I have a noggin full of rants rattling around in my head and it’s time to dump ’em out. Lucky you! You’re the dumpees.

The theme this week: Your Government In Action.

Big, ugly pile
More than a few readers have asked about that huge pile of dirt (which I’m affectionately deeming “Mount Tandy”) at 24th and Oak streets.

The dirt is from a storm drain project completed several months ago. The city says it has nowhere else to put the dirt. Besides, the dirt may be needed when they remake that intersection. They don’t want to move it only to have to move it back again all at taxpayer expense.

Understood, but the problem is, construction won’t likely start until 2011 at the earliest.

So, ol’ Mount Tandy will be with us for a while.

I had to wonder, could you or I get away with that?

Not no, but HECK NO!

According to code compliance rules, that much dirt can’t just be lumped any which way. It has to be engineered and requires a grading permit.

There has to be a plan as to how long the dirt will sit and regular inspections to make sure it doesn’t shift or erode, as loose piles of dirt like to do, onto neighboring properties or public streets.

I called over to the city to see about that permit and whaddaya know, no permit.

“We had a permit when we did the grading for the sump,” Public Works Director Raul Rojas told me. “But a specific permit for the pile? No, that we do not have.”

As many complaints as the paper has received, he said, the city has likely gotten more and he understands it’s an eyesore. The city will be cleaning Mount Tandy’s crop of weeds over Memorial Day Weekend and will look at fencing it off.

And he assured me the city does have funding to complete that intersection, so Mount Tandy won’t be there forever.

As for a permit, OK, he said, they would look at the need for a permit.

“I really don’t think that pile of dirt is that dangerous, though,” he said.

Is he kidding? Where does he think it got its name!?

Keep it short
By the by, if you were to climb Mount Tandy and peer across Oak to Beach Park you would notice that the grass is dead. Brown and dead. But very nicely mowed.

Recreation and Parks Director Dianne Hoover told me the well used to irrigate Beach Park went down about two weeks ago and they only got it up again on Friday.

So the grass died. But the mowing continued.

“That’s  not a bad thing,” Hoover said. “Even when the grass is brown it still needs to be clipped.”

Call me cheap, or lazy, or both, but I always figured one of the benefits of a dead lawn was no need to mow it.

That may come to pass, Hoover said. Budget constraints mean they’ll be watering less throughout the park system and they may have to cut back mowing if they have to cut people. Oh, er...that’s not good.

Double scoop

During our latest special election (are they really all that “special” when we have them every couple months?) 1,147 poll workers helped direct voters and collect ballots.

A little more than 100 of those people were county employees who not only got the $110 to $150 state stipend but were also paid regular wages for “volunteering” their time.

Now, I know that’s only about $10,000 and I don’t begrudge them the stipend; that’s what all poll workers get. But if I were to work the polls, my employer would require that I take a vacation day.

Not so for county workers.

It’s been that way for several years, ever since the Auditor/Controller told Supervisors they were having trouble mustering up enough people to adequately staff the polls.

Supervisor Michael Rubio said elections are so important he’s willing to err on the side of overpaying in order to make sure polls are adequately staffed and there’s never even the hint of discouraging someone from voting due to lack of workers.

I agree with him in principal, but I’m pretty sure the county would get the people it needs through a little creative advertising (maybe someone might even write a column about it?) or working with the local colleges (something Rubio also suggested).

But double-paying county workers when our unemployment rate is hovering around 15 percent and we’re looking down the barrel of even more budget cuts doesn’t set right.

Supervisors Don Maben and Ray Watson agreed. Maben said he intends to bring the issue up in the next few weeks.

What’s in a name?
When Kern County Superintendent of Schools Larry Reider steps down and his second in command, Associate Superintendent Christine Frazier, is appointed in his place by the Board of Education (as I and everyone else expect will happen at their June 9 meeting), a whole lot of letterhead, envelopes, business cards, forms, signs and more will suddenly be wrong.

How much will taxpayers spend to replace all that stock?

Nada.

“We’ll probably just X out his name,” growled the lovably gruff Jim Varley, director of communications for the superintendent’s office. “That’s the way we did it when Kelly (Blanton) left and that’s the way we’ll do it this time.”

It would be an irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars to throw out what they have, so they’ll find a way to make do, he said.

“There’s no other way to do business. And since I’m in charge of printing and graphics, I guess I’ll make that call.”

Too bad Varley’s call, or even just his attitude, doesn’t extend a little further.