Well, I am back. It appears things got a little testy while I was gone. I see there were a couple of informative articles about the Mayor and City Attorney pointing fingers at one another over who knew what when and who was telling the truth. I notice the mayor and his daughter got themselves on CNN and some other news show to talk about next steps for Prop 8 and what to do about the Appeals Court Decision. I also understand he travelled to San Francisco, also related to Prop 8. Who is footing the bill for all of this? Why are taxpayers paying the mayor of San Diego to gallivant around with his daughter, engaging in a political debate of this nature, when things are going to hell in a hand basket financially in San Diego? Besides his salary, who is footing the bill for expenses? Do not get me wrong; I am not diminishing the fight or argument related to Prop 8, and do not want to get into a debate about this issue. I am of the opinion the mayor has overstepped his position and it is time he allow his daughter to carry this fight and he need get back to the issues at hand. I am not willing to pay for his personal political agenda trips, to garner face time with the media and public, in an attempt to appear to have a heart or care about anyone but himself. He was ardently opposed to this issue until his chief of staff and daughter tugged at his ear. His change of heart and his full of tears flip flop, was as phony as the Bill Clinton three dollar bill.
I see Chief Jarman is retiring to preserve her DROP and Medical Benefits. I also read with piquancy the article in Sunday's UT by Michael Stetz; again a UT writer makes a Civil Servant out to be a thieving, greedy, jackal, only in it for the money. In Stetz's article he writes; "Here seemed yet another case of a public employee chancing a hernia from lugging all that cash out the door, while my meager retirement savings go, well, up in flames." The change of ownership did little if anything to improve the ethics or reliability of the reporting coming out of this rag. If Stetz or any of the other so called writers for this pathetic excuse for a "news paper" want a secured retirement and are willing to put their lives on the line every day; I would suggest a job in Law Enforcement or Fire Fighting. I would NOT suggest it be for the City of San Diego; there is NOTHING secure about our retirements or benefits. Go to any other City and sign up; if you can cut the mustard; make it through the back ground process; graduate the academy; complete phase training; and then finish probation; you are on your way to a hard earned retirement, that if all goes well you may get to enjoy for 12 years after you retire. You won't be around much longer than that unless you are one of the lucky ones to beat the odds and survive past that. If you are not willing to do that; get off your damned high horses and shut the hell up. You get what you earn in life. No one is handing police officers or fire fighters anything; we earn every penny of our salary and retirement benefits in more ways than time permits to explain and we are not apologizing for it. We are the ones running toward that crazed man shooting people as you all run in the other direction trying to hide; firefighters are the ones driving into the flames to stop the destruction of property as you all flee as fast as your feet or car will take you.
The numbers of police, fire and civilian personnel leaving in the next thirty days is astounding. The institutional knowledge and experience of those who are participating in this exodus will take years to recover from. Life will go on; the City will not shut down; fires will be put out, crooks will go to jail; BUT crime will rise; people WILL die; lives will be ruined and the taxpayer will pay dearly for the short sighted actions of a tyrannical mayor who cares nothing for what he has created. He will place blame at the feet of everyone else and not once will he stand and accept blame for anything. He will feed the Stetz's of the media world with fuel to deceive; continuing to contribute to the destruction of a workforce once proud to serve the taxpayer of San Diego. The mayor will sit back and downplay the seriousness of today and use fog, smoke and mirrors to assure the public all is well. He will smile and claim victory over the greedy public worker all the while taking his Retiree medical benefits, salary AND retirement checks to the bank. Replacing experience with enthusiasm is the biggest joke in America's Finest City; that is until your son, daughter, mother or father is killed because the police or fire departments could not respond in a timely manner and decisions to act took a minute too long.
To the curious; I made it to within a few hundred feet of the top of the mountain at Yosemite. I did not make it to the top of the rock. I am walking funny still and feel the pain of being overweight, out of shape and over fifty. This hike is not for the faint of heart or those like me who fit the before mentioned group. It was a way to ponder next steps and take in the beauty of the mountains. I will share the pictures in the coming days and write more about the experience. Doug Cohee made it to the top of Half Dome; Terry McClain made it to the base of the rock as did Bill and Andrea Halligan. The trip to the top and back took a little over ten hours to travel the 16.4 miles total, up and back. All in all it was a great trip filled with laughs and lots of fun. Be safe and enjoy the day.
8 comments:
Hey the story wasn't clear...did the mayor take his protection detail with him to SF on a politically motivated trip to support the overturning of Prop 8?
I know he wants to be Governor now that Arnold is termed out... But he will of the people is clear and the State Supreme Court said so...
Just how many Detectives IS the Department using to protect his honor's rather large ass? Are we also doing the same for the Council? I wonder, has the Mayor done a BPR for hire a private company to provide building security? There's no doubt in my mind the cost of hiring private security would be less...his honor wouldn't have to pay for benefits he says are bankrupting the city.
Wait a sec...When Maureen O'Connor was mayor, and Sanders was the Chief, he canceled her security detail due to budget... what a hypocrite!
Sparky, Do you think that mayor's phenomenal "PUBLIC" switch on Prop 8 was purposely timed to have the media thrust his daughter to the forefront of the "Gay & Lesbian Rights" political movement? This has all the appearances of being a very calculated move by the mayor to thrust his daughter, as well as him, into the national spotlight. They couldn't have paid enough money to have a political manager take an absolutely unknown person from the general population and thrust them into the national political arena; with such success; in such a short time. This appears to have possibly been a very cunning political move that saved millions of dollars in political campaigning, time and advertising. The mayor's daughter is now an established national political leader courtesy of the mayor's. I'm sure this move by the mayor also secured the liberal northern California vote for a run at a State office. I think that he's all but used up his cute one-liners in San Diego and now is faced with all the misrepresentation (could be lying) that surrounds his current administrative run as mayor. I too do not think ill of anyone who loves and supports their their children. That is what family, love and support is all about. Taking it to the media is another is another issue all together. This is just food for thought. I may be way off base with this speculation, but given the mayor's track record of being careless and less than honorable with the truth, who knows what evil lurks.....
Don't know if the mayor took his body guards with him or not. If he did that makes it even more atrocious in my opinion. Speculation abounds of what the mayor is setting himself up for. I tend to think he is looking to Washington DC... He is already behind if looking to the Governor's Seat and he would NEVER want to be a "regular" worker in the Senate of House... anything less than the Governor's Seat would not suit his ego.... I say an appointment to some Federal Post or position... but who knows with this guy....
Salmon; you sure give the mayor a lot of credit for thinking!!!! I don't see him calculating that out in his head... I think he was just caught between the Republican agenda and family. His "show" was contrived to allow him to stray from that agenda and I think it just happened to allow for his daughter to step up and carry this fight. The rest fell into place as he seized upon the opportunity to get his face on TV. But hey; why not? He has an open check book at our expense!!!
Remember Sparky when the mayor was king of the police department. At that time he was the only one who knew all because he was so much smarter than everyone else. Change for the sake of change was a mantra, and heaven have mercy on you if you disagreed. He was the only smart one. He especially viewed senior personnel, detectives and their supervisors as ignorant and lazy individuals. He viewed the "Bumper Morgan," donut eating, career beat cop types as the real heroes of the department. The expertise, experience and knowledge of the detectives were of no value to him. Give him a 25 year, donut eating beat cop. The king of the police department did not believe anyone else had the insight or the ability to make decisions other than him. Although he publicly touted the idea of allowing patrol officers, detectives, and supervisors, to make decisions, he really kept the decision making power to himself. That was demonstrated by the king as he rose through the ranks. It is no surprise to me that he is now blowing out the experienced, knowledgeable and senior personnel of the department. He never trusted anyone else's decision making abilities because he was the smarter than they were.
We need more to leave. Everyone eligible to retire should retire. Next year is going to be even worse and the cuts will be deeper. WHY stick around? Let the fat boy mayor explain to the taxpayers, press and courts his reasons for creating what will soon become the most dangerous city in America. The press says we are all taking our money and running so why stick around for more abuse?
Watch your back Steve. You are not making friends with these posts. Will not be long before Sanders pushes Lansdowne to shut you down. It is amazing it has not happened yet. We all enjoy reading your posts. Many of us had no idea what he was all about. Look forward to reading this daily. Thanks
Good to have you back,Steve. I'm afraid of heights too. That's why I became a cop instead of a firefighter.
Jerry and Co. are destroying this police department. I read where the chief even admitted that there was a distinct possibility that the final pre-July figure would be 225. That's more than scary, it's criminal. One, or more, will die because of this. I hope it isn't one of ours.
Jerry wants more politically. That's a given and he doesn't care who he steps on to get what he wants. I have literally contacted everyone I know (and some I don't)and given them this blog site. I know they have also passed it on. I think Rana would like to see Jerry in D.C. Maybe he has to make a detour to Sacramento first. Now, that a real dysfunction crew up there. He'll fit right in. Maybe he can do away with the CHP too.
I'm to the point that I'm so frustrated that I'm running out of adjectives to destribe the exoduas and it's ramifications.
Additionally, Councilmember DeMaio is now asking GOLDSMITH to look into the viability of overturning medical benefits under the same loophole GOLDSMITH has proposed to rid the CITY of DROP without a vote of the SDCERS membership.
Do these people have any honor, or ethics whatsoever? How do they live with themselves?
The City, under Pete Wilson's leadership promised lifetime medical benefits to its employees if we approved leaving the Social Security and Medicare programs. We upheld our end of THEIR proposed bargain now they want to renege because its too expensive and they've wasted money for years. How can the courts condone such behavior, and terminate a contract?
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