Wednesday, July 18, 2012 – 10:00 a.m.
The final hours leading up to a bankruptcy vote by San Bernardino, California is suspenseful, sad and pathetic at the same time.
Wednesday night the seven member city council will consider the approval of a fiscal emergency declaration and the filing of a chapter 9 bankruptcy petition.
The latest developments are in the spirit of typical San Bernardino political ineptitude.
City Attorney James F. Penman, who made outlandish allegations of criminal fraud involving the city budget process and threw several former city managers under the bus, has all but vanished.
Councilman Chas Kelley has miraculously solved all the city’s financial woes in a Wednesday op-ed column published in The Sun newspaper.
Kelley’s ideas aren’t necessarily bad. He’s just too late.
The big question is where was Kelley, who is a veteran on the council, a year ago?
Sources say two of the four council members who voted for bankruptcy last week, Wendy McCammack and Robert Jenkins, may reverse their respective votes and oppose any fiscal emergency declaration and chapter 9 bankruptcy petition.
And yes, there’s all that finger pointing.
The city’s cash flow is tenuous at best and its credit has been cut-off.
The city council had better not make a bad situation worse and cause the residents even more embarrassment.
Time has ran out for immediate solutions leading to a delay.
San Bernardino’s financial collapse was along time in the making and now it’s here.
No more excuses.
No more three stooges acts. This is like Curly getting hit on the head. Moe needs to take back control. Larry needs to take a side.
Just remembered your friend Derry was on the City Council. Another lovely feather in his cap. Hope he includes it in his resume. Great campaigning point
Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House.
One is from Chicago, another is from Tennessee, and the third is from Minnesota. All three go with a White House official to examine the fence.The Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil.
“Well,” he says, “I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me.
“The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, “I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me.”
The Chicago contractor doesn’t measure or figure, but leans over to the WhiteHouse official and whispers, “$2,700.”
The official, incredulous, says, “You didn’t even measure like the other guys!
How did you come up with such a high figure?”The Chicago contractor whispers back, “$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence.
“”Done!” replies the government official.
#3 Then Bush and Cheney say the fence is not secure enough because we are at war and order Halliburton to demo it and rebuild for a smooth $10,000
Councilman Kelley has been pushing for many of his reforms–such as selling the city refuse department–for a long time. He’s been denied by Morris and his clique of yes-men at City Hall. Kudos to Councilman Kelley for his courage in fighting for the taxpayers.
Wiseman, no one cares about Kelly or Morris, they are the problem.
Anyone who cannot make money in trash doesn’t know how to make money. If you can’t run a lemonade stand, hire someone who can.
Actually, McCammack, Penman, and Morris are the problem! They have been fidling while Rome burned, for decades.
What?……well put!
@It figures:
You are absolutely correct…when on the San Bernardino City council, Neil Derry was the single most valuable council member to the city, he leaves and the City of San Bernardino burns to the ground.
“How Governments Work:
Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said someone may steal from it at night; so they created a night watchman, GS-4 position and hired a person for the job.
Then Congress said, How does the watchman do his job without instruction?” So they created a planning position and hired two (2) people, one person to write the instructions, GS-12 and one person to do time studies, GS-11. Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?”
So they created a Q. C. position and hired two (2) people, one GS-9 to do the studies and one GS-11 to write the reports. Then Congress said, “How are these people going to get paid?” so they created the following positions, a time keeper, GS-09, and a payroll officer, GS-11, and hired two (2) people.
Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?” So they created an administrative position and hired three (3) people, an Admin. Officer GM-13, Assistant Admin. Officer GS-12, and a Legal Secretary GS-08.
Then Congress said, “We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $18,000 over budget, we must cutback overall cost,”
So they laid off the night watchman.”
And now in this City of San Bernardino and County of same name, management makes from $100-$341k some working some retired. The worker bees, get $38,000 per year.
The worker bee does not vote, does not know the city they live in went bankrupt and hey, nothing is going to change, because government does what it wants anyway. Thats what they tell me!
Hmmmm.
PS police and fire are not heroes, thet are well compensated employees. A hero is somebody who happens to see a crime, like the 71 yr old man with a permitted concealed weapon who shot robbers today. Or a neighbor who sees a burning home and risks his life and livihood to save a disabled woman.