By: COUNCIL WATCHDOG
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New City Manager Tonight on Last Minute Agenda Item
The original version of the agenda posted on the City's Website was incomplete. Subsiquenty to that an amended agenda was posted on the City's Website.
Two subiquent posts including last minute items just hours before the council session including a letter from Diane Rose claiming interest in History of Imperial Beach. I wish she had felt that same dedication when she and Greg Wade were lying to several Historical Commissions that the Coronado Belt Line Railroad was not historic! Probably the most significant feature that created the original infrastructure and development of San Diego,Coronado and Imperial Beach. I produced 143 photos from the Historical Archeives and 3 history books to the State Historical Commission while Diane Rose, Greg Wade and Greg Cox stated there was absolutely no historical significance to the bayshore railroad or Coronado Belt Line of SDAE and Southern Pacific heritage.
Time Capsule? Las Tres Cucarachas? They wouldn't be doing it unless there was some grant money in it. I'll put some cartoons in the time capsule however!
For those of you who are new to this City Council stuff we'll try to keep it simple. Keep in mind it is the folks at City hall who
make it difficult or try to conceal or obfuscate what's really going to happen at the meeting. This is just a synopsis with some opinions
about why you personally need to attend council meetings and become involved as a citizen in the currently closed and secret process.
4:45 CLOSED SESSION MEETING
This is where a lot of the really secret stuff like labor deals, employee reviews and anticipated litigation.
This weeks ANTICIPATED LITIGATION may be an all time record as there are currently 13 cases of anticipated litigation.
If your Council was half as ethical as they'd like for you to believe...there wouldn't be any!
What are they about? Ask your Council Person. It's none of your business! Yea...They pay the City Attorney and Staff but it's none of your business!
Is any of it in regards to the State and County Controllers , Grand Jury Responses, or other investigations? Once again...CLOSED SESSION...NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS !
So that's the way our City Council meetings start out in I.B. Secret Agendas...Secret Policy....Usually Secret Decisions unless they announce something way after the fact. Considering they haven't really come clean on the bond debt publicly....I wouldn't hold my breath for any more transparency or open government. Aren't you glad you elected these folks and you live in a DEMOCRACY?
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6:00 pm PUBLIC MEETING OR OPEN MEETING
This is the meeting that you might observe if you actually attend a Council Meeting or try watching it on Cox Cable. If usually starts out with some Pomp and Fluff.
After the Pledge they usually give some meaningless awards or have some boring presentations to try to put everyone in a mind numbing slumber before they move on to real stuff.
This week:
1.1 TROLLEY RENEWAL PROJECT PRESENTATION..... We don't even want to talk about all the Pork in that project at MTS.
The trolley does not come to Imperial Beach Directly and most people who ride the trolley from Imperial Beach are currently aware of ongoing project on the line. The information is easily available on line and certainly Councilwoman Brag is capable of making this report since she is the MTS Representative for Imperial Beach.
1.2 SDG&E Summer "BROWN-OUT" presentation. It won't replace the bad food in your fridge or reset your clocks when the power goes off. Let's just call it pre-emptive Public Relations before the outages?
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CONSENT CALENDAR #2 Items
This is the section I find the greatest personal interest in researching because everything in the Consent Agenda is voted on without discussion! Yes...No Discussion!
There are no fewer than eleven items on the consent agenda and they will vote Aye or Nay as if they were all one item:with no discussion! You can be in the room watching or at home watching and you won't know they just spent over $1.4 Million Bucks ! Ayes Have it! IT'S OVER...DONE. You missed it!
This is the same city that tells the press they can't afford to fund the parks but, they have the money to blow on this and several other absurd projects and proposals. So follow me down the "rabbit hole" of the "consent agenda" and see where the "secret spending" in Imperial Beach is going on this week!
2.1 RATIFY-APPROVE MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING
2.2 RATIFY THE WARRANT REGISTER.....$1,417,581.00 ....The Warrant Register is the City's Check Book Register of Check written in the last two weeks! The Grand Jury report said the Warrant Register did not match the city's actual checking account records! If you go in the agenda packet under 2.2 you can scroll up through the pages of checks written. If you have been watching this for any period of time you will see money being spent or redundant and excessive items, consulting studies, organizations, attorney fees, etc. How many gloves does a city the size of I.B. need? Truckloads to be sure.
2.3 AUTHORIZE CITY MANAGER TO RENEW CONTRACT FOR USE OF SHERIFF'S STATION AND FACILITIES
2.4 RATIFY CITY MANAGER'S SIGNATURE ON CONTRACT FOR DEAD ANIMAL REMOVAL. Was there competitive bidding? Why can't animal control do this as part of their contract. This seems redundant to me?
2.5 Authorize money for a consultant to advise the city on how to deal with the Health Care Reform Act. (You don't need another consultant!) Why don't you call your insurance agent and ask him? It won't cost thousands and if he can't give you the information....get another insurance company...not another consultant! They want to give $11,500 to Keenan and Associates for the purposes of analyzing health coverage for how many city employees? This is insane and a rip-off of taxpayer money. Here's another $11 k you can give to the sports park!
2.6 Side letter amendment to a M.O.U. with firefighters that would allow them to use 132 hours of sick leave for baby bonding.
2.7 Amend License Agreement with Sprint for Tower & Equipment at city hall
2.8 Amend License Agreement with Verizon for Tower and Equipment at city hall
2.9 AUTHORIZE MAYOR TO APPOINT INTERIM CITY MANAGER !!!!!!!!!!!RED FLAG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!RED FLAG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!FLASHING LIGHTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2.10 CHANGE ORDER ON PEDESTRIAN CROSSWALK. This is another perfect example of wasted money that should have never been needed. When the previous council shoved that crosswalk down the citizens' throats and had to have it....like City Hall was the center of commerce in this town....Nobody looked at the future plans to change and upgrade the street it crosses! DUH ! It's at a different elevation than the new curbs...so it needs expensive modification...It was never needed in the first place and actually impedes emergency vehicle ingress and egress....but here's a chance to blow thousands more they could have spent on sports park or other needed services. INCOMPETENCE....I repeat...INCOMPETENCE! These people don't know how to tighten their belts except to squeeze the poorest of the community out.
2.11 AUTHORIZE A CONSULTANT TO RECRUIT AN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DIRECTOR: $19,500 !
They recently gave Gary Brown $30,000 for a consultant to help find his hand picked replacement. Why don't you take $500 and put an advertisement in the Union Tribune and Eagle Times where nobody will ever see it but the parakeet and then just appoint whoever the fix is in on for anyway. You mean it's going to take $50,000 of consultants to replace the City Manager and the Assistant City Manager? I'm trying to think of a polite and politically correct way to say.............
BULL SHIT !
Tell me someone's not getting their palm greased? Tell me what kind of consultants specialize in this high stakes head hunting for insiders to continue the incest perpetuation league that circumvents democratic process? Enough secret government! Enough City Manager Style Government and Regional Government Dictatorship. Enough of these defective units ;impersonating civic leaders and representatives. They day after they get elected ,they sell out the people that put them there. Recall is too good for these criminals. They haven't even blinked yet! It's full speed ahead and the charges keep rolling off like water off ducks.
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Next time you hear one of these defective units called council members tell you they don't have money for parks and services....tell them if they quit pissing all the money away on consultants and hacks and projects nobody wants...there would be plenty for parks and programs!
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REPORTS Most people have left the meeting or fallen asleep by now so let's take a look at what's going past next.
6.1 AUTHORIZE THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE AN EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT WITH THE NEW CITY MANAGER
WARNING! DANGER WILL ROBINSON! WARNING!
I WOULDN'T AUTHORIZE THIS MAYOR OR COUNCIL THE RIGHT TO SPEND ONE MORE PENNY OF TAXPAYER MONEY ! At some point you have to take the keys to the car away? Time Out! Pull the plug please! No more power or process.
6.2 FACILITIES LONG RANGE MAINTENANCE PLAN pork pork pork slush slush slush
6.3 PARKING TIME RESTRICTION CHANGES BY THE BEACH. This is an attempt to create more revenue through increased parking tickets and increased pressure to use PAY LOTS.
It will significantly reduce the available number of parking spaces for beach goers over certain time limits.
6.4 FIRST ROUND-ABOUT DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS
Suggested locations for the first Round-about Traffic Choking projects are 13th and Elder or 9th and Donax. Who said they wanted cookie cutter street planning from SANDAG all over IB. How about a traffic circle at 3rd and Palm? Who asked the public if they wanted intersections turned into circles where even more accidents can occur? I have not seen any studies by traffic engineers and this stuff is cookie cutter template stuff taken right out of the developer's playbooks. I can show you others in Chula Vista that actually impede traffic flow. Of course this was all part of the master plan long ago. They are just floating the first trial balloon. The Carey's and the Jone's will all be there to cheer-lead and say we need this useless amenity more than parks and recreation programs. How much does a round-about intersection cost to build when it's not needed or wanted?
6.5 Contract With City Of Chula Vista for Animal Control and Shelter Services.
O.K. Then have them pick up the dead animals and you won't need a second contract with DAR Dead Animal Removal Service? You only need one of these services...Not both? What happened to the Great Dog Catcher/ Meter Maid Ashley that used to work in I.B. ? It was working just fine "in house" till they started messing with employees time.
6.6 MAJOR STREET DESTRUCTION AND RENOVATION ON ELM ST....In case you didn't know it...The City has plans to make ELM a major thru-street. If you live on Elm you might want to be aware of that. This is a major project to renovate( as they call it) ( I call it.."Screw-up") Elm avenue between Seacoast Drive and 7th Street!
6.7 Public Works Contract for Bayshore Bikeway Access and City Yard Renovations. Who really owns the City Yard these days? That's been quite a shell game with the title to that property? When was the last time the single wall underground gasoline storage takes were checked for leakage? THE 80's? This is an EPA Brownfield waiting to happen or already in progress bu,t not publicized yet. Genes 76 quit selling gas years ago rather than comply with underground take replacement issues. The City's underground storage tanks reportedly have not been inspected since the 80's. If anyone has a current inspection report...please post it here! Who would be responsible for contaminating the Otay River and San Diego Bay with gasoline from underground storage tanks on City Property? Sorry. Getting off subject.
6.8 HISTORIC REPOSITORY.....This is a fancy word for a "TIME CAPSULE".... Yea...I'd like to put all my archieval stuff including cartoons from SaveIB.com in the time capsule so that future generations can see how I.B. and democracy was stolen from the citizens and how developers and greed destroyed a community. You don't want to hear my thoughts on a Repository Mr. Mayor and Council Members. I'd probably tell you where you can stick your artifacts ....in the nicest way possible !
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And if you are not in a coma yet....or in a deep hypnotic trance....the best is yet to come...
SUCCESSOR AGENCY REPORTS....This is the remnants of the RDA that has come under great scrutiny from the Controller and The Grand Jury. This agency is spending excessive amounts of money on attorney fees trying to consumate all the deals the previous RDA tried to pull off before the State Froze their money. They probably won't tell you they sued the State Controller...oh yea...and tried to gag a Sitting Grand Jury. The Successor Agency is pretty much the same people...council , staff....and an ex-councilwoman who posts under a faux name on this website.Love to hear what they are willing to report in public...but I'd rather hear the closed session stuff!
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So go down and attend the carnival that is a Faux City Council Meeting and see if you don't agree that what they do calling themselves a democratic institution isn't a complete bastardization of the principles our country was founded on.
ONLY YOU CAN CHANGE THINGS. YOU HAVE TO REGISTER TO VOTE LOCAL AND YOU HAVE TO PARTICIPATE AND BE HEARD. IF YOU HIDE YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND NOW....THE RESULTS ARE YOUR FAULT!
GOOD LUCK MR. Phelps. If you fail in your mission, the Agency will disavow any knowledge of your existence.
