Encinitas councilwoman abstains from closed session in protest

Good for Teresa Barth! Secrecy and wrongdoing go hand in hand.



San Diego Union Tribune published this story by Angela Lau on October 17, 2007:

Frustrated that Encinitas City Council's closed sessions are not transparent enough, Councilwoman Teresa Barth abstained from Wednesday night's closed session in protest.

Closed sessions are scheduled to discuss sensitive items, such as litigation strategy. Wednesday night's meeting discussed litigation against F Street bookstore and labor negotiations.

Barth said Wednesday night she will not attend any more closed-session meetings until the city switches its 24-hour notification policy for closed-session agendas to 72-hour notification. She said she wants citizens to have time to prepare to testify before the council begins discussions.

She said her action was prompted by repeated pleas from the public to open closed sessions. She sought outside legal opinion and concluded that the city should give the public 72 hours' notice.

She said she does not consider closed sessions to be special meetings, but regular council meetings. City Attorney Glenn Sabine said in a previous council meeting that closed sessions are special meetings.

Under the Brown Act, special meetings only require 24 hours' notice, whereas regular council meetings require 72 hours' notice.

“The city is meeting the minimum requirements (of the law), but I don't think we are doing this in full disclosure and transparency,” she said, adding that she wants an opinion from the state's attorney general.

Barth's action was consistent with her campaign promise when she ran for office last year. She had said she would try to make city government more transparent.

Shortly after she was installed, Barth said she got the city to notify the public that they can speak on closed-session agenda items before the council commences discussions.

But that was not enough, she said.

Barth's ally, Councilwoman Maggie Houlihan, said she attended Wednesday night's closed session, but she wants to do more research to make sure the city is complying with the law.

Encinitas resident Russell Marr, who has been pressuring the council to give more notice on closed-session agenda items and disclose closed-session votes, said the council is violating the Brown Act.

“I told you 10 times about 72-hour notice. It's time you wake up,” he said.

Angela Lau: (760) 476-8240; angela.lau@uniontrib.com
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20071017-1951-bn17barth.html

Was Davis Recalled for Cheney's Wrongdoing?

UCAN
Utility Consumers' Action Network
Consumer Advocates
http://ucan.org/blog/energy/electricity/energy_deregulation_crisis/vice_president_cheney_suppressed_evidence_of_price_manipulation_during_ca_ene


Vice President Cheney suppressed evidence of price manipulation during CA energy crisis

Posted July 20th, 2007
A recent story by Jason Leopold on Truthout.org reports that Vice President Dick Cheney was aware of price manipulation and artificial powerplant shutdowns during the 2000-2001 California energy crisis, but kept the information from the public. According to the story, just before Cheney's National Energy Policy was to be announced, the Vice President ordered the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to seal documents related to settlements with two energy companies that had been investigated for wrongdoing. Leopold writes:

So in May 2001, just days before Cheney unveiled his long-awaited National Energy Policy, FERC entered into confidential settlements with Williams in which the company forfeited $8 million it was owed by California's grid operator for power Williams sold into the marketplace at inflated prices. Williams did not admit any guilt for the power plant shutdown and, on orders from Cheney, FERC agreed to keep details of the settlement sealed. FERC later entered into a similar settlement with Reliant. The company agreed to forfeit $13.8 million it was owed by California's grid operator, did not admit to any wrongdoing, and FERC kept the details of the settlement confidential.

Williams and Reliant never admited guilt. But do you remember the audio tapes with Enron employees laughing about all the money they had stolen from poor "Grandma Millie" in California? That's who these guys are. They don't have to admit their guilt because there are tapes and transcripts that have recorded it for us. One Reliant employee is quoted in the report as having said, "we decided as a group that we were going to make [the money we lost] back up, so we turned like about almost every power plant off. It worked." A Williams employee is quoted as having told a powerplant operator that it wouldn't hurt the companies' feelings, "if the power plant that was down for repairs was kept offline for an extended period of time so the company could continue to be paid the 'premium' for its emergency energy supplies from the ISO."

Dick Cheney's decision to keep such blatant wrong-doing from the public is part noble, and part sickening. Cheney was protecting a friend. After all, the man who had hand-picked Dick to succed him as the top man at Halliburton sat on Williams' board of directors. And that man, Thomas Cruikshank, had told Cheney that FERC, "was in possession of incriminating audio tapes in which a Williams official and an AES power plant operator discussed keeping a Southern California power plant offline so Williams could continue to receive the $750 per megawatt hour premium for emergency power..."...

Pat Flannery isn't wanted at April Boling's interview

Council Candidate April Boling got a free ride at the Realtors
08/09/07
by Pat Flannery http://www.blogofsandiego.com/

As a 30 year veteran of the San Diego Association of Realtors I went along this morning to the monthly meeting of its Government Affairs Committee. I am not a member of that Committee (you can't just apply, you have to be asked). But I have made a habit of turning up as a guest during the political season, going all the way back to when Maureen O'Connor (Mayor Mo) first ran for Mayor against Roger Hedgecock in 1983.

You can imagine my surprise and dismay this morning when I was asked to leave while they interviewed April Boling. I had turned up in May when they interviewed Carl DeMaio with no problem. What was different with Boling? I was looking forward to asking her about the prospect of amortizing the $1.2 billion pension deficit. She was on Murphy's Blue Ribbon Committee that reported on the pension problem. She knows it well.

I know she is friends with Mike Mercurio, the Realtors' Director of Government Affairs. They are fellow directors of the San Diego Taxpayers Association. Did Mercurio contrive to keep me out in order to ensure a friendly interview for Boling? If she needs that level of protection, Marti Emerald will chew her up in the election debates. Or will she only go to friendly debates, like those arranged by the Lincoln Club or the Chamber of Commerce?

The state prison miasma

from San Diego City Beat's "Last Blog on Earth"
August 9th, 2007 — Kelly Davis
http://lastblogonearth.com/2007/08/09/more-on-the-state-prison-miasma/

"Our sister paper, L.A. CityBeat, published a series of stories this week on prison reform issues, following up on the story we ran last week. Here are some interesting facts from the lead story by L.A.’s Mindy Farabee:

" In the last 30 years, California’s passed 1,000 new laws lengthening jail sentences.

"UC Berkeley professor Jonathan Simon has found that “almost all offenders are not likely to commit a crime” after they reach their mid 40s. Roughly one-fifth of the prison population is 45 or older.

" Legislative bill AB 900 authorizes Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger to spend $7.7 billion to build more prison facilities. That money comes from general obligation and lease-revenue bonds. By the time the bond money’s paid back, the real cost could be closer to $15 billion."

An Open Letter to Cheryl Cox about Gaylord--and Blackmail

Dear Cheryl:

It was odd that you accused the unions of blackmail regarding the Gaylord project that failed in Chula Vista. Whatever did you mean when you talked about blackmail on TV on January 6, 2007?

Here's how Merriam-Webster defines blackmail:
"Extortion or coercion by threats especially of public exposure or criminal prosecution."

Now Cheryl, did the unions do that? Does Gaylord (or you?) have a dirty secret that the unions threatened to expose? Isn't it really that you are blackmailing the unions by blaming them for the deal gone sour, when the true reasons have to do with envirmonmental problems?

Let me assure you, Cheryl, that if anyone is trying to blackmail you, the perfect defense against blackmail is to come clean in public, apologize, repair the harm you’ve done.

You know what I suspect? I suspect you were thinking about me and my pending lawsuit against you when the word “blackmail” popped out of your mouth so awkwardly. It’s your guilt that is talking, and your contempt for the law. You won’t give an inch, you won’t say you’re sorry, you just point the finger at someone else.

Instead of admitting you broke the law, you charge that someone who talks about your violations of law in public is “blackmailing” you. But if someone talks about your secrets PUBLICLY, Cheryl, that means they’re NOT blackmailing you. Me, for example. I believe that someone as dishonest and contemptuous of the law as you should not have control over public policy and public dollars. Of course, you have the option of becoming an honest person who respects the law. I urge you to do so. Right now you’re not making a wise choice, Cheryl.

Let’s see, who could really blackmail you? The press! Bonnie Dumanis! They are keeping your secrets. It sure isn’t me. Why don’t you do the right thing, and apologize, and come clean about what you and your lawyers did to Chula Vista Elementary School District and Castle Park Elementary. It would help taxpayers all over San Diego county. Your lawyer Dan Shinoff has gone on to cause even more trouble at MiraCosta College than he did at CVESD. The price tag for his folly was $3 million at MiraCosta.

It was a shame that you couldn’t tell the truth in the "Castle Park Five" case at CVESD. You wasted tax dollars once again. You forced Superintendent Lowell Billings to hide the truth about Robin Donlan and her friends, so you lost. Shame on you for wasting so many hundreds of thousands tax dollars on multiple criminal cover-ups.

Good Riddance, Gaylord

Below is a letter I found in Voice of San Diego about the Gaylord Entertainment project that fizzled in Chula Vista yesterday. Gaylord (and mayor Cheryl Cox) blamed the unions, but many believe that it was environmental problems on the sensitve bayfront that discouraged the developer. It's interesting that mayor Cheryl Cox, a longtime trustee of the nature preserve next to the planned development, never made a peep about environmental problems.


Ted Kennedy, Chula Vista
Thursday, July 5, 2007
My suspicion is that Gaylord actually read the environmental-impact report and isn't about to try to ameliorate the impacts and was looking for a dignified backdoor escape hatch. Too bad none of our local politicians read those pesky things or they wouldn't be so enamored of the good old boys from Tennessee. I am also concerned that it took our local environmental watchdogs quite a while to not be lapdogs instead. Now if we can just scare the Chargers away...

Who are attorneys supposed to represent when they're paid by a city?

You might think that Cheryl Cox, former CVESD trustee and now mayor of Chula Vista, would somehow be in charge of what the City of Chula Vista does. Cheryl says it isn't so.

She might have had something to do with the choice of John Witt, former San Diego city attorney, as a special counsel for Chula Vista. But she has nothing to do with the fact that he is suing city council candidate Patty Chavez for $100,000 because she lent herself $11,000 for her campaign and didn't report it to her opponent, Rudy Ramirez.

You might think Rudy Ramirez has something to do with this draconian attack on a housewife who ran for office. After all, he might want to strike some fear into her so she won't dare run against him again. Rudy himself is under investigation, he says. He claims he will be vindicated. Somehow, I think he's right. I don't imagine John Witt feels the same way about Ramirez that he does about Chavez. Ramirez is a Republican and Chavez is a Democrat.

Cheryl Cox says she's formed a committee to look at the rules.

How about a committee to look at how the rules are enforced, Cheryl? You've made it clear that you believe attorneys who work for cities should represent the interests of the elected officials. Somehow, I don't think you've changed your mind about that.

Jon Osborn of La Mesa disagrees with Cheryl Cox regarding the proper recipient of a public lawyer's loyalty.
On June 22, 2007 he wrote to the San Diego Union-Tribune:
"Judith Wenker (Letters, June 20) asked "How can [City Attorney Mike Aguirre] expect his city official clients, to whom he owes the duty of confidentiality and competent legal advice, to confide in him...? The client to which Mike Aguirre owes those duties is the city of San Diego."

Why do so many public officials depend so much on secrecy? Why can't public business be carried out in the open?

Legalized bribery

Am I missing something, or is our campaign finance system simply legalized bribery?

I don't see that giving huge sums of money to candidates is freedom of speech. It's freedom to drown out the speecch of others.

And fat cats who throw around large sums are making an implied threat: do what I want, or I'll drown you out. I'll give my money to your opponent, and blast you off the airwaves.

The People Don't Understand Leslie Devaney

Leslie Devaney, who ran against Mike Aguirre for City Attorney in 2004, says:

"Until the public understands the role of the city attorney, I'm not ready to run for the position again."*

Translation: As long as people think the City Attorney is supposed to represent ALL the people, and not merely protect the people in office, she won't be a part of it.


* from Voice of San Diego, "Aguirre's Foes Search for Champion," by EVAN McLAUGHLIN Monday, June 11, 2007

Sunroad-like deals happen all the time, but it appears that no one notices unless the FAA intervenes

Yesterday Murtaza Baxamusa wrote in Voice of San Diego about "The Sweet Deal for Developers."


"The witch-hunt for nefarious actors on the Sunroad project ignores the reality of the sweet deal developers get every day at the Development Services Department...

"Development Services boasts of efforts to "streamline the permitting process," including over-the-counter permits and "inspectors for hire," demonstrating an apologetic culture in implementing regulations.

"The results are impressive. Development Services continues to get high customer service points in developer surveys...

"Add a developer-friendly streamlined review process to a badly written development agreement, and you have a disaster waiting to happen...In April 2006, FAA started noticing this tall [Sunroad] building, and the rest is history ..."

You know a lawyer is planning to cover up crimes when...

You know a lawyer is planning to cover up crimes when he asks to be indemnified. That's what Bonny Garcia asked--and received--from San Diego County's deeply corrupt Otay Water District a few years ago.

SDCERS, the San Diego City Employee Retirement System, should not have agreed to pay for the defense of its lawyer, Loraine Chapin, in 2005. That case has still not gone to trial. It appears that SDCERS wanted to make sure Chapin continued to help them get away with wrongdoing. But when Chapin's lawyer asked in 2006 to be indemnified, the pension board balked. If he does a good job covering up Chapin's wrongdoing, he won't need to defend himself. Apparently the board wants him to do a really good job.

Bush administration fights to stop private Mad Cow Testing

Tthe US now tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cattle for mad cow disease, so some meat packers have tried to take up the slack. Big meat companies don't like the idea, fearing that competition from safe meat might hurt their business. Competition might be good for consumers, but, according to an Associated Press story today, it wouldn't please the big cattlemen. So the Bush administration opposes private efforts to ensure safety.

The Agriculture Department argues that if you do too much testing, you might get a false positive result, which would harm the meat industry. So far, three cows in the US have been found, after multiple tests, to have mad cow disease. The cows were from Washington, Texas and Alabama.

It's better for a sick cow to get into the food chain than to hurt the meat industry, according to the Bush administration.

Veggie burger, anyone?

From Sea to Shining Sea--Bush administration fights Mad Cow testing for all

Tthe US now tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cattle for mad cow disease, so some meat packers have tried to take up the slack. Big meat companies don't like the idea, fearing that competition from safe meat might hurt their business. Competition might be good for consumers, but, according to an Associated Press story today, it wouldn't please the big cattlemen. So the Bush administration opposes private efforts to ensure safety.

The Agriculture Department argues that if you do too much testing, you might get a false positive result, which would harm the meat industry. So far, three cows in the US have been found, after multiple tests, to have mad cow disease. The cows were from Washington, Texas and Alabama.

It's better for a sick cow to get into the food chain than to hurt the meat industry, according to the Bush administration.

Veggie burger, anyone?

THE AWESOME GREG COX

I've seen up close how school board member turned Chula Vista mayor Cheryl Cox nurtures her friendships with developers (most recently in the Laurie Madigan case), but I'm just getting to know Cheryl's husband Greg Cox and his fellow San Diego County Supervisors.

Rob Davis writes in today's Voice of San Diego:

"When developers in San Marcos want to build homes atop coastal sage scrub -- a dwindling habitat that's home
to the rare California gnatcatcher -- they turn to San Diego County's government for help.

"Over the last decade and a half, developers have destroyed 183 acres of scrub in San Marcos, paying San Diego County $879,000 for the right to do so.

"Their ability to build on the habitat was supposed to be temporary. Under a compromise forged to help North County cities develop after the California gnatcatcher became threatened, the cities were granted the ability to destroy 5 percent of the habitat while they worked on a long-term conservation plan."

It looks to me like the supervisors are selling irreplaceable resources to keep their campaign coffers filled with developer contributions.

The agreement to sell was supposed to be temporary.

From Voice of San Diego:

The Issue:
In exchange for the right to oversee development in federally protected areas, a group of North County cities agreed to formulate long-term conservation plans. Nearly 15 years later, those plans remain unfinished.

What It Means:
Each government received the right to develop an allotted amount of sensitive land as conservation plans were being developed. The county has offered its allotment up for sale to developers, removing an incentive for cities to finish their plans.

The Bigger Picture:
San Diego’s habitat plans, once lauded as pioneering efforts, have been beset by delays, funding issues and other problems.

Cheryl and Greg Cox: "We have pretty much lived our lives as an open book."

“We have pretty much lived our lives as an open book,” Cheryl said to Tanya Mannes for a January 1, 2007 article for the San Diego Union Tribune.

Strange, I haven't noticed Cheryl's nose getting longer. Maybe that only happens in fairytales. Cheryl is nothing if not a good actress. She seems so sincere, doesn't she?

Yet this is the very same Cheryl Cox who was so opposed to having pictures taken at one of her private fundraisers, that her associates not only threw out a young man with a camera, but got District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to investigate him! Jason Moore is now under indictment for allegedly lying about whether he filled out his leave slip before or after he took the two hours off work for Chula Vista mayor Steve Padilla. (Good luck Bonnie and Cheryl, on getting 12 of Jason's peers to convict him. But in the meantime, maybe your doctors could prescribe some pills to make you less mean.)

Cheryl spent six years in control of one of the most secretive public entities in San Diego County, Chula Vista Elementary School District. There is a lawsuit in the works against her for her role in the destruction and alteration of documents, and the creation of phony documents, at CVESD when she was on the board.

Trailer comes loose on Chesapeake Bay Bridge; 3 killed

Last night traffic was snarled for hours at the peak of rush hour when a trailer came loose from an SUV.

Why did the trailer come loose?

The same thing happened to me when I was pulling a U-haul trailer with a U-haul hitch, installed by U-haul. The trailer started swinging from side to side as it hung on to the car by the chains. Fortunately, it was early afternoon on highway 94 in San Diego, and no one was near me.

I found that the bolt that was supposed to hold the trailer to the hitch had disappeared. I lifted the trailer and shoved it back into the hitch. I used a pen in place of a bolt and drove VERY SLOWLY. The pen broke and I lifted the trailer again, but this time I injured my back.

What's wrong here? I suspect that the plastic clip--that holds the bolt in place--broke, and allowed the bolt to slip out.

U-haul--how about a clip redesign?????

Only in California and Haiti do Casinos Regulate Themselves

Here's an interesting post by Cheryl A. Schmit, Founder and Director of Stand Up for California.

"...As of February 2006, the CGCC had only completed six audits of the state’s 55 tribal casinos. The reason given for such lax oversight: the compacts failed to clearly establish the state’s role as independent regulator.

"What’s the effect of this? There have been numerous instances of corruption and theft in tribal casinos. One estimate is that the state received only half of the tribal casino revenues it was due under the 1999 compact. Unlike Las Vegas and other states, California tribal casino patrons have little assurance from independent regulators that the state’s tribal casinos are fair..."

Jason Moore, meet Robin Donlan

Jason Moore, who took two hours off work and caused Cheryl Cox to go after him like a butcher's wife with a carving knife, should be introduced to Robin Donlan.

Robin Donlan is Cheryl Cox's protege. Cox spent hundreds of thousands of public dollars hiding Donlan's crimes against a fellow teacher (and against the people of California) committed from 2000 to 2004.

Cheryl Cox and the rest of the Chula Vista Elementary School District board made sure teachers and administrators at Chula Vista Elementary School District committed perjury regarding Donlan's crimes. The California Teachers Association provided Donlan with legal help and worked with Donlan and the Castle Park Five to create a media attack on Superintendent Lowell Billings, who had the nerve to transfer Donlan out of the school where she was continuing to cause trouble.

Without the support of Cox and Chula Vista Educators, Donlan might have lost the sense of entitlement and invulnerability that caused her to help her husband Vence Donlan fleece Wireless Facilities out of $7.7 million dollars.

Greg and Cheryl Cox both play the "look the other way while our lawyers do the dirty work" game

The San Diego Union Tribune hides the wrondoing of public officials it likes. But the SDUT did give a perfect description of how those officials go about their business in the first paragraph of an article on April 22, 2007:

"San Diego County Officials aren't actively helping the Chargers find a new stadium site--they met only once with team representatives last year--yet since September they've paid $109,787 to two consultants who specialize in stadium deals."

The SDUT article goes on to note that a "one-hour phone call at a cost of $585" was part of the bill for something the county supervisors pretend NOT to be working on.

Gee whiz, you don't think Greg Cox and the all-Republican board of supervisors is trying to steer a stadium deal to Chula Vista, where his wife is mayor, do you? These consultants, who cost an average of $506 per hour, won't steer the Chargers away from cities with Democratic mayors, will they? Well, if they do, it's probably good for the Democrats. The Chargers have a tendency to drain money from any city that builds them a stadium.

San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox pays public money to lawyers to get him what he wants, but pretends he himself is not involved. This is exactly how his wife, Cheryl Cox, operated in Chula Vista Elementary School District with her lawyers
Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff & Holtz.

The Cox Collaborative sets up lawyers with an assignment, then continues to channel public money to those lawyers while looking the other way. A public employee is appointed as go-between so that the Coxes don't have to communicate directly with the lawyers. They can claim ignorance of all the dirty deeds--unless someone actually provides the Coxes with the proof of the misdeeds.

The Coxes were provided with proof that Daniel Shinoff and Kelly Angell (AKA Minnehan) obstructed justice and suborned perjury on Cheryl Cox's behalf. Rather than investigate, Cheryl Cox said that the lawyers had told her not to talk about the matter.

Cute little scheme, isn't it? Greg and Cheryl aren't as dumb as they pretend to be. They are, however, every bit as secretive and dishonest as they appear to be.

Cheryl Cox and her posse should repay Chula Vista Elementary School District

Cheryl Cox collected about $30,000 for approving the wrongdoing of the CVESD board for six years.

Cox kept her mouth shut about serious illegal actions, faithfully bowing to the wishes of the board majority comprised of Patrick Judd, Pamela Smith, and Larry Cunningham, even when the law required her to do otherwise. Cox proved herself to be unfailingly loyal to developers and political operatives. Then she collected her reward. She's now mayor of Chula Vista.

Here's my suggestion, Cheryl. You harmed the children of Chula Vista with your loyalty to the politically powerful. Don't you feel even a little guilt that you walked over those kids to get where you are now? If you do, why not return the money you were paid as their trustee? While you're at it, why not ask Judd, Smith, Cunningham and Bertha Lopez to return their ill-gotten gains, also? Judd and Smith must have collected well over $100,000 between them. Perhaps they could hire someone to teach the employees of CVESD about their obligations under the law, and their obligations to the children of those who pay their salaries.