Location in the state of California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Just a reminder to attend the Salida Municipal Advisory Council’s (Salida MAC) meeting tomorrow night at 7 pm at the Salida Library Community Room. The topic will be the Salida Annexation and Goodwin Consulting Study.
Location in the state of California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Emerson Drake
Salida turned out for the Salida MAC meeting in larger numbers than I’ve seen Modesto EVER turn out for a council meeting. Over 243 citizens of Salida attended and stayed for the better part of two hours to let Modesto’s Mayor Garrad Marsh know they weren’t interested in being part of Modesto. Cars were seen pulling into the Salida library parking lot and leaving when they couldn’t find a parking space.
Speaker after speaker came to the mic to speak against the potential annexation. Mayor Marsh, who hadn’t requested time on the agenda, wanted special treatment which wasn’t afforded. It’s hard to blame the MAC Board since Marsh had been playing games with the Salida AD Hoc committee . When Modesto’s Mayor had the opportunity to address the crowd, instead of discussing his annexation plans he chose to talk about his family’s past connection with Salida. Was any of it relevant? No, but it was his choice and his avoidance of the topic people were there to listen to, says volumes.
When the conversation wasn’t going the way he liked, and Modesto Councilman Dave Cogdill became disruptive and was politely asked to quiet down, he almost left in a snit. Fortunately (I think) Supervisor Chiesa talked with him and managed to get him to return to his seat. Silver spoons get in your way sometimes and it did his that night.
When the crowd was asked to raise their hands to gauge its temperature no one raised their hands in support of annexation, about a dozen suggested they wanted more information, and a forest of hands were raised when asked who was against annexation.
Unfortunately politicians with an agenda suggest the people assembled don’t represent the true feelings of Salidans. I suggest to you they are VERY MISTAKEN.
Unfortunately due to an electronic glitch the audio recording of the meeting was lost. But those assembled remember what was said and how they felt.
English: Author: Carl Skaggs This image was taken by me on January 14, 2010 in Modesto, California I hereby relinquish all rights to this photo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Emerson Drake
The Alliance held their monthly meeting January 28th at noon and everyone but the public was invited. As an organization subject to the Brown Act the Alliance must post their agenda 72 hours ahead of time, and the official places they choose to use are their website and on the door to their offices at 1010 10th Street. Unfortunately for the public, the time on the website was 3:30 PM and the two pages attached to their door had NO MENTION of the meetings start time.
So understandably when five interested members of the public arrived early at 3:15 for the meeting and discovered the meeting was already over, there was some consternation. During his convoluted explanation, Bill Bassett pointed out it was mentioned just before the meeting by attendees, that the starting time listed on-line was incorrect, but they went ahead with the meeting anyway. What was strange was they adjusted the time on their site to 12:00 AFTER the meeting was over. How that helped I’m not really sure, though their admission came after I explained the incorrect listing had been downloaded over the weekend.
You haven’t read about this in the Bee
You really have to wonder why this Brown Act violation has been overlooked by the Modesto Bee since one of their reporters, Ken Carlson, was one of the five left hanging by the incorrect/false time posting. But even Ken has to get it past his editors before it gets printed in the Bee. And as we have seen, the Bee editors have an agenda they adhere to when it comes to backing the powers that be. They consider that it’s in their best interest not to ruffle the feathers of those in power so they can continue to receive the behind the scene phone calls (or as in the case of MID, confidential Legal Memos) giving them advance notice of political deals. Unfortunately this practice ends up taking their readers down the rabbit hole with them. The Bee keeps their secrets for weeks as in the case of the memos, until Eric Cain published them on his site, www.TheValleyCitizen.COM . Blog sites like his and this one are where you can find out what they don’t want you to know.
It was interesting to read the two different versions of Ken Carlson’s article on the Goodwin report. The first one mentions the Bee obtaining the Goodwin Report and the second one, the one published doesn’t. Makes you wonder doesn’t it? It’s those pesky editors.
The Leaking of the Goodwin Draft Report to the Modesto Chamber of Commerce and the Workforce Alliance
One of the reasons we wanted to attend the Alliance meeting was to hear Bill Bassett’s comments on expanding the Enterprise zones, shovel ready ground, and the need for Modesto to annex Salida to make it easier to divide up the pie known as Salida. Both the Alliance and the Chamber have had the Goodwin consulting Group’s Fiscal Impact Analysis Draft Report for the better part of two weeks. Who in the City and County governments gave these reports away? Well no one will admit to it but it happened. My thoughts are to look to those who are the liaisons from the City and County but who knows? It appears the Chamber is getting ready to launch an “Annex Salida” campaign. After all, one of the reasons for the Chambers existence, and that of the Alliance, is to manage situations for the advantage of their members. Remember Bill Bassett has repeatedly said his “investors” expect a return on their investments. And it usually comes out of your pocket and mine.
Is anyone censuring the Alliances Violation of the Brown Act?
We made sure both the City of Modesto and the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors were made aware of the Brown Act violation and have asked both organizations to issue the Alliance a letter of protest. Will anything come of this probably not. When it comes to the potential annexation of Salida, our Mayor has turned a deaf ear to the vocal protests of over 240 Salida Residents. So I ask the Mayor and Council, when was the last time 240 Modestan’s showed up to a council meeting and stayed past the presentations? For that matter I ask the Board of Supervisors the same question. At Tuesday’s meeting of the BoS there was only one member of the public present for the last hour of the meeting.
Why should the City or County censure the Alliance?
Most people aren’t aware the County gives the Alliance about $92,000 and the City gives the Alliance about $60,00 of the taxpayers money so I feel they have a responsibility to speak out.
Not only should the Alliance receive a letter of censure from both of the Board of Supervisors and the Modesto City Council. these two government entities should stop wasting taxpayer money on the proposed annexation.
Modesto’s Double Tree and Brenden Theater (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Emerson Drake
This is a follow-up to the Salida Ad Hoc Committee conversation. Mayor Ridenour had two ad hoc committees while he was Mayor for eight years. The City of Modesto’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Homelessness and the Comprehensive Fee Task Force. Both were treated more or less as if they were regular City Committees, and for the most part, behaved as if they were subject to the Brown Act. They announced the time and place of their meetings, had agendas, met in public, allowed the public to be present, and encouraged public participation albeit after we made a request to the Modesto City Council regarding the Blue Ribbon Commission.
Now the Salida Ad Hoc Committee is suddenly being treated differently than its predecessors. They don’t want the public to be present or the public to participate in the discussions. The only noticeable differences would seem to be the Mayors they were created under. Just to be sure no other group was working on the people’s business and operating under the radar, we made a public records request. Here is their response. The only caveat in what you are about to read is that the Blue Ribbon Commission on Homelessness is still active despite having given their final report to the Council.
Mr. Drake: Kathy Espinoza has provided the following information:
The last two Ad Hoc Committees formed were the Blue Ribbon Commission on Homelessness
and the Comprehensive Fee Task Force. I believe they have completed their work and made recommendations to the City Council.
The most recent Ad Hoc Committee formed by the City Council was the Salida Annexation Study Ad Hoc Committee
and they appointed Mayor Marsh, Councilmember Dave Cogdill, Jr. and a staff person.
I am not aware of any other Ad Hoc Committees which have been recently appointed and are working on single focused issues.
This completes your public information request.
Hopefully Mayor Marsh will come around and insist the Salida Ad Hoc Committee follow Mayor Ridenour’s example of being transparent when conducting the people’s business and adhere to the requirements of the Brown Act.
By Emerson Drake
Going to Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh’s Town Hall meeting on Saturday was a real eye opener. I’ve heard him discuss the Salida annexation several times but never with the determination he exhibited last Saturday. He again quoted Mayor Lang’s comments regarding the last annexation attempt, where Lang said (I’m paraphrasing here) we’ll let them have their advisory vote, we just won’t take their advice.
When Mayor Marsh discussed the advisory vote he said it would take a large majority to get him to back down. The number he used at the City-County liaison meeting was 60%. On Saturday he said if the “against” totals didn’t reach this number he would make it a “knock down drag out fight for Annexation.” He believes without this supermajority he can “convince” Salidan’s to follow his lead.
He’s even offered to LET Salida have an arch with their name on it saying “but they’ll still be Modesto.”
In all fairness, he did suggest he would put in place some farmland buffers to use as boundaries against sprawl, but in these particular areas of land the farmers are interested in selling their property. And his ideas of a large-scale sports complex don’t fit with his claims of wanting quality, highly paid jobs for the area. All of this smacks of having already divided up the pie between developers, maybe even some of those already on the council. And interestingly enough he can’t break the Salida Now plan land use designation without proving it’s for the safety of the people living there for 8 years, so how is this all going to come about?
Mayor Marsh once again asked for patience from Salida residents reminding them the Goodwin study won’t be back before the middle of December and after the City and County get a chance to look at it they would share it with Salida residents.
Strangely enough they (Modesto and the County) keep representing the results of the study will assist Salida residents, but the question is will they? So I made a Public Information Request to help understand the parameters of the study’s goals. And for the life of me I don’t see where ANY of the results will assist Salidans in deciding wether or not they will want to be annexed by Modesto.
The way I read the study parameters, is it’s a device to create a common set of values to be used to barter away Salida’s Independence.
After reading Judy Sly’s comments pertaining to trying to pacify Salida with a call for patience and restraint in their abhorring the idea of Modesto’s potential annexation and to rely on the results of the study, I’m forced to believe she hasn’t read the actual study request.
That wouldn’t really be a surprise since she was for the MID water sale BEFORE she read the contract and now she’s making noises as if she’s for the annexation too.
Remember it’s not always what you read in the Bee that is important. Sometimes it’s what you don’t read there that can hurt you the most. Reporter Kevin Valine or his editors are leaving some of the most important information OUT of their stories, but that’s nothing new for the Bee.
So here is a link to the complete pdf. You’ll find pages 10 and 11 are the most relevant ones.
vimeo.com
NOTE: So much content and information was shared at our September 2012 Salida MAC meeting that I decided to compile it on a blog because there’s no way all of this info could fit into our printed newsletter. ~ Editor, Katherine Borges
on-line to protest the attempted annexation of Salida by Modesto you will want to read and possibly sign.
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Topic to be covered include MID’s Tom Van Groningen and Glen Wild short circuiting public input, how Tom and Glen “approved” $21,000 for their special friend Carol Whiteside without a purchase order, the committee they propose to decide our water future, Modesto Chamber of Commerce’s lobbyist Cecil Russell taking your tax money for his project You get to pay for his applause, McClatchy’s Modesto Pravda’s very own Tokyo Rose…Judy Sly, Low Hanging Fruit is how some of the City and County liaison members referred to Salida as, This and More so join us at 7:00 PM Wednesday right here on BlogTalk or on 104.9 FM Salida.
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More information can be found on these and other subjects at www.EyeOnModesto.com
Official seal of County of Stanislaus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Did MID’ Directors Tom Van Groningen and Glen Wild vote yes to save face to stop the water sales? Have you heard about MID’s Allen Short wanting to spend $30,000 on his outer office furniture? Is Judy Sly intentionally misleading the citizens of Salida about the annexation? Are we seeing the beginning of the demise of the bail bond industry in Stanislaus County? The heart warming story of four homeless men who rescued a 15-year-old girl from a sexual predator. What is it about the veteran’s job bill made Republicans vote against it?
Join me tonight won’t you.
Wednesday night at 7:00 PM Pacific
Our call in number is 347-215-9414
A montage I (Valente Q.C.) made with pictures that I took for the Infobox in the Modesto, California Article. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Todays topics include a Salida annexation update including Modesto Councilman Joe Muratore’s recent incursion in Salida. A conversation about Salida MAC Modesto City Council response to the Grand Jury report about SCAP and NSP2 money. and of course national issues we should all be concerned about especially women.
Wednesday nights at 7:00 PM Pacific
Please join us. Our call in number is 347-215-9414
104.9 FM is our flagship station
Eye On Modesto 