It’s bigger on the inside

For those that watched the City Council meeting on Tuesday will know that the budget outlook for the City is pretty grim.  (For scary numbers check out the PowerPoint Presentation)

The big looming problem is, of course, the post-retirement benefits for City employees.   Of course, we all did know this was a problem a few years ago, but somehow this issue has been largely ignored by both City Manager Debra Kurita and fiscal guru Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant.    Because regardless of how you want to slice it, it’s the City Manager’s responsibility to present an accurate financial picture to the City Council and present solutions and be a part of the  solution.

I just can’t believe all the things people say, controversy

Hey, did everyone know that John Russo has a Wikipedia page?   Yeah, I didn’t know that he did either and I’m not sure how I missed that in my searches of him.   Personally, I enjoyed the part about Seat Belt Sting.   Someone should probably gently remind him of the 25 mph speed limit in Alameda, since the cops here are pretty good at enforcing.

So last night at the City Council, the report out was…anti-climatic.  No formal announcement yet, at least nothing from last night and that was after a one hour long closed session.    At this point, I’m just blogging on the assumption that John Russo is the City Manager of choice.

You are the latest contender, you are the one to remember

It appears that the City Council may be ready to make a decision on who to chose as Alameda’s next City Manager.   A Special Meeting scheduled for tonight will consider two agenda items:

3-A.

PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT (Government Code Section 54957)

Title: City Manager

3-B.

CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS (Government Code Section 54957.6)

Agency Designated Representatives: Mayor Marie Gilmore, Vice Mayor Rob Bonta

Unrepresented Employee: City Manager

Go West End, young man

On Monday, the Planning Board — in a joint meeting with the Economic Development Commission — will be concentrating their efforts on the West End by reviewing the Webster Street Vision and implementation suggestions, considering approval of Municipal Code amendments to aid in the implementation of some of the suggestions in the Webster Street Vision, and discuss some of the issues that might arise when Catellus submits a revised plan for Alameda Landing.

For the first item, staff is suggesting that the West Alameda Business Association (WABA) oversee the process of implementing the new vision and take the lead on this.   While a novel approach, it would hinge on a largely volunteer contingent to be responsible for doing what lots of people get paid to do.    And, more recently, because of a reduction in funds, WABA has had to eliminate their Executive Director position thereby letting go of probably the biggest booster for Webster Street and the West End in general.

Out of the question

Today, in a few hours — or depending on when you read this happening right now or has happened earlier today — the panel interviews for the prospective City Manager candidates will be/are being/have been interviewed by community members, City Department heads, and Bargaining Unit representatives.

The meeting is noticed as a Closed Session, so technically if you want to go and make public comments before the interviewers go into Closed Session, you can.   Interestingly enough, when the meeting was first scheduled the interviews were going to happen at the Library, but for one reason or the other the venue was changed from the Library to City Hall.   Probably easier to keep looky-loos out of City Hall than out of the Library.

Retelling herstory

It’s unclear who started this whole “Ann Marie Gallant as valiant whistleblower” meme, but what is clearing up–  for me at least — is that Ann Marie Gallant’s role in the whole business appears to be completely overblown.    I know I’ve looked into the background into her role in the City of Carson previously but turned up very little.   Probably because I had bought into the story that Ann Marie Gallant was a significant part of the Carson corruption whistleblowing deal.   And because when you google “Ann Marie Gallant” AND “Carson” you don’t get a whole lot either.

So the other day I came across this article and decided to expand my search to look for articles about the subject of the corruption charges, and that resulted in a much clearer picture of the timeline and how Ann Marie Gallant was more of a minor actor in a major scandal as opposed to a major actor in a minor scandal.

Whistle-blow hard

Yesterday, Carolyn Jones over at the San Francisco Chronicle covered the whole “Who’s suing Alameda Now” beat and included the preludes to lawsuits government claims by City Attorney Teresa “Terri” Highsmith and Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant.

As mentioned previously, both are claiming that they were retailated against because they were “whistle-blowers.”  For Ann Marie Gallant history buffs this may sound familiar since she has used this once before to get a huge settlement out of one of the cities that she used to work for.   However for Terri Highsmith, the styling as a whistleblower may be a bit more difficult given that she had claimed previously that she had nothing to do with the investigation into Councilmember Lena Tam.

Who’s on first?

Have folks been following the whole deal about Associated Community Action Program (ACAP)?   A quickie recap, essentially this government agency was put together to provide financial assistance in the form of grants for all of Alameda County.   A few months ago news of the financial muddle the agency was in came to light and was capped off by video of the Executive Director and grants manager (husband and wife)  making off with boxes in the night from the office.

The clusterfuck of lack of management, oversight, and everything in between has culminated in a vote to dissolve the agency.  Of course, everyone wants to know who is minding the store, which appears to be barely anyone.   Some folks decided that one story that would be interesting would be to figure out who was attending the meetings and who was not.   East Bay Citizen’s Steven Tavares honed in on the missing in action, pointing out that our own Mayor Marie Gilmore was absent for all of the meetings.

Claim check

Remember how the folks over at the Committee Against Measure A (CAMA) filed a claim against Alameda SOS (the pro parcel tax campaign), the Alameda School District, and a bunch of individuals to the FPPC?   They claimed that the School District was

“Using public resources, in violation of State law, AUSD has clearly subsidized the ‘Yes on A’ campaign by providing a classroom, equipment, furnishings, artwork and a teacher as a photography model. Without AUSD providing public resources, the ‘Yes on A’ campaign would have had to spend a tremendous amount of money to stage the photographs in this mailer. AUSD has clearly contributed financing to this mass-mailer.”

And used this press release based on their own filings (and therefore their own perception of the piece) to claim that the mailer was “illegal”:

Memento Mori, redux

I wanted to write a special acknowledgement recognizing that frequent commenter and community member Dennis Green passed away earlier this month.    While I know that he didn’t necessarily agree with all (or any) of my positions, I did appreciate his contributions to both this blog and to the community at large.   Alameda is a much less interesting place without his presence.

In looking back into the recesses of my archives, I came across this email that he had sent to me a long while back based on one of my blog posts.   I thought it was so lovely and touching back then and still think that it resonates today.   Highlights:

…I’m discovering, exploring, swimming in my own mortality, yes, but also yours and what we all have in common, “Memento Mori,” as the Romans called it, carving “MM” into the bark on trees like pre-Christian graffiti. For they believed it is the key to life, to a life fully lived, a mindfulness of death, not merely one’s own but the fate of everything and everyone, and most poignantly for the human beings who see it coming, who keep it close at hand.