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Chalking the plank: Judge won't allow bank protester to claim first amendment rights
That's amazing. If you have records of your contacts/responses, you might share them w/Olson's attorney.— June 26, 2013 9:19 a.m.
Chalking the plank: Judge won't allow bank protester to claim first amendment rights
Well said.— June 26, 2013 9:17 a.m.
Chalking the plank: Judge won't allow bank protester to claim first amendment rights
Olson is in good hands. Tom Tosdal, Harvard Law graduate, is mentioned in a 2012 *Mother Jones* [article][1] about arrests and charges for chalk writing during protests. Perhaps Judge Shore knew of the winning Florida case involving free speech, so thinks it's a great idea to shut down that line of defense. [1]: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/war-c…— June 25, 2013 10:59 p.m.
He chalks the line: City Attorney prosecutes man for writing anti-bank slogans in water soluble chalk
Jeff_O: make sure your attorney knows that BofA at 3101 University already has privatized cleanup services at its command and has paid for them: BofA, parcel # 4531611500, paid $825 into the North Park Maintenance Assessment District last year (it goes up to $838 this year). BofA at this location also pays the North Park Business Improvement District, between $125 and $250 per year. Both of these privatized taxes include graffiti cleanup by a privately contracted firm. The documents evidencing these charges to the BofA property are online on the City's webpages and are publicly available. The MAD tax can also be seen in the line item charges on the County Tax website, using the parcel number. I wouldn't want to put my money in a bank run by people with so little business sense that they pay double for services...but we all know that the out-of-area private cleaning service was called to make a legal case against you, not to solve the problem of chalk on the sidewalk.— June 24, 2013 4:57 p.m.
Questions raised over City Attorney's decision to release transcripts of closed session meeting
As to his oversight of criminal vs. civil units, Andrew Jones provides the following bio in his *Linked In* profile: "Andrew Jones' Summary: Mr. Jones was sworn in as a Deputy City Attorney in 1997 and has over 15 years of trial experience. His civil practice includes, among others, civil rights, torts, inverse condemnation, unlawful detainers and breach of contract. He also prosecuted misdemeanor violations and abusers in domestic violence and child abuse cases. He has tried over 50 jury trials, both civil and criminal, and 150 bench trials. His civil trial experience includes jury trials in both state and federal court. Mr. Jones served as one of the founding members and President of the Deputy City Attorneys Association of San Diego, from 2006 to 2008. In December of 2008, Mr. Jones was appointed Assistant City Attorney to lead the Civil Litigation Division. In November of 2009 Mr. Jones was appointed Assistant City Attorney to lead the Criminal Division. **In January of 2011 Mr. Jones was appointed Executive Assistant City Attorney to once again lead the Civil Litigation Division and the Office of the City Attorney, reporting directly to the City Attorney**. His current duties include running the Civil Litigation Division and handling management and budget for an office of over 300 employees, including 140 attorneys." Who knows? The 2011 appointment isn't included in the City resume. Is he elaborating or is the City website out of date? I don't care one way or the other, because I think he is totally over the top in participating in the orchestrated, ongoing effort to demean Filner, and his feigning indignance is disgusting.— June 22, 2013 7:09 p.m.
Lincoln Club accuses Mayor Filner of ruining City's reputation.
I have to post one more thing: this is how Andrew Jones related the incident to the hackneyed, absurd Chris Reed: “’*He’s (verbally) attacked me in closed session to the extent that at one point he asked if I would sit in the back of the room,’ said Jones, who is black. ‘I, of course, considered it something similar to asking Rosa Parks to sit in the back of the bus. I was extremely offended by it but in deference to my boss I decided not to make a big deal out of it. But clearly he has a problem with me. I’m not sure why*.’” What self-respecting man, black or white, would ever compare himself to Rosa Parks over this kind of nonsense? This is a very badly written play, and Jones' role sickens me.— June 22, 2013 1:32 p.m.
Lincoln Club accuses Mayor Filner of ruining City's reputation.
The leaked "Confidential" transcript of the Closed Session covers 7 minutes. Exchanges between Filner and Jones occurred within only 6 minutes and 30 seconds (Filner enters the room at 9 a.m. and 30 seconds and the transcript ends at 9:07). It's all pretty tame, and from the immediate question Filner poses, "And what is Mr. Jones doing up here?" it's clear that the issue of Jones leaking confidential discussions had been hashed out previously. He was there to goad. And Todd was his partner in this amateur-hour theater. I can imagine Todd Gloria, eagerly eying his Boy Scout chronometer second hand, with gavel poised and coming down at EXACTLY 9 a,m, on the dot. *Filner's late, I'm the man today!* For context, Jones, working in the City Atty's office during Aguirre's term, worked to elect candidate Goldsmith and then conspired with Goldsmith to fire the Aguirre-era city attorneys that Sanders wanted out. A long Jan 28, 2009 Reader article (reprinted in a single page here: http://obrag.org/?p=3709 ) detailed how Jones was involved. It also reminds us that Mary Jo Lanzafame, who was in the June 18 2013 closed session meeting with Jones and Filner, was among six attorneys from the Casey Gwinn era rehired by Goldsmith. Can anyone tell me which Shakespearean drama this all most closely resembles? I suspect Filner always has more than he lets on, and infuriates the media by keeping it to himself... http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jun/2…— June 22, 2013 1:12 p.m.
Lincoln Club accuses Mayor Filner of ruining City's reputation.
Ha! This is a great piece for The Onion. Hilarious! The Lincoln Club is a running joke. Our reputation!!! Wahhh. As if no one remembers our national reputation of Enron by the Sea (from the early 1980s through 2003, Republican mayors and managers underfunding pensions), after which we shifted to End-Run by the Sea (under yet another Republican mayor, Jerry Sanders, using Goldsmith and his posse in the City Attorney's office to give a nod of approval to violating every inconvenient law possible.) If by "not just those on the opposite side of the aisle from Filner" you mean Gloria, I'm laughing even harder. Filner doesn't need a wake-up call, he's got eyes wide open. And I bet he's not losing any sleep, either— June 21, 2013 8:38 p.m.
Allen Jones reportedly out as Mayor Filner's Deputy Chief of Staff.
I'll put money on Allen Jones resigning on his on. It's beginning to look like things happen as if a there is a script in a play, authored by those who want Bob Filner undermined, if not out.— June 21, 2013 2:19 p.m.
San Diegans for Open Government challenges legality of assessment districts in a June 12 lawsuit
dh - You're welcome. The various privatizing schemes do get blurry sometimes. In fact, the private taxation scams for BIDs and MADs have in common an outrageous anti-democracy voting setup. Imagine if in voting to elect officeholders that votes for and against were based directly on the dollars of donations a candidate got. One David Koch vote for a candidate could beat a million votes for the other candidate, if Koch donated millions and opposition voters donated less. The point of SDOG's lawsuits is the argument that levies imposed in BIDs and MADs are really taxes, which require passage by 2/3 of voters - one person, one vote. Laws for voting on fees and assessments are not that restrictive, so the BID and MAD proponents (wrongly) call the levies by those other names, and go for the ridiculously anti-democratic dollar vote. One large business can defeat hundreds of small businesses and via the BID formation can force the little guy to pay. One owner of multiple or very large properties can defeat hundreds of single-small-property owners and via the MAD force them to pay. In both BIDs and commercial MADs (those administered by Economic Development), the assessments are spent to promote and advertise, something of value only to the large owners. The community grocers or barbershops and the local private residential homeowners have little interest in promoting, branding, and attracting outsiders, and may even suffer, rather than benefit, from such commercialization. The legal argument that won and led to the abolishment of the Greater Golden Hill MAD was that even if the levy was *called* an assessment, under assessment law it still did not meet the law's requirements. The court found that to be true. It is true for every remaining commercial MAD run by the Economic Development department, including the newly created one, a rather astonishing palimpsest writ by our local wizard of levies, abetted by one of our otherwise most promising councilmen. But unless a property owner in one of those levy districts sues, it won't stop. An embezzler can keep on embezzling until someone presses charges.— June 15, 2013 10:25 a.m.