City Manager Takes Heat Over Hiring

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In a trend that has raised some eyebrows, Colangelo has hired at least seven women who once worked for Monterey County, where he worked as an assistant administrative officer between 1999 and 2005.

“We don’t look at it as a coincidence,” says PG resident Pat Herrgott. “Jim Colangelo says it’s hard to find qualified people, so he brings over everybody he worked with before. That’s not fair employment.”

Former PG mayor Jeanne Byrne, for one, isn’t cutting Colangelo any slack. “It‘s inappropriate to create jobs that never existed and fill them with your friends,” she says. “Certainly not all of them are the best qualified. There’s nobody there to get them up to speed.”

Ahh. Jeanne Byrne. Single term PG mayor. Sandwiched between Dingbat Flo and Socialist Sandy. Accomplished nothing really.

City Manager Takes Heat Over Hiring

Council Picks Iris Peppard As Farmers Market Organizer

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Also up for the job was Joe Aliotti of Community Help Around Monterey Peninsula, who runs two farmers markets in Salinas. His proposals to involve local schools and stakeholders earned him the staff recommendation. “We interviewed both parties and he seemed to be farther along,” says City Manager Jim Colangelo.

Though impressed by both proposals, Councilmember Lisa Bennett made the successful motion to go for Everyone’s Harvest. “The flavor of her market seemed to match my values a little more,” she says. “A little more organic, a little more focused on being local.”

Council Picks Iris Peppard As Farmers Market Organizer

Oregon Town Fires Mayor For Racy Pictures

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(KATU News)
Small town votes (organized by a person named Miller!) to recall their mayor for posing in her underwear and posting pictures on MySpace. Not as tolerant as Pacific Grove’s residents with their own city councilperson with a racy photo past.

Carmen Kontur Gronquist Calendar

According to the person who spearheaded the recall drive, Ron Miller, the vote was 142 in favor and 139 against the recall of Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist.

She came under fire after she posted photos of herself posed in lingerie on a fire truck on her MySpace page.

But the voters weren’t really just angry about the picture, some said.

Miller said the recall vote was also about some of her decisions as mayor of the small town, located along Interstate 84 between The Dalles and Pendleton in the Columbia River Gorge. That included her management of the city golf course, where she eliminated two positions during the fall and winter. That apparently did not sit well with some of the big golfers in town.

As for Gronquist, she said she is selling a poster of herself on eBay. A portion of the proceeds, she said, will go to the Arlington city ambulance company.

Oregon Town Fires Mayor For Racy Pictures

If You Are The Butterflies, Show Me Your Badges

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Hey Monarchs, big brother is watching you..

Approximately 3,500 of the gold-black-and-white lepidoptera have been tagged by the Ventana Wildlife Society as part of the Monarch Alert project.

The tagging has been going on since 2001 but only recently in Pacific Grove, Johnson said, because Monarch Alert had to get a waiver from the Pacific Grove City Council to catch butterflies in the sanctuary and George Washington Park. A city ordinance levies a $500 fine for disturbing or molesting monarch butterflies.

If You Are The Butterflies, Show Me Your Badges

Seaside Driver Flees P.G. Cops, Meets P.G. Tree

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Driver was also arrested for drugs. Duh.

The officer gave chase, police said, and the driver of the Suzuki sped up, reaching speeds of more than 60 mph before he lost control of the car and ran into the power pole at Sinex and Dennett avenues.

The driver, Cameron Ferguson, 18, of Seaside, and a juvenile passenger, were taken to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula for observation, police said, while PG&E crews and firefighters cleared up the accident scene.

Seaside Driver Flees P.G. Cops, Meets P.G. Tree

Tow Surfers And Tow Craft Wipe Out

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Tow Surfing in P.G? Begging for hurt.

As officials warned residents to stay away from Central Coast beaches and bluffs, several surfers who braved the waves were uninjured after wiping out in giant breakers off Pacific Grove on Sunday.

Riding a personal watercraft shortly after noon, Ed Guzman tried to rescue a surfing friend he’d been towing amidst the 20-foot-plus surf off of Ocean View Boulevard and Coral Street when another large wave hit, the second in a towering set.

Guzman was washed off his craft, firefighters said.

Guzman, owner of Club Ed surfing school in Santa Cruz, was trying to aid his surfing partner, Don Curry, who had wiped out in a 25-foot wave and lost his board, said Monterey Fire Division Chief David Potter.

Tow Surfers And Tow Craft Wipe Out

Dog Owners Blame Others For Everything

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Mindy Barker? Sorry, gotta laugh at the pun.

Can a cause be not having your pet on a leash in an area that is not your private property? Sorry to sound cold, but would you let your dog run loose on Holman Highway too?

Owners pursue cause of dog’s death, mad about barely buried carcasses.

Mindy Barker believes what killed her dog was barely buried a few feet from a popular hiking trail used by many dog owners in the Del Monte Forest.

That day, Bode bounded into an area with fresh bulldozer tracks, soft ground, traces of black plastic bags poking through the dirt and the strong smell of decomposing flesh, she said. Before her husband could stop Bode, the dog picked up something and gulped it down. A few days later, Bode’s health started to decline.

 

Dog Owners Blame Others For Everything

iPod Nation II – Library Cuts Hours

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Apple Computer’s Steve Jobs says no one reads books anyway. More time for TV.

Pacific Grove Public Library will reduce its hours from 52 to 40 hours per week beginning March 3 as a result of library budget cuts.

The new hours will be 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays, and closed Sunday.

iPod Nation II – Library Cuts Hours

P.G. Looking To Save With Budget Cuts

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Budget cutback strategies approved by the Pacific Grove City Council this week are expected to save the city $2.8 million during the coming fiscal year.

The cutbacks include:

· $410,000 from the police budget by eliminating unfilled positions, including one sergeant, three police officers and a police services technician;

· $182,000 from the firefighting budget by eliminating three firefighter positions and full- and part-time office assistant positions, and reducing the part-time firefighter program;

· $296,000 from the administration budget, down 15 percent from the current budget;

· $410,000 from the public works budget, down 20 percent;

· $473,000 from the library, down 50 percent;

· $325,000 from recreation, down 34 percent; and

· $148,000 from the museum, down 52 percent.

P.G. Looking To Save With Budget Cuts

Parolee Busted For Burglary In P.G.

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Nyunt just told everyone we don’t lock our doors. Great.

They learned he was Jorge Gonzalez, a Seaside parolee whose prior convictions include burglary, possession of stolen property and resisting arrest.

Nyunt reported Gonzalez’s car contained numerous items that appeared to have been stolen, including cell phones, a GPS unit and a compressor. “We’re still trying to identify the victims,” he said. Gonzalez also allegedly possessed burglary tools, and Nyunt said he had been rummaging through boxes stored in the carport when the officer first spotted him.

“Individuals know that communities such as Pacific Grove and Carmel are considered a safe haven, and people don’t lock their doors,” Nyunt said, adding that residents persist in believing, “This is not going to happen here.”

Parolee Busted For Burglary In P.G.