|
What is my IP
You are connecting to this site from: 38.103.63.55
|
Home
|
Submitted by Administrator
|
|
Wednesday, 01 July 2009 |
|
 THINGS ARE GETTING HOT The Sabatino Report www.thesabatinoreport.com
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
Former Mayor Carmen Sabatino has moved from your car radio to your computer. Go to www.voiceofmodesto.org at 10 this morning and click on Blog Talk Radio. The program is interactive and you can either call or text into the program. The program is on demand anytime of the day or night. June 28, 2009 OPEN LETTER TO BEE EDITOR MARK VASCHE Dear Mark, Your article in today’s Bee reveals you have not resolved your childhood fears of “trolls”. In your mind they are in our “midst” and exist everywhere. In an attempt to validate your opinion you call on the author of a book entitled “The Trouble With Trolls”. Author Sean O’Driscoll explains that "trolls will hijack conversations with off-topic and often outrageous claims on controversial topics." Does it occur to you that the author does not identify anyone in Stanislaus County as a “troll”. That is something that you have done. You go on to say, “You don't have to log on to the Web to see trolls at work. They play their divisive little games in letters to the editor, on call-in talk shows and at public meetings. Sometimes -- gasp -- they even run for office; and, sometimes -- double gasp -- they actually get elected. Fortunately, at least in these parts, they usually last only a single term before voters come to their senses and boot them out on their sorry little bottoms.” At the risk of you calling me “paranoid” again, I am assuming you regard me to be a “troll”. You continue to say, Trolls do what they do for different reasons, O'Driscoll continues. Some have a grudge against you; some have a grudge against a group of other community members; some have a grudge against everything; and some are just plain obnoxious. And, O'Driscoll writes, trolls never change. "A troll is a troll is a troll is a troll is a troll -- you do not have the power to bring them from dark to light. "In the end," he says, "the single best tactic for managing trolls (and hardest to do, it seems) is ignoring them." “They take their rights of free speech and a free press and selfishly use and abuse them to create chaos. We have enough of that in these turbulent times without these mean-spirited, small-minded people creating dissension and division for no positive purpose.” Mark, your column on “trolls” constitutes your own diary. The class you are taking on “social networking” isn’t helping you because you have written an entire column on the former Mayor of Modesto instead of continuing to ignore what some have said was “best Mayor this City ever had.” You finally end your column by changing the subject with the following, “More than ever, As you know from the accompanying editorial, another election is just around the corner. we need quality people -- as noted above, men and women of character, competence, commitment and courage -- to step forward and run for the council, school board and special district seats that will be on the ballot in November. They don't need to see eye to eye on every issue; in fact, different perspectives and positions are healthy. But they do need to share a strong commitment to work together for the common good. As for the trolls, they'll be out there, stirring up trouble and maybe even running for office. We need to know they're around, but, as O'Driscoll writes, the best thing we can do is ignore them .After all, a troll is a troll is a troll is a troll is a troll.” Your newspaper is looking for men and women of character, competence, commitment and courage, to run for public office. What is the problem with the officials you have helped to elect so far with the help of the George Petrulakis and Mike Zagaris Political Group. In your own words, the Bee is "confused, confiicted, and confused". What are your qualifications and what is your record with respect to the common good? Mark, you need not fear me as a troll because you have ignored what I have to say, until now, but you cannot live in denial by pretending the truth can be kept from public view. It is becoming obvious that you should give up your position that allows you to abuse freedom of the press, free speech, and civil rights. Not this week, but soon. Finally, politics and the newspaper business demand a test of faith. At the very least your paper lacks courage. Carmen Sabatino, Former Mayor of Modesto
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 01 July 2009 )
|
|
|
Submitted by Administrator
|
|
Wednesday, 01 July 2009 |
|
 .ExternalClass p.EC_MsoNormal, .ExternalClass li.EC_MsoNormal, .ExternalClass div.EC_MsoNormal {margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';} .ExternalClass a:link, .ExternalClass span.EC_MsoHyperlink {color:red;text-decoration:underline;} .ExternalClass a:visited, .ExternalClass span.EC_MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:yellow;text-decoration:underline;} .ExternalClass p.EC_MsoAcetate, .ExternalClass li.EC_MsoAcetate, .ExternalClass div.EC_MsoAcetate {margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:8.0pt;font-family:'Tahoma','sans-serif';} .ExternalClass span.EC_EmailStyle17 {font-family:'AvantGarde Bk BT','sans-serif';color:black;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none none;} .ExternalClass span.EC_EmailStyle18 {font-family:'Calibri','sans-serif';color:#1F497D;} .ExternalClass span.EC_BalloonTextChar {font-family:'Tahoma','sans-serif';} .ExternalClass .EC_MsoChpDefault {font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in;} .ExternalClass div.EC_Section1 {page:Section1;} Reply to City Attorney Susana Wood I am asking you to please refrain from accusing me of making false statements. There is no need to argue or waste each other’s time. Please follow the law and provide Mayor Ridenour’s 2008 calendar as requested under the Public Records Act. You did not provide me with the 2008 calendar, the mayor voluntarily gave the Measure M pay commission the first four months of his 2008 calendar to justify a $65,000 a year salary. In today’s communication (see below), you threaten to dispose of the 2008 calendars. You have already taken the original calendars for 2007 and 2009 and had them retyped. If you have destroyed the original calendars, you have destroyed public records. As for 2008 calendars, let me assist you in obeying the law. Simply gather the 2008 calendars off your conference table, put them in an envelope, and mail them to me. If you find that impossible I will ask you to produce all the original calendars at the July 7, 2009 City Council meeting.. From: Susana Wood [mailto:
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
]
Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 11:30 AM
To: Carmen Sabatino;
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
; Greg Nyhoff; Stephanie Lopez
Subject: RE: RESPONSE TO PUBLIC RECORDS ACT REQUEST; REMINDER THAT 2008 CALENDARS HAVE BEEN PREVIOUSLY MADE AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING PER YOUR REQUEST Mr. Sabatino: Please consider this a response to your Public Records Act request of June 29th, 2009 wherein you are seeking a copy of Mayor Ridenour’s calendar for last week. 1) In response to this request, a copy of that calendar has been provided to the City Clerk’s office and is now available for you to pick up during regular office hours. 2) The Mayor has advised that he will be providing a copy of his previous week’s calendar to the City Clerk’s office every Monday morning, and they will be ready for you to pick up after 9:00 a.m. 3) With regard to your reference to the “denial” by me of Mayor Ridenour’s calendar for 2008 – you are simply incorrect. I am going to remind you of the following communication we had regarding copies of the Mayor’s 2008 calendar. On June 17th I responded to your request, and provided the following specific response regarding 2008 calendars: “…With regard to the Mayor’s calendar pages for 2008 – I would remind you that upon receipt of these calendar copies from the City, you turned over a copy of the Mayor’s 2008 calendar to The City Council, the Board of Supervisors, County Council, the District Attorney, the Sheriff, along with others. I believe you also posted it on your website, but I could be mistaken. If you find you still need another copy, however, let me know and I will make another copy for you. I believe the format for the 2008 calendar pages was in the condensed form you referenced, so the cost would be less.” In response, you called me on June 17, 2009 and left a voicemail advising me that rather than copies, you wanted to make an appointment to come in and view the calendars. I responded to you by email, advising you that you were welcome to come in to the office and view the 2008 calendars and you could use one of our conference rooms to do so. I can send you a copy of that email, as well as other referenced emails, for your reference. You next responded by stating in an email on June 18, 2009 that you didn’t need to use a conference room to view the calendars. I responded to you that the conference room offer was a courtesy, and you could use our foyer to view the records as well. This was on the morning of June 18, 2009. We have had the Mayor’s 2008 calendars set aside for you to come in and view them per your request, but to date you have not done so, nor have you contacted this office to make an appointment to come view them. For all these reasons, I am hereby requesting that you immediately refrain from making any more false statements that the City, and my office specifically, have denied you access to review these record. Please be further informed that if I don’t hear from you by noon tomorrow (July 1, 2009) regarding scheduling an appointment to view the 2008 Mayor calendars, I will consider that a withdrawal of your request and will dispose of them. Susana Alcala Wood City Attorney City of Modesto
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
(209) 577-5284.
|
|
|
Submitted by Administrator
|
|
Thursday, 25 June 2009 |
A TRUE LEGEND HAS PASSED TODAY IN LOS ANGELES MAY GOD BLESS HIS SOUL
|
|
|
Submitted by Administrator
|
|
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 |
 HOT NEWS FROM DAVE RE: BEE Opinion Fatally Flawed Garrad, I appreciate your wanting to explain your very bad decision regarding the cops, last night. Let's see if I can address your assertions, below. Thank you for this opportunity. Dave Dear Dave,
I have not taken the pleasure of emailing you in some time. But I foolishly am doing so now, hopefully to bring some clarity to how we got to where we (the council) are today.
Let me start by saying that while we have unanimously voted for the budget, there are still differences in opinion on how rigid our stance should be in regard to MPOA.
Let me start by addressing one of your ongoing criticisms of the council, giving a pay increase to MPOA in December.
I will use the term “YOU” in regards to the citizenry of Modesto because you seem to want to represent them.
YOU passed binding arbitration in the 90’s. [ Dave] No, I did not pass binding arbitration. The democrat party, the public sector unions - including cops, firefighters, teachers, city & county employees - passed binding arbitration. And I bet you a hot dog that you voted for it. That places the city in a delicate position when bargaining with its associations. The analysis of pay for our general area found that our police are 17% BELOW the middle of the pay range when compared to other agencies.[ Dave] Garrad, I have already made my own analysis of the other agencies pay and benefits. When I did it, I found that Modesto was right in the middle of the game. I do not know who is feeding you this incorrect info (17%), but it is wrong. If you want to refute my findings, just produce the data, my friend, produce the data and let us see.
Do you really thing an arbitration judge would side with the city if we said “tough luck” – NO Raises? An arbitration judge would likely say, you need to be commensurate with the area - figure out how to get there. YOU must realize that binding arbitration makes it very difficult to just dig our heels in and say, “tough.” [ Dave] This is a red herring. YOU voted to raise the cops pay, and promised to pay for it by putting a sales tax increase on this November's ballot.
The association did agreed to delay their first increase to June, both sides knowing that the economy was a mess. Did we (or anyone) know in Sept, Oct how bad it was going to be? All thought that maybe by summer it could be better. As we approved the contract in Dec, we all knew it was going to be difficult to meet.[ Dave] Garrad, you have to be kidding. You are supposed to have an MBA from Berkeley... Even Jim Ridenour knew what was coming; he published his comments in his "Mayor's FY 2008-09 Proposed Budget Message", page i, Section "Budget Message", published July, 2008. This is the FIRST PAGE of the document, and I am confident that you read it, and every other page in that budget. In the FOURTH LINE of that page, the mayor told us that THIS BUDGET - the one we are currently living under - is "over $13 Million (in deficit) for FY 2008-09..." And you ask "Did we (or anyone) know in Sept, Oct how bad it was going to be?" Obviously, Jim did. Were you out that day?
Time passes and we are in a much deeper hole than anyone could have foreseen. [ Dave] Baloney. The County Assessor told you what was going to happen. Arnie told you, the acting city manager told you, and the BEE, for crying out loud, told all of us. Perhaps you and your colleagues were not paying attention????? All of our other employee groups have agreed, either by official vote or tentatively to REDUCE their compensation in some form. We only asked the police groups to do likewise. DELAY their raises, not lose them, not reduce their pay, just delay implementation.[ Dave] Well, the MPOA DID propose furloughs, which, if you did the math, would have saved the city about 6.5% of total pay, which is MORE than the 3% plus 2% pay raise. Did you ever consider that? Especially the fact that we would still have the cops available for patrol? Your solution kills 9 cop positions.
You were the one who viciously attacked the pay level of the police in many emails when they were given their new contract in December. Today you think we are slime because we ask them to delay that contract.[ Dave] Well, I reject your assertion that I "viciously attacked the pay level of the police". I DID comment on the incredibly bad timing of ALL the raises that you and your buddies handed out like candy, precisely when the businesses in Modesto were failing, civilians were losing their jobs and the city's (and county's) revenues were plummeting like an Air Bus in a thunderstorm. I am sure that you would not want to even discuss your passing out the Citizen's tax money to the city's union employees because you were buying their votes, right? Not one of you would mention that Hawn, Keating, Ridenour and even O'Bryant have direct personal and family interests in cops and fire fighters, right? None of you would want to mention the fact that the cops and fire fighters walked the precincts for at least those 4 votes on the council?
Sounds like there may be some hypocrisy there.[ Dave] I think that if the concept of "hypocrisy" is going to be used, you might think about how the council just made a contract with a SACRAMENTO firm to provide SECURITY for city property at a cost of $378,000!!!!! Why is that, Garrad? Don't we have enough cops to provide security for our city?
I am a pretty consistent kind of guy, Garrad. I hate to see you vote to waste Citizen's money. I hate to see you vote blindly for things that Citizens know are wrong. I hate to see 150 people address the elected "leaders" and not one of those "leaders" listens. I hate to see a mayor who has only 5 minutes of time for legitimate Citizen issues. I especially hate to see police officers disrespected and maligned by the very people they put in office. YOU gave the raise, and offer no legitimate defense. YOU voted to fire cops, when our city is in the midst of a nasty crime wave. YOU have destroyed the morale of an already damaged police force.
So, you do not like my criticism? My gosh, Garrad, what are you thinking?
Have a nice night.[ Dave] Actually, I did have a very nice night, last night. We visited with a neighbor who made a fabulous dinner, and we did NOT watch any TV, including the city council meeting. My blood pressure went down, I did not get indigestion, and I slept like a tired kitten.
Garrad Marsh, Council Member
City of Modesto
1010 10th Street, Ste.6200
Modesto, CA 95353
209-571-5169
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Thomas [
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
';
document.write( '' );
document.write( addy_text57653 );
document.write( '<\/a>' );
//-->\n This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
]
Sent: Tue 6/23/2009 3:05 PM
To: All My Friends
Cc: Adam Ashton; Dan Day; Judy Sly; Mark Vasche; Mike Dunbar; Brad Hawn; Garrad Marsh; Greg Nyhoff; Janice Keating; Jim Ridenour; Kristin Olsen; Will O'Bryant; Dave Lopez
Subject: BEE Opinion Fatally Flawed
Friends, I have been very disappointed about the way our city council is treating the front line police union members. the attached contains my thoughts and comments. I would appreciate your thoughts, as well.
Thank you very much, Dave
|
|
|
Submitted by Administrator
|
|
Tuesday, 23 June 2009 |
TO: All my friends 23 June 2009
From: Dave
Re: The Silliest Council Ever
If you read the Modesto BEE, you know about this tawdry mess over police pay raises,
etc. Maybe you have been as amazed as I am about the silly things our elected elite
have been saying. If I may, let me synthesize what I have read. This is my
interpretation of what mayor Ridenour and council people Olsen, Hawn and Marsh have
been quoted as saying:
“The Modesto police certainly deserve to get a raise in pay, but they
certainly do NOT deserve to keep their jobs.”
I would ask you to send me a message if you think I am off base here. Let me remind
you that Olsen is quoted in today’s BEE as saying, “Clearly nobody wants to reduce the
staffing in the Police Department... ...but it is nonsensical to give raises...” My gosh,
lady, why then, did you VOTE FOR THE COP’S RAISE JUST 5 MONTHS AGO!!! Am I
missing something here?
Ridenour says, “I am not laying off cops.” Well, if not him, WHO IS THE MISCREANT
WHO IS?????
Ridenour is also quoted as saying, “more police officers on the street do not prevent
crime.” I wonder which police academy teaches that theory of crime prevention. For
crying out loud, the natural corollary to that comment is, “Cops do not prevent crime,
so let’s fire them all!!” Again, tell me if you think I am wrong here.
I think it was both Hawn and Marsh who told us that they were not smart enough to
notice that city revenues were down by 20% or so. Moreover, they could not possibly
have known all the way back in December ‘08, that in May ‘09, they would have
suffered even worse revenue losses.
However, they also say that they simply cannot use any of the city’s $8 Million dollar
reserve NOW, because things MIGHT get worse tomorrow. Is that like saving the last
100 loaves of bread for next week when you are starving today? I do not understand
these silly people...
It just seems to me that these silly elected ones zeroed in on dumpster divers, but
ignored the highest auto theft problem in America. They solved the stray shopping cart
problem, but ignored the doubling of home invasion robberies. They seem to be able
to solve problems that really do not exist, but cannot quite come to the table on issues
that really matter. Like public safety; they have eliminated 60 safety positions last year,
Created with novaPDF Printer (www.novaPDF.com). Please register to remove this message.
and they want to fire 10 more cops, tonight. In addition, they have eliminated two fire
stations in the last year.
They are perfectly willing to continue to eat free catered meals before every council
meeting, and feed staff in the bargain. They will simply not give up their very
expensive bottled water, with the city logo (Water, Wealth, Contentment, Health, but
not too many cops or firefighters) on them.
But, you know that you are the people most likely to suffer the obvious downside of
lack of effective policing. You are going to have to be the primary crime preventer in
your home. You must not, however, expect your taxes, utility fees, or property taxes to
go down. You must feel your fair share of the pain imposed on all of us by foolish
elected “leaders” who give the cops a huge jar full of cookies, then lock it up so they
cannot actually eat them.
Remember, give the cops a raise in December, and fire them in June.
What a place to live!?
Thanks, Dave
Created with
|
|
| | << Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
| | Results 1 - 15 of 509 |
|
|
Add Comment (0)
Read More
