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water fee hike ordinance on the glendale council agenda tuesday accountability the government watchdog vanguard los angeles ca vol vi week of november 7 2010 info@vanguardians.org www.vanguardians.org 818 243 1502 reality check vanguardians purpose to inform educate motivate for involvement engagement advocacy your tax deductible contributions support the work we do please help i predict future happiness for americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them ­ thomas jefferson contents news mea culpa padding the paycheck assessor candidate assessed county works salaries assailed judge says ag went too far in bell vallejo update new promoted city employees open letter to drayman ­ show me 1 commentary barry allen you betcha gcea mou and more zavos vs howard herbert molano scam scam new da michael fuss post election prop bruce philpott off today 2 shout box water rates glendale pays most for firemen more gfd ot i live in fear on stancrest 3 public records adi ­ city quick to transfer title 4 vanguardians vanguardians training 5 the insider cm has his priorities so which one did the deed 7 stimulus 6 the denizens on the dais mea culpa in an earlier issue vanguard stated that the city borrowed $6m to pay adi the city borrowed $14,000,000 in february 2009 for housing from uboc city employee pay boosted by generous benefits overtime report reveals by rebecca kimitch staff writer pasadena star news complete data for all city employees is available at the controller s website lgcr.sco.ca.gov the total compensation received by many city employees is much larger than their salaries reveal according to a database released this week by the state controller s office west covina city manager andy pasmant s annual salary is approximately $223,656 but in 2009 his total compensation reached $298,489 in rosemead the assistant city manager s maximum annual salary is $151,798 but his total 2009 compensation was $181,884 in covina a senior equipment mechanic with a maximum salary of $58,634 reached an annual compensation of $75,686 and in glendora an accounting supervisor with a maximum salary of $80,925 was compensated a total of $96,462 and the police chief whose annual salary was $171,272 walked away in 2009 with $264,301 1

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in addition police and fire officials in departments across the san gabriel valley regularly take home 30 percent to 100 percent more than their given salaries would indicate turning $70,000 salaries into annual compensations of $110,000 $120,000 $140,000 the reasons overtime payouts for vacation and other leave and benefits that just add up according to many city officials the database includes salary and benefit information for employees in nearly every city and county in california submitted to the controller s office under a new requirement made in the wake of the salary scandal in the city of bell law firm donates $7,773 to assessor candidate noguez oil client gets $150 million reduction in property tax assessment $1.8 million tax refund largest property tax refund in los angeles county in exchange for campaign contribution to noguez huntington park ca the l.a county assessor s office has given away $150 million in reduction of assessed property value to tidelands corporation a subsidiary of occidental petroleum the law firm hired to represent tidelands is ajalat polley ayoob and matarese based in glendale california county workers salaries have taken a hit except those at the top by troy anderson of the daily news judge questions suit over ca city s big salaries atlanta journal constitution mayor teresa jacobo councilman george mirabal two former councilmen former police chief randy adams and former assistant city manager angela spaccia vallejo moves a step closer to bankruptcy exit with budget plan glendale hired 207 new hires and promoted 101 other employees open letter to glendale city council member john drayman mr drayman ­ as you know you have been the subject of the perception of wrongdoing by allegedly suborning bribes in the manner of having your home remodeled to the alleged cost of $200,000 the money for the remodel was allegedly provided by taxpayers through a conduit of an affordable housing developer this matter could easily be resolved by inviting me and an associate over to see the remodel and review the invoices and proof of payment for the work and those invoices as well as any correspondence from your homeowners insurance company regarding the alleged flood please email me your acceptance or rejection of this offer to remove the perception of wrongdoing to info@vanguardians.org barry allen samuel adams it does not require a majority to prevail but rather an irate tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people s minds vanguardians sponsor avoid tickets for driving while holding your cell add the latest electronics to your not so brand new car keep the electronics current adrians auto works can do it one of their technicians will come to your home or business and give you a free evaluation to update the electronics on your vehicle call brad at adrians auto works now 818 745 8524 make an appointment vanguard is published independently by vanguardians inc advocating for accountability­ our vision is to live in a community where all people can enjoy accountability integrity effectiveness and responsiveness from our government 1 commentary you may agree or disagree with the views below feel free to comment on them the commentaries do not necessarily reflect the position of vanguardians from the publisher 2

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a delightful saturday evening dinner party at the field-allen household the guests were articulate interesting and challenging and the dinner was only for the true gourmet one of the guests is a developer who has been faced with bureacrats and politicians with their hands out i never paid those idiots a penny he said i documented everything and asked if they just wanted to lose their pensions and go to prison for suborning bribes it was funny how their positions changed and everything worked as it should it was different in glendale they didnt scare so we didnt work there we discussed a hypothetical city ill call belldale the city policymakers are 5 in number only one of which has a real job as a licensed professional the others are a retired federal bureaucrat an unemployed comedian a political parasite using connections to propel his bankroll and an online seller of trinkets they presided over several thousand employees who provided the money to keep them in office a city manager who kept them inline and a city attorney that guided them through the rough spots basically like many home rule cities the council would get together and talk about the way former council members made money by voting on projects for a small incentive of mayber 3 which bought them in 10 of the cashflow it was easy unreported income except on their irs 1040 which is not disclosed the bureaucrats pick off a few dollars here and there by expediting paper pushing by overlooking some permit requirements or as recently happened in another city by accepting cash payments for traffic tickets but i digress council members werent interested in the minor pillaging they looked at where the real money was open space purchases hud money and bond issues to further separate taxpayers from their money along comes an agreeable knowledgable experienced affordable housing developer with over $600 million of taxpayer money in its maw after a few completed projects with a little moola passing the time was right for a killing so an approach was made for a little juice one wanted cash he was getting between $5,000 and $10,000 a week another had had a fire and needed some repairs that totalled over $200,000 another piped up what about me he said i have debts of $1,000,000 and need a bigger house they all made demands and the taxpayers footed the bill as the invoices came in and the city manager paid them when he ran out of money he went to the bank and borrowed a few million to keep the skids greased meanwhile the developer tired of paying the juice so he started taking pictures of the transactions with the idea of playing hardball no more juice just keep the projects going in fact the council approved yet another project even though it was going to cost taxpayers even more pictures not only showed the cash payoffs also sub-contractors and workers working in the fire damaged residence that coupled with invoices with a ship-to address began the unraveling of the yarn subs were also required to kickback part of their money workers werent being paid tipsters started calling me because there was no one else to trust and i demanded proofs and i got them including the names of the person doing the direct payoffs the photos not only of the payoffs and the workers but of the dangerous construction involving the support floor for the roof columns 3

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you ask if there are names that go with the hypothetical characterizations to quote sarah palin you betcha my dinner companions had a number of questions as i know you do i suggested we uncork another bottle of vino and listen as i continue to spin the tale of the old west or as my six year old granddaughter tatiana would say grandma is grandpa telling the truth this is the time for any of the hypotheses to become real call me and ill put them in touch with the feds in order to be an early entry in getting a better deal call me now 818 243 1502 i am here for you barry allen ps the gcea mou impasse that was resolved by the city council on tuesday night was quite telling the council owned up to the fact that they determined there would be no layoffs and no furloughs for city employees the last few years even though local residents are having their utilities cut off for being unable to pay the exorbitant rates even though their houses are being foreclosed the city employees were impervious to the cuts that private sector was facing every day however i can understand why the gcea were upset while they took a hit for 1.5 the gpoa got an 11 increase the gma changes in the mou meant they would get the effect of a pay raise by shifting the chairs on the titanic and of course the firefighters kept all their overtime it is easy to make up a $1500 cut just show up for one ot shift boom money made back union officials from another city contacted us as they faced the same problem with their city council that demanded the little people cea take a pay cut so that public safety personnel could get their pay raise no wonder the gcea was pissed of course their union hasnt spent a bunch of money supporting those on the dais as the gma gffa and gpoa has done and i say bully for them they did hear the eloquent speech of laura friedman which appeared to be written by the city manager who is preparing her to be the next mayor meanwhile city employees have been given credit cards with little or no oversight the public had the mindset that cutting positions was the same as laying off resource officers but the city manager doesnt have to worry about a capital improvement budget it is no longer funded if you watched and listened to the council meeting you never heard the option of cutting expenses or living within their means revenues are down and the city hires more employees and increases the number of managers actually a pretty stupid move especially when the work of the city is conducted by outside consultants and law firms a very current example ­ last week saw a record breaking heat wave that caused poorly maintained beeline buses to run without air conditioning to meet the standards imposed by law passengers called the city and were given different wrong answers as managers werent available it was too hot to work so they may have gone off to the beach when this issue hits the city managers desk he will hear that the additional layers of management have proven to be ineffective his solution will be to add another layer of managers to keep his office further uninformed perhaps the managers meetings on wednesday mornings should concentrate on business rather than whose turn it is to put the cost of the food for the meeting on their budget it really doesnt matter to the tax and ratepayers they will get stuck with the bill in the end 4

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these are managers that didnt keep up with adi maybe they were told to look the other way or the darling of the city council maria rochart the people were warned to keep an eye on the money but they didnt maybe the public should look at applying the crime theory known as honest services fraud now used only for the failure of an official to live up to his/her fiduciary duties as a result of taking a bribe or kickback but the public saw firsthand that all labor negotiations should be held in public contrary to what mayor najarian advocated when he faced that question from the public in the past one other quickie from that meeting retired law professor took city attorney scott howard to task for taking 4 months to determine whether the city illegally transferred water revenues to the general fund howard responded that in no way was it taking 4 months to make the determination it was taking longer to determine how to keep the cash in reality the city was according to a public records request working on this issue since at least december of 2008 the penalty good men and women pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men plato most people want the benefits of an accountable government but are afraid to work for accountability or to support those that do often because they fear retaliation or are the beneficiaries of the largesse or corruption of government aseikon if you look carefully at the word aseikon there is a familiarity to it back in the 1970s the fbi and customs officials knew very well what it meant but the public was almost totally unaware of the scam the tactic is eerily similar to the way many city councils work today back then a firm in asia had devised a get-rich-quick scheme with a very cheap knock-off of a well-known brand they made what appeared at first glance to be an expensive seiko watch but the gleam and the polish was 100 faux ­ fake and structured for deception the watches came in boxes of several dozen units with two tools hidden in them and quite innocuous one was used to remove the clear covering over the face of the watch the other like a small scalpel served to remove two letters the buyer knew what to do he would remove the first letter a and then remove the last letter n and would replace the glass over the new seiko branded watch the watches if they worked for long would last about a month or two at the most then would break down its components were made of the cheapest materials that would last long-enough for the sale to take place the product was all gleam and false promises that would last long enough for the unwary buyers to be sold the buyers like glendale voters would buy the fakery with their expectation of high value but buyers knew that they were not paying full price and local voters never really knew much about the candidates neither invested very much yet wanted to get the real thing by now all the circumstantial evidence points to me that these councilmen ran for office for their own financial gain at the expense of the residents taxpayers ratepayers and stake-holders years of watching their behavior decisions and expenditure approvals point to it as virtually incontrovertible but the similarities to the seiko watch fraud should be explained first it is a reverse scam if you watch the city council sessions carefully youll notice that whenever there is a potentially controversial issue before the city council they want to portray themselves as the genuine article in years past during sessions when the budget was voted on they would select a minister or other member of the cloth to give an invocation to open the session then they would go about approving a budget that would trash the taxpayers and give the city unions huge pay and pension increases capital improvement money was moved to the general fund and nearly all the increases in property taxes would go to support a huge and relentlessly growing payroll 5

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for years the expenditures for youth as a percentage of the overall budget would be around one percent tens of millions of dollars in road reconstruction as recommended by consultants hired by the city would remain unfunded hundreds of millions of dollars of water pipeline repair would go unheeded during a period of less than ten years over half a billion dollars in additional pension obligations would be approved by the city council the public was totally unaware now watch the city council at the end of the session for some years now during the council comments near the tail-end of the agenda the councilmen appear to respond to comments from the public but by the time they get around to it key points highlighted by the comments by council critics would have been forgotten by anyone still watching each councilman then takes turns misinterpreting a key point made during oral communications and then proceeds to twist the facts lie outright or give an apparently logical explanation the public unaware of the facts would take it all in as fact several months ago during the biggest demonstration by the public inside and outside the city of bell the city council proceeded to start the meeting by giving the highest flourishes and expansive compliments in one of the most blatant displays of misdirection they were giving away city commendations with all their pomp and disingenuous display of emotion they were trying desperately to appear genuine about their public concerns while hundreds of city residents were clamoring for authorities to stop the fraud the corruption and take them to jail councilmen at the city of bell at the city of glendale and at many other california cities need those cheap presentations at the beginning of the council meetings and at the close of their meetings they want to leave the impression to the public that they are concerned public officials while making arrangements with developers and insiders to enrich themselves and the friends who helped pay and endorse their election city employee unions know full well that these politicians are knock-offs they know that they could not make as much money with the genuine article behind the dais they will do anything to prevent the election of bona-fide and knowledgeable politicians who are truly looking out for the public good weve come to such a degree of official debauchery that our very own police and fire-fighter associations help circulate these counterfeit scoundrels with their endorsements like aseikom these elected officials were created to deceive we only need for the public to become fully aware of the fraud they perpetrate weekly and to demand that the district attorney get a grand jury to indict these outlaws herbert molano click here glendale today john quiÑones for district attorney the elections may be over and given californias term limits it would not be unusual to find candidates positioning themselves for the next round of elections if i had the opportunity to persuade someone to run for da it would be john quiñones of abc tv on friday nights 20-20 program john heads the networks what would you do reverse sting program we had others programs like it before for the humor of it years ago we had candid camera where the show conspired with well-placed actors to fool unwary passersby into funny predicaments years later we had punked with more youthful and funny stings on celebrities quiñones reverse stings have a strong moral undercurrent with what would you do quiñones and his crew have placed actors posing as inebriated parents trying to take the wheel of car when they clearly cant even walk straight the unwary people nearby are then faced with a moral dilemma to intercede and protect the public the drunk and his child from reckless driving while placing many in harms way the unwary observer is often placed in a position to react to teens delivering abusive language while bullying another hapless teenager other episodes show observers watching a scam taking place where other passersby are conned out of their money its not too dissimilar to what i observe city councilmen doing to the public with their taxpayers dollars in the case of glendale quiñones could do his reverse sting with the city police officers he could set up the conditions where the citys detectives or senior managers while unaware of the sting become aware of misdeeds 6

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by one of the councilmen we can then sit back and watch if the law enforcement officer would report the fraud or the infraction the reverse sting could be a small event or even something more significant for example quiñones could arrange to have councilman david weaver drive erratically at two in the morning and pretend that he is driving under the influence of alcohol not an unlikely scenario and drive by a squad car when he gets stopped by the policeman weaver would then show his license and his city councilman business card as the policeman prepares to question weaver the councilman tells the policeman how in 2001 he increased the pensions to police officers by nearly 40 and how in the last 15 months he supported an 11 increase in their pay we the audience would then watch the cameras to see if the policeman would give an infraction the councilman or if he would use the occasion to verbally remind the councilman of this new iou instead of issuing a dui i could suggest a scenario where quiñones could arrange for someone in the new housing and planning department like peter zovak for instance to have actors portray a wealthy low income housing developer who befriends him and puts his arm around his shoulders in this sting they both meet a councilman and suggest how they can pad the costs of the new construction to make the project at least three times the real cost the developer then suggests re-directing materials and supplies to remodel a councilmans condo or add a new second story to his house if quiñones is more daring he could even offer to provide a new landscaping contract to the spouse of the council member at other of his projects portraying developers or their local lobbyists with actors quiñones could contract with a well-known realtor to request that the city use about $20 million of redevelopment money to participate in a high rise hotel on wilson we could then watch as the councilman decides how much of the $20 million hed like as his commission and in what form hed take it it would wake up so many voters that there would be a long line of customers at starbucks wondering why theyve been asleep so long quiñones could for example have an actor pretend to be a developer who wants to build a thirty-six condo-mixed used project on broadway when the councilman arrives the actors would show how with eight fewer parking spaces the developer could save $240,000 in construction costs we could watch in anticipation and wonder how the councilman would phrase offering a variance from the zoning requirements we would watch awestruck at the twisted logic the councilman would use as he pretends to be ethical while finding creative ways to benefit himself personally that would be pure theater and reality tv with a fine legal twist imagine now a self-funded da division set up to take the profit from the television program and plow that money back into further and more lucrative stings the da would not have to wait for sacramento to approve more money for investigations and local politicians would know that they could not simply cut off funding to prevent further stings we could even have enough money to pay for grand juries well and keep them busy until we clean up all of los angeles county from the scourge of these politicians with enough money we could even create an outreach directed at voters to teach them how to spot the charlatan the sociopath and the self-serving narcissist autocrat john quiñones for district attorney what a way to clean up government and spice up his act herbert molano click here glendale today what to take away from the election results in californiathe long view after the dust settled on thursday the 4th some encouraging signs can be seen in what on the surface of what might look like the usual uninspired and contradictory election results that ultimately again did not throw the bums out of office as a reformer writing this or a reformer reading this it is too easy to simply be disappointed that the same legislature that is polling below 15 largely was reelected but if one considers the success of some of the reform orientated propositions and the ominous implications of redistricting being taken away from the politicians just before the 10 year redistricting period there is a lot to be thankful and hopeful for the propositions prop 20 and 27 with regards to good government reform it was heartening to see that prop 20 which expanded the yet unstaffed citizen s redistricting commissions power to include members to the house of representatives 7

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survive a public employee union funded attempt to not only stop it but strangle it in its crib with prop 27 which went down in flames by a healthy margin good government reform was largely supported and protected by the voters the political earthquake that will follow real redistricting on a state and federal level in the near future will usher in real turn over in the legislative elections that follow the reality of the reformer s slogan of throwing the bums out is at hand prop 21 the voters handily defeated the $14 a year vehicle registration fee hike to pay for parks that we already are paying for that the legislature in sacramento attempted to grease past them the proponents of prop 21 failed largely because the voters who recently have been stung by multiple tax and fee hikes have been made painfully aware that these hikes were made to underwrite overly generous public employee contracts that are locked in and the product of the inherent conflict of interest that arises when elected officials take campaign donations from public employee unions that they award contracts to jerry brown acknowledged 21 s defeat on wednesday basically warning the union dominated legislature that the voters have been hit in the pocket book enough recently to see through their shell game prop 22 the voters again clipped sacramento s wings by denying them the ability to raid local government funds in order to avoid making cuts to state public employees that contribute so much to their reelection campaigns it was heartening to see that politics is still ultimately `local as the expression goes and that the state public employee unions attempt to equate every local government that is trying to protect its budget from sacramento to the thieves in the city of bell was not believed by the voters prop 24 the voters rebuffed the legislature and their public employee union bosses again by denying their attempt to take back tax breaks that sacramento resentfully gave out to businesses in order to get a few republicans to cross the isle and approve the biggest general tax increase in state history back in 2009 as a bonus-the failure of the legislature in 2009 to get the voters to approve extending their tax increase another 2 years for 2011-13 means that an additional 12 billion dollars will need to be found to keep state public employees paid at the unrealistic levels they enjoyed during the real estate boom years the legislature will have a very hard time going to the public for a vote with real redistricting around the corner to increase taxes in the next few years so the day of reckoning for the seiu et al is closer than many realize prop 25 while this writer did not back it there is still cause to be assured that the voters were skeptical of sacramento s ongoing budget crisis and were in a punitive mood while the proposition does not directly overturn prop 13 it will make it harder for anti tax legislators to resist tax hikes as it will deny them their pay during late budget negotiations ultimately it will allow the legislature to add more gimmicks to the budget to get it to balance on paper in order to pass but those gimmicks will become more obvious to bond investors and with money drying up all over the financial markets more and more obvious gimmicks are more likely to backfire on prop 25 s proponents as they will have even larger gimmick based deficits to close without bond buyer s support and therefore will be forced to go to either the minority party or voters for additional tax hike approvals prop 26 voters closed the back door that elected officials have used for years to pass many a stealth tax increase that was disguised as a `fee if you don t fund it they can t pay for it was perhaps the subconscious motto that won out at the ballot box this proposition s lop sided victory at the polls was only possible because the voters were wise to the tricks and sleight of hand that sacramento has used in recent decades to cover up their excesses it became clear to many sacramento politicians and their public employee union contributors that the party is over that the public is watching and limiting their power more closely than ever before due largely to their pockets being picked one too many times in recent history democracies are slow moving but reactive by nature unfortunately for the public employee unions and the politicians that they pay for and dominate them will have to deal with a long period of public distrust skepticism and tight purse strings that have been a long in coming and well deserved michael fuss californians for the right to vote on public employee pay http cavoteonpublicemployeepay.org 8

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take action ­ get involved ­ be informed ­ share vanguard ­ volunteer 2shout box ed ­ letters published do not necessarily express the opinion of vanguardians vanguard news service the organization or barry allen names are used only when requested initials are used as there are people believe it or not who are concerned with retaliation or have issues before a legislative body letters will be published that are signed and are not hate oriented with the gwp water rate increase ready to come on stream pardon the pun the adi corruption scandal sitting like a time bomb waiting to explode in the laps of our elected and appointed officials and the money for nothing giveaways of taxpayer money to new horizons it is fair to say that the city leadership has never heard the wisdom in the old saying waste not want not instead they adhere to the motto easy come easy go and spend the public s money like it s going out of style never satisfied and lacking any due diligence have these spendaholics wasted our money without giving it a second thought only to come back to the public with their gluttonous rate and fee increases bond measures city employee perks salary benefit and retirement bumps and business as usual attitude the chickens are coming home to roost in cities like bell and glendale and we welcome each new disclosure of municipal incompetence and corruption at the risk of mixing metaphors it s been like seeing the tip of the iceberg while not seeing the forest for the trees all in one we need an old fashioned housecleaning in city hall and the sooner the better a fish rots from the head and many of us have smelled something rotten in glendale for a long time speaking of foul odors is it true that gwp head glenn steiger has an out of state home in arizona and bills the city for frequent air travel between here and there naj i was just paging through the state controller s new on-line report that reveals all of the salaries for city employees i found it very revealing to compare the total compensation of our fire employees to those of our comparable communities especially burbank and pasadena of even more interest was a comparison to even larger cities like fresno and long beach why are the glendale salaries so much higher do we have more fires and medical calls than these other cities i can t imagine how the glendale salaries can overshadow those of long beach and fresno so dramatically as an hr person i don t see the value to these huge numbers they certainly can t be arguing that our firemen would quit and go to other fire departments if paid less retention would be a very weak argument this is nothing more than a system that is rewarding itself with financial self entitlements if you look at the spread between salary and total compensation you see quite clearly there is overtime abuse in play dn vanguard advisor responds fresno and long beach finances have been strained like most cities resulting in reduced budgets including those in the fire departments because fire unions have incorporated minimum staffing language in their mous cities are not able to cut staffing on engine and truck companies from four to three instead they have to cut entire engine and truck companies long beach and fresno began doing that last year fresno is in one of the worst situations because both police and fire unions have binding arbitration in their contracts unions will never agree to reduced staffing on engines and trucks they will only allow the city to shut down stations union members will then canvass the community where a station was shut down and energize the public to complain at city hall to re-establish their neighborhood fire station in reaction cities have developed a system where the daily station closures are done in a rotation basis so no individual station is closed permanently at least for now for every fire company that is eliminated twelve positions are saved and so are the opportunities to cover vacated positions due to vacation training and sick days off this is where the reduction in overtime occurs glendale has not yet begun to cut engine or truck companies but it is my best guess that it will begin to happen next year pasadena i understand just cut one of its truck companies some cities are able to maintain their entire engine and truck company complement by reducing staffing from four to three but this can only occur in those cities whose public safety unions 9

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do not have binding arbitration collective bargaining or have a minimum staffing clause in their contact these cities are in the minority but where they exist the public will be better served long beach has closed several stations san jose has cut eight stations los angeles has cut 15 stations all are intended to conform to reduced operating budgets another reason why glendale firemen take more money home in their mou they have all sorts of bonus credits that average a double digit percentage bump calculated on an hourly basis and it is also added for purposed of retirement bp note from the writer thank you for the insight very interesting what a shame that fire stations have to be closed in an effort to stem overtime costs and i would imagine the remaining stations are still staffed with overtime too just fewer more hot letters is it true that a fireman can call in to this telestaff thing and take the next day off without even asking a supervisor s permission and the telestaff immediately gives another fireman an assignment to work for me on overtime if that s the case it s no wonder their overtime is out of control just how many firemen are allowed to be off any given day i keep hearing 30 or more are on overtime every day so if i m a fireman i just tell a computer i want the day off and the computer automatically assigns one of my buddies on overtime to fill in for me so he can watch tv and line his wallet with the taxpayer s money at something like $1000.00 a shift what a racket and on top of that the firemen get something like twice the vacation hours other city employees get even if they re working an office job i ll tell you this much at my business no one takes a day off without asking someone and we sure don t put ourselves in a position of having to hire a person on overtime for each and every employee who takes a day off i don t want to believe all these horror stories are true but apparently they are and i m hearing all this from a burbank fireman who says they don t do business that way cr vanguard advisor response the burbank fireman is correct in how glendale firemen can report sick days this is a time honored way of distributing as much overtime as they can it works better than not calling in sick and putting unused sick days into a bank that can be cashed out at retirement most of these pay outs are in the five digits abuse is rampant recently a rialto fireman feigned sickness after a gasoline spill on the highway not a tanker just a small accident he began to take time off with full pay classified as an on-duty injury the city hired a private dick and video tapped him going to home depot buying building supplies and then proceeded to work on an interior renovation of his home he was initially disciplined but it was overturned by the ninth circuit court of appeals the fire chief ordered the fireman to go into his house and produce the building material he had purchased the court ruled that the entry was a violation of the fireman s 4th amendment rights and he was acquitted he is now suing the city of rialto it is not uncommon for a fireman to receive $50,000 annually for working extra shifts bp i live in a condominium complex on stancrest where city councilman john drayman lives for months there was construction going on in his unit people coming and going lots of dirt debris and commotion i never saw a building permit i did see and speak with the project manager because i knew him he was very evasive and told me to forget about our conversation well i didnt i spoke to a friend who is a city commissioner and he asked me questions i told him i thought something illegal was going on so what do i do now a woman on the third level got in trouble before for a remodel without a permit do elected officials like john drayman get a free ride by not having a permit does that mean he doesnt have to worry about a new assessment that would have him pay more property tax please dont use my name mr drayman is very vindictive demanding and nasty name withheld 3 public information just the facts the property on salem street was given to adi in march 2009 just after the city borrowed $14,000,000 all truths are easy to understand once they have been discovered the point is to discover them galileo galilei home page of open government in glendale california agendas for the city of glendale ca click to view the agenda city council housing authority redevelopment agency 10

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meetings at city hall ch are in the council chambers 2 floor at 613 e broadway meetings at the municipal services bldg msb are in room 105 at 633 e broadway meetings at the perkins bldg pb are in the conference room at 141 n glendale ave phone numbers are in area code 818 unless noted otherwise monday november 8 comm on the status of women ­ 6:30 pm ch 548-4844 tuesday november 9 housing authority ­ 2:30 pm ch 548-2060 redevelopment agency ­ 2:30 pm ch 548-2005 joint meeting ­re update on the downtown business improvement district ­ 2:30 pm ch 548-4844 city council ­ 6:00 pm ch 548-4844 wednesday november 10 planning hearing officer 9:30 am msb 548-2140 civil service commission ­ 5:00 pm ch 548-2110 community meeting ­ potential applicants for geneva street habitat for humanity project ­ 7:00 pm police community room police department 131 n isabel street 626 387-6899 thursday november 11 veterans day ­all city offices and library branches are closed friday november 12 no meetings scheduled saturday november 13 community meeting ­ potential applicants for geneva street habitat for humanity project ­ 10:00 am police community room police department 131 n isabel street 626 387-6899 nd 4 vanguardians people from all over la county are asking for vanguard and vanguardians training we are expanding our coverage of la county activities to accommodate the needs of the community vanguard opens its shout box to glendale news press gnp letter writers whose letters regarding city government issues questions and criticisms are not being published by the gnp vanguard editor pauline field received approval from the editorial advisory board to make this opportunity available to all stakeholders your employee association doesn t support you don t support then instead send your union dues to vanguardians as allowed by the meyers-milias-brown act for local public employee organizations vanguard is following these lawsuits the 5 gpd officers rodriguez gillespie hayn hunter mendoza ovasapyan the cases cited are from the randy adams regime and continue under chief depompa vanguardians needs your continuing financial support please make checks payable to vanguardians mail to pob 11202 glendale ca 91226 your contributions are tax deductible you will receive a receipt for income tax purposes the ralph m brown act mandates legislative bodies to provide each person an opportunity to speak and requires that agendas are posted and meetings are open the california public records act pra is the tool to get information about the operations of government the political reform act of 1974 allows public access to the financial reports of public officials www.maplight.org to follow the money trail from special interests to the policy maker to become more involved in your community to learn how to use these important tools you can call 818 243 1502 5 the insider is written by city employees that care about the way the city is run as they are concerned about retaliation their identities are secret vanguard provides them the opportunity to have this forum the comments are their own with the council rubber stamping managements declaration for impasse and the contract for gcea starbird has removed all doubt that he cares about the employees he is just a politician trying to keep his council votes he facilitates council pet projects wasting millions of dollars only to turn around and say the city can t stay afloat without taking $700,000 from us lowest paid employees he says that the city negotiated in good faith bull the city had one offer the whole time it barely passed with other associations the fact the starbird selected the order for the negotiations in line with his control over the representatives of those association shows his true character human nature shows that when you know your superiors don t have your back loyalty goes away 11

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6 the denizens on the dais what city council member stays at a hotel owned by the developer of the hyatt hotel at central and wilson when he is in miami and doesnt report this when he votes on issues like the land lease at central and wilson what city council member has a spouse that works for the landscape architecture firm that works for adi what council members have had structural work plumbing and electrical without obtaining building permits and having inspections who wrote the script used tuesday night by a council member what council member drives a rolls royce what council member has over $1,000,000 in personal debt what council member had a party at his house and city employees catered it and cleaned it up the penalty good men and women pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men plato you can t win an argument with a moron an idiot or a political bigot kraft the lie-o-meter moves from week to week showing the official telling the most outrageous lies when did it begin weaver 1997 quintero 2001 najarian 2005 drayman 2007 friedman 2009 drayman and weaver terms end in april 2011 7 stimulus for sale 12 year old california c corporation vanguardians thinktank has evaluated several ideas to stimulate growth one with appeal to car and rv dealers another that would appeal to free standing buildings in commercial zones for diy auto repairs yet another that would provide early warning of brush fires in remote locales contact barry allen 818 243 1502 regarding stimulus email info@vanguardians.org to subscribe to the weekly news on issues that impact you vanguardians encourage and support advocacy involvement and engagement with government vanguard is intended for personal use by recipient and forwarding without change to recipients personal email list vanguardians is a 501c3 educational non-profit corporation contributions are tax deductible vanguardians does not use commercial fundraisers to ensure you receive vanguard please add our email addresses info@vanguardians.org vanguardweekly@gmail.com and ba@fieldworks.net to your address book or internet service provider safe list annual subscription for email $50 by us mail $75 newsstand $2 per issue to unsubscribe reply with the word unsubscribe in the subject line copyrighted materials used with permission ©2010 12

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