Modesto City Council says business as usual..SPEND…SPEND…SPEND
By Emerson Drake 
Tuesday night the council had the chance to slow down on spending by implementing a freeze on hiring (except for police numbers going from 218 to 240), promotions, and spending but they chose not to. With the exception of Tony Madrigal, who made a motion supporting the freeze. Unfortunately the motion died for a lack of a second.
There were two lengthy closed secession discussions regarding evaluating City Manager Jim Holgersson. Holgersson’s machinations became public when Fire Chief Slamon resigned to take a job with a Department one third the size of Modesto’s. Between forcing the Chief Slamon to change his mind or else on accepting grant money and Holgersson’s recently come to light involvement regarding Cecill Russell, Chateau Provence, and Rank Security involving illegal camera placement and electricity theft which was discussed by MID General Manager Greg Salyer at Tuesday’s MID meeting the Council’s tolerance for Holgersson’s antics may be waning.
So the Council intends on spending money we may or may not have And Brandvold said the plan needed more work and with George Petrulakis and the Chamber pulling his strings things just might get a little interesting.
Eye On Modesto 