Eye On Modesto

Thoughts and observations about Modesto and Stanislaus County

Archive for the tag “corruption”

22 Nov 2011
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A Short but Contentious MID Meeting Today

By Emerson Drake

There was an early announcement saying agenda Item 8 was removed and postponed due to Glen Wild’s absence.  Item 8 being the one Allen Short is pushing to cast in stone what he calls past practices of the Board.  Unfortunately, at the end of the meeting the Board decided to insert a “special” meeting now scheduled for next week, which is before the two new Board members take their seats.

 

Board member elect Larry Byrd quietly asked the Board to consider delaying this particular decision until after the two new members take their seats in December.  The Board did not officially respond to his request.  After all Allen Short couldn’t tell them what to think, at least not in public.

 

The Board has been playing fast and loose with their past policy regarding the public comment period.  This is from their Agenda and is present on all of their agendas.

 

Public Comment Time: Because these are non-agenda matters, generally no discussion or comment by the Board should be expected, except to properly refer the matter for review as appropriate.  But no action will be taken at this meeting.

 

Yet for two weeks in a row the Board has waited until a member of the public has been seated before responding caustically.  While it’s nice to see the Board do something other than sit there stone faced, waiting until the audience member sits down to respond and then said audience member isn’t allowed to refute the Board member, General Manager or Board Council, doesn’t allow reasonable discourse.  If anyone on the dais decided to respond to input from the public, the public should be allowed to follow-up if they so desire. After all, this is the public’s meeting, isn’t it?  When I tried to follow-up on an issue, Paul Warda, MID Board President, warned me to remain silent or be removed from the meeting by an armed guard if any further outbursts were made.

 

Despite the claims of MID Board Attorney Tim O’Laughlin that a slur (suggesting that responses weren’t made on a timely basis) was made against his office regarding timely Public Information Request responses, a Public Information Request made four weeks ago during a meeting remains unanswered.

 

When it came to the matter of MID Board members not having their own email addresses, Cecil Hensley proudly told everyone he doesn’t even own a computer.  Thank you for your service, Mr. Hensley but personally I prefer someone I can get in touch with on a timely basis.  The only email address available to the public on MID’s website for the Board is board@mid.org  and it’s under the Board Secretary’s designation.

 

It’s obvious that citizens who wish to communicate with the MID Board are being inhibited and their concerns to the office holders that they elected, are being screened by Allen Short.

 

Board –Staff Linkage Policy BL-3 The Board Secretary shall: c) Receive and disseminate Board Communications.  This includes emails from the public which she gives to G.M. Allen Short just before the meetings and he passes out as meeting goers have witnesses time and time again.  Allen Short begged to differ regarding the email statement by the public but this item would seem to address the comment in its entirety.

 

For a long time now the Board, especially Director Tom Van Groningen has been misleading the public regarding the “special lower rate schedules” or discounts. These   discounts give lower rates to companies using off peak electricity they don’t offer to the public. And yet in turn the residential user foots the bill when an industrial user doesn’t cut back during peak periods. These discounts aren’t available to the residential electricity user, so in essence residential ratepayers have been subsidizing some of the businesses in the MID electric territory for some time now.

 

It looks like we’ll have to wait for the agenda to come out on Friday to find out if the Resolution regarding Board Governance Process and Board Staff-Linkage will be voted on.

 

But since approving the two resolutions are the main reason for the meeting, it appears the old Board will put its rubber stamp on Allen Shorts request.

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14 Nov 2011

Monday night’s Meeting of the Modesto Economic Development Committee

By Emerson Drake

These meetings would surprise the vast majority of Modesto voters if they knew how they were conducted. 

The Modesto Development Committee or the (MDC) consists of Council persons

Joe Muratore , Chairman

Brad Hawn, Vice-Chair

Stephanie Burnside, Member

Councilman Hawn was forced to start the meeting since Joe Muratore forgot all about it. Fortunately Alternate Dave Geer was present to sit in until the absent Muratore could find time to attend.

There were four vacancies on two separate committees which needed to be filled.  The Council members gave their usual concerned decisions. That was tongue in cheek since neither of the two council persons present had seen the applications until just before the meeting started when City Clerk Stephanie Lopez passed them out.  Just like the last time we brought one of these meetings to you, the Council members just mulled the decision around not knowing the applicants or caring much about who they chose.

Just when they were getting ready to randomly pick the second future committee member, Councilman Muratore came strolling in. He had neither seen the applications nor was familiar with the applicants, so he went along with those already chosen.  Not surprisingly, two of the three chosen were members of the real estate community.

We finally came to the meat of the meeting which was a discussion of updating the status of the State Route 132 West Freeway/Expressway Project.

There were 8 maps on the wall which, it was explained to us, were not available to the public on line because of Cal Trans policy.  Not to go with stereotypes but the total build out which will cost taxpayers somewhere between $160-170 Million  looked like it was designed by a drunken sailor.

Immediately after the meeting the maps were taken off the wall despite the fact we were told they could be viewed the next day.

Several of those attending the meeting including Denny Jackman, had questions about the design.  For good or bad these maps haven’t been approved by Cal Trans and are preliminary and subject to revision.

When concerns were raised regarding potential conflicts of interest, Stephanie Burnside spoke up and said “I’m willing to recuse myself to avoid unnecessary criticisms”,  but City Attorney Susan Acala Woods supposedly said her voting was alright.

Considering Ms. Woods recent record of being wrong when it comes to the need for Council members to recuse themselves, maybe Ms. Burnside should have remained silent and let Dave Geer cast a vote in her stead.

Well we won’t know for sure until after the FPPC rules on the complaint to be filed tomorrow.  Ms. Burnsides business, Burnside Auto Body is going to be displaced by the Route 132/Needham connection, so one would have hoped for extra caution to have been taken.

This was anything but an earthshaking meeting but it saddens citizens to know the haphazard way some of the City Council members go about the City’s business.

We thank Dave Geer for his extra diligence and willingness to step into the breach left by Councilman Muratore.

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11 Nov 2011

On-Going Scandal in Modesto

By Emerson Drake

City Manager Gregg Nyhoff perpetuated the myth of “everything is fine” down at city hall at Wednesday night’s city council meeting.  The bobble heads were nodding in agreement that city workers overseeing the NSP2 funds are stretched too thin, rather than acknowledging pressure from local power brokers was responsible.  When you listen to members of the Commonwealth Group explain it away, it almost sounds plausible until you consider the web of intrigue that surrounds the scandal.

From city councilmen and their business partners scheming their way through the NSP2 maze of paperwork and guidelines, to newspaper publishers relatives being waist deep in the mire.

While the SCAP controversy abused everyone’s sense of reason, the NSP2 controversy exposed the raw naked greed of a city councilman who can’t use city attorney Susan Alcala Wood as a shield this time.

The premise that a city official can’t profit from NSP2 funds or HUD money isn’t obscure, not in the least.  It’s one of the first things you learn.

But when the money Ryan Swehla and Scott Monday funneled to Benchmark Realty (a company Swehla owns with Joe Muratore) first came to light, it was eclipsed by the SCAP scandal.

Needless to say, despite Mark Vasche’s claim of distancing himself from the reporting on this, it can’t be easy to be a reporter writing about Vasche’s son-in-law (Scott Monday).

Commonwealth members continue to support Councilman Muratore despite his being caught with his fingers in the till.  After all, his being on the council, adds unspoken pressure on city employees (unspoken by Muratore), while his partner doesn’t hesitate to play the “do you know who my partner is” card to anyone unaware of the affiliation.

Even most of the city council has remained silent on whether or not Muratore should resign his seat.

You can’t expect any pressure from his council district, considering that Mike Moradian has been inspecting all of the homes being “processed” by the conjoined triumvirate.

How can citizens ofModestoexpect to be treated with respect and honesty while the Bee management is shielding Muratore and his cohorts.

To be bluntly spoken, we can’t.  People need to express their dissatisfaction and outrage to the City Council and everyone they meet. 

We need to say the iconoclast, “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it any more.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” 
― Margaret Mead

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04 Nov 2011

John Duarte Confirms he was Recruited by the CommonWealth for the MID Board

We had said all along that John Duarte was recruited by the usual gang to control the MID Board of Directors. Last night John freely admitted it was Joe Muratore’s (of NSP2 infamy) friend Chris Tyler who asked him to be a party to what many are calling a n elaborate charade

His opponent Larry Byrd has been a regular at MID meeting for the past several years where Duarte admits he’s a Johnny come lately who never came to meetings prior to his “talk” with Chris and has seldom appeared at meeting since his declaring his candidacy.

In the last MID election we had another “recruit” foisted on us. His name was Glenn Wild. Mr. Wild has voted with Tom VanGroningen on every vote since assuming office.

The sad part to this story is Tom Van Groningen is one of the main architects in our rates skyrocketing through the roof. He and his henchmen (Warda, Wild, Kidd and Hendsley) have allowed Allen Short to run the MID as a personal fiefdom with himself as king.

The strewn carcasses in their wake include MountainHouse, a geothermal project that cost MID Millions of dollars, and the Four Cities expansion project. All of these “projects” have cost the MID ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

What can’t be explained is why the CommonWealth group along with others continually pick losers to represent them and us the ratepayers. .

They seem to believe having “their boys” in control is more important than having the right people at the helm of the U.S.S. MID.

Maybe they should consider being in control isn’t as important as getting it right.

Maybe they should call the captain of the Titanic for advice.

So we know after listening to the candidates speak at the Tea Party Patriot forum last night, John Kidd should be part of MID’s past and not its future. And that we can’t afford to have the CommonWealth’s flavor of the month John Duarte to reach beyond his grasp.

Larry Byrd and Nick Blom are definitely the type of stand out candidates we like to see running for the MID Board of Directors..

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