The last time I wrote about Kern’s animal overpopulation problem (back in June) I was frustrated.

At that point, things had not improved despite more than two years of meetings by the Animal Control Commission and “urgent” edicts by the Board of Supervisors.

We were still killing about 18,000 cats and dogs each year.

In fact, our kill rates had gone up after a slight decrease.

The commission was mired in arguments over a proposed county ordinance, a county-run, low-income spay/neuter program seemed permanently stalled and in August Supervisors again put off recommendations for more enforcement teams.

Well, things still aren’t “great” by any stretch.

But there has been progress and, however incremental, it should be celebrated.

Yay. (That's me celebrating.)

The commission recently OK’d, for the most part,  a draft ordinance to send to Supervisors, the low-income spay/neuter program is finally under way and Animal Control has revamped its enforcement recommendations, which it plans to take back to the board on Dec. 16.

Most importantly, our kill rates have actually declined slightly despite more animals being dumped and abandoned as the economy worsens.

Animal intake at the shelter from Jan. 1-Nov. 24, 2007, was 26,512. In the same time period this year,  28,196 animals have come to the shelter.

In 2007, we killed 66 percent of the cats and dogs for that time frame. This year, so far, we’ve euthanized 64 percent of cats and dogs at the shelter.

“We’ve been able to get more animals transferred, rescued or adopted,” said Guy Shaw, the new director of the Animal Control Department. “We’ve been working really hard.”

I applaud those efforts and the results are encouraging.

Even more encouraging is that those improvements came without an increase to Animal Control’s $4.6 million budget.

They’re moving more animals out of the shelter — alive — by relying on people who’ve been clamoring for years to help.

The shelter now has a volunteer-based foster program, works more aggressively with rescue groups, allows volunteers to handle off site adoptions and allows animals to be taken to other shelters, even out of state, that don’t have the same overpopulation problem we do.

They’re also doing a lot more marketing, education and outreach.

I’m not pointing this out because I think the department doesn’t need more money. Sure, it could use the resources.

But it ain’t gonna happen.

Considering the looming state cuts, even Resource Management Agency Director David Price III, who oversees Animal Control, didn’t hold out much hope they’d get more money for enforcement.

He and Shaw have scaled back their original proposal of funding three two-person enforcement teams at a cost of more than $400,000 to one team at about $100,000 with options to create the team out of existing staff.

“Our hope would be to see if we can generate enough money through increased licenses that it would pay the costs for the enforcement teams,” Price said.

I’m not sure supervisors will be willing to take that risk even at $100,000, and I’m not sure they should.

In a perfect world, increased enforcement would be great.

But we’re so far behind the problem, there’s no way that we can enforce our way out of it.

We have to stop it at its source  — too many unwanted puppies and kittens.

The county’s long awaited low-cost spay/neuter program just got started Nov. 10 and has already funded about 70 spay/neuter vouchers, Shaw told me.

The program was created using $80,000 from a one-time county grant and Price’s plan is to ask for more when that money runs low.

That, along with even more creative volunteer programs, should be Animal Control’s and supervisors’ focus.

If there’s no money for a second grant, supervisors should redirect a portion of Animal Control’s budget to keep the low-cost spay/neuter program going.

The reason I’m so adamant about it is research shows that’s the only way to really get a handle on the problem.

In my last column on this issue, I presented some analysis of Kern’s situation that Peter Marsh, a director of Solutions To Overpopulation of Pets in New Hampshire, did for me.
Here are those numbers again:

If we took $400,000 a year, or less than 10 percent of the Animal Control budget, and spent it on spay/neuter surgeries, assuming we spent $100 per surgery (vets would have to discount their prices) and families would have a co-pay of $10 for cats, $20 for dogs, we could do 4,000 surgeries a year.

That’s 4,000 fewer litters each year. If each litter produced only four animals, that’s 16,000 fewer unwanted dogs and cats each year.

And that would definitely be worth celebrating.

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her  column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com

Some low cost spay/neuter options
Kern County Animal Control
Main number: 868-7100
Web site: http://www.co.kern.ca.us/ac...
To be eligible, families must be 150 percent above the federal poverty level.
 Participants must complete an eligibility application and if you are eligible, you must pay a $20 co-payment up front (cash, check or credit card).
Once the co-pay is received, the county will issue a voucher for the entire cost of the surgery.
The vouchers don’t cover “extras” such as if the pet is pregnant, or ill and follow up care is the owner’s responsibility.
Vouchers have expiration dates so you must get the surgery before it expires.
It’s important to get your pets weight right so the surgeon knows how much anesthsia is required.
The county has participating veterinarians in Bakersfield, Delano, Lebec, Ridgecrest and Wasco.
You can pick up an application at any of the shelters or call the county or go online.
Limit four vouchers per person per lifetime.


SPCA - H.O.P.E. Program
Bakersfield SPCA: 323-8353
Web site: http://www.bakersfieldspca....
The H.O.P.E. Foundation picks up pets at the SPCA, 3000 Gibson Street, twice a month, on Mondays,  and takes them to its facility in Fresno for alteration surgeries. Animals stay overnight.
Owners make arrangements and pay through the SPCA. They then drop off and pick up their animals at the Gibson Street location.
Costs:
Cats, spay $55, neuter, $45
Dogs, between $65 and $115 depending on type of surgery and weight.
Rabies vaccinations are required for all animals. If proof cannot be provided there is an additional $12 charge for a vaccination prior to transport.
Medi-Cal holders can apply to the Kern Humane Society (325-2589) for assistance.

Proposed ordinance from the Animal Control Commission
The ordinance goes back to the commission on Dec. 17 for final approval and will then be forwarded to Supervisors. There were a plethora of changes, but here are some highlights:
• Permitting
Under the proposed ordinance, Animal Control would require special permits for commercial and non commercial facilities, which are defined as any premises having a minimum of 11 animals. Permitting would include a special fee and regular inspections.
• Increased authority
This allows the department greater authority to decide if a premises has too many animals for the conditions
• Three strikes
Animals that regularly escape their yards will not be released back to the owner without first being sterilized on the third impoundment.
The commission meets at 6:00 p.m. at the First Floor Public Meeting Room of the Kern County Public Services Building, 2700 M Street, Bakersfield, California.

I got this email from Kern High School District Trustee Bryan Batey this morning with the forward from Paul Stine.

Mr. Batey apparently hasn't appreciated my coverage of fellow Trustee Chad Vegas, though he ascribes Mr. Vegas' recent win to my coverage.

Aside from not agreeing with Mr. Batey on certain points in this email, I was struck by the chumminess of these supposedly "independent" board members.

Makes me go, HMMMMM.

My response is pasted at the end of Mr. Batey's email to me.

On 11/26/08 9:39 AM, "bryan batey" wrote:
Dear Lois, 
I thought that you might want the final vote count of the recent KHSD election.  As Chad's unofficial and unauthorized campaign advisor, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued opposition to Chad's political service.  There is nothing that means more to Chad's success than your continued coverage and focus. When will you learn that Chad has been an exemplery board member the past two years?  70,000 Kern County Voters can not be wrong.  I invite you to come in out of the rain and join the mainstream of our community.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Paul Stine
To: Bryan Batey; Joel Heinrichs; Ken Mettler; Chad Vegas
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 8:50:31 AM
Subject: Chad Vegas is the 70,000 Vote Man! Congratulations! The Community has spoken!

KERN HIGH SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER - Vote For 2
Completed Precincts: 420 of 420 VOTE COUNT
PERCENTAGE
CHAD VEGAS, 70469,  28.60%

BILL PERRY, 56390, 22.88%

BOB J. HAMPTON,  41343, 16.78%
 
 
If every voter voted twice, this means 57.2% voted for Chad Vegas.  This is a rock solid majority!  No one has ever gotten over 70,000 votes in Kern High School Board history.

From: Lois Henry <lhenry@bakersfield.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:57:14 -0800
To: bryan batey
Conversation: Chad Vegas is the 70,000 Vote Man!  Congratulations!  The Community has spoken!


Dear Mr. Batey,

I’m perfectly comfortable out here in the rain where the air is clear and I can think for myself.

Yes, 70,000 voters can absolutely be wrong.

Majority rule doesn’t confer righteousness. That’s why we have the Bill of Rights, so the majority can’t trample our basic civil and human rights on a tide of momentary popularity.

Exemplary (spelled with an “A” at the end, by the way) is in the eye of the beholder.

Thanks for the note.

Lois Henry
 

Life is looking pretty grim right now.

We’re at war. Practically every aspect of our economy is tanking. People are losing jobs.

Businesses are closing. Half of our state burned up and the other half has no water. And now the fog has set in. Great.

It’s enough to make you duck under the covers and not come out until spring.

Or we can try to be grownups and face every day as it comes, neither lamenting the past nor dreading the future. (I think that’s harder than the covers option, but maybe that’s just me.)

I met a few folks over the last year who know more than they ever wanted to about that kind of perseverance.

So on this Thanksgiving eve I wondered, what were they thankful for?

Family was top of mind for everyone.

For Donna Weeks, family has been both trying and uplifting as she has dealt with her mother’s Alzheimer’s  and father’s increasing frailty.

Lee and Louie Tessandori were as independent as they came and Louie was the classic cantankerous Italian patriarch, always in control.

So daughter Donna had no idea what to do when she saw her parents begin at first a slow descent and then an all-out free fall into dementia and total dependence. Lee is now in an Alzheimer’s home in Shafter and Louie is in assisted living right down the block.

Their financial affairs are in order and they’re both safe and well cared for.

But the path to that relative security was rocky.

Through it all, Donna told me, her greatest delight was how her son, Gilbert Tessandori, stepped up to help. He sold everything he had in Arkansas and moved back to Bakersfield to live with his grandparents and take care of all their big and small needs.

“He’s been amazing,” Donna said with a proud smile. “I’m just so thankful for him.”

•••

Family was No. 1 on Sally Zapata’s list of things to be thankful for as well.

“And for the people God puts in my path,” she said.

Sally is fighting to get her son, Martin Zapata, 28, a quadriplegic, reliable transportation to and from his doctor’s appointments.

Sally called me several weeks ago at her wits end after Hall Ambulance Service stopped transporting Martin and she couldn’t find any other service that would take a bed-ridden patient.

After the Zapatas’ story ran, many people called with offers to help and Sally is confident now that she’ll find a solution.

“In this community we need to help each other,” she said.

•••

If any one thing had been different for Tom Gutcher after a car accident left him with a severe brain injury six months ago, he likely wouldn’t be doing as well as he is today. He’s back at work half time, living at home and only going to rehab three hours a day.

And for the series of events that got him there, his wife, Linda Gutcher, is extremely thankful.

“No one’s lucky to go through something like that,” she told me.

But because Tom rode with his daughter in an ambulance to Kern Medical Center after the accident instead of waiting by the car as he initially decided, he was in the right place at the right time when he collapsed as his brain swelled against his skull.

Later, as Tom’s recovery became more reliant on his own and his family’s efforts, Linda (a worrier by nature) said she had to learn to focus on the present.

“If I thought about the past, the accident, it was upsetting,” she said. “Projecting into the future — Would he be able to walk? Talk? Ever go back to work? Would his personality change? — was also upsetting, extremely upsetting.”

Instead, she decided to focus on each day.

“Every day that something bad didn’t happen was a good day.”

Tom, a jokester by nature, said he was first thankful his daughters came out of the accident OK and second that he was alive to enjoy his family, a host of dear, dear friends and his boxer, Belle.

“We’re going to eat well and eat far too much,” he said of Thanksgiving Day.

Given the uncertainty of life even in the best of times, that sounds like a pretty good plan.

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her  column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com

Anxiety among Kern High School District employees is almost palpable.

Potentially draconian state budget cuts are coming, and some employees are worried that what they see as a “rogue” Board of Trustees is on the verge of its own draconian measures, including firing administrators who don’t toe the line and imposing vague but job-threatening goals on principals.

The level of distrust has reached a fever pitch.

That needs fixing and fast so the district can make reasoned budget adjustments and, hopefully, move forward on innovative reforms that address real issues like say the district’s 20-plus percent drop out rate.

I’m not going waste time assigning blame for the teacher/trustee rift, but I do think it’s important to understand how wide the chasm has become so all parties know how much effort they need to bring to the bridge-building party.

An email circulating among teachers outlines a slew of new requirements allegedly handed down by trustees, including that principals complete a form every year showing they visited all classrooms otherwise their jobs are on the line. I’ve also heard that teachers believe Superintendent Don Carter was told by trustees to raise the district’s test scores “or else!”

Whoa, deep breath people — it’s not true, according to Carter.

During a brainstorming session among principals, one of their own rank came up with the idea of classroom visits. And Carter said no board member has approached him with a rubber hose over test scores.

For a guy who typically chooses his words carefully, Carter was pretty blunt: “It’s unfair to characterize this board as having given ultimatums to the administrative leadership.”

OK then!

Much of the suspicion on the part of faculty and the Kern High School Teachers Association (which did not write nor circulate that e-mail), has built up because of Chad Vegas’ and Ken Mettler’s religious/cultural agenda and a short-lived, never-used program advanced by Vegas that allowed trustees to sit in on job interviews with the superintendent, which many felt was an unwarranted attack on Carter.

Of greatest concern now, however, is a list of reforms that have been championed by

Trustee Joel Heinrichs, who put out a sort of “policy paper” on them in October along with Vegas as a co-signer.

“That paper uses a lot of buzzwords, but we don’t really know what’s being considered,” Mitch Olson, president of the Kern Teacher’s Association told me.

Of greatest concern, he said, is that the board will shoot from the hip without talking to teachers, parents, administrators and the community to make sure the reforms are well thought out, understood and don’t overlap or scrap other reforms already under  way.

Education is a tricky business, as is any endeavor involving humans and their inevitable baggage. Success can elude even those who’ve spent a lifetime researching the intricacies of the process.

How do a software company exec and a preacher think they can do better?

By copy catting.

I met with Heinrichs about the reforms and the angst they’ve created. He handed me an inch-thick stack of studies, case histories, power points and more. The ideas Heinrichs is interested in — smaller learning environments, clear district wide goals, more authority at the school level, more career options and proper training — aren’t new. He’s cherry-picking the best stuff out there.

“These aren’t willy-nilly ideas,” he said in his trademark rapid-fire manner. “I’ve spent two years asking questions and studying these issues. It’s not a wild hair.”

Heinrichs wants to talk with teachers and others, he wants to keep what the district is doing well and he has no intention of evaluating teachers or principals based on one set of test scores, another fear lingering out there.

When I told Olson what Heinrichs had shared with me, his suspicions thawed. He’s read the same research.

“If that’s what’s informing his ideas, then yes, we’d be very comfortable talking about that,” Olson said. “It’s a good starting point.”

Hey, I’m a peacemaker — who knew? Next up: That pesky Palestinian/Israeli squabble.

These are Lois Henry’s opinions, not necessarily The Californian’s. Her column appears Sunday and Wednesday. Call her at 395-7373 or write lhenry@bakersfield.com.

Policy paper put out by Kern High School District trustees Joel Heinrichs and Chad Vegas in October.

A Call for Educational Reform

Preamble
The Kern High School District has a long and proud history. Our top students perform successfully at elite universities all over the country. We have a number of well-regarded career academies and an outstanding Regional Occupational Center. We are moving forward with initiatives to expand Career Technical Education and academic “boot camps” for ninth-grade students at risk of dropping out.

Our schools have also made steady progress in raising standardized-test scores over the last ten years. Our high school exit exam passage rates, A-G completion rates, and SAT scores are comparable to similar schools in the southern San Joaquin Valley. Yet, our APR scores (STAR tests) consistently lag behind these schools. As a Board of Trustees, we can make excuses — ore we can commit to a bold plan of action to make our “commitment to excellence” real.

Philosophy
Our 35,000+ students’ skills, abilities, and interests are diverse. Therefore, we must provide a wide range of high quality, rigorous, learning opportunities to maximize each student’s chance for success. We are committed to: 1) articulating a clear, district-wide strategy, 2) building strong Principal-level leadership and strategic commitment, and 3) holding ourselves accountable.

Plan
In the near term, we should continue those practices producing incremental progress — but believe a more competitive, free-market-oriented strategic approach will be essential to accelerate and drive sustained, long-term success. Elements of this approach include:

1) Overhaul the district’s outmoded “one-size-fits-all” educational model that presumes a comprehensive high school college preparatory education is “best” for all students and treats other pathways to success as lesser alternatives. Instead, we should offer a range of learning models and encourage students to pursue whatever pathway that is best for them — whether that is work, more career training, or college upon graduation.

2) Expand academic options to include small charter schools, on-line learning, more “school within a school” academies, and home-school partnerships so that we have a wider range of educational models to attract, retain, and engage students.

3) Build competition into the school system — so that effective ideas, programs and learning models expand — and ineffective ones are eliminated.

4) Seek out and implement the best research-based practices for students whose English is a second language. This group of students consistently struggles to meet academic standards.

5) Secure the best possible Principal-level leadership, create measurable performance standards, reward those who excel, and remove those who perform poorly.

Pledge
We are committed, to building upon our successes — but also pushing ourselves beyond the safe and traditional. Our students, parents, and the community members deserve our very best effort.

 

All Martin Zapata needs is a ride.

But Zapata, 28, who lost the use of his arms and legs a little more than two years ago to a virulent strain of valley fever, is stuck in a kind of no-man’s land when it comes to getting bed-ridden patients to and from doctor visits in Bakersfield.

There is virtually no non-emergency gurney transportation here, particularly for Medi-Cal patients.

Zapata must see his doctor twice a month to have liquid drawn from his spine to check the progress of the disease and to make sure his catheter is properly cleaned to prevent a life-threatening infection.

No doctor visits also mean no medication. And that could mean his life.

His last visit was in August and his medication supply is getting low.

But Hall Ambulance Service, which had been taking him for the previous two years stopped in August, saying they’d been doing it in error and couldn’t continue.

Since then, Zapata’s mom, Sally Zapata, who cares for him at her home, has been on the phone daily trying to find a new service for him. There just isn’t any.

That’s when she called me, out of pure frustration and desperate for any help.

“This boy is going to die” if he can’t get to the doctor, she told me.

If he could sit in a wheelchair, he would have at least some options, though in metro Bakersfield even those are scarce compared to other cities and counties.

Wheelchair patients can get curb-to-curb service through GET-A-Lift or door-to-door service through Consolidated Transportaiton Service Agency (CTSA), both funded through the Kern Council of Governments.

Or they can call Tri County Medical Transport Services or Valley Medical Transport, which also both accept Medi-Cal.

But Martin Zapata can’t be in a wheelchair, his bones are too brittle and his muscles too atrophied to support himself in a chair, even a geri-chair (more like a recliner).

He must be on a gurney. Tri County is the only service for gurney transport and they’re maxed out right now, they told me.

I figured there must be some mistake so I kept digging and calling.

But no. Hospital case management workers, nursing home directors, dialysis center managers all told me the same thing — we have a terrible lack of services.

Sally Zapata is absolutely right to worry that her son’s condition will worsen before anyone will respond.

A Hall Ambulance supervisor recently told his bosses about a 911 call for a dialysis patient whose body was shutting down because he hadn’t been able to make appointments for lack of a ride.

“We know there’s a problem, but we don’t have an answer,” John Surface, Hall’s ambulance division manager, told me.

The problem, of course, is money.

Unless you have the cash to fork over, and I understand it can be between $100 and $200 for a round trip ride to see a doctor, most private insurance doesn’t cover gurney transport and Medi-Cal’s reimbursement rates are shamefully low.

Medi-Cal pays $26.29 for a response to a call, plus $5.65 per 15 minutes (up to 90 minutes total) for waiting time while the patient is at his or her appointment and $1.30 per mile. And with budget cuts now, any claim that’s submitted gets an automatic 10 percent cut.

Yeah, we all know the state doesn’t have any money and anyone whose services are cut is going to scream bloody murder.

But those abysmal gurney transport rates have been so low for so long they’ve chased companies out of the business and created a classic cutting-off-our-nose-to-spite-our-face situation.

Medi-Cal won’t pay the full cost of gurney transport, so people like the dialysis patient (and maybe Martin Zapata if he can’t get help soon) are going into crisis and taxpayers are instead footing the bill for full-blown ambulance and emergency room care.

Which seems like the smarter way to go?

I asked Kern County Supervisors Michael Rubio and Mike Maggard about this situation and they both wanted to know how many people are in Zapata’s situation. I have no idea, probably not a lot. Even if it’s just a few, however, a simple ride can mean absolutely everything to them.

The whole mess, including why Kern seems to have so few providers even for wheelchair service, is now in the hands of County Emergency Medical Services Director Ross Elliott and Aging and Adult Services Director Kris Grasty after the Board of Supervisors asked them on Tuesday to look into it and report back.

Hopefully they’ll find an answer before it’s too late for Martin Zapata.

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her  column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com

I'm really kicking myself for not having included a sidebar for how to go to the county meeting and also contact info for Supervisors.

Sorry! That was lame on my part.

If you want to go to the meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) and state your piece, the item is on the 2 p.m. agenda. Address is 1115 Truxtun Ave. (Truxtun and L Street).

It's item No. 30 and there are only four other items not on consent to be heard prior so it could come up pretty quickly.

I'll paste contact info below for supervisors.

There have been some questions as to whether Donny Youngblood is taking his pension, or can take his pension and collect his salary. I'm not sure about that but I believe County Reporter James Burger is checking on that. If not, I will and will follow up here.

This caller made an excellent point about the proposed 2 percent pay raise for all department heads and elected officials at the county w/30 or more years, which will also be considered on Tuesday. It's nothing more than a pension spike!

Here's the contact info for Supervisors. 

Mike Rubio, District 5, chairman – 868-3690
district5@co.kern.ca.us


Ray Watson, District 4, 868-3680
district4@co.kern.ca.us
 
 
Jon McQuiston, District 1 - 868-3650
district1@co.kern.ca.us
 
 
Mike Maggard, District 3,  868- 3670
district3@co.kern.ca.us


Don Maben, District 2- 868 3660
district2@co.kern.ca.us
 

When I saw the Kern County Administrative Office recommendation — an 11 percent raise for District Attorney Ed Jagels and a whopping 22 percent increase for Sheriff Donny Youngblood — I was not only speechless, I was sputtering.

Seriously? Really? What the....?!

Has the county not noticed what we once fondly referred to as “the economy” is crumbling around our ears?

Or that deafening sucking sound coming from Sacramento?

We know we’re going to be hit and hit hard this year — hiring freezes, fewer services, layoffs. It is going to happen.

But on Tuesday Supervisors will consider not only the Youngblood/Jagels raises but also a 4.5 percent increase for the Chief Child Support Attorney, plus a 4 percent increase for all elected officials and a 2 percent increase for all department heads and elected officials with 30 or more years of service to the county.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

You can’t be on the verge of giving workers their walking papers and telling taxpayers you can’t fix their streets then turn around and hand already well-paid elected officials a wad of cash.

Even if the raises are warranted, and the numbers suggest they are, this is not the right time to expect people hanging on to their jobs by their fingernails to understand.

More important, in order to give these raises, Supervisors would have to go around the current method of determining salaries for elected officials, which automatically ties them to an average of the raises of management and mid-management employees.
 

That ordinance keeps Supervisors from being able to vote on their own raises and it should keep their hands off the raises of other elected officials as well.

That’s a good thing.

If we want to tinker with the formula, fine. But it should be done with public input as a separate hearing, not as an afterthought in this “raise-a-palooza” coming up on Tuesday.

“Electeds have a unique relationship with the electorate,” Supervisor Mike Maggard told me. “We knew what we were getting when we came in.”

He said he’ll listen to all arguments, but doesn’t think he can support any of the raises being recommended.

Supervisor Ray Watson disagreed with both of us. He will support the raises on Tuesday.

“No, it’s not easy to give a raise in these times,” he said. “I but if you don’t address these issues when they come up, they’re exacerbated over time.

“If we knew (the economic meltdown) was coming, we would have made different decisions a year ago.”

This all started back in 2006 and 2007  when the county started giving raises to hundreds of employees.

Most of the rank and file, which had received only paltry raises for years, got a base increase of 12 percent over three years. Upper management got much heftier bumps, such as 17 percent for Fire Chief Dennis Thompson and 24.5 percent for Public Defender Mark Arnold.

The raises were the outcome of a 2006 study that showed Kern pay was abysmally uncompetitive, in some cases 10 percent to 30 percent less than for similar jobs in other counties. That, coupled with massive retirements in 2005 and 2006, created a recruiting nightmare.

Throughout all that, salaries for Sheriff and District Attorney lagged behind.

So, yes, there are reasons for Youngblood and Jagels to get a boost.

In fact, Youngblood now makes 2.9 percent less than his undersheriff and 22 percent less than the Fire Chief. And while Jagels is still paid slightly more than his Assistant District Attorney (2.6 percent) he makes 11 percent less than the Public Defender.

Hence the reasoning behind the recommended percentages.

While the undersheriff pay may seem odd, Maggard pointed out that there are several management positions in the county with lesser salaries than those they oversee. His own salary is below that of many county employees.

“That has nothing to do with what you’re elected to do,” he said.

Both Jagels and Youngblood defended the raises not for themselves but in order to attract competent people for their positions in the future.

“The District Attorney salary is so little above that of a senior civil service attorney it’s hard to imagine, as a general rule, anyone taking the risk of running for District Attorney,” Jagels told me.

Similarly, Youngblood wondered if he dropped dead tomorrow, who would take over for him.

“It would be a pay cut for the undersheriff, so you’d have to go down the line to find someone to appoint,” he said.

OK, so the money isn’t as good as it could be. Agreed.

However, I pointed out to both men, these are elected positions, for which you have to fight tooth and nail (unless you’re Jagels, who’s run unopposed in every election except his first in 1983).

In fact, two people have already announced their campaigns for DA — Prosecutor Lisa Green and  Bob Barton, a senior assistant inspector in the Bureau of Independent Review, which helps oversee state prisons. And the last Sheriff's race attracted a mob of candidates.

So, clearly, it’s not just about the money.

“Look, it’s the absolute worst time for this, I know,” Youngblood acknowledged. “But it has to be fixed.”

Maybe so, but not now and not this way.

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her  column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com

PROPOSED RAISES

District Attorney
Current Annual Salary: $173,041
Proposed rate of increase: 11%
Proposed Annual Salary: $192,075
 
Sheriff 
Current Annual Salary: $150,620
Proposed rate of increase: 22%
Proposed Annual Salary: $183,756
 
Chief Child Support Attorney
Current Annual Salary: $143,928 (maximum)
Proposed rate of increase: 4.5%
Proposed Annual Salary: $150,405 (maximum)

— Source: Kern County Administrative Office

There are no real winners in the outcome of a lawsuit against the city of Bakersfield for the 2006 drowning death of 8-year-old Jasmine Korin in a lake at the Park at River Walk.

When a child dies, the loss leaves any “victory” hollow.

So to say the city won when a judge ruled last month in its favor doesn’t feel right.

But the city was right to defend itself and the judge was right to find in the city’s favor.

As bad as I feel for the Korin family — and I truly cannot fathom their pain — I’m glad the city didn’t just roll over and offer up a settlement to avoid the legal hassle.

When the wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Jasmine’s family nearly a year after her death, many in the community speculated taxpayers would be on the hook for a big settlement. Letters poured in to the paper comparing this incident to a child’s death in a water fountain near the Rabobank Arena in 1999, for which the city did pay a settlement of $290,000.

In that case it was determined a grate had been moved or was faulty and its suction sump trapped the 11-year-old boy.

The lakes and streams at the Park at River Walk aren’t fountains. They were designed using Kern River water to be as close to natural waterways as possible.

And water can be dangerous, even deadly.

The city said from the start that those facts made it immune from liability and on Oct. 10, a Kern County Superior Court judge agreed.

We all have to understand that if we want amenities like pools, volleyball courts and skate parks, we’re going to have to accept some of the risk that comes with those activities. No one, certainly not government, can provide us with a safety bubble in which to live our lives.

The sad reality is that Jasmine didn’t know how to swim and should not have gone in the lake. And the horrible outcome can never be undone.

However, the city shouldn’t take this ruling as a vindication of how it handled this case and the overall controversy involving the park.

From the day the park opened, residents worried over the accessibility of its streams and lakes.

The city’s response to those concerns would have been laughable if not for Jasmine’s death.

• We never intended for people to actually get in the water.

Um, yeah, because kids never go near the water when it’s hot.

• Putting up warning signs would increase the city’s liability.

So let’s just turn our heads and hope for the best?

• Warning signs would impinge on the peaceful beauty of the park.

I am not making these up. The last one really and truly came from the mouth of Dianne Hoover, director of recreation and parks. To which I can only reply — oh, brother!

I’m no liability expert, but I think a smart attorney could score some serious points on just those comments.

For now, the case is all but over, though Jasmine’s father, Ali Korin, still clings to the hope of an appeal. His attorney, David Cohn, stepped out of the case some time ago and Korin said he wasn’t able to find another lawyer to take it on.

Korin has yet to finalize a settlement of $14,000 with the other two defendants in the case, McIntosh & Associates and RJM Design Group Inc.

Meanwhile, his family has broken apart, he told me, and he’s lost his business.

“I don’t even know how to continue,” he said.

For Korin and his family, unfortunately, closure may never come.

Like I said, there are no winners here.

Only painful lessons.

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her  column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com

In typical Bob Hampton style, Hampton was just about the only one I talked with who wasn’t sad that he lost his bid for re-election to the Kern High School District Board of trustees.

Far from it.

“Not at all,” he said when I asked if he was upset that his 13-year-trustee-tenure had come to an end. “The people have spoken and I’ve got many, many other things to do.”

Like kicking lymphoma, which he says he has on the run.

If the district calls, he said, he’ll be there in whatever way he can help.

Considering what’s likely coming down the pike, though, I’m wondering if all the board members might wish they were on the sidelines with Hampton before too long.

The state is in a world of financial hurt and it’s going to spread the pain far and wide, right on down to local governments and school districts.

Under a proposal announced by Gov. Schwarzenegger in an emergency legislative session last week, KHSD could lose $12 million out of its overall $343 million budget.

And that’s only if the governor can also get his special sales tax to boost revenues.

Without that tax, the cut to education will be worse, said Dennis Scott, KHSD’s associate superintendent of business.

“This is a major game-changer,” agreed Mitch Olson, Kern High School Teacher’s Association president, when I called to ask him how Hampton’s leaving would affect the board.

Hampton’s steady hand and strong business sense will definitely be missed.

“He was always more interested in resolving problems than stirring the pot or causing conflict,” Olson said. “It’s sad to see him go.”

At least the looming budget cloud may have a small silver lining.

It will likely be so all-consuming that trustees Chad Vegas and Ken Mettler won’t have a lot of time to push their social/religious agendas, which caused so much strife in the district and the community over the last few years.

That agenda Hampton staunchly resisted, sometimes as the lone “no” vote on highly charged issues such as renaming winter and spring breaks Christmas and Easter breaks, putting “In God We Trust” posters in all classrooms and setting drug-sniffing dogs to work on school campuses.

The battles are long over, but the ghost of such controversies may hang over trustees’ heads.

“It’s a characteristic the board creates for itself in the community,” Hampton said of how a board works together. “When a board chooses sides, then the community chooses up sides.

“When you get a board that’s always so controversial, there’s a degree of confidence lost in the community.”

Of course, board members won’t see eye-to-eye on every issue, but Hampton hopes that in the future, trustees will be arguing over “the three R’s — ’riting, reading and ’rithmetic.”

“It’ll be interesting to watch,” Hampton said. “Chad has been quoted now, ‘no more social issues.’”

A large part of the campaign of incoming trustee-elect Bill Perry was the promise that he would eschew “political distractions” in favor of concentrating on student success. 

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Hampton said.

While Mettler and Vegas both told me they respected and admired Hampton’s genuine love for the district, they also felt he was resistant to change — change they say the district needs.

“Bob was the guy who would say that the way we’ve done things so far has been very good and he was ready to defend that position,” Vegas told me.

I disagree.

Hampton surely wasn’t one to support change for change’s sake. And he obviously felt social/religious issues should be left to parents, not the school district (absolutely!).

But he embraced the major educational changes this board initiated in recent years. He wholeheartedly supported increasing vocational and technical education as well as a new policy requiring freshmen to meet certain thresholds before moving to 10th grade.

“He was not closed to new ideas,” confirmed Trustee Joel Heinrichs.

Hampton just had a more traditional view of the board’s role in that he relied on the expertise of the administration and staff, according to Heinrichs.

His motto — “Hire good people and then get out of their way” — was repeated to me by nearly everyone I interviewed, including Hampton.

Hopefully, the right people are in place to bring the district through the state’s financial wringer intact.

Unfortunately, Hampton will no longer be on the dais helping steer the ship.

These are Lois Henry’s opinions, not necessarily
The Californian’s. Her column appears Sunday and Wednesday. Call her at 395-7373 or write lhenry@bakersfield.com.

If you voted yesterday and didn’t thank a poll worker, put that on your “must do” list for 2010.

Without them, there would not have been a “historic election” on Tuesday, or any other election, for that matter.

Poll workers are the glue that holds our democratic system together.

I’m not kidding. Without this essentially volunteer army of regular Joes (plumbers and otherwise) and Janes, how else could we possibly pull this wacky election business off?

“Maybe down the road they’ll have electronic, biofeedback machines that scan your iris and they won’t need us anymore,” said poll worker Bill Fawns as a steady stream of people filed past him to vote in the Aera building on Ming Avenue.

That would be kind of sad, I said.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “It would.”

Not just because machines can’t smile and thank you for voting, but they also don’t come in all shapes, sizes, skin tones and ages, like the poll workers I visited with on Tuesday.

And machines don’t have stories that leave a lump in your throat and your chin just a little higher in honor of your fellow American.

“Because my daughter’s in Afghanistan,” was Nadine Quiroz’ answer when I asked why she chose to work from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. checking names and addresses and answering the same questions over and over — all for about $100 in compensation.

“She’s doing something for our country so I decided I could do something, too.”

Though Quiroz has been a lifelong voter, she said her daughter, a 20-year-old cook in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, had never registered. Quiroz fixed that this year and plans to continue her new poll working tradition.

“People need help,” she said outside her Virginia Avenue polling place. “They don’t know how to register; a lot of them never voted before.”

Gwendolyn Tate has been a poll worker so long (36 years!) she’s become an election 411 guide for family, friends and acquaintances.

“If I don’t know the answer, I can get you to the person who does,” she said as she smiled at voters at the Martin Luther King Jr. rec center.

Tate started her poll worker avocation in the 1970s, helping out her mother. She’s passed the tradition on to two of her children and expects to work on Election Day for many years to come.

“There’s never a dull moment,” she laughed.

This election, seeing all the young people was especially uplifting, she said. And there were just so, so many people this time around.

Tate got to work at 6 a.m. and discovered a line that kept growing until the doors opened at 7 a.m.

“I was shocked.” But in a good way.

That’s a funny thing about poll workers, the more people show up, the more work they have and the better they like it.

Something about Election Day makes us notoriously impatient Americans calm and — dare I say it — easygoing, even in the face of long lines.

“Oh we seldom have anyone get upset,” said Guy Porter, who retired to Bakersfield in 2002 and immediately jumped into the poll working biz, serving Tuesday at a church on Rosedale Highway and Jewetta Avenue. “It’s fun and interesting and it’s something that has to be done.”

Not only that, there’s apparently a “coolness” factor to being a poll worker.

“It’s cool to learn something new,” 26-year-old Jimmy Kalar told me as he ate leftover Halloween candy at the North Bakersfield Parks and Recreation District polling place in Oildale.

“And you get to see a bunch of different people coming together as one nation on something everyone agrees on, which is voting.”

That is pretty cool.

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her  column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com

Is it Wednesday yet?

Seriously, someone needs to give the ozone layer a spritz of election-be-gone because it is none too fresh down here.

There’s always at least a low level of crazy in every election, even the ho-hum ones.

Someone’s going to win and someone’s going to lose and people don’t like losing.

But this election has reached a stenchiness that even I’ve finally had enough of. 

The campaign sign stealing, the rallies turned Kung Fu fight fests, the recrimination-filled debates, the snarky columns — I can’t take one more minute!

So I’m going to ignore the fact that the election is still two days away and leap ahead to where calm prevails and the decisions have been put to rest. To a happy place.

A place where ludicrous campaign commercials with butterflies floating by candidates’ heads and stiff-looking politicians strutting through construction zones disappear like the remnants of a bad dream.

In this future universe, the most contentious proposition on the ballot, Prop 8, has passed (overwhelmingly so in Kern County).

Gay marriage is banned per the California constitution.

Gay couples can still seek domestic partnerships, which afford many but not all of the same rights and responsibilities as marriage. They just can’t call it marriage.

Agree or not, it’s the law of the land and we can all get on with our lives, right?

Wrong.

Those couples who did get married for the brief period it was allowed in California had a big fat class-action lawsuit loaded and cocked and they pulled the trigger on it as soon as election results began tipping in 8’s favor.

Not only that, the campaign to get a new proposition to nullify 8 was underway almost as soon as the Secretary of State’s door was unlocked Wednesday morning.

This is not working for my happy place.

OK, let’s try an alternate future — Prop 8 fails.

Gay couples rejoice and now we move on, yes?

No.

Opponents to gay marriage are at the Secretary of State’s door, petitions in hand, first thing Wednesday to launch yet another campaign for the next statewide election in 2010, and we get to watch even more television commercials with that Pepperdine University dude in his rumpled brown suit until our brains liquefy and run out our ears.

So, there’s no future “happy place”  when it comes to Prop 8. Fine, what about the local races?

Oh, no! NO! It’s like a bloody car wreck from which I can’t turn away.

Kern High School District Trustee Chad Vegas wins re-election.

Despite having told The Californian’s editorial board that he’ll lay off the religious/culture issues, his handy win emboldens him even more.

Now, with the help of fellow trustee Ken Mettler, ever eager to get his name in front of future voters (Assemblymember Jean Fuller’s seat comes up in 2010, the same time Mettler’s stint on the board is done. Hint! Hint!), Vegas is all over religion and culture like a cheap suit.

Books that even mention evolution, including social science and history texts, have been banned; school facilities aren’t just rented to churches on weekends but during school lunch hours as well so students can join in;  and school librarians must sign a “conduct pledge” that makes it a fireable offense for them to purchase or store any books or other media that include even a whiff of profanity or lewd or pornographic subject matter as determined by a Vegas-Mettler appointed committee.

AAACK! Not a happy place! Not a happy place!

Wait, I see a glimmer of hope in the post-election haze.

Pine Mountain Club residents have voted to assess themselves a $70 per parcel tax to pay for the Kern County Fire Department to staff the station there with one paramedic per shift.

The program actually costs a bit less than the full $70 per parcel, so some money is set aside for future growth. Firefighters are trained and properly equipped and work hand-in-glove with Hall Ambulance paramedics stationed in Frazier Park to give mountain residents a much-needed added level of security for relatively low cost.

Ahhhh. Much happier.

Don’t like my scenarios? Fine, then make your own version of the future come true.

Get involved! VOTE!

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her  column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com