Category Archives: Pacific Grove

Our Mvsevm Is Gone

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Public-Private Partnership. Cradle of Corruption.

The Mvsevm

Opinion Piece in Hear-Old by our own esteemed judge of morons, Dan Cort.

Despite the museum’s cultural and scientific treasures, the city had cut the museum’s budget to a bare minimum and more cuts were on the horizon. But with the City Council’s vote Wednesday night, it looks like the museum will emerge from a chrysalis of under-funding and near-closure to a revitalized resource with an energetic future. What lessons can we learn from this success to help keep other community assets viable in these financially challenging times?

The answer is we need to reinvent our relationship with our government. We need to realize that government is very good at some things, and the private sector is very good at others. By forming partnerships between government and the private sector, we can strive to achieve the best of both worlds. In Pacific Grove we’re doing just that. The city and a private group of citizens formed a public-private partnership that was supported Wednesday night by the City Council..

Our Mvsevm Is Gone

Substainable Pacific Grove To Take Over Safeway?

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Mayor Cort thinks that adding ‘substainable features’ to a business is somehow beneficial. Maybe more morons will shop there. Disagree and maybe they will impose eminent domain to take over the property and ruin Forest Hill too.

Safeway Forest Hill 3 Forths

Cort says the city-owned Bathhouse, golf clubhouse and golf links should be tapped to make more money. The city should encourage the Safeway on Forest Avenue to expand and add green features, he says, and look for more opportunities to use philanthropy for public services.

Sustainable Pacific Grove To Take Over Safeway?

Maybe The Flags Will Draw Shoppers

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Soon, in addition to the flags, the public will notice an improvement in the planters on Lighthouse. Through a cooperative involving the BID, Pacific Grove Public Works, Jeanne Anton of the Beautification and Natural Resources Committee and volunteers

Planter in need of improvement:

A Bird In Every Pot

And the merchants themselves might need to look at their own way of doing business. “I heard it just last weekend from a regular out-of-town customer who had once considered opening a business here. She said, ‘You’d have to be filthy rich to open a business in Pacific Grove. They’re closed all day Sunday and they go home at 5:00 p.m., exactly when most working people can go shopping.’

So true of the downtown retail shops. Art galleries have even shorter hours.

Maybe The Flags Will Draw Shoppers

P.G. Police Delay Their 9.8% Raise

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9.8% in times like these. Wow.

PG Cops On Break

Association President Ami Losinger said police are willing to forgo the 9.8 percent raise authorized in their contract with the city — that expires in December 2010 — until January, a move that would save the city approximately $275,000 this year and next year.

In return, she said, the police association asked that its contract be extended through 2012 and that raises be paid in steps starting next year.

P.G. Police Delay Their 9.8% Raise

Must Be Nice – Six Figure P.G. Pensioners

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5,115 retired California government workers receive pensions in excess of $100,000 from CalPERS.

Pensions PERS

There is a proposition in the making to stop the insanity – but I’m afraid it’s too late.

Proposed reforms include increasing the retirement age of 50 for public safety workers to 58. It would bump the eligibility for other employees to at least age 65, a figure consistent with the federal Social Security retirement age.

As an additional financial savings, Richman said, the increase in the retirement age would reduce local costs for retiree health care costs as retirees would qualify for federal Medicare at age 65.

The foundation also seeks an end to policies that allow employees to spike their pension benefits, sometimes to figures higher than what they earned while they worked.

“Throughout California, public agencies are paying 15 to 20 percent of their budgets on retirement costs and that’s only going to go up,” Richman said. “It’s unsustainable. Government entities will either go bankrupt, like the city of Vallejo, or they are going to die from 1,000 cuts in services.”

Must Be Nice – Six Figure P.G. Pensioners

Aramark Gets Asilomar Deal

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Wonder if they can kick out the 483 union?

Aramark Parks & Destinations will officially take over operation of Asilomar Conference Grounds on Sept. 14, said an executive of the company it is replacing.

General Manager Patrick Sheridan of Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, which has operated Asilomar for the past 10 years, said DNC had unsuccessfully challenged the award. Aramark was the only other bidder on the contract, said Roy Stearns of State Parks.

DNC has about 240 employees working at Asilomar, Sheridan said, and Aramark has committed to retaining as many of them as possible. Operations through this summer will be “business as usual,” he said, as DNC and Aramark negotiate the transition.

Aramark Gets Asilomar Deal

Stamm Is Out

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Stamm Takes Stand

Stamm, 47, exchanged brief hugs with well-wishers outside the courtroom, but kept his emotions in check, saying he was unsure how to feel.

“I have a lot of work to do. There’s a lot of damage control to be done, a lot of pieces of the puzzle that need to be put back together,” said the former owner of an indoor batting facility in Monterey and a miniature golf course in Pacific Grove. “I’m hoping to wake up tomorrow like Dorothy, and open my door and discover that life is all colorful again, and the black and gray will be gone.”

Interesting metaphor. (Ask Yahoo!)

Why is Judy Garland such a popular gay icon?

The gay and lesbian magazine The Advocate calls Judy Garland “an Elvis for homosexuals.” In more closeted times, gays used the term “friend of Dorothy” to refer to themselves in mixed company, in homage to Garland’s role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Today, Garland isn’t as well known among the younger gay generation, but she still holds a special place in the hearts of many.

Stamm Is Out

New Budget Approved

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Doesn’t look good. Costs are going up while revenue drops. A telethon perhaps?

Jim Becklenberg, the city’s management and budget director, warned again that with revenues falling $1.3 million below this year’s estimates, and with the recession expected to continue through next year, the city might have to look at more cutbacks in staff and services.

Becklenberg has recommended the city try raising revenues in the next fiscal year by increasing golf fees and levying a transient occupancy tax on short-term vacation rentals of private residences.

He proposed raising fees for recreation programs, library services and planning fees, increasing parking enforcement, and modifying the municipal golf clubhouse’s use permit to allow dinner service.

New Budget Approved

Carmel Bank Robber Gets Lost In P.G., GPS No Help At All

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There’s another twisted headline in there somewhere – Use A GPS Go To Jail? Gimmee Gimmee Gimmee A Garmin (and all your cash)?

Cervantes, clean-cut and dressed in a blue buttoned-down shirt, black slacks and black dress shoes, was arrested on Highway 1 near the north end of Marina, but not until 12:45 p.m. — more than an hour after he left the bank. A straight shot from the bank to the point where he was arrested would take about 15 minutes, but Cervantes went on a detour through Pacific Grove and Monterey.

According to talk on the police radio scanner, Cervantes drove north on Highway 1 from the bank, then took Holman Highway to Pacific Grove. He made his way to the coast before heading back to Holman Highway and eventually back to northbound Highway 1.

The probable explanation for Cervantes’ extended route, said sheriff’s spokesman Mike Richards, is that “he got lost.”

The robber was on Sunset / Ocean View for quite awhile. Thought he was going to toss the tracker in the ocean. But crooks never are very smart.

Carmel Bank Robber Gets Lost In P.G., GPS No Help At All