A blog about Politics and News.
Real Name: Gretchen Wenner Address: 1707 Eye Street Bakersfield, CA 93301 Member Since: November 01, 2007 Last Signed In: October 14, 2009 Profile Views: 1849 Blog Views: 37453 Bike riders: Watch for drilling rig on bike path! Canyons meeting under way... Bldrs Exchange drama... Recycling wackiness State's property values decline for first time since 1933... City seeking applicants for Board of Building Appeals Homebuilders v. city (and county): Latest buzz Council, Weds night: development "freeze?" Suing Bakersfield: Pork hits fan? And they're off! City Council seat beckons... City of Bako: Initial damage estimates from state budget deal November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 January 09 February 09 March 09 April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 August 09 September 09 October 09 November 09 Get e-mail updates from this blog, and download to print on the go with the City Beat Printcast.
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Ten minutes in and we're done with everything except budget presentations...fun meeting. A couple large swamp coolers at the front entrance. A fan here in the media area.
Bob Sherfy, deputy city attorney, is retiring; this is his last meeting.
I'll update during presentations if anything good crops up. No one commented during general open speaking period (as Bill Ware of the police union did last week, dropping a bomb on the proposed new phone system).
So my guess is no...
Expect a hot time at the city council meeting tonight, but not from the agenda.
Air conditioning at City Hall is kaput, with a central compressor or some major item dead, meaning it probably won't be fixed by meeting time at 5:15 p.m.
If you were eager to hear budget presentations from parks, fire and police departments, those are now slated to be heard BEFORE the break to closed session, City Manager Alan Tandy told me this afternoon.
Officials are...
Former termed-out politicians, including our own Nicole Parra, apparently get to keep the six-figure jobs Arnold handed them earlier this year.
5,000 state workers, meanwhile, have pink slips headed their way.
Parra's $128,000-a-year post as an economic developer in Arnold's office will remain, a spokeswoman told me, because it is not paid by the general fund.
Technically that's true, but isn't it lame?
It's still taxpayer money. With a half-dozen or so former pols swept into the...
I'm looking through the May Revise as we speak...download it yourself by clicking on the blue box (33-page PDF).
Everything after p. 14 is the "contingnency" assuming the ballot measures fail, so those are probably things that will come into play.
Did anyone else watch Arnold's press conference? What did ya think?
- Gretchen Wenner, staff writer
The Governator's office releases its dual-version budget revisions this afternoon...one if the state ballot propositions pass Tuesday, one if they fail. (Here's a good background post on Sac Bee's site.)
We'll be looking for local impacts (including the magnified threat of the state grabbing money from city and county coffers).
On another note, the list of closing Chrysler dealerships out today shows none in Bakersfield (or Kern). The 40-page PDF file is...
A dispatch from the City Council meeting...
Some fun fireworks less than 15 minutes in! Subtly, of course.
(The council is already in closed session, which could run long. Now we wait.)
Here's the fun stuff.
Word is the phone vote will be postponed.
But Bill Ware, president of the Bakersfield Police Officers Association, made a statement during open comments that was pretty scathing about the proposed new system.
The 911 system, he said, will NOT be jeapordized even if the city's...
Tonight's meeting should be interesting and maybe longggg...
Will the city and the firefighters union come to an agreement in closed session?
After closed session, we get the new-phone-system presentation followed by the Oz-like "unveiling" of the proposed budget.
I don't know how bad the city's existing phone system is, though I do know the computerized Cisco one we have here at the paper is no cure-all.
It's fine when it works. But like all...
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