3/18/08 

 “If you let a bully come in your front yard, he'll be on your porch the next day and the day after that he'll rape your wife in your own bed.”

-Lyndon B. Johnson

“Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic”

-David Corbett (original origin unknown)

Sorry for the delay on these meetings…they kept getting rescheduled, postponed, put-off and then there was all the media! Besides, did anyone think the vote would be any different than the 5-2 “rubber-stamp” vote? Several speakers pointed this out: Vicki Gray, Bill Haines…

What we have now—and have had for decades—is the tyranny of the majority.  Majority council that is. If apathetic voters continue to be misled by vapid promises from the mouths of Public Safety Union supported council candidates—this town will never change.  Vallejo needs BOLD action from the council, not the continued deferrals and refusal to truly balance the budget.

3/17/08 

Gary Cloutier Drops Court Challenge

This just in!! Gary Cloutier has decided not to push forward with his legal challenge of the results in Vallejo's mayoral race.  Below is an e-mail from Cloutier explaining his decision:

Hi all,
 
Although I would have liked to speak with you all in person about this, a leak to the paper this afternoon makes that impossible.   I learned in the last few days that the likely outcome of a contest is not reinstatment to the Mayor's position but a special election that would cost the city a significant amount of money. 
 
After speaking with a number of people, the consensus is that such an election is not desirable given Vallejo's financial position.  For that reason, the contest was dismissed this afternoon. 

Everybody who worked on the campaign will be getting an invite to a thank you party this Saturday.   I'll offer my  thank yous for all the hard work that has gone into this effort then and in person.     
 
Gary  __._,_.___

California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility
 Recommendations to Solve Vallejo's Fiscal Crisis

 3/14/08

Here is a link to a report on the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility website.  There was an article about this in the TH, but here is the original report:

http://californiapensionreform.com/vallejo.htm

Oops! Chronicle gets the Numbers Wrong!!

3/13/08

The San Francisco Chronicle reported in their 3/12/08 article  "Vallejo's fire union partied on city's dime"  that Union Business Leave by IAFF 1186 totalled around $24,000 anually.  The Douglas Freifeld report on UBL comissioned by the city puts the number MUCH higher.  The report states the following on page 23: 

"Such leave has been paid out of either City funds at 600 hours annually or Union members' donated vacation leave, and has also had an even more significant fiscal impact from overtime costs incurred to cover for absent employees.  The 2006-07 year appears to have been the highest usage year over the prior 10 years by a significant degree.  Departmental records show a cost of over $200,000 for paid union leave for the 2006-07 fiscal year, including over $116,000 in overtime expense backfilling for employees absent on UBL."