Vallejo Independent Bulletin - Daily Scream

Daily Scream - November 2008

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admin

|November.30.2008

Thanks Toad. I'll take care of it.

Hey everyone! Remember that a new Daily Scream is starting up tomorrow Dec 1st.

Sonic Toad

|November.30.2008

Hey admin, I added all of your hotlinks to the links index and submitted them. Please approve when you have a chance..

S.T.

SLIM BROWN SUGAR JACKSON

|November.30.2008

After reading the tutorials between Little Old Lady and Missmarvelous, I absotively agree that VHA operates as a "poverty pimp." Redevelopment money to VHA, to VHA Section 8, to VHA employees "spiff/admin fees/bonuses/compensation etc" to some "poor schmoo" standing in line at another city's or county's housing authority.

momster

|November.30.2008

Call the Cheif...if he blows you off, then file a complaint against the cops with the city attorney.

anonymous

|November.29.2008

My daughter was hit by a woman driving an automobile while she was in a crosswalk - Auto accident/pedestrian hit in crosswalk
Posted By: Shackford on 11/5/2008

Location: Vallejo, CA

The police came and asked her if she was OK. She is developmentally disabled and was extremely upset and has a difficult time expressing herself, so she said she was able to walk the couple of blocks to her managed care home.

The police did make a note of the incident, but failed to make out a police report.

Well, after she got home she complained of a very sore leg and the manager of the home called us. We
immediately rushed her to the hospital and the X-rayed her leg finding she had walked home on a broken leg.

Can you give us some help in locating the person who hit her and find out if the Vallejo police can have the two officers who responded to the accident explain why no citation was given and no report filed?

Thank you for your Help.

Sincerely,

John Allen and Lee Matthews *Parents of Naomi Matthews

This was originally posted here: http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=43876

Diana Lang

|November.29.2008

Sorry I've been MIA, all the cleaning, cooking and turkey activity has kept me offline.

First I object to the term "proverty pimp" in relation to the Vallejo Housing Authority. By throwing simplistic labels like that on the HA I'm secure in saying the author of that title has no idea what all the HA does. It does not move the conversation forward.

A Land Trust for Vallejo will help some but not a lot. If you realize that there are what, 1,200 houses in foreclosure with many more coming down the pike, 60 or 70 houses in a land trust is a small number. The key to a more successful
HA and overall community is to have a variety of ways (tools) to address housing issues. In the past the VHA wasn't so into looking at variety but now I think they are looking to be more creative. As with many departments in the City of Vallejo, the past actions of former department heads has to be cleaned up or dealt with before moving forward.

What I think is interesting in this conversation is the notion of out of town landlords having to register their rental homes for a nominal fee and holding them responsible if there are multiple calls for service or code violations. No P.O. boxes
and some serious fines to be leveled if there is non-compliance.

Little Old Lady

|November.28.2008

Concentrations of poverty, abandoned and substandard buildings, unemployment? That equals "blight" which then justifies "Redevelopment" that cycles back to requirements for more subsidized housing. So lets think about the "Redevelopment" component of Vallejo's economic equation for a moment. "Redevelopment" allows passage of Bonds to pay for such things as infrastructure and soft costs such as management, consultants and specialized attorneys (who live in Green Valley) Really big money there!!! Why do you think Evans and Wiggans wrote such impassioned
letters saying bankruptcy was a bad idea. It wasn't the PSU they were supporting. It was the ability of the City of Vallejo to float more Redevelopment Bonds that would feed huge amounts of money to their friends. All Vallejo has gotten for Redevelopment is big debt, a bombed out downtown and lots of subsidized housing. Others have gotten very rich. While you are following the money, follow the theory. Although Vallejo had a long history of housing low income workers through the capitalist market system (people just built basement and backyard units when they were needed), in the 1940's
housing reformers like Catherine Bauer-Wurster from Washington began experimenting with subsidized housing systems in Vallejo during WWII. Bauer-Wurster theorized that the capitalist market system could never provide decent housing for the poor. That is the basis for HUD's housing policy for the past 60 years and made a lot of investors really, really rich. She was proven dead wrong in the post war period when massive numbers of working class families moved out to homes they owned in the suburbs. But Vallejo never stopped buying into the theory because it served them well in justifying a
circular strategy that was purely economic as "good and fair". Vallejo is a microcosm of the global market meltdown. The market can only support a limited amount of "greed" before it just collapses in a heap.

MISSMARVELOUS

|November.28.2008

So if I am following the blogs, the best way to begin stopping investors from turning our City into a bed of section 8 housing, would be to support the Community Land Trust model? This would actually prevent investors from buying up all the cheap property, and encourage first time homebuyers which is what we want. Community Land Trust will meet with resistance from investors, who will try to prevent it from happening (out of town and in town investors will lobby the city council to prevent it from being passed.) There are areas that have been hit hard with foreclosures. The Meadows
subdivision (off HWY 29,) and the newer subdivision off Mini Drive (West of the Fairgrounds,) Borges Ranch (subdivision above Fairgrounds Drive,) and the Country Club Crest. These particular areas would be improved by new families moving in to owner-occupy these area. Stats show owners take better care of their propery than rentors, as they have a vested interest. This program has had success in other cities, and we have a good chance of it working in Vallejo. Its a way to try to gain control over a situation that has been dragging Vallejo down for years. Now, how about a tax on rental
units? This of course would meet with resistance from investors as well. Even if it were only $100.00 per unit per year, that would raise enough money to hire a couple more people for the City Ordinance department.

anonymouse

|November.28.2008

I definitely agree: Vallejo has a problem with section 8/absentee landlords/etc, etc.

But to call the VHA a "poverty pimp" misses so much of the picture. VHA has existed since the 40s. Calling VHA a "poverty pimp" is ridiculous. Vallejoans need to understand where we are now - what are our obligations to the feds- Marina Vista is there for how many years: 55? Very low-income housing units Vallejo was forced to build because they were sued for f*king up their redevelopment, another 55 years?

We are stuck with that. Name-calling the VHA won't change a thing. How can we
change where we are now? (And when people move to Vallejo with a section 8 voucher, there isn't a whole lot we can do about it.)

There's a whole lot of folks in town making $ from Vallejo's situation. The turnover rate of housing right now is great for realtors, do they care that foreclosed houses in nice areas will become section 8? Section 8 renters might be a problem, but the solution is with the landlords and property managers.

Why? Follow the money, follow the money: Tax the landlords (no PO box allowable) and do as Napa does: more than three calls for service at a landlord's
address? Fine the heck out of them. (will the land trust RE agents support that: fining their bread and butter? Probably not...)

Follow the money people! Who's making money here? Follow the money and that's how you'll change Vallejo.

Micahel Tatham

|November.28.2008

re the police level of staffing, every time i read the paper official spokespeople of the vpd are saying crime is going up because of low stafing levels. then the rank and file of vpd help but up the billboard on georgia st withthe intent of scaring the public and embolding the criminals.

instead of being here to "serve and protect" they are here to "SCARE and protect"

we even get individualofficers harping on the staffing level and that crime is now out of control when citizens complain to them on service calls. shouldn't the vpd leadership- or if not them the mayor-
tell them to knock it off??

Waz up wid dat?

|November.27.2008

Missmarvelous and Little Old Lady, am I "picking up what you're puttin down," the Vallejo Housing Authority has become a "proverty pimp" and can only make a profit if we keep a certain quota of poor people to house? Their vision is not to slow the growth of poor, but to increase the poor population, since poor people=more government funding? Are we attracting the poor from other communities to come to Vallejo for housing? Is there any way to see on the "waiting list" for voucher assisted apartments/homes what cities the low income people currently reside? How long has
this been going on? What can we do to reverse it, and why dont more people know about this situation of keeping Vallejo desparately poor so that we can qualify for lots of Govt. funding...

MISSMARVELOUS

|November.27.2008

So, Little Old Lady, if I am reading you correctly, Vallejo is an investor's dream. Buy a cheap property that's three bed/2 bath, rent it out for $1400-$1600 per month to section 8 occupents,the tax payers are actually footing the bill for the rent, then sell it for a profit in 10-15 years (profit of which the tax payers will never see.) If you dont live in Vallejo, then it's "out of sight, out of mind." We need to have a tax on rentals! Especially out of town landloards. The problem is, most investors would just lie, or have a PO Box in Vallejo, which means there would have to be
a tax on all rentals to avoid the "cheaters."

llittle old lady

|November.27.2008

Some problems with Fedup's friend's strategy. First, Project Based Vouchers, like 201 Maine, don't move so the potential occupant would have to have a Housing Choice Voucher. Vallejo has only 2,000 or so of those and there is a long waiting list. Unless someone qualifies for one in another city that wants to get rid of their Section 8 people and sends them to Vallejo. I think those vouchers actually stay with the original city though so the VHA doesn't get a cut. Second, HUD sets the fair rents for Housing Choice Vouchers so a 3 bedroom house would get maybe $1,400 to $1,600 per month. So
if the PMI allows $400 for said rental, the owner pockets the rest. That's an exceptional return on investment.

MISSMARVELOUS

|November.26.2008

As long as your "realor friend" from Fairfield nicely maintains the home she purchased to rent out to section 8 I have no problem. Unfortunatley, many "out of town" owners do not maintain their Vallejo properties and the surrounding neighborhoods have to put up with the problems associated with low income housing. I pretty much think if property is cheap we should try to get as been first time homwowners into houses, and less section 8 rentals. We actually have more than met our quota for section 8 rentals, but due to the fact that we want the Federal funding, we encourage
poor people far and wide to move to Vallejo so that we can receive more funding. The Vallejo Housing Authority gets an administrative fee and that is their motivation to keep the cycle going. We do not receive extra funding for the extra police and code enforcement that it requires for the burden of low income properties, and so it ends up being a financial burden on the City. We need to have a tax on rental property just like they do in the City of Oakland. Little Old Lady has discussed this at length. The Community Land Trust has nothing to do with outside investors buying up cheap
property and placing section 8 renters in them, actually if I understand correctly, it would do just the opposite. Diana Lang, are you reading VIB? Can you shed some light on this matter?

Fed Updaxx9

|November.26.2008

Community Land Trusts are a great idea.
As a matter of fact, a realtor friend of mine, who operates from Fairfield recently purchased a house in Vallejo for $52,000. and is going to rent it for $400.00 per month to section 8 tenants. I am sure the new tenants will be a lot happier there, than, living at 201 Maine.

little old lady

|November.26.2008

Check out "Freakeconomics" for a fascinating discussion about crime rates. After similar hysteria in the US about rising crime in the 80's, crime rates actually fell. The reason after adjusting for all other factors (#cops, income, etc.)? Legalized abortion. Seems that some of the kids most likely to be raised in unstable families without sufficient resources,strong values or fathers, were not born to grow up into angry thugs without hope, jobs or morals. "Freakeconomics" got all sorts of flack for coming out with a politially incorrect view but their facts and analysis are
provocative.

WAZ UP WID DAT?

|November.26.2008

So I see in the Times Herald that both the police and fire departments are hiring. Let your fellow friends and family that live in Vallejo know about this! We need more Vallejeons filling these city positions. We have the least percentage of city dwellers filling our city postions of any town/city that I know. What will we do if there is an emergency? How will the safety folks get here to assist? Our safety folks in Contra Costa, Napa County, Alameda County and Sonoma Counties, they will be impeded by bridges, clogged freeways and rural roads...

VHS	\|November.26.2008

Big City, I would agree with you that the crime rate in some categories of crimes is not necessarily related to the PS staffing levels or wages. I havent seen this argument made but if you find an example propaganda piece pass it along. My current thinking is that the wages paid in a police force do have some relationship to the level of violence in a community. We can see an analogy in the extremely high wages offered to exmilitary personal who are hired by private security firms to work in Iraq. The wages need to be set high to attract people willing to take the risk in the job. This is an
extreme example of course but its not a thought experiment, it is a real world scenario that meets a common sense test. As a taxpayer in Vallejo I would expect and hope to see the wages of ALL public servants come down along with the rest of the economy but I would expect to pay a police officer more than an office worker. A clause in all public sector labor agreements that modifies wages as the economy rises and falls would make me happy.

streetsweeper

|November.26.2008

wow, so is there any number we should start to worry as far as cops leaving? I guess I'm brainwashed because as crime increases the last thing I want is police staffing levels getting to low. Just like the g.a. Standing on the corner serves as a deterent to crime isn't it the same with officers?

Big City

|November.25.2008

"anon"-----

I have absolutely no doubt that things may have changed a lot since 2007 with respect to the City of Vallejo's crime ranking per the FBI statistics. However, whatever change has occurred it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with staffing levels of the Vallejo PD or their levels of compensation (good grief, by the latter measure there ought to be no crime in Vallejo, at all). Crime rates have to do with LOTS of factors, including and especially the state of the economy, but one of those factors is NOT the number of cops on the street or their levels of compensation. These
factors are WHAT PUBLIC SAFETY EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATIONS WANT THE PUBLIC TO BELIEVE but that's for ENTIRELY SELF-SERVING REASONS and has nothing, whatsoever, to do with reality. Show me a study or report that shows otherwise and I'll show you a study or report that's been prepared by, controlled by, or heavily influenced by an organization that has a vested interest in showing that devoting more public resources to public safety is a good thing.

When a scientific experiment is conducted, a CONTROL is usually used. A control is an experimental subject that is identical to the subject
experimented upon but unexposed to the experimental conditions. The effect of the experimental conditions can then be assessed by comparison of the control to the subject of the experimental conditions.

Let us suppose that a certain city has a crime rate of X in a given year, a crime rate of 2X the following year, and a reduction in police staffing of 20% between those 2 years. One might conclude that the reduction in police staffing was the cause or, at least, somewhat related to the reduction in police staffing. However, that is an UNWARRANTED CONCLUSION or, at best, a weakly supported
hypothesis because the "experiment" had no CONTROL. In other words and simply put, one has no way of knowing what would have occurred relative to the crime rate IF THERE HAD BEEN NO REDUCTION IN POLICE STAFFING.

The sort of unwarranted cause-and-effect relationship described in the above example is often a tool that charlatans or others with a vested interest in "selling something" use to "prove their point" to gullible folks.

PSU Watch

|November.25.2008

Yeah, anon, I bet you and your buddies at the station hope and pray every day that crime gets worse. Better yet, you're helping increase the crime rate by encouraging criminals with your billboards and Chief Nic letting them know on TV how many officers are on duty at any given time of day.

But you know what, it still won't work. I won't vote for one dime in new taxes until your contracts are brought under control similar to what Army said. Not one dime. And you know what? 75% of you and your comrades can't vote because you don't live here.

anon	\|November.25.2008

Sam,

I hate to burst your bubble with the Fox report on the FBI stats. They are from 2007. A whole lot has changed in Vallejo since then.

armyoftherich

|November.25.2008

My wish list/plan for fiscal solvency:
1) cap all health benefits for all active and retired employees to Kaiser levels.
2) return all PSU in management positions to CAMP. get rid of luxurious perks, such as drive-home vehicles for people who dont need them.
3) run the numbers and ask the PSU to accept #1 and #2 in a public forum via a press conference. Hold public hearings wherein #1 and #2 are explained.
4) hire some people who are not afraid of providing good services to the public.
5) treat remaining employees with appreciation and respect.
6) provide visible amenity-type services to
the public, who is tired of being punished
7) extract some meaningful concessions from PSU resulting in FAIR and AFFORDABLE contracts which have been publicly scrutinized, such as inserting meaningful overtime controls into the MOUs i.e., layoffs if OT goes beyond a certain point, management reward if it doesn't , get rid of minimum staffing.

THEN and only THEN might people entertain a sales tax increase.

Captain

|November.25.2008

Worlds Collide

Thank you for that excellent article. I couldn't agree more.

Big City

As always, you're right on the money - more cops/FF only equals more Cops/FF plus additional costs/expenses. PS loves the self serving argument. Keep an eye on Calpers;there will be problems. Somethings gotta give, right!

Waz Up With Dat

If vallejo continues to pay beyond her means, new hires will continue to move to neighboring communities - because they can afford to. Paying PS 3 - 3.5 times Vallejo's median family income is rediculous. You have VFD living in Danville, Napa, Moraga
etc...You pay them as thogh they were executives and they want to live that way.

I hope vallejo awards points for residency (on the PS entrance tests). That should help. Hopefully they hire more people with local roots.

When Worlds Collide

|November.25.2008

Article from the Santa Barbara Daily Sound

VERY INTERESTING
WHAT�S BAD FOR GM IS BAD FOR CITY HALL

By RANDY ALCORN

Among the corporate dinosaurs headed for the tar pits in this current economic maelstrom are America�s Big Three automobile manufacturers, GM, Ford, and Chrysler. One or all of these autosauruses may expire within the next year taking with them tens of thousands of jobs, pensions, benefits, and millions of dollars in tax revenues. Of the three, GM�s demise is the most breathtaking. Once the world�s largest and most prominent corporation, GM now teeters at the precipice
of bankruptcy. Perhaps only the sack of Rome in 410 AD rivals the humiliating downfall of GM. How could it come to this?

Ultimately the source of most economic calamities is greed and selfishness�dubious, Darwinian attributes that seem to be naturally imbued in the human condition. When humans organize into institutions, these attributes of avarice go with them.

Link to rest: http://www.thedailysound.com/113508alcorn

Anonymous

|November.24.2008

That proves once and for all that the PSU's were lying and trying to scare us.
What a cruel self serving hoax.
I am disgusted by this.
They must go.

Big City

|November.24.2008

"FBI Crime Statistics"------As I've said many times before, crime has very little to do with how many cops are on the street OR how well compensated those cops are. The folks committing the crimes just don't care about those things, at all.

For example, take the City of Oakland which is at #5 on the list. They have about 800 cops on the department. Do you know where they'd be on the list if they had 1,600 cops? I'll bet 1,000:1 they'd still be number 5. What if they had 3,000 cops? Still number 5! What about if they only had 400 cops? Number 5, again. What if they only had 200 cops?
You guessed it; still number 5.

This notion that increasing the number of cops is going to make a city SIGNIFICANTLY safer is just NUTS. That notion serves the purposes of public safety employee organizations and NOTHING else.

The same thing is true of fire departments. The notion that more of them is going to make a city SIGNIFICANTLY safer is foolish, too.

With ALL of public safety, cities have LONG SINCE passed the point of diminishing returns. WAY, WAY past the point of diminishing returns.

Latest FBI crime statistics re

|November.24.2008

KTVU CH 2 News. 10PM Monday November 24, 2008

Latest FBI crime statistics for the San Francisco Bay area:

Cities with most Violent crime:

City/list number

Oakland # 5

Richmond # 9

Vallejo # 67

San Francisco # 102

Looks like all that PSU fear mongering garbage about how unsafe Vallejo is was just that, garbage.

joke	\|November.24.2008

Lang and Wilson supporting a community land trust(purchase of 50 or more homes)what a conflict of interest. Let's spend the City HUD money where I can make a dime.

Robert Schussel

|November.24.2008

$4,300,000 divided by 60=$70,000

Diana Lang

|November.24.2008

Curious, there was a lot of information we didn't get to in that interview. I did mention that using rough calculations we had arrived at over 60 homes purchased and sold through and that there would be money left over. From our ballpark numbers we showed almost $2.5 million left over.

Keep looking on the site and when the public forum is announced, bring all your questions.

Curious

|November.24.2008

I don't understand this Land Trust model. They say that they have $4.3 million for "affordable" housing (subsidized housing) and they can buy 60 properties which they will then sell only the building, not the land. That works out to $700,000 per house. There are some 561 houses in Vallejo on the market right now for less than $200,000. Some are pretty nice 4 bedroom houses. So if you have $4.3 million to spend you could buy over 200 houses, not just 60. And that is full title, not just land. If you had a community bank, like Habitat for Humanity, and just sold the units outright,
wouldn't that benefit more families? The payment on a $200,000 house is a whole lot less than that for a $700,000 house minus the land. Vallejo got that $4.3 million because we are an "entitlement" community. The concentration of poverty is so great that HUD just writes checks to us and the City benefits because they take a management cut. Could we send the Feds back their check and say "thanks but no thanks"? We have way too much subsidized housing and it is not helping the community or the neighborhoods. Who wants some very low income family living in their $700,000
residential neighborhood? So who profits this time???

Waz up wid dat?

|November.24.2008

Yes Big City, they drive into our City to work (not to play, shop or stay) and then they leave for home behind the wheel of their hummer, bmw, etc. Remember a quote from one public safety employee was "the best thing about Vallejo is when I see it in my rear view mirror." How can we encourage more city employees to live in our city? Hire more employees from our city, they would have a vested interest in what goes on! We must have the lowest percentage of police and fire that live in the city they work in, than the rest of the surrounding counties. How can we access the percentages
of other counties and cities? My cousin works for Santa Rosa FD. he says they are at about 60 percent ratio, fire staff living in the city, they wish it were higher. He has two Vallejo FD staff living near him, is that out of the geographic distance of travel per their contract? How would they get here in an emergency?

Big City

|November.23.2008

Another point that's often missed is the fact that most police and fire personnel are SWORN personnel. They'll point to that fact whenever they want to use it to further their ends. They'll say the fact that they're sworn distinguishes themselves from other city employees and they'll strongly imply that's why they should be "higher on the pecking order than "unsworn" folks (who, by the way, they look down their noses at).

However, they forget all about it when they resort to the kind of tactics and rhetoric that have become common in Vallejo. They forget all about what their oaths
mean.

As I've said before, it just goes to show how UTTERLY MEANINGLESS this "sworn" status is. Taking the oath is just something that they use for self-aggrandisement and a tool for later self-serving activities.

The whole thing is a big SCAM.

admin

|November.23.2008

Silas, The "Current Screams" on the left column are organized by date posted. Jeff posted on November 21 but in the February set of Screams. Unfortunately with our open source (free) software we are unable to make the old set of Screams read only without a much more complex structure.

Big City

|November.22.2008

"PSU Watch"-----Yes, in Vallejo the public safety organizations are taking on the character of old-fashioned, mob-run "protection rackets". I expect that you're going to see these tactics more "fully developed" over time.

If it were up to me, at the VERY FIRST SIGN of this type of tactics (which, incidentally, has already occurred with various statements made by public safety personnel and the recent billboards), I'D FIRE EVERY ONE OF THEM.

silasbarnabe

|November.22.2008

I wonder how the left pane got mixed up with February screams? Perhaps I ****ed troll jeff off on the Times Horrid forum

PSU Watch

|November.21.2008

"We want to do waht is best for the citizens we servve, Fire Chief Dave Whitt said."

It's nice to know that some public safety departments in other cities put the interest of the citizens first. Instead in Vallejo we get, "Babies will die," and "Welcome to Vallejo, criminals, we won't stop you for illegal activities."

PSU Watch

|November.21.2008

Lincoln, CA is teetering on the brink of insolvency. Looking at the terrible budget realities, their fire chief said:

anon	\|November.21.2008

$60 per serving going back to the community. How many servings? Must've been diverted to a redevelopment loan that was never repaid or ..... Isletons version of the Empress

Anon	\|November.21.2008

Its all the abalone at $60 a serving.

anon	\|November.21.2008

Isleton is heading to bankruptcy? Must be the fault of the one fire station, one paid firefighter and 27 fire volunteers.

Captain

|November.20.2008

Isleton heading fo BK?:

http://www.sacbee.com/345/story/1413259

Captain

|November.20.2008

Here's an article worth reading. Vallejo is mentioned several times: http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/beggars-banquet/

watcher

|November.20.2008

Miss M, I looked at the web video and there were no cards at the last comm. forum. Marty Brown spoke at the end of the housing meeting but she was alone. anybody else know waz up here?

MISSMARVELOUS

|November.19.2008

Did anyone catch the end of last nights City Council meeting? I fell asleep at the end (not bored,I get up with the chickens.) Apparently a couple approached the council with a proposal to start buying up foreclosed properties in Vallejo and turn them into group homes, they will need a grant from VNH? This is what my confused neighbor told me, can any one "clear up" what really went on at the meeting?

momster

|November.19.2008

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/19/MNHA143FHK.DTL

Vallejo's neighbors try to stay afloat

streetsweeper

|November.19.2008

Fairfield will have a tough time with their budget but they have the revenue tools to weather this storm. Vallejo had the housing market to keep them above water and now they dont. If stores continue to close and lennar on mare island can't make payments to the city which is a new rumor Vallejo may never recover even after this ressesion is over. I do like the idea of cruise ships at mare island and being able to send tourists by buss or train to the napa valley. We could send them to our theme park and if we had a navy fleet with that battleship it would help keep the money in town.

Firebug

|November.19.2008

VHS,
Because what I see is public safety in those other cities still is getting what they want, and in vallejo our public safety heroes put up a bill board giving everyone the finger because like 6th grade boys they aren't getting their way.

All silliness aside to add to your irony Fairfield and its Mall and revenue was looked at by public safety as a model revenue city. Funny how the economy has caught up to them as well.

streetsweeper

|November.19.2008

I'm not worried about our president getting the bird he can take it thats his job. Member are never happy with the union during these time because we always get hammered. As long as psu pays two thirds of these stupid legal fees they wont bother me. When the judge decides who's contracts to get rid of I hope he looks at ours close. More than half of us dont work for the bankrupt general fund and those that do, make up 10-12 percent of the general fund. Also a salary survey shows most positions in ibew under market.

VHS	\|November.19.2008

OK now Im confused. I thought we were holding up Fairfield as a model for how to run public safety. The article in SFgate that Silas references says that Fairfield is facing the same budget problems as Vallejo. Maybe someone else sees the obvious distinction here but it escapes me. How can Fairfield run their public safety correctly, find themselves in the same budget shortfall as Vallejo, Vallejo not run their public safety correctly, the root of the problem in Vallejo is Vallejo public safety: how are all these factors true at the same time?

silasbarnabe

|November.19.2008

Bigcity and Firebug- I would imagine that CHP and Prison Guards combined make quite a dent in the STate General Fund siince the passage of 3 percent at 50 retirement. Anyone else notice the Chronicle has finally linked 1186 and the cities it serves with BK?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/19/MNHA143FHK.DTL&tsp=1

Waz up wid dat

|November.19.2008

It would not surprise me if we were to find out that "outsiders" were purposefully hired over Vallejo citizens for VFD postions to ensure that they would follow the Napa dweller "Kurt Henke." My spouse and I were in Napa having dinner a few weeks ago, we ended up talking to a couple in the lobby while we waited for our table, once they found out we were from Vallejo, they wanted to hear all about the bankrupcty and the reasons behind it. I have to say they were quite shocked, especially when we informed them that Kurt Henke, a "Napkin" was the union boss. We should
let everyone know, especially in surrounding cities what is going on, it's likely they may know someone who works for our city, since mose of them dont live here...

Fingers Pointing

|November.18.2008

Street sweeper, I think those one finger salutes from henke were meant for the IBEW union Prez. Cause if they have their way, IBEW and CAMP employees will be the only one getting kicked to the curb and the PS employees would push to keep all of their salaries and hire more for their depts. I haven't read one thing in all the months of blogs, that indicates that they give a hoot about you and your job. No lobbying for other dept. employees, no siree bob! Just their own selffish rears. Looks like you are on your own buckaroo!

Vallejo Vista

|November.18.2008

This is in response to the front page story about the junior high girl who was sexually assaulted at the High School tennis courts and the district demonstrating their ineptness decided they shouldn't notify parents. I can't believe there is not a massive outpouring of comments about this.

The article leaves it unclear whether the students parents or the parents of other children at the school were not informed. In both cases it is unconscionable that the so called educators and administrators could drop so low as to rationalize this as acceptable response to the incident. First if the
childs parents were not notified they should take legal action and anyone involved in the decision should be terminated. If it is parents of other children at the school that were not informed, they should, if they have any concern for their children at all, immediately withdraw their children from the school until the parties responsible for informing them about risks to their children at and arround the school are terminated. I had one child who was destroyed by the dismal approach at the VCUSD schools and a second that was on that path when we transferred their education to a private school
where they were quite successful in actually educating academically and ethically/morally. I thought it was inexcusable that the junior and senior high school at that time failed to notify parents about students not turning in work or frequently failing to attend class. That should be below the level parents tolerate, but this latest incident is absolutely unbelievable. Let's just shut down the schools, fire everyone in the district, and start over from scratch with people that care more about the children than their pocketbook or ego.

Big City

|November.18.2008

"Firebug"------There's no doubt that the public safety costs are a big part of the state's budget mess. The biggest issue there, though, is the prison guards. That's because there are a lot of them. Otherwise, the numbers of public safety personnel employed at the state level is comparatively small relative to the state's total employment and expenses. So, they can "hide" for a lot longer there. But, it will eventually come to a day of reckoning, especially with the state's budget as far out of whack as it is and likely to only get worse over the next 2-3 years.

I just read
today that CalPERS is now telling "contracting agencies" (i.e. cities and other local public agencies) that CalPERS' recent estimate of an average 4% increase in the "employer contribution rate" is going to be "way off". Not very long ago, right here in this forum, I stated that there would be no way that the 4% figure was going to hold up. So, I was right and they were wrong. No cudos to me, though; anyone should have been able to figure that one out.

The problems with public safety organizations are massive and run from top-to-bottom. Public safety personnel have
been coddled by the public, way over-compensated, and tolerated in a whole range of excesses and incompetence. Worst of all, by far, is the fact that their FAILURES ARE REWARDED. Whenever crime increases or a fire rages out-of-control, they simply say if you treat us better and hire more of us, thing will be better. They're not held to account for failure; instead, they use failure as a 100% effective tool for further feathering their own nests. So, why would they want to be successful? The public has tolerated this for years and, in doing so, they've "created the monster". Folks in
Vallejo are on the "cutting edge" of learning just how vicious, voracious, and untamed that monster is.

Sonic Toad

|November.18.2008

Sweeper, Yes I hear often about "the bird" coming from a variety of people on both sides of the PSU argument. I continue however to remind myself the motivation behind each side. PSUs motivation is money, the rest of us is about saving our city. Which side of "the bird" would you rather be on?

streetsweeper

|November.18.2008

wow, the anger is flowing today. I've heard from my sources that Henke tanner and gomes flip the bird at each other on a regular basis in court and during negotiations. Hey if the psu are no longer going to be heroes how about streetsweepers becoming the new heroes of the city?ha ha . Man, how long is this mess going to continue? I've also heard that that that billboard is rented for the next several months by the Psu and they will change the message every few weeks. Is this true?

Firebug

|November.18.2008

BigCity:
I am also wondering not just about Cities and Counties, but what about the State of California? If you look at the passage of SB 90 (3 percent at 50) by then Senate Pro Tem Burton in 1999 the State's contribution to their own Safety Personnel (Fire, CHP, Police, and Prison Guards) one has to wonder how much a 37 % PERS contribution has cost the State general fund in the last several years, and when the very Democrats that passed it will step up to the plate and reduce those benefits to 1999 levels. In the mean time the poorest Californians with Medical or special needs, along with
California's school children a bearing the lions share of cut back so that public safety officers can enjoy perks that are clearly (as Vallejo has learned) unsustainable.

Big City

|November.18.2008

The attitude exhibited by Vallejo's public safety folks is not, at all, unique to Vallejo. This is a problem that's become endemic in the entire public safety "industry". It's just that because the "chips are down" in Vallejo, they're demonstrating their "true colors". When the same fate as Vallejo soon "comes to visit" other cities In California, you're going to see the exact same attitude and tactics.

Public safety personnel have become "primadonnas" of the first order because the public has ALLOWED it to occur. Public safety personnel are anything
but the personification of public service. They are the personification of TOTALLY self-serving interest and outright greed. Pure and simple.

The notion that many of the public have about public safety personnel, largely a result of total misconception, "pr" work constantly perpetrated by public safety organizations and the totally unrealistic images which are portrayed in TV and movies, is about to come "crumbling down". The "bubble has burst" in WAY MORE ways than one.

NEXT SUNDAY'S FUNNY

|November.18.2008

should read "When the tough gets going, the tough flips Vallejo citizens the bird!"

With an appropriate blow up of the distinguished public safety personnel's salute.

Inspector Clouseau

|November.18.2008

There is a time to laugh and a time not to laugh, and this is not one of them.
Yeu Kneow, someone should take some pictures of that billboard.

You know

|November.18.2008

maybe the prudent thing to do is to alert the media about this and maybe they can show the BA how sleazy Vallejo's Public Safety really is.

Let's memorialize this and maybe this portrait too can be part of Vallejo's historically rich museum!

Anonymous

|November.18.2008

These guys are like a bunch of monkeys copying each other. I've heard stories of Henke flipping people off in meetings, negotiations, even court by putting his hand on the side of his face and hiding it from the judge or mediator. So the rank and file just learned bad behavior from the worst.

We have nothing more than a bunch of 12-year old boys running around our city in uniforms and shiny trucks. Their behavior is appalling.

There is a little thing called Conduct Unbecoming an Officer. Think Chief Nic would reprimand his boys for flipping off the taxpayers they were sworn to protect?
Hahahaha! He probably does it himself. Time to go Nicky, Oakland is calling.

Soooooo

|November.18.2008

it appears a few of Vallejo's finest are flipping the city of Vallejo off in their billboard.

I think the Times Herald and the city should investigate and demand it be taken down.

How could anyone support these people when they show no respect only contempt for the people who pay their salaries?

newswatcher

|November.14.2008

San Jose Mayor asked the federal government for a piece of that bailout money. He says that some other cities are making a concerted effort to get a piece of that pie. NBC 6 oclock news... I wonder how much we are asking for?

captain

|November.14.2008

Here is a good article out of San Diego:

Pension Deficit Saps City Budget

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Pension-Deficit-Saps-City-Budget

Vallejo Heights

|November.14.2008

Hot Air, good point. President-elect Obama has spoken extensively about investing in alternative energy technology and a plan like you propose would be a perfect fit. Take an industry that has underutilized production capacity and put it towards production of wind turbines or something similar -- I like it! They've got their hands out for big government $$$ anyway -- if given, it should come with significant strings attached, and that would be a good one.

On a mostly unrelated note, I wanted to let people know here that Grocery Outlet, in its new location in the old Yardbirds building, has
an incredible deal right now on compact fluorescent light bulbs. They have both 100 watt equivalent and *dimmable* 75 watt equivalent bulbs for 25 cents a piece! It's a great chance to replace any of your remaining incandescent bulbs.

Waz up wid dat?

|November.14.2008

An interesting article in the Napa Register, the City of Napa is building a new fire station in Brown's Valley. They just hired 5 firemen (all men, so yes firemen) to staff it. They had a "cute" bio about each employee, and low an behold if there werent all from Napa! Not a single one was an ex-Vallejo fire fighter either. What a novel idea, hiring city employees that live/or have grown up in your city.

MISSMARVELOUS

|November.13.2008

So Vallejo has no State representation right now that has a vested interest in Vallejo. We need to make sure that we are represented at the State level if we ever want Vallejo to get any respect. Anyone got any ideas? I heard Gary Cloutier is back in town...

Little Old Lady

|November.13.2008

The reason the Napa Flood Control Project got all that Federal money is that every time Napa City flooded, the national TV crews set up on the Third Street Bridge and filmed away for the news. Then the tourists stopped coming which affected the up valley economy. So big money whined and their elected representatives scrambled off to get money to make the river behave. The first round of Army Corps planning was a classic LA concrete channel because Napa City itself was not very important to up valley folks. The concrete ditch plan was repeatedly shot down by the Napa citizenry and, when the
Federal Funding was about to run out, the up valley folks got really reasonable. A stakeholders consortium was established led by Karen Rippey, former wife of Supervisor Mike Rippey, with Luna Leopold and other environmental heavyweights guiding the discussion. The current plan is a geomorphically stable river that is now been adopted by the US Army Corps as their state-of-the-art model. It took a whole bunch of organized and determined citizens opposed to the ditch and a monetary incentive (losing the federal funding and tourism) for Mike Thompson and others to step up. Remember Mike
passed the special legislation allowing formation of a Redevelopment Area (demolition!!!!!) on Mare Island for economic reasons alone. Those are Napa's economic reasons, not Vallejo's because we could use a nice lucrative tourist economy. (but it might compete with Napa's) Our problem is that Vallejo does not have any representation. Miller got a National Park for Richmond (Rosie the Riveter which celebrates WWII) but nothing for Vallejo's National Historic Landmark that bears witness to 150 years shaping the economy of the Pacific Rim. How about asking the Feds for a nice National Park
for Mare Island?

Hot Air

|November.13.2008

I like the electric vehicle approach. Id like to see our domestic auto makers shift a portion of their production capacity into building wind turbines. Give the existing auto workers retraining in wind technology and get started with a WPA style work project for the Pickens plan. I hope the falling oil prices dont put us to sleep again.

Mr. Green

|November.13.2008

The problem with the auto industery is they're in bed with the oil corporations. The union workers have only received cost of living increases and no true raises since the Reagan era.I'm a union member but don't get me wrong, I don't agree with PD and FD here because they're giving all unions a black eye. Anyway, If we're to bail out U.S. auto companys they need to be told they have to build true green vehicles. Not just another hybrid that still only gets 20 mpg(that tahoe/escalade is a joke!) Ford sells a diesel festiva in England that gets 65 mpg! They should start by bringing all those
vehicles they sell abroad that get that kind of mileage here. They also have the technology for electric cars, etc. The key is to get OPEC out of the equation. They won't give us high mileage cars becuase we consume 25% of the worlds oil. This country is a cash cow for oil money. Crappy mileage means more money for them. I want my tax dollars to go towards green cars, not more of the same. And if they so no, let 'em fall apart. It's our money,right?

MISSMARVELOUS

|November.13.2008

Today, there is a story in the Napa Register (naparegister.com) that our Congress is talking about putting together a stimulus package which would give money to cities and counties for infrastructure repairs. Rep. Mike Thompson-D-St. Helena has lobbied the Feds for 90 million for the Napa flood control project, remember folks most of downtown Napa was build below sea level, it floods every year we have a lot of rain. Since our Rep. Noreen Evans does not live in our city or county,what type of funding from the Feds will Ms. Evans lobby for our crumbing infrastructure? Little Old Lady, this is
up your "ally." Please advise the readers of VIB on what projects of infrastructure in Vallejo would benefit from Fed Funding. We would all love to write our city council as well as our Rep. Noreen Evans. Due to the fact the Fed's are considering this as part of a stimulus package to create jobs, we might have a chance...

silasbarnabe

|November.12.2008

Wow, it's Deja Vu all over again! I remember the 1993 strike here in Vallejo and at that time the State was also in a recession. Currently the state has had to cut 10 percent of its budget for the last two years passing on cuts in education. Granted now the School District is BK under State control, I doubt a strike will get them little if anything and will likely hurt kids and families more than Damelio, Bull and their band of highly paid Administrators.

The sad part is because of the old School Board that got them into this mess (Pendergast, Preovolos, Verder-Aliga, Wilson, and so forth)
Vallejo teachers have to suffer for their past and current leadership's failures. Damelio and company betrayed the trust of Vallejo's taxpayers and used Measure A bond money to remodel the Administrative building on Mare Island in exchange for some feeder money and a deal with Lennar (no doubt to bolster employment figures for MI). I know besides obvious reasons most would never trust Vallejo Schools with another bond. My heart is with you Vallejo Teachers, but my wallet is skeptical.

PSU Watch

|November.12.2008

Chris Mathews had an interesting guest on Hardball tonight talking about whether the Govt should bail out the auto industry. The industry failure stemmed, in addition to **** poor management for years, from the unsustainable United Auto Workers union contracts. You got it, the Unions at it again with their greed and purchasing politicians.

Apparently the auto industry, when times were good, agreed to unsustainable union contracts they couldn't afford when times turned bad.

Sounds way too familiar. When will these unions realize they're pooping in their own beds?

TheCityCanNot

|November.12.2008

"grab" the VSFCD's money. It is a separate entity.

It further can not "grab" money from other funds within the city, either.

armyoftherich

|November.12.2008

Where is the City of Vallejo bailout? if GM can swing it why can't the PSUs go get some financial help from the federal government, it sure would help everyone out!

Pyriphlegethon

|November.12.2008

I vehemently disagree that the City "grab[s] money from other pots like moving Sanitation money into streetsweeping or the incredibly lucrative Landscape Maintenance Districts that shift 60% of the tax revenues into the General Fund".

The City has been sued 2 times for misuse of funds: the "Buchongo Settlement: where they misused redevelopment funds and was forced by a lawsuit to create 450 very-low income housing units and then for misuse of Ridgecrest LMD fees.

The city CANNOT shift LMD fees into the general fund.

What they can do-and they must justify it and it
gets audited-is charge costs to LMD funds for services related to the LMD. This can include administration fees since the city does have to administer the funds, and it includes public works.

The accounting was in a shambles after the reign of Martinez/Wright. I saw some of the financials they reproduced-pathetic.

The new team of Stout/Mayers has cleaned that all up. Mayers was impeccable on the bankruptcy stand. She and Stout are experts in their fields and if there is one area of the VJO city gov't that I have confidence in, its finance.

Waz up wid dat?

|November.12.2008

Oh on fire, I agree, I am sure the thought of volunteers in the Fire Department and Police Department would be met with resistance, they dont want any free help that could be a paid position I am sure, that way they can complain they are under staffed. This is the only city I have ever lived that I dont see volunteer police cars driven around, especially at events. I guess if local volunteers were filling in, they could witness first hand episodes of abalone diving and tipping the old bottle... Naw, dont want witnesses to see what going on in the big V-town.

Waz up wid dat?

|November.12.2008

On Fire, the city does have an ordinance that if you run a business out of your home, you must provide off-street parking for your employees or patrons. Take pictures during the 5 days of the week, noting the date, showing all the cars being left behind on your street from employees. You can send it to the ordinance department, the owner will receive a warning and then a stiff fine. We had this same situation with someone running a day care out of their home, cars were everywhere and even double parked to drop off and pick up kids. We actually took pictures and ordinance contacted the
owner of the business, it stopped immediately. Hey, what a great way to raise funds for the city, off the backs of "law breakers."

streetsweeper

|November.12.2008

first, sanitation is a separate district with separate funds not to be mixed with the general fund. They pay half the streetsweeping to keep trash out of storm drains. This water in the stormdrain does not go to the treatment plant it goes to the bay. Also, if you have abandoned cars please call code inforcment to have them towed. If you call the streets department they can tell you when your street will be swept. It is done once a month.

Firebug

|November.12.2008

Little Old Lady-
That is a rather disturbing claim that 60 percent of landscape maintenance District's revenues go to the General fund. It appears the proponents for the recent tax increases in these areas swore up and down that not a nickel went into the general fund or where affected by BK.

Little Old Lady

|November.12.2008

Many people in my neighborhood are either computer illiterate or don't have computers available at home.

It appears that the City just wants to grab money from other pots like moving Sanitation money into streetsweeping or the incredibly lucrative Landscape Maintenance Districts that shift 60% of the tax revenues into the General Fund. Volunteers can't do it all. The City needs to be run in a businesslike way rather than whine and say they can't do their job because they don't have enough resources. This is just one example. The streetsweeper is driving around bizzily using up gas with
little impact on the trash going into the treatment plant.

On Fire

|November.12.2008

I don't park my car on the street. Couldn't if I wanted to because my neighbor's cars are always taking up the space in front of my house. He has a landscaping business and all of his employees park their cars in front of our houses during the day while they are at work. So unless there was some sort of enforcement that required them to move their cars, forget about it. It's bad enough to have them blocking half of my driveway at times.

I read an article about the Benicia PD receiving recognition for their volunteer program. Apparently they have volunteers writing tickets.
(Non-moving violations). The also have volunteers that man the phones and help file reports. There is also a volunteer fire dept. as well. Now isn't that a novel idea!

It appears that other cities all around us have managed to set up a volunteer program which has saved them money. Maybe one of the reasons why we haven't been able to set up one here is because it has been met with resistance from the Dept. heads? More revenue from not moving your car, than basketball hoops.

Swept Up

|November.12.2008

Go to the City of Vallejo website and you will find, under Public Works, a sweeper schedule. This has been on site as long as I can remember.
Lately sweeping does not always happen according to this schedule.

It is not that hard to remember to move a car once a month to have the sweeper do the job we are all paying for. I actually hear him coming about a minute before he goes by my house, enough time to maybe run out and move the car out of his way.
I am not crazy about the idea of having another sign littering my neighborhood, but if that is the only way cooperation can be achieved,
so be it. Of course we also will need additional staff to write the fines for not moving ones vehicle on sweeper days.
Any volunteers?

To Curious

|November.12.2008

Thank you. I clean up mine, too. I think the Srteet Sweepers do an amazing job, so let's keep them and get rid of some of the other brain dead lumps down at City Hall and the corporation yard. I would start with all those assistants to assistants to assistant superintendents.

How many clucks does it takes to make a bad decision down there anyway??

Little Old Lady

|November.12.2008

Message to City...Message to City...

Use some of that sanitation money to buy some signs regarding the street sweeping schedule because obviously the objective is to keep the junk out of the treatment plant. Your guy just suggested that citizens find out the schedule and go door to door to alert neighbors to move their cars. On my street, some of those cars are abandoned or not running and some of the multiunit subsidized buildings have some hair-trigger lunatics living in them. This is really silly and more than stupid!

streetsweeper

|November.12.2008

it is true that if cars are parked on streets that I've been instructed to clean it makes it tough to do my job well. In the past when we had more workers, so we could work more with the public to clear steets before sweeping. To find out the dates when your streets will be swept call the steets dept then work with the neighbors to move cars. I wish we had more workers to help with this but we dont. Also half the funds for streetsweeping comes from sanitation.

Waz up wid dat?

|November.12.2008

This story just in on sfgate.com read the full story for yourself online. I believe when you work for the fire department you receive 95% of your highest year's earnings tax free if you can go out on permenant disability. My cousin is a fire captain in Sonoma county, he is sickend by what he sees as far as employees faking injuries or blaming an injury they received off duty as a work related injury. There are too many advantages for dishonest people who work for the fire department, their contracts make it very lucrative to be dishonest.

Ex-S.F. firefighter's workers' comp
problem
Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross, Chronicle Columnists
A former San Francisco firefighter is facing criminal charges after she collected $140,000 in workers' compensation and disability payments - while she was participating in ultramarathons and triathlons from the Sierra...

On Fire

|November.11.2008

Street Sweeper, the point is not to make money off of kids that have hoops on the street. If we are investing funds to sweep the streets, people should not impede that function. I live a a narrow streeet where most houses have more cars than parking spaces. Many times I can't have my company park anywhere near my home because my neighbors have taken up all the spaces. I never have the gutters swept by your truck because there is always a car/truck parked in front of my house, so it seems like of waste of the City's time and effort. If the City wants to continue to sweep the streets, then maybe
they should put some parking restrictions on the books first. That would bring in more money than "hoop fines".

Curious

|November.11.2008

OK. I'll pick up the trash in the gutter (I already do) But just on my block; somebody else has to do the other streets. So does that mean we can cut out the streetsweeper jobs and save money?

To Curious

|November.11.2008

How hard is it to pick up the trash. It is your neighborhood, isn't it.

MISSMARVELOUS

|November.11.2008

So "progressive Vallejeons" are actually the "Creative Class" per economist Richard Florida. I like the sound of that! Viva Vallejo!!!!!!!

Fed Up

|November.11.2008

Speaking of Casa de Vallejo--when is it going to be repaired and livable again?
Or maybe it is going to be section 8 housing for migratory birds as its next evolution.

Historian

|November.11.2008

Vallejo's problems started long ago when the Mare Island Shipyard supplanted all other industries as our primary economic engine. Our politicians just got fat and lazy. (The Brewery noted by an earlier blogger was deplored by the Secretary of the Navy for leading his sailors to ruin so it was not a big positive) After WWII, Vallejo, like the rest of the country, was affected by the great "suburban shift". The massive defense federal highways led out of town and the many federal incentives for those that had the means allowed them to flee to single family homes in the homogenous
suburbs. Then, with the formerly vibrant urban centers emptying out leaving only the very poor, disposessed or people of color that were not allowed to buy those suburban houses,the feds encouraged "Redevelopment" which bulldozed poor owner occupied neighborhoods and replaced them with subsidized rental housing all in the name of "Progress". The arguement was that the new rentals would create better citizens and stable communities. Didn't work anywhere. But Vallejo clung to the old strategies. Why? Some got very rich..favored developers, infrastructure contractors,
attorneys, realtors, owners of rental properties and the City which raked in a cut. No need to change. As an example, in the 80's, the City's planning director, Hal Boax, bought a failing grand hotel, the Casa de Vallejo, and converted it to subsidized housing for seniors completing a ring of subsidized housing strangling Vallejo's downtown. (Has anybody else done the math on the projected monthly profit?) So Vallejo died a slow death driven by greed, laziness and stupidity. For years the PSU folks elected their own personal City Council that did their bidding and fired City Managers that
dared to buck them so that they could rachet up their compensation packages. But the folks they elected were just as smart as the PSU which elected them which means they didn't have the smarts to understand how to get through the closure of Mare Island with a stronger, redundant economic strategy. As housing plummeted (yes, it did because I bought one of those historic houses for a pittance that was slumlorded almost to death) a new group of people moved in. Called the Creative Class by Economist Richard Florida, they are the solution not the problem. In his most recent book, Florida
identifies the San Francisco Region as the strongest global economic powerhouse in the world. He defines that as the area between the Silicone Valley and Davis. (Anybody else note that Vallejo is right in the middle of that, just as General Vallejo once predicted) For the indicator species of change, look at http://creativeclass.com (hint: it is gays) So please, The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. The world is different and Vallejo needs to stop clinging to the idea that we will thrive by doing more of the same harder.

Little Old Lady

|November.11.2008

The City of Oakland requires ALL rental property owners to have a business license and all rental units are inspected yearly by the fire department. The fee was $75 per year per unit back when I managed units. The fire department checked smoke detectors, egress and water heaters plus noted any other code violations for follow-up by the building department.

The City of Berkeley notifies all absentee owners of rental property of calls for police service to put them on notice that they will be fined and then racks up fines until they either clean up their property or it is seized for the tax
liens.

The City of Napa passed a "Slumlord Ordinance" that allows ALL of the costs of public safety services (police) after 3 per year to be charged to the the owner of the property.

The City of Vallejo is the only City I know of where absentee owners of rental properties have priority over citizens that live in the community.

Curious

|November.11.2008

Open letter to streetsweeper...

I have watched you busily scooting down the middle of my street, brushes rotating madly but picking up nothing because the trash is in the curb under the parked cars. There are no signs, like there are in San Francisco, that say something like "no parking Tuesday 10 a.m to noon. Streetsweeping" with a traffic ticket brigade that preceeds the streetsweeper. So it looks like the streetsweeper is "doing his job" but my street only has a dirty stripe behind the truck mostly down the middle of the street with the leaves and trash left to wash
into the storm drains.

VHS	\|November.11.2008

Hey Waz up, I agree with you and believe the disproportionate number of subsidized housing units in Vallejo is a big part of our financial problem. It looks like the VHA is a behemoth bureaucracy and in a feedback loop where the more funding they get, the better able they are to prop up the bureaucracy, the bigger the bureaucracy gets, the more able they are to bring in additional funding, yada yada. This cycle of poverty subsidization sends our demand for public services through the roof. This is ground that we have been over before but I think it is a subject that the general public in
Vallejo knows very little about and would be shocked to learn the details. I love the idea of a stiff absentee landlord tax.

silasbarnabe

|November.11.2008

Anyone else notice similarities of a letter to the editor in the T-Horrid today? Todd Swanson's letter reminded me of the anonymous mole that wrote about the outcome of the BA petition before it was announced.

streetsweeper

|November.11.2008

today in the times horrid as you folks call it, a letter complained about streetsweepers reporting basket ball hopes to fine people. First, I dont mind kids hopes out front but I have a job to do and joe wants to raise money by reporting kids basketball hopes thats what I have to do. Its not fair that the drivers have to take the heat for the city's idea on raising money.

Waz up wid dat?

|November.11.2008

Vallejo has the same social issues of most larger cities that are "diverse." One of my biggest concerns is the per capita section 8 ratio. As well as the 800+ parolees that live in Vallejo. It has been well known for years, that if you want section 8 and your city does not provide it (Napa County, Sonoma County, Contra Costa, San Rafael etc) move to Vallejo. If you are a parolee, and dont want to move back to your own city "stay" in Vallejo. It would be one thing to house our own poor, and to rehab our own Parolees, but to take care of other counties and cites social
problems is not fair. There are some that believe a "conspiracy" is at work, and that for 20+ years, other cities have worked with our own city staff and politicians to move their "undesirables" to our city, we end up with the affordable vouchers from the Feds, "they" end up with a "clean" city... Of course there are also all the "out of towners" who like to buy up our town, including the historic district, fill them with rehab houses, section 8 or the like and reep the benefits of not worrying about what there own friends and neighbors think...

The
City of Oakland has a tax on rental properties, I do not recall if they are taxes for "out of town" landlords, or for both local and "out of town." This helps off set all the extra police calls and ordinance violations that occur with rental property. What do you all think about a rental property tax?

momster

|November.10.2008

Tom is retarded!

Vallejo was not doing fine before. Everyone that I went to school with left...why? b/c of the schools. No one wants to start a family here b/c of the schools and too much section 8.

When Mare Island closed, Vallejo died.

Pyriphlegethon

|November.10.2008

People like Tom Bolsey seem to want to live in the past..."we were fine before...".

Vallejo was built as a one horse town and the locals were used to the revenue and federal handouts that come with the Navy. Fat and happy and no need to be competitive, just be a little insular town for 150 years with a jaundiced eye towards "those people".

The world has changed-most blue collar jobs are moving overseas and remaining are drying up especially with the economy. Poor little Vallejo never learned how to be competitive in the region, always looking
inward.

Friends just bought a house in San Mateo - similar to my house in sq footage, lot size, year built. Even has the same # of bedrooms/bathrooms. They hought their house for almost $900,000; my house is worth $250,000 if I'm lucky.

Affordable homes in Vallejo? In large part due to our lousy schools.

streetsweeper

|November.10.2008

I was in wallgreens this weekend and at the checkout I noticed a book about Vallejo's history. I spent about ten minutes flipping through it. I was amazed at all the pictures of mare island and the down town area just filled with industry people and business. The book had pictures of all the different types of industry. Did you know Vallejo had a large brewerey? It sad where this town has been and where we find ourselves now.

MISSMARVELOUS

|November.10.2008

About 14 years ago when I first moved from the East Bay to Solano County, my realtor who is a third generation realtor from Vallejo took me to see downtown Vallejo. I marveled at the great old buildings, but could not believe how few businesses were downtown. She told me that in the 1970's a mall was built in Fairfield, the mall development was first offered to Vallejo, but the city leaders turned it down, saying they didnt need a mall. Eventually all the businesses such as Sears, JC Penny and others moved out to Fairfield, others just closed up shop. She said the businesses were told they
would not be able to survive once the mall opened in Fairfield. I find it odd that a larger city would be encouraged to drive 25 minutes to shop outside of their own city. She said many of the "mover's and shaker's" in Vallejo owned the land that the Mall was built on, and in fact many of them moved to the Green Valley area. Little Old Lady has indicated that one of the reasons the historic area's are filled with section 8, is that "out of towners" own historic properties that they rent out to section 8, instead of selling the properties to someone who can restore them.
People that have moved out of Vallejo have kept their Vallejo homes and rented them out to section 8 as well, they make great rental properties, they dont live here anymore so they dont care what happens to the area...

streetsweeper

|November.09.2008

I've been in this town since childhood and even when we had the navy this was not a upscale town.now we are bankrupt and the economy is in the dumps and we have nothing to help to bring money to this city. It will be a miricle if I live to see this town be more than what it has always been. This town has been a town that people from other towns avoid, but I still love it.

On Fire

|November.09.2008

Bosley is an old fart. Living in the past, thinking that things should never changed for fear that he will be left behind! Hating anyone that doesn't quite fit into his little world. He is part of the disillusioned that never learned to grow up without the MI Navy training wheels holding him in balance.

You can't make someone understand "better things" when all you want is the blue light special.

Embrace Change, Yes We Can!
Viva Vallejo!

Anonymous

|November.09.2008

Yes, Tom, it's 5

0 and time for the Early Bird Special for Seniors at Denny's. Hurry!

Tom Bosley

|November.09.2008

Anon or waz up wid dat or PSU watch or whichever blog name you want to use: Lets look at your list and compare it to what I said.
1) no factual data, just your opinion
2) 2-3 % can cause major negavity
3) who said our downtown was dead in the 80's? You !!!!
4) never stated nice businesses weren't needed, just we got along without them before and we can again.
5)Times Herald will be here long after you and the VIB, again just your negativity showing
6)no facts again, just your "simple" opinion
7) now you are getting close, the only facts you missed were we have the same PSU for
the past 30 years and the politicians that screwed the City up came in to office over the past 12 years. Interesting analogy Huh???

Now if you think you are going to win this debate, think again..I have to go on and enjoy my life for awhile, since I have one..

Viva Vallejo

Anon	\|November.09.2008

Tom
Nothing like a few half truths.

1)The reason that Victorians were afforable is that Mare Island closed which resulted in an extremely depressed housing market.

2) The percentage of "a certain element" that moved to Vallejo 12 years ago was no more than 2% to 3% of the total population.How could they have the major influence you try to attribute to them.

3) The downtown started to die in the early 1980s way before a"certain element" moved here.

4)Since when is aspirations for nicer stores a negative influence.

5) If you call the Times Herald a decent
newspaper I have some swamp land near Mare Island that might suit you.

6)This town was run by a small group of lawyers,landowners and small business men who controlled Vallejo for their own self serving interests. The Citizens got the scraps.

7)My town is in trouble because the PSU and the politicans they helped elect ran it into the ground.--Not those who have moved in over the past 14 years.

Angry PSU

|November.09.2008

So Botchley, it was Exline that made homes affordanble in Vallejo? I love it when handles are mentioned by name it usually means they enraged a PSU (T)urd.

streetsweeper

|November.09.2008

marc, thanks for looking out for the fire victims that is a positive thing that you have done. Would be nice if you could support the skate board shop and the concert to raise money for his loss. That shop is important to lots of the kids in town. I buy all my kids stuff there and refer as many parents as I can to keep them from spending money at the mall.

Tom Bosley

|November.08.2008

PSU Watch: you just proved my point..I guess you speak for Waz Up Wid Dat; Firebug among your other "informed citizens". No doubt you will be the cancer that terminates the blogging fraternity ..

Viva Vallejo

PSU Watch

|November.08.2008

Tom, you are so full of **** your eyes must be brown. You and your good ol' boy pals made money off of Vallejo for years, all the while slowly sucking the host dry. By the time "we" got here, the city structure was so rotted beneath the surface it was just a shell. We are having to rebuild and pick up after your messes. Your welcome.

Tom Bosley

|November.08.2008

Waz up wid dat::: where in the world do you get your information? The Fairfield Mall was build at least 20 years before Mayor Exline was ever in office. Why do people like you continue to tear down people that not only really love this City, but have attempted to make it better for all of our citiznes. People like you insist on tearing down anyone and anything who you don't agree with. If you would step back from your blogging long enough, you would notice we had a great City here for many years, but about 12 years ago a certain element came to town and decided that they would make our City
into something like Carmel or Sausalito, because they never could afford to live in those places, but since the good old boys and girls, like Exline, have been able to keep the housing prices, especially the Victorians, at an affordable level, it allowed people of your caliber to move here and enjoy OUR city, but no sooner then you got here, you try to make us into something we never wanted to be. Some of us have lived here for years without needing a Trader Joes or a Peets and we got along just fine. We had a Police and Fire Department that was well paid, but respected and provided us the
safety we wanted. We had a downtown, that included Mr. Ric's' Helen Lyall's; The City of Paris; the Squres; a mulitude of jewelery stores and in fact it met most of our needs. We had auto dealers that serviced Vallejo citizens and a newspaper that covered Our news. But them you and your friends arrived and have degraded all of them. You take credit for the City Museum, which was findished in 1977; You take credit for the Empress which was completely restored, without a singe penny of City money in the early 1980's; You take credit for the Ferry System, which was started in 1985 without any
City money; you take credit for the Democratic Party electing President Obama, but we Democrats, working with our Repbulican friends did pretty good before you got here, (Thats for you Danny boy) do I need to go on?? Now that you guys think you are in control, what do we have and what have you really done. Oh, I am sorry you have cleaned up the graffit....but then again we didn't have that much until you got here....to close this let me say, you love to state facts, but the only problems is, you don't have any....but thanks for runing my City...

Big City

|November.08.2008

The only thing amazing about Vallejo is that they've been able to "sustain the unsustainable" for so long. That, though, is TRULY amazing. However, what they've done to accomplish this is going to make the fall that much deeper and painful. There's no way around that as folks are going to soon find out.

streetsweeper

|November.08.2008

as a ibew member I'm frustated with where we are at. In 2004 we lost jobs gave up a increase along with many hours of furlough time. All this to help the city get by. Between then and now I'm not satisfied with city's effort to reduce costs and increase revenue. Now we are in a very bad position. All those years feeding on the housing market and not bringing in industry and good places to shop may be too much. All those house that were built need services provided for them like hiddenbrooke. All the quick money is gone now.there will be a lot of pain felt by all before we get out of this hole
if ever.

Waz up wid dat

|November.07.2008

For the past 20-30 years the City of Vallejo has been influenced by outside forces. Investors in the Fairfield Mall, once Vallejo's "big players" convinced businesses to move to the Fairfield Mall where they held long term leases. Dont forget when the developers of the Fairfield Mall offered to build in Vallejo, Mayor Exline and "others" made sure they moved to Fairfield. Its one of the reasons there has never really been a "shop local/shop local" slogan in Vallejo. Its also one of the reasons that for a city of 100,000 + pop. we do not have Trader Joes's Peets
coffee and other such desirable businesses. It has nothing to do with crime or per household income, look at the City of Oakland, they have everything! Ex-Vallejo patriots now living in Green Valley own low-income property in Valejo, and rumour has it one of the most blighted section 8 apartment properties is owned by a Napa police officer. So our city has been the receipiant of other cities social problems, and "outsiders" have benefited from our redevelopment funds. We have been used for years as the drop off for parolees and the "run-off" of section 8 that other cities
refuse to house. We have also been used to make blue collar workers rich, specifically Fire Fighters and Police Officers, who make so much money, they dont live in our community. The ones that do live here, own lots of rental property or have second jobs as contractors and realtors.
We all need to get selfish and start looking out for "our" City first. What can we do for "our" City, how can we prevent the influence of "outsiders." How can we get the most of every program for "our" city. Vallejo First!

Viva Vallejo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PSU Watch

|November.07.2008

Sweeper is right about the city depending on housing development for revenues. Yet the Chamber types and unions called anybody who opposed more housing "elitist" and "anti-growth." Bruce Gorley, our un-esteemed planning commissioner and former IBEW hack led that charge along with the building trades. When we said we wanted smart growth, mixed use development and not more sprawling suburban cookie-cutter developments, we were chastised for stopping "progress." Its obvious they didn't care about anything but their own jobs. "Build, Baby, Build" was the mantra
they spouted before they handed out big checks to their bought council candidates. More crap foisted on the people of this city by our unions.

So it looks like us elitist green freaks were right. Again.

On Fire

|November.07.2008

Okay street sweeper, so how should Vallejo move forward? What type of revenues is the City missing out on? What businesses are we losing to other cities? Just how does the city pay your "contracted salaries" and manage to keep the city operating?

I keep hearing you crying with this same mantra, but haven't seen a feasible plan on how this is suppose to happen. So tell us sweeper, what exactly should the city do in order to continue paying you (and the rest of the employees) the same salaries and perks?

It's easy to say that you have a contract, but how is
that contract supposed to be honored when the country is going into a recession?

Firebug

|November.07.2008

Ah Streetsweeper-
How many times do we have to hear Vallejo would be a great place if we just paid PSU's what they want....not gonna happen the cookie jar is empty and surrounded by a bunch of overweight parties blaming the cookie maker for the empty cookie jar.

streetsweeper

|November.07.2008

the economy will hurt all cities finacialy but Vallejo will have the hardest time recovering. I know you folks think that the unions want the city to make more money so we can line our pockets but thats not true. We just want the city to honor contracts they sign. That will not happen if Vallejo stays the course they are on. I dont need a high salary just a fair one. Vallejo was counting on the housing boom to Carry them and cover the fact that no real industry has been brought in to help. No cuts to labor are going to completly fix this mess.

Captain

|November.07.2008

I think this is an article worth revisiting. It's an SF Gate article from march 30th. Much has changed since - including Oaklands financial status. Oaklands problems might not be media worthy just yet, but stay tuned...
Oakland,SF, San Jose, and Santa Clara County (Rose Assoc. client not mentioned in this article) are coming under financial pressures.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/29/MN7OVQOPK.DTL&tsp=1

On Fire

|November.07.2008

After reading the article regarding the Casa investigation it appears that there are more questions now then when it started. Why would the management of Casa, put someone who needed oxygen and obviously had mobility issues, on the 6th floor of the building? Wouldn't they need to be located on the first floor where help would be more readily accessible?

If "everyone" knew that he smoked and drank, wouldn't that be cause for management to pay more attention to him? So it appears that Logan is living up to their reputation in southern California and will be making an
appearance in court one day soon.

Thanks Marc for following this story and telling the resident's side. It was clear that the city was not interested in hearing from them and the times horrid wasn't interested in investigating the issues period. Even with the issue of the signed releases, Ozzy was ready to shut you down instead of listening. Only to find out that Logan had indeed threatened the residents and tried to cover their butts.

On Fire

|November.07.2008

The Chief is trying to push blame away from himself by using the bankruptcy. But his failure to retain his troops only indicates that he bought into the "highly paid, best qualified" kool-aid and now can't adjust to "protect and serve".

His rush to the table so that he could "relay his concerns" is no more than additional PR to try to save face for himself.

The only interesting comment he made was the fact that a former employee who was one of the first to take flight for greener pastures, is now seen the light and wants to come back!

So
much so that his wife is calling to plead his case. Guress the grass wasn't that green!?!

PSU Watch

|November.07.2008

Sweeper, glad I could give you a fundraising idea!

Property crIme is on the rise because of the economy, but I also place the blame on Chief Nic's shoulders. He has said on tv at council meetings so many times now that his officers wont be pursuing property crimes. He whines constantly on tv about how few officers he has and they just can't keep us safe because of that. And just last night he told the entire city how many officers he has on patrol at any given moment. I'm sure the criminals will send him a thank you note for making their jobs easier. Chief Nic needs to GO back to
Oakland and stay there.

streetsweeper

|November.07.2008

ya at this point I do not think any pr will help labor. Everyone in town knows crime is up by what is happening everywhere in the city. You dont even have to read the paper. I talk to people in my routes and many are saying home break Ins and vehicle theft is up big time. I know its the economy but cops leaving is not a good thing right now. Oh maybe ibew will come out with our own calender to raise money for our legal fees. Ha ha

PSU Watch

|November.06.2008

Nah, Sweeper, it didn't **** me off, it actually made me sad. Sad for the lame, ineffective effort; sad for the waste of money when so many people in town are hurting financially; sad for our city to have to endure yet anothet attack by their own employees; and finally, sad that the PSUs obviously aren't taking the BK or negotiations seriously.

Oh, it also makes me chuckle every time I drive by -- I mean, the myth of police and firefighters is that they are attractive and studly types. These guys look like a ragged, motley crew -- NOT candidates for any calendars!

Big City

|November.06.2008

Like I've said before, all this stuff like "...to protect and serve..." is just window dressing. It's a PR or "sales pitch" type of thing. It has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with anything that even resembles a REAL commitment.

The same thing is true when they talk about "sworn" personnel. You see, in the police and fire departments there are two classes of employees-----"sworn and "unsworn". The "sworn" are "head honchos". They're the primadonnas that strut about with uniforms and badges. Do you know what the difference is between
"sworn" and "unsworn"? Yup, you guessed it: the "sworn" hold up their right hand and swear an oath. In today's world, just how much do you think that really means? It's a TOTAL and COMPLETE JOKE. I'll bet that members of street gangs do a better job of living up to their oaths than ANY "sworn" public safety folks.

waz up wid dat?

|November.06.2008

We should all pay for a billboard across the street that states all the featured police and fire personnel salaries, that would really get the attention of the public!

How much did that ad on the billboard cost? Any one know?

streetsweeper

|November.06.2008

I have not seen the billboard yet but seems like it ****ed you folks off. Im glad its not in the northgate shopping area. I do not think it will scare any shoppers off downtown because the only people downtown are the seasoned residents. Does anyone think people from out of town venture to our downtown?even when all this crap was going on out of towners stayed away. There are some good places to eat and I like the empress even though they put too many seats in leaving no leg room. Victorys is the only real store downtown.

Pyriphlegethon

|November.06.2008

You are right on, Fed Up. I too completely agree with JD Millers letter. How can they "protect and serve" when they are shouting from the rooftops that Vallejo is unsafe?

We hear over and over and over from the PSUs that Vallejo's problem is revenue, "Vallejo needs more revenue" (to pay their bloated salaries).

Do the PSUs actually think that billboard will advance the City's ability to collect more revenue?

They are talking out of both sides of their mouths (or some other orifice). Their real goal is to keep Vallejo under their thumbs since we are the fulcrum in
the wild PSU wage spiral up and up in our region.

fed up

|November.06.2008

J. D. Miller was right on with his letter to the editor today about the PSU billboard on Sonoma & Georgia.
This billboard is demonstrable callous disregard for the safety of Vallejoans.
No one driving by and seeing that billboard is going to want to shop in Vallejo. These unions are agressively trying to kill Vallejo. The sooner we are rid of them, the better. Gee---wonder how the negotiations are going on at the "table."

Little Old Lady

|November.06.2008

Oh, and forget that idea that Democrats are supposted to be supporting "workers" (unions) or the desperately poor. Democracy means "of the people, for the people, by the people" Few people are represented by unions and most people don't expect a handout. "Democracy" depends on the initiative of many to create an economy where everybody has a chance. It is hobbled by unbridled capitalism, unbridled union greed and an increasing number of people who think others are supposed to pay for their bad judgment and lack of initiative. It is those of us in the middle that
suffer. There can't be economic prosperity and democracy without a thriving middle class.

Little Old Lady

|November.06.2008

Miss is correct. Democrats are not always our best friends and Vallejo has been "used" by Democratic power brokers for years. No sense going to the DNC; they know where their loyalties lie. So Vallejo citizens just get manipulated over and over. Remember that because Vallejo is so desperately poor, the Feds send pots of money; most of which ends up in the hands of out-of-town contractors who are big donors to dems. And most of our substandard and subsidized housing for the desperately poor concentrated in Vallejo benefits the same out-of-towners and maintains the Federal
entitlements. Finally, most of our overpaid Vallejo staff live out-of-town too. Hopefully Prop 11 will squeek by which will go a long way to ending the past misuse of Vallejo voters. But, in the meantime, Vallejoans need to pull up their pants, cancel their subscriptions to the Vallejo Times Herald, and start making our own change. No one else can help us.

MISSMARVELOUS

|November.06.2008

Our problem is our "two party system" it makes it hard to choose, ofen between the lesser of two evils... I work up valley in Napa, several of our democratic leaders own second and third summer homes there. They are not "cabins" by any means, and no dollar is unspent to make the homes as oppulent as "life styles of the rich and famous" for indeed they are "rich and famous." Most of them also have vineyards, that way they can grab the tax write off for agriculture. If you ever wondered why so many wineries pop up every where in Napa county you now know,
besides the fact that all the grapes are sold off to wineries. Growing grapes is not a sustainable practice, it requires a lot of water which Napa does not have, their table water gets lower every year and county residents must drill down lower and lower to reach water, county residents complain, but no one hears over the "clinking" of wine glasses...

armyoftherich

|November.05.2008

Well, if I've learned anything these last few years it's this: it's not going to get done unless you do it yourself. I encourage this group to take this cause right to the Democratic Party. Make a presentation at the DCC, endorse (or better yet, produce) the next local representative/senator at the next election, and remind the Democrats that they're supposed to be the party of the WORKERS, representing, laborers, and not the army of the rich.

VHS	\|November.05.2008

Thanks for the link Captain, it will be very interesting to watch what happens now within the ranks of the democratic party. Most of us think about unionized labor as a corner stone of any democratic platform and would never imagine that democrats would voluntarily relinquish wage and benefit gains but I get the sense that an Obama administration might actually put pressure on unions to do so. Its almost not accurate anymore to think in terms of democrat vs. republican but rather those who have resources and those who do not.

Captain

|November.05.2008

Ron York provides some interesting insight into the effects of President-elect Obama's labor policy, and how it effects police Unions:

http://policepay.blogspot.com/

PSU Watch

|November.05.2008

Streetsweeper, tell your IBEW leadership and PSU buddies that message. You are the ones who spiralled the BK costs with your challenge of whether we are BK -- 40,000 documents your stupid lawyers requested and three months of rose report bs. Now you are appealing the judge's strong decision, more useless time and attorney fees. All the while your unions are play-negotiating. The ultimate end to BK fees is new agreements, but all you guys do is put your time and money into legal fights, not solutions. It's ridiculous. SO don't you dare complain about the City spending BK fees. Look in the
frigging mirror. YOU stop the useless legal challenges that are more about ego than legal right. YOU stop play-negotiating and sit down with the realization that you will all have to take cuts and make sacrifices. YOU stop the relentless but unsuccessful PR campaign full of lies and smears and fear. Take responsibility, share responsibility, for what's happening and tell your leadership to STOP.

Congrats USA and President-Elect Obama!!!

street sweeper

|November.05.2008

things in this city will continue to get worse as long as the money is spent on bankruptcy fees. Now I hear the retirees have hired a expensive law firm to represent them and the city has to pay for it. If this spending continues the city will have to cut more services meaning ibew and camp will loose jobs. I'm dont think anything good will happen for Vallejo for many years to come if ever because of this mess. I have lived here since childhood and I have always heard that Vallejo has so much potential but nothing good has come of it and now this mess. I suppose the smart thing to do for ibew
and camp would be to start looking for new jobs.

Sonic Toad

|November.04.2008

On Fire is On Fire!!!

On Fire

|November.03.2008

Apparently the PSU's feel that the public is still backing their position all the while they are attempting to "bloody our noses"! During their initial "outreach" the PSU's had to go out and recruit and bus in their support teams.

Judging from the dwindling number of letters to the editor and the number of people who have shown up at Council meetings, there isn't the support they once enjoyed. We know that people will turn out in numbers at Council when there is something that they disagree with.

So just who do the PSU's think they are supposedly sending the
billboard message to? Do they think that the citizens don't know that the number of employees are shrinking? Do they think we are living in some sort of void?

Of course we know the numbers are shrinking. We also understand that the economy is so bad that there is little chance that any businesses, large or small, will be coming to Vallejo in the numbers that we need, anytime soon, to save us. So the alternative being offered (rammed down out throats) by the unions is to close down city hall and pay them their contracted salaries, and pray that they don't run away to greener
pastures anyway.

They don't care if IBEW and CAMP employees lose their jobs. They don't care if the libraries, senior citizen center, pool, museum, etc. close down. They just want to be paid!

They are not concerned that our infastructure is crumbling, that the streets are crumbling. Just pay them their money!

And they haven't (can't) figured out why the public has not gone down to Council in numbers, crying their mantra. WE GET IT, there is no money and AIN'T no money coming in anytime soon! We have to make the best of what we have until things get better. WE GET IT!

There is only one group that is still walking around with their heads in the sand! And their faces are on the billboard!

Firebug

|November.03.2008

According to Shell/Bechtel the value of the LNG and property was $1.5 billion so 1 percent of assessed value makes $15,000,000 to be split between the County, School District, and City so $5,000,000 wouldn't cut it.

Anonymous

|November.03.2008

LNG?

Firebug

|November.03.2008

Then Let's take to task anyone that would listen the brutal realities around a tax. According to clsearch Vallejo has about 41,000 households. If a $100 per household tax is put forth that would bring in $4,100,000 per year which might find 22 or 23 PSU's the latest figures show us down $10,000,000 with the staff that we have so we would need a $250 parcel tax to fund what we have now! A comprehensive tax to address safety, roads and non-profits at $41,000,000 a year would be $1000 per household! According to the County we would need a bond for over $200,000,000 to bring Vallejo's roads to
excellent. Begging the question even if we could pass a $200 parcel tax for $8.2 million what kind of businesses would bring tens of millions of dollars into our City?

Pyriphlegethon

|November.03.2008

Its a shame that the PSUs refuse to come to the bargaining table...instead they will have these solutions thrown at them because there's really no other solution. When everyone else in the world is making a lot less. losing their jobs and their homes, taxes will not be raised.

It will be interesting to see tomorrow how the propositions that call for raising revenue through bonds do at the polls. My guess is, not so good...another bellweather for the PSUs attempt to extort a tax increase out of Vallejoans with their scare tactics.

Captain

|November.03.2008

You can probably add Santa Rosa to that list.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081001/news/810010387&tc=yahoo&template=printpicart

Firebug

|November.03.2008

Well San Francisco and Oakland won't be hiring more anytime soon unless Oakland passes the parcel tax. In an article in the Chronicle today a report said that SF needs more cops but the Mayor says he doesn't know where he can get the $41 million to fund them.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/03/MNGR13S21K.DTL&hw=newsom+report&sn=001&sc=1000

$41,000,000/268 = $153,000 per Officer If I am not mistaken aren't ours around $175,000 per year?

Anonymous

|November.03.2008

Let expand on the billboard message. The PSU wants us to believe that lost of cops and firemen have and will leave to other cities for better pay and benefits.
I say let them go. In fact, encourage them to go faster. Let them all go.
When conditions get bad enough, the City can declare a public safety emergency.
Previous efforts to get CalFire to come into Vallejo have failed because the State does not want to get involved in out little mess.
Well, if Vallejo is in a state of emergency due to too little cops and firemen, the Governor will be unable to refuse our cries for help.
The end
result will be that the State will be cornered into contracting with Calfire as Vallejo's fire department and CHP will come in to assist like they did in Richmond and East Palo Alto.
The result: 1186 is GONE, hello Calfire.
Checkmate. Henke is dead.

Little Old Lady

|November.03.2008

The Wine Country/Vallejo districting benefits the Democrats in a predominantly conservative region. Without Vallejo democratic votes, Evans and Wiggins would not stand a chance. But, as you can see, after they use the Union's money and influence to get into office, they just do what their "constituents" tell them. That's not us Vallejo citizens. Yes on 11

MISSMARVELOUS

|November.03.2008

How about the measure on the ballot for "re-districting." How is it Vallejo is part of District 7 along with Napa and Sonoma? We are not even in the same county. The rest of Solano County is in a different district, is that because the powers that be wish to limit Vallejo's influence? Perhaps Solano County would have a stronger voice if Vallejo was in the same district, why would we want the "Wine Country Gals" Wiggins and Evans to represent us, their first alligence would be to their own counties where they are lobbied by the "Wine Country Barons." When was Vallejo
made part of District 7? Does anyone know?

silasbarnabe

|November.03.2008

Perhaps we can put up our own billboard showing that it takes the sales tax of a Walmart to support a mere 2.5 FTe for a PSU. According to this old Chronicle article

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/26/BAG5NLCLDU1.DTL

The Superstore would bring in an estimated $600,000, one can only imagine how much less the old Walmart brought in. I think it would be good for the average Vallejoan to see just how huge a financial burden we face to fund PSU's. At a cost to the city of about $200,000 per PSU for every million we get in tax revenue we can fund a mere 5 PSU's.

Sonic Toad

|November.02.2008

Anonymous, Actually that might be a good logical strategy to consider. The limited city budget only goes so far, and with officer and firemen "disappearing" each empty shadow on the billboard could be filled behind with even more people with lowered salaries, EMT contracted out and Cal Fire. In fact the city is already headed in that direction with plans to hire from academies at entry level wages.

Anonymous

|November.02.2008

Just let the PS go. The billboard will help. Here is how: The community will be scared that the cops and firefighters are leaving. when enough go, hire Calfire and CHP to provide service to Vallejo. If the state wants to hire Henke, they can. At least we will be rid of him.

armyoftherich

|November.02.2008

Think, you are right. There are a few people, such as the ones whom you have named, who do have the political will to make some changes, and it surely does hurt my heat to see the kind of BS, lies and attacks they have had to put up with. There are good people in every category. It's just that the bad ones are running amuck, and not enough good ones are stepping up to the plate. Will there be new people who will step up to represent Vallejo interests in the State legislature, because Evans and Wiggins imho have been completely useless in this fiasco. They are waiting for someone to come up
with a solution (or at least with the winner) so they can step in and claim the credit.

Annonie

|November.02.2008

Um...that was my point. The Times Horrid allows nasty, vile conversations, with not a lot of fact and mostly fiction. So take your twisted facts and share them on the Horrid, where they'll get better play.

And don't come over here and complain about somebody being cruel on the Horrid blogs. You and your boys spew some pretty hateful, disgusting words and that seems to be ok -- unless it's pointed at you. But still, we keep it clean over here and we like it that way.

anon	\|November.02.2008

Annonie: "Anon/NBR, go back to the Times-Horrid where you belong. You can talk about your "facts" and "figures" there and they'll actually think you're smart. And as a bonus, the Times-Horrid lets you say naughty things you can't say in public. Oh the thrill."

you mean like.....

FF-Cops -Welfare Queens
Beaumont, CA
Reply �|Report Abuse|#1282 hrs ago

PSU B-S Watch wrote:

It's very curious...aren't they putting themselves in jeopardy (let alone every citizen in Vallejo) by announcing to the world: "public safety is disappearing"?
Serve and protect is now
Screw and Politicize.
The sad thing is, these guys have no shame at all.\
I say fire the lot of 'em! If they are willing to put up this billboard, they don't deserve a f.r.i.g.g.i.n. dime of our taxpayer dollars. We are safer without them.
They are your basic scum bags, that's all you need to know about Vallejo PSU pusies.

Think

|November.02.2008

Army, you're spot on. But we do have some politicians with will, like Gomes and Schively, who get the crap beaten out of them for that very will to stand up. And we had Pearsall and Cloutier, but they got booted out for the likes of HaHa Hannigan and Ozzy.

The fact is, if you want politicians with courage, integrity and strength, then people have to stop letting the special interests (ie PSUs) harshing them out of office with lies and negative attacks, and replacing them with their cardboard cutout bought/paid for members like HaHa or Weaselton. That's just the local level, but it's the same
at all levels (look at Noreen Cutout Evans). People have to start standing up for those politicians who have stood up. And people have to reject the cardboard cutouts the special interests keep getting elected.

armyoftherich

|November.02.2008

The city needs however many the city decides it needs. Can't think of any other industry where it's the employees who decide (under threat of political ouster to fire their bosses) how many workers are needed. It's not about 'safety' it's about an artificial structure that justifies all the existing jobs and more. Next time they do a ' independent study' they should do one that is NOT managed/ supervised by the Fire Dept itself! As to whether it should be privatized, I think that's wrong too. The problem is that there's greed on the side of the PSU, a lack of accountability for management, and
plain old sloth and lack of political will from the politicians (all the way up to the State and Federal levels). Where are our representatives in our time of crisis? the actual help has been underwhelming... So, if you privatize, you will have the exact same problems: greed, laziness and lack of political will, just that instead of public workers, there will be private workers. We need honest, accountable people doing the job we elected/ paid them to do.

VHS	\|November.02.2008

Im not convinced that privatization is the silver bullet were looking for. It does seem that some mix of private ambulances would be a good idea and lower our total costs. The issue that gives me concern is the amount of detail the dispatchers get when the initial emergency call comes in. If there is a traffic accident and someone calls in to say an ambulance is needed and an ambulance is first on scene, the parameds might not be able to extract the victims. A second call would have to go out for a heavy truck thats got the hydraulic and power equipment to free the victim. In this scenario our
costs on this call would be higher since the light duty ambulance was essentially useless. I agree with Pyrip on hiring practices, my preference for these coveted jobs would be to offer them to former active duty military or people who finish some period of civil service that Senator Obama talks about.

anon	\|November.02.2008

"Anon/NBR, go back to the Times-Horrid where you belong. You can talk about your "facts" and "figures" there and they'll actually think you're smart. And as a bonus, the Times-Horrid lets you say naughty things you can't say in public. Oh the thrill.

A predictable response. Whine, cry and complain but never produce a genuine number to defend. Typical

Anonnie

|November.01.2008

Anon/NBR, go back to the Times-Horrid where you belong. You can talk about your "facts" and "figures" there and they'll actually think you're smart. And as a bonus, the Times-Horrid lets you say naughty things you can't say in public. Oh the thrill.

anon	\|November.01.2008

armyoftherich |November.01.2008
"this 65 on staff when 85 is needed is fictitious. we don't need 85. 85 is an artificial number,"

How many does Vallejo need and why?

PSU Watch

|November.01.2008

Armyoftherich: AMEN!!

At a minimum contract out medical, as it used to be, and offer the firefighting jobs to our employees, CalFire or a private company -- whoever wants the jobs bad enough to do it for less than our beloved IAFF 1186 is doing it for now.

armyoftherich

|November.01.2008

this 65 on staff when 85 is needed is fictitious. we don't need 85. 85 is an artificial number, just like "minimum staffing" it's minimum because the PSU decreed and the council agreed in the MOU, not because that's what it takes. Give the emergency medical services back to the county (the great bulk of VFD's work) and use Calfire in combination with a volunteer fire (actual fire) dept and we're back on track.

Pyriphlegethon

|November.01.2008

Its too bad that your wages are so high, benefits and retirement so rich that we can only afford 65...

Talk about acrimony.

If you all were to leave and we hired new staff at 30% less, guaranteed there would still be thousands of applicants and plenty who are qualified.

How about soldiers returning from Iraq for instance?

anon	\|November.01.2008

capt: "The standard in California is 3 per engine. Why does Vallejo have four?"

I am amazed that after all these weeks, months, years of give and take you haven't picked up on the notion that the VFD for the past 30+ years has only assigned 3 personnel to an engine (there is only one truck and there are now only 6 engines). No wonder there is so much acrimony when the department has been operating under a policy of three person engine companies and the "new Vallejo" has thought that "Just one more person to call in sick. No wonder the fire department, when asked to trim a
million dollars from a tight budget, comes back to council year in, and year out, asking for more money because they've exceeded budgeted overtime by 100%."

It has nothing to do with "one more person to call in sick." It has everything to do with staffing required v staffing available. 65 on staff when 85 are required to meet the needs.

anon	\|November.01.2008

I rescind my accusation of arrogance

captain

|November.01.2008

I do know the difference between a "Truck and an Engine". My comments were that the standard staffing on an engine was 3, which was correct. I should have read the article more carefully but, what can I say - I blew it!

My post was a bad one, my comment regarding the chief was incorrect, and I misinformed everyone.

To the Chief, and those I misinformed or offended, please accept my sincere apology.

anon	\|November.01.2008

Truck vs Engine. You are correct, the point should not be knowing the difference between an engine and a truck. However, when the poster lables the Chief disingenuous and foolish because of staffing levels that the poster (captain) clearly has wrong and does not understand, then it is time to put put the "trust" issue into context. It is impossible to take the complaining party seriously when they make accusations based on suppositions that are wrong and show a complete lack of understanding of the operations. In fact it is arrogant to make claims of disengenuous and foolish when
when the poster has not a clue as to what he/she is even talking about

Captain

|November.01.2008

Editorial: Big pension bill is coming due

http://www.sacbee.com/324/story/1361497

admin

|November.01.2008

I'll look at the cut/paste problem again.

There is a new version of the software available. Remember that you can create an account and edit posts that don't end up as you planned. Look on the bottom left column to register. Let's you add an avatar as well.

captain

|November.01.2008

Read the full article:
http://governing.com/articles/0811vallejo.htm

captain

|November.01.2008

Vallejos fiscal freefall

Are other cities with budget trouble on the verge of asking the courts for relief?
When the town of Vallejo, California, declared bankruptcy this spring, Mayor Osby Davis predicted

captain

|November.01.2008

Vallejo

Interested Voter

|November.01.2008

Wigging = Wiggins. Must've been a Freudian slip!

Interested Voter

|November.01.2008

No on Ubalde: he's useless up there, plays "good ol' boy" games, and can't get beyond his exalted title or over himself.

No on Evans: doesn't give a crap about Vallejo while loving up her napa voters; supported PSUs in their bankruptcy case while never once asking about the other side of the issue (PSUs have cash and endorsements, obviously she was following the money while selling us down the river); hasn't done much while in assembly, especially for Vallejo.

No on Wigging: her mind isn't all there anymore, she blatantly supported her donors (PSUs) and disrespected the Vallejo
rsidents (remember that letter to the editor? I wonder if Henke even showed it to her before having Ronny Rhea print it?)

Truck vs Engine

|November.01.2008

Anon, The point isn't whether we all know the difference between a fire truck and a fire engine. It's the fact that many of us don't trust the Fire Dept to make good decisions. When anybody 2nd guesses a decision it usually means that there is some mistrust. Gee I wonder why we don't trust the Fire Dept to make good decisions? Is it because the financial health of the city has never even been considered by the Unions, Chief Parker and even Chief Sherman to some extent. Sherman needs to prove himself as a good business manager before everybody stops 2nd guessing him. The Unions, I now believe
it's a lost cause to trust any decision they make on behalf of Vallejoans.

No Ubalde

|November.01.2008

I won't be voting for Ubalde. Sorry, but in my opinion he performs as an honorary member rather than a productive one. Let's get somebody in there who doesn't use or consider the position as an honor to his majesty, but rather an excellent opportunity to improve the school. We don't need leaders who refuse to get in the trenches and do the hard work, and we don't need honorary members. Don't reward arrogance!

admin

|November.01.2008

That time again! Please use the November issue of The Daily Scream!!