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O.B. school crossing guard all business
If this is a typical principal, the highest priority is avoiding anything deemed to be embarrassing. So, if there is some sort of dust-up in front of the school, well, that is embarrassing, and we can't have that. Does this mean the principal would rather have a kid hit by a car? Not exactly, but schools which often claim to want community involvement and assistance really want nothing of the sort. Notice that Zapf's office got in touch after the media reported on the safety issues. That's what it takes to get the council member to do anything in most instances. But why was it a volunteer who got city attention, and not the school district? Could it be that the slobberin' city and the slobberin' school district don't coordinate or cooperate?— January 5, 2018 12:56 p.m.
Salk Institute vs. Women?
Agreed. What better way of prevailing in the suit than to suppress the testimony of two well-placed witnesses?— January 5, 2018 7:26 a.m.
Escondido accountant on probation
A guy like this one is the smallest of small-fry offenders. You would hardly think it was worth it for the SEC to bother. At least he wasn't criminally charged in US court. But how did the SEC find out? Ahh, that's the question. The likely answer is that someone ratted him out, and that could have been the long time close associate. But an even stranger explanation would be that he bragged about it to someone he trusted.— January 4, 2018 5:02 p.m.
Signs of confusion at deadly O.B. corner
Is anything ever a "high priority" at SD city hall? The go-slow-or-do-nothing city bureaucracy hasn't changed in a very long time. At least you were able to get through to someone and discuss it. In the old days, they just didn't answer the phone; if by accident you did connect with a person, he/she would tell you that it wasn't their area, and tell you to call a a different department. I do find it amusing that he was at least honest about not really caring about it. Most of those city types would lie to you and say they would get right on it, when they had no intention of doing anything.— January 4, 2018 2:47 p.m.
San Ysidro School District sued (again)
Alex, why you speak heresy! Those people are dedicated educators, and everything they do is for the kids. If they weren't running school districts they would be pulling down multi-million dollar salaries in corporate America. They are the biggest bargains around, and the school districts should be most grateful to have them. The usual quarter million a year salary, mas o menos, they get is a pittance compared to what they do and accomplish. Seriously though, I once knew a school board member and I said to her that no school employee, no matter how highly placed or how large the district, should earn more than $150K a year. But now some high school principals are getting that much, meaning that the two or three layers of management above them in the hierarchy have to get more. That's how you had a guy like Collins in Poway taking down $400K a year. The fact that he couldn't make ends meet with that kind of princely salary is another story entirely.— January 2, 2018 4:45 p.m.
Zion & Bryce: a Utah national parks tour
You've done a great job of describing that area of the nation. It's enough to make me want to head back there soon. I'll quibble about going there in winter. Bryce Canyon I know gets snow, and I must assume Zion does also. I've experienced snow in the fall at Cedar Breaks. So, early to mid-fall would be my choice of a time to visit there. As it is, that's when we last went to southern Utah.— January 2, 2018 4:19 p.m.
Taxpayers hosed by city airport vendor
You seem to imply that the auditor's office is moving too slowly, and you may be right. (Have you ever had to deal with auditors? If you have, you might observe that they never act in haste.) But when Luna and his staff make recommendations, they are just that, recommendations. The city bureaucracy has to implement them, and if there's little or no interest or commitment, nothing may happen. Under the current system, Chadwick ought to see every report from the auditor and give it priority for implementation. As to it now being a crime to interfere with or impede an audit, has anyone ever been charged? I don't recall a case. With the former city attorney, Goldy, in charge of prosecuting such offenses, we can bet that he was most reluctant ever to charge a member of the city government cabal with a crime. The new city attorney? Who knows about her.— January 2, 2018 2:43 p.m.
Taxpayers hosed by city airport vendor
Luna is doing his job; that is more than you could have said about some of his predecessors in the position. It seems as if there's a report of Luna finding weak or non-existent controls that resulted in financial losses to the city, every few weeks. But each time he points something out, it leaves some part of the city bureaucracy with egg on its face because it didn't do everyday, common sense things to avoid the waste and/or fraud involved. This matter is no different. If he keeps up these embarrassments to the rest of the city government, he'll soon find himself out of a job. The mayor is especially trying to look good, and the auditor pointing out that there are many examples of poor management doesn't help Kev-boy at all. It took decades of sloppy governance to allow such mismanagement to flourish, and one dedicated public servant cannot root it all out in a short time. Luna is trying. Let's see if the slobberin' city government will let him continue to reform the operation. I'd not bet on it.— January 2, 2018 7:39 a.m.
Sandag accused of eminent domain abuse
Maybe you don't fully grasp the value of a free press. Newspapers (and TV and radio stations) are of little value if they limit their output to entertainment and/or feel-good reporting. While you have analyzed the style and format of investigative articles and blog posts, the fact that they follow a pattern doesn't mean that they are of no value. The public at large will never know of many of these matters unless they read about them, or hear about them. And that ignorance is seldom bliss. Without some public scrutiny many miscarriages of justice go unchallenged, and political corruption can flourish with no bounds. Today the Reader is one place where abuses are reported with regularity, the traditional print media in the county having abdicated their responsibilites.— December 31, 2017 9:25 a.m.
Sandag accused of eminent domain abuse
Anyone who has followed the stuttering story of the proposed reopening of our eastern rail link for freight hauling will see parallels here. MTS is out of control in the strictest sense. Oh, it has a governing board made up of local office holders, and it should be well-run. But it isn't, and the rubber-stamping of proposals made by the MTS boss, Jablonsky, is sickening. There has been no true oversight of that operation in many years. Jablonsky, one of the highest paid bureaucrats in the county, seems to get his way on everything. This is just one more chapter, or call it an episode if you prefer, in the saga of MTS in the 21st century. Oh, and don't expect the situation to improve. On its current trajectory, MTS will get worse.— December 29, 2017 8:16 p.m.