High School

From the Union Tribune -

LA MESA – A Grossmont Union High School District official said the approximately 300 teachers who called in sick today – amid stalled contract talks – risk losing a day's pay if the absence can't be justified.

"This is an illegal withholding of services," district representative Catherine Martin said. "If there is no appropriate excuse for a teacher calling in sick, then they could be written up and be docked a day of pay."

Substitute teachers were called in to replace the absent teachers, Martin said. The affected schools include Grossmont, Granite Hills, Santana and West Hills high schools.

Union officials say they did not organize a sick-out. Martin said, however, that district officials found literature urging teachers not to show up for work today.

Murphy Resigns

From the Union Tribune -

Less than five months after starting his second four-year term, Murphy announced this morning he will resign effective July 15.

"I now believe to be effective the city will need a mayor who was elected by a majority of the people and who has a clear mandate to take this city forward," Murphy said. "A good leader needs to know when it is time to move on and I believe it is time for me to move on and time to bring a fresh start to our city."

Sorry but I have to point out this wording in the Union Tribune. This article starts "First the quarrelsome city attorney demanded that San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy quit". The use of ‘quarrelsome’ in its place of ‘outspoken’ or any other neutral wording is yet another example of the editorial editing which is going on at the Union Tribune.

Open Space and Libraries

Why is it also the stuff that makes the city great,is the first to go when faced with budget problems...

From the Union Tribune -

The San Diego City Council approved the city manager's five-year financial report yesterday, but also gave a preview of just how tense the upcoming budget talks could become.

Council members unanimously accepted City Manager Lamont Ewell's attempt to give the city a better long-term picture of its finances. They were not unified, however, on his recommendation that they free up $20.6 million set aside for libraries and preserving open space.

After a testy debate, the council voted 7-2, with Donna Frye and Jim Madaffer in opposition, to support Ewell's push to temporarily waive ordinances requiring $14 million of city funds to be spent on libraries and $6.6 million on acquiring and protecting open space.

Shocking...

I have an announcement to make, and it is a little shocking, so if you are standing up please sit down. Here is goes... Our Mayor, who lost to a write-in Democratic candidate in San Diego County, was rated in the top three Worst Mayors in the Country. Amazing... I just can't believe it. ;-)

from the Union Tribune -

"Four million copies of Time magazine hit the streets today naming San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy one of the three worst big-city mayors in America.

Murphy defiantly dismissed the designation and counterpunched the country's top-selling news magazine from his driveway yesterday. "

Now what is even better then the whole time thing is this article in the Tribune. Counterpunched???? If there is one thing I could never imagine Murphy doing, it is punching something. I could just see him falling over. I can only guess at the reasoning behind the phrasing of this article. Okay so how did he counter punch..."Tell Time magazine that they just don't understand what's going on." Wow... Stand back someone is going to loss an eye. Really, sometimes I think the Union Tribune goes a little far in support of their guy.

Strong-mayor

This is interesting, I wonder if it will turn into a big fight?

From the Union Tribune -

Councilman Tony Young used a punchy image yesterday to describe the San Diego City Council's imminent split into executive and legislative branches.

"This is really a fight for resources between the mayor and council," he said. "We have to make sure we get all the resources that are due to us, to the council. . . . We have to make sure we're vigilant right now."

Young's call to arms ended with a unanimous council vote to create an independent budget-analyst position to review the mayor's annual budget and proposed laws, and to provide the council with monthly financial reports.

"We need to make sure that this council is getting objective and timely analysis on these budgetary issues," Councilman Brian Maienschein said.

Charges filed...

From the Union Tribune -

The City Attorney's Office filed a charge of misuse of city position yesterday against the former top aide to San Diego City Councilman Tony Young.

Tommy Hightower was charged with the misdemeanor over his request for a loan from a person who was conducting business with the city, said Assistant City Attorney Rupert Linley.

Hightower was charged with a second misdemeanor for failing to file an economic-interest statement when he became Young's chief of staff.

Each charge carries a possible six-month jail sentence or a $1,000 fine. Hightower, who was fired by Young in March, will face a judge on the charges next month.

Hightower, in previous interviews, has said he is a gambling addict and has amassed $60,000 in debt. After he went to work for Young in January, he sought loans from five people, including developer Reese Jarrett and consultant Cheryl Alethia Phelps, he has said. The loan request to Phelps led to one of the charges.

Living Wage

The tone of this article is interesting. This isn't from the Editorial section of the paper, it is from the news section. Why does it sound like the writer is expressing a specific point of view. Calling the proposed change "slight" and "ill-timed" sounds a little like a opinion.

from the Union Tribune BY Jennifer Vigil -

San Diego's city budget is facing cuts. Its pension fund debt is enormous. Employees are dealing with possible wage reductions or even layoffs.

Yet one group is pushing for an increase in pay, however slight.

If timing is everything, the next chapter in the campaign to promote higher wages for city of San Diego contract workers could not be more ill-timed.

Bankruptcy?

From the Union Tribune -

Bad pension moves and accounting irregularities have made a mess of San Diego's finances, but is California's second-largest city on the brink of bankruptcy?

Depends who you ask.

Some pundits and some bankruptcy lawyers say it is.

Not surprisingly, Mayor Dick Murphy and current and former top city officials insist it isn't, and some municipal finance experts agree.

Meanwhile, Wall Street credit-rating agencies and other informed third-party observers show little sign of bracing for San Diego turning into the next Orange County, which became the largest municipal bankruptcy case in U.S. history in 1994.

Baffled by the Shell Game

From the Washington Post -

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wants to make one thing clear: The intelligence community was in no way to blame for the extraordinary intelligence failures leading up to the Iraq invasion.

"We all know that the Iraq case was a difficult case because Saddam Hussein went out of his way to hide what he was doing, to deceive," Rice said in an interview with the Associated Press. "There were obviously efforts to deceive on the short side as well as on the -- in the sense that he was perhaps giving the impression that he had things that he did not have, as well as efforts to hide that which he did have. And so when you're dealing with a very closed society like that, it is not very easy; it's not a very easy intelligence target."

So it was Hussein's fault any way you look at it. He simultaneously lied about not having weapons of mass destruction, and lied about having them. What's a pre-empting superpower to do?

The Feud Continues

Update -

KPBS - Is also reporting that "San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre has reportedly fired his right hand man during a heated exchange at Tuesday's city council meeting, according to a top official. "

see it here

The Feud Continues

From the Union Tribune -

Fault lines between San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre and other top law enforcement officials appeared to widen yesterday, with Aguirre accusing District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis of improper fundraising at City Hall and the police chief openly questioning his methods.

Michael Aguirre

The infighting came a day after Dumanis, in a presentation to the City Council that took Aguirre by surprise, suggested shifting the criminal prosecution division of Aguirre's office to her agency.

And From KPBS -

"Fireballs continue to be lobbed at San Diego City Hall. Yesterday, a power struggle over District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis's plan to take over criminal misdemeanor cases from City Attorney Mike Aguirre intensified. There were more verbal duels over Dumanis giving Aguirre little advanced notice though some on the council knew. And there was speculation about why the idea comes at a time when Aguirre is neck-deep in investigating the city's worst fiscal crisis.

To hear DA Dumanis tell it, her plan to acquire misdemeanor prosecutions from the city attorney's office is strictly about economics.

Dumanis: This is my idea to save the taxpayers money. What we're trying to do is save $2 million. And the way we can do it is because of the economies of scale. We have all the equipment. We have a case management system. We have the people now doing it.

But deputy city attorney Rupert Linley, who heads the criminal division, argues that if the DA's office were to actually provide the same quality of service, there would be no cost savings. In fact, it would be more expensive. And Linley says the public would get jipped."