP website was shut off due to the web hosting bill not being paid. The committee contacted Henderson and asked what happened to the website? He informed them that they were shut off because they did not pay their bill. The committee’s response was, “what bill.” Henderson had to explain to them that the little paper that was sent to them each month since December that they received in the mail was called a bill. A bill is for goods or services provided to someone. If the bill is not paid then the goods get taken away and services are terminated. Further that the law says these bills need to be paid. I’m sure he had to use small words in his efforts to try and communicate the need for someone at SCRP to pay their bills. Also they were told to find another ISP because the current one did not enjoy being publicly tossed under the bus.

Support the Platform’s Republican leaders in action. Don’t you love it?

In the wake of Tuesday’s election one of the most interesting things has to be Support the Platform’s first foray into Placer County politics. Of three competitive districts, STP was pushing three candidates in District 1, six in District 2 and four in District 4.

Below are the results. W is won, L is lost

District 1
4 Seats (vote for only these 3 candidates)
W James N. D’Orso
L Tom Hudson
W Jeffrey S. Allen

STP candidates win two seats

District 2
6 Seats (vote for only these 6 candidates)
W Ed Rowen
W Angelo Anthony Andriani, Jr
W Aaron F. Park
L Kathy Arts
L David John Patterson
L Bob Backus

STP candidates win three seats

District 4
4 Seats (vote for only these 4 candidates)
W Jeffrey A. Atteberry
L Lynn Kyme
L George E. Park, Jr.
W Joseph E. Dorr

STP candidates win two seats

As you can see, STP batting about .500 in these races.

Several nuggets of information are noteworthy about the slate; especially the losers.

Tom Hudson
CRA Senate District 1 Director

Tom Hudson is the Chairman of the Placer County Republican Party, the National Committeeman for the California Republican Assembly, the Executive Director of the California Taxpayer Protection Committee, and the Pacific-Northwest Vice President for the National Federation of Republican Assemblies.

http://www.cagop.org/index.cfm/board_of_directors.htm

George Park
CRA Senate District 1 Deputy Director
George and Aaron Park are often seen at California Republican Assembly and California Republican Party Conventions sporting their Hawaiian shirts. Both are identified as conservative leaders in Placer County.

For the Party Chairman and one of his chief supporters not just to lose but come in dead last in their respective districts is a big deal.

Did the head of STP, Jeff Allen win because he was head of STP or because he was not one of the usual suspects? Probably the latter.

The other interesting person that was not on the list was Karen England. While Karen was urging people to vote for STP’s de facto leader—Craig Deluz, Craig’s pals were simultaneously working to try and defeat Karen. Karen has been a long time conservative ally and fellow traveler in the CRA so why was it necessary to try to defeat her? Craig—in a radio spot run on KTKZ—even took credit for some of Karen’s activism at Capitol Resource Institute—which is the group that Karen leads.

Clearly the Republicans in Placer are not feeling the love. Support the Platform would appear to be better named Support the Status Quo. Clearly Placer voters want a new direction.

I’m always on the look-out for new blog material. Today’s came from an off-handed comment at a meeting I attended last night. It regards California’s Proposition 16. This ballot measure is to require a 2/3 vote to allow local municipal power service to expand coverage. The comment was basically that my friend’s attorney read the insert in his SMUD bill was shocked about what this measure would do. Based on his friend’s reading of the NO on 16 flyer inserted into his utility bill, this is how he should vote.

I didn’t want to offend this person so I just kept silent. Instead I am composing this blog post.

Friend, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but… Your utility, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is the cause of Prop 16 in the first place. If you will go back a few years, they are the ones that tried to gut the PG&E holdings in Yolo county and annex them—eminent domain—the infrastructure and ratepayers of West Sacramento, Davis and Woodland. SMUD was willing to take the “low hanging fruit” and leave the rural customers to PG&E.

In such a scenario, the ratepayers in Yolo might have seen a rate reduction. SMUD can only be competitive on an economy of scale when there is a high concentration of ratepayers and a minimum of related infrastructure. Rural PG&E customers would have seen an increase in their rates had this hostile takeover occurred.

To me the interesting part of SMUD and their flyer was my utility bill. My electric bill was abnormally low this month from what it should be. I am positive that SMUD cut the billing cycle short so they could send me a smaller bill and get out their political mailer ahead of the June primary. This subliminal message was we give you low utility bills so keep the status quo, vote NO on 16.

Prop 16, is PG&E’s idea for self defense. If you will recall, this is what happened in the case of SMUD’s aborted annexation of most Yolo county ratepayers. A move was made to let people vote on it. This electoral slapdown was not anticipated by the SMUD Board.

SMUD has gone from being a net exporter of electricity to a net importer of it. With the collapse of the housing bubble, AB-32, and government regulations and taxes, SMUD seems poorly positioned to continue providing the lower rates they once did.

Prop 16 might be stacked against SMUD but if SMUD was producing its own energy and not relying on gimmicks like “green energy” and mercury laced light bulbs then Prop 16 would be irrelevant to their customers.