$250???!!!! WOW James, you have just blown the roof off this whole controversy.

Goodbye Californian; hello 60 Minutes...

Then why'd they try to hide it?  It's never the offense, it's the coverup...

Wasn't there also a campaign donation from Kapral's wife?

How ridiculous.  Only $250 of $7,500 of Mr. Kapral's money finds its way to Ken Weir.  And that is wrong why?  Once the contribution was made, the money belonged to this Citizens for Community Planning group, not Bob Kapral or General Holdings.  Ken Weir got an insignificant contribution from one of many local PACs involved in city business.

Public policy questions are one thing, but a perfectly legal -- and very small -- contribution to a city council candidate is not newsworthy.  Except that the Californian has an axe to grind with Councilman Weir!  Unless you have something real, why don't you lay off the guy?

Indoor, what is the threshold for it being news?  What if it had been $500 or $1000?  The paper reports the news and if no one is interested in the story, it will go away. 

$250 that we know of, so far.

Mr. Geluso, take a look at Citizens for Community Planning's report for 9-23 to 12-31-04.  RMK gave $1500.oo.  RMK Group is Robert M. Kapral.  RMK LLC gives an address of 9005 Red River Court, Bakersfield, then skip over to Mountainback LLC and see what address is listed...bingo...9005 Red River Court, Bakersfield.  So you have to add up all the contributions coming from Robert Kapral (General Holdings) which total $9000 not $7500!!!  Here's the donations: RMK $1500 10/16/04, Mountainback LLC, $2500 on 4/10/06 and then Mountainback again on 5/25/06 for $5000.  Look where the contributions and expenditures are going (Sullivan, Scrivner, Weir and Brian Todd, who now works for Mark Abernathy and was part of the attack ads against Mike Maggard, Sue Benham and David Couch).  Look's pretty fishy to me!

indoor, you either don't get it or you have the same problem as the secretive Councilman AND his friends.  IT'S NOT THE AMOUNT, IT'S THE MANNER IN WHICH IT WAS GIVEN.  If it's such a small thing, then why did they go to that much trouble to hide it.  And, when you see the players, Kapral, Todd, Turnipseed, etal. you think everything is OK.  What business ethics class did you take?  I'm getting so weary of the KW justifiers.  Ken Wier and some of his friends, political and business associates are conducting themselves in a very devious and WRONG fashion.

Won't somebody help us out of this governmental quagmire!  Our community needs to wake up!  

I love the Bakersfield City council, one is an immigration guru, another is a legal alien, another is a surrogate for a congressman, while still another has been anointed by god as Bakersfield’s patriot Saint and still one other is the benefited of Jagels war of crime and is queen’s of the Group Home Empire and now one wants to be King.

But having said that, you cannot argue with success, they are just like us.  

Hey trueblue, you crazy old coot, where have you been lately? Summer is fast approaching. Have you bought new pads for your swamp cooler yet?

Is the Grand Jury still in session.  How about the DA's office.  We need to find Brian Todd and offer him immunity and the witness protection program.  He's the key to this whole thing -- the "lynchpin" (excuse the expression) that's holding the evil political and dirty development coalition's wheel on their wagon.  Pull him out and down comes the wagon!

Weir sent the money back anyway...so what does it matter?  He doesn't have money from that group!  He doesn't support Robert Kapral.  Please read the whole story, not just the part that proves your point.  Weir didn't do anything wrong!  Why don't you pick on someone else for a while! 

I'll quit being critical of Mr. Weir as soon as he gives the people (through the newspaper if necessary) some straight answers.  I've read his rambling City Council transcript several times and still don't know what his stand is on the Hillside Ordinance.  He actually could start being a "happy new Weir" by explaining the real reason he (as a favored incumbent) incurred a $67,000 debt with Western Pacific Research to be reelected to the BCSD School Board.  No one believes it was because it was such a tight race and for a board member compensation of six or seven hundred dollars a month that excessive expenditure is way out of line.  Most school board candidates spend less than $1000 seeking reelection.  The cost of his campaign is like spending $150 for a Big Mac.

Veritas88:  Don't wait for the Grand Jury.  They're busy moving the morgue.

Miss BigQueen Katie, it is admirable that you continue to search for the good in Mr. Weir.  But the problem is that he only returned the $250 check after he was outted.  (Take a look for yourself, click on the pdf and see the check is dated April 28,2008).  It's just like a bank robber being truly sorry that he got caught - not that he robbed the bank.  Whether the check was for $250 or $2.5 million makes no difference.  If you can't be trustworthy with little, how can you be trustworthy with much.  We need a councilman that is above board, above reproach, and truly has a heart for the people he serves.  Again, not the sly clandestine efforts of Brian Todd, Michael Turnipseed, Gary Ross, and RobertKapral who were all parties to the Citizens for Community Planning that laundered money to give to Mr. Weir.  Sorry...sometimes tough love hurts!

First things first...He didn't know they were behind that money because it came from a community organization.  Secondly, it just cracks me up that Mike Maggard did the same thing and nobody gave a crap when he did it - point being...if you want to be upset with Mr. Weir then you have to be upset with Maggard.  Maggard hired somebody after he appointed them to a committee and then...this is from the paper.

The Central California Association of Public Employees and the Kern County Fire Fighters union were his clients when he became a City Council member in 1998. Maggard, an accountant, ended his relationship with CCAPE, a union that represents general city employees, just before he took office as a Bakersfield council member and ended his relationship with the firefighters union several years ago.

You might be interested to know that in 1999 we covered a conflict of interest issue that arose when Maggard sat in on a contract negotiating session involving CCAPE. Although the session took place a month after he ended his business relationship, the city attorney's office advised he shouldn't have even attended the meeting.

The Maggard example really only proves the greater point here, bigqueenkt. Once the city attny told Maggard to back off, he did... He didn't try to fire anybody over their perceived opposition to CCAPE, he didn't make vague and condescending statements about people he thought might be opposed to CCAPE, and he didn't refuse to talk to all local media because they were calling him on it

The thing is, and my point is, that the Californian didn't care when Maggard did it, so he didn't have to refuse to talk to anyone.  One of the people he runs with, Benham, has a husband who works for the paper.  I think that works in Maggard's favor...OFTEN!  Honestly, Mike Maggard could get away with murder, but Ken Weir steps in gum and that's a front page story.  I mean the gum could have fallen out of Kapral's mouth and that proves that he is sticking with him.  These are the kinds of stories and conclusions that this paper makes.  Maggard doesn't have to be defensive because nobody ever goes after him for his failures and wrongdoings.  Ken Weir flat out said he doesn't want to get rid of the hillside ordinance or do Kapral's bidding, but hey, it's just easier to believe the false facts that the paper writes and labels as opinions.

KT: You're wrong to say "the Californian didn't care when Maggard did it." The Californian did care, and covered it, the same way we covered Weir when he did it seven years later.

Herb Benham has no influence at all over me or my coverage. I don't ask him about his wife, and he doesn't tell me about his wife. Well, we chitchat sometimes. But if Sue Benham wants to influence coverage, she can (and does) call me directly, and then I treat her the same as any other councilmember.

Ken Weir flat out said he doesn't want to get rid of the Hillside Ordinance, but "there are portions of the Ordinance which I believe need further evaluation and provisions that I would like to discuss with staff as a Councilmember." In other words, he'd like to change parts. "I also want to ensure that the Ordinance does not unfairly discriminate against any property owners." Which ones does he have in mind? The only ones with plans directly affected are General Holding.

Maggard is not covered in the same fashion as Weir.  You KNOW that is true.  I don't remember reading lots of columns attacking Maggard the way they attack Weir.  Just because the paper put a sentence or two in about Maggard, doesn't mean it is covered fairly or in the same way.

He said that is the quote he gave to the Californian during the campaign because he didn't want to make a flat out statement to the paper, who often twists his words to their advantage.  He said he didn't want to flat-out say that he supports or is against the ordinance before he had a chance to research it in detail to make sure it was fair.  It's okay to make sure things are fair for everyone, right?  It's okay to do research before you make a statement, right?  You just took a portion of his comments, from his campaign, and then put the part that proved your point.  The following is from the document, you posted, of Mr. Weir's statements.

"I have also read or heard statements that I am attempting to revise or overturn the Ordinance.  That is simply not true.  The Ordinance is in it’s most venerable position right now, and I am not aware of any Council effort to take advantage of that venerability and destroy the Ordinance."  -Ken Weir

"Maggard is not covered in the same fashion as Weir." That is true. Neither are Carson, Benham, Hanson, Couch, Sullivan or Scrivner. That's because they don't do things like Weir does. (Sullivan has her own set of newsworthy activities. Couch got as much coverage as I could fit last year. Nobody else has done anything as significant.)

Just keep in mind that the way things are reported in this newspaper affects the way that he speaks to the newspaper.  I'm positive that if you felt that no matter what you said or did would be conveyed in the wrong way, then you would pretty much stop talking.  That's probably why most people have the perception that he is vague or just doesn't respond.  What's the point when it's not really what you said in the first place?  It's nothing against just you personally, but it doesn't feel good when you have to be defensive all of the time.  He also did take a position on the ordinance and I hope that's clear now. 

"I have also read or heard statements that I am attempting to revise or overturn the Ordinance.  That is simply not true.  The Ordinance is in it’s most venerable position right now, and I am not aware of any Council effort to take advantage of that venerability and destroy the Ordinance."  -Ken Weir

As I've said before, when I wrote my first story on the Johnson removal, I included every word he said to me. If he wants to control his message in the paper, all he has to do is speak clearly and definitively. Five other council members manage it, including his closest allies.

I realize that the last activity on this blog was over a week ago, so this may not even get read, but here's my two cents anyways. 

OK, so Weir's vagueness to the Californian is due to the way that the paper reports the events that pertain to Weir. So is he vague on the news because of how they report too? Does he refuse to clearly answer questions asked of him in City Council meetings because of the way other council members or members of the public talk about him? Sorry, but in his position, he cannot avoid explaining himself because of opposing views or misunderstandings. That is all the more reason that he needs to work harder on getting his side of the story out to the public through whatever channels are available to him.