Thursday, July 27, 2006
Losing Expertise and Windy Wendy
What the heck is going on at City Hall? At Wednesday night's
Parks & Recreation Commission meeting Jana Ransom, the head
of the Recreation Division, announced the departure of a couple
of her key people. I've also heard that at least one key person
in the Finance Department is departing.
Combine this with the recent departure of the Police Chief and the anticipated retirement of the Fire Chief and it looks like we've got trouble in River City! And, I'm led to believe that this may just be the beginning of an exodus of senior staffers who have become tired of dealing with the current council and the inane demands they place on the staff, so will take advantage of their retirement benefits and bail out.
For example, last night a couple hours were spent discussing Paularino Park. This issue is driven by one lone resident who complained so persistently about marauding soccer players in that park - no other residents have come forward with this complaint and Recreation staff and law enforcement do not see it as a problem - that hundreds of hours of staff time have been devoted to "fixing" a problem that doesn't exist. The resident in question - it will come as no surprise for you to learn - is the man who resembles my theoretical character, Your Neighbor.
I, for one, am getting very tired of this jerk tying up valuable staff time trying to accomplish his agenda. He spends hours each week skulking around City Hall, gathering information for his "little newsletter", er, blog. More often than not, he gathers bits and pieces, then fabricates an issue from whole cloth. This whole "Paularino Park" issue is just one of his many attempts to make life miserable for the Hispanics in this community. (Yes, I said "Hispanics". I don't have to follow the Los Angeles Times style book here in my blog, so I'll just go with the term the federal government uses.)
It's interesting to note that the Orange County blog world has discovered this guy and have pilloried him and his relationship with the majority on the City Council for most of the past couple weeks. It's about time someone else started shining the light of truth on him and his activities and agenda.
***
The Parks & Recreation Commission meeting last night was very enlightening. We had a chance to watch the Chairwoman, Wendy Leece, in action again.
Leece, the anointed running mate of our young jailer/mayor for a council seat in November, demonstrated for us again just how ill-prepared she is for any kind of a leadership role in our community. Even though she has several years on the School Board under her belt and 18 months on the Parks & Recreation Commission, she has absolutely no clue about how to run a meeting. She lacks focus and preparedness. She just talks and talks and talks until she runs out of things to say - then talks some more. Watching her attempt to discuss an issue is like watching someone watching a tennis match. She twists her head from side to side, attempting to be sure she's got her peers attention - like some kind of drug-crazed owl. I half expect her to do an impersonation of Linda Blair in The Exorcist one of these evenings, with her head spinning like a top! Watching her try to conduct these meetings is like watching a Tupperware party, except without all the cool burping boxes. Leece maintains no discipline on the dais - it's all chatter, all the time. She certainly doesn't have the skill set to perform on the City Council. It was especially frustrating watching her pander to the activist mentioned above, although not at all surprising, since she's one of his devoted disciples.
I suspect watching her during her campaign will be like watching someone trying to cross a stream by jumping from one slippery rock to the next. I'm betting she'll get her feet wet more than once on that journey.
10:18 am pdt
Combine this with the recent departure of the Police Chief and the anticipated retirement of the Fire Chief and it looks like we've got trouble in River City! And, I'm led to believe that this may just be the beginning of an exodus of senior staffers who have become tired of dealing with the current council and the inane demands they place on the staff, so will take advantage of their retirement benefits and bail out.
For example, last night a couple hours were spent discussing Paularino Park. This issue is driven by one lone resident who complained so persistently about marauding soccer players in that park - no other residents have come forward with this complaint and Recreation staff and law enforcement do not see it as a problem - that hundreds of hours of staff time have been devoted to "fixing" a problem that doesn't exist. The resident in question - it will come as no surprise for you to learn - is the man who resembles my theoretical character, Your Neighbor.
I, for one, am getting very tired of this jerk tying up valuable staff time trying to accomplish his agenda. He spends hours each week skulking around City Hall, gathering information for his "little newsletter", er, blog. More often than not, he gathers bits and pieces, then fabricates an issue from whole cloth. This whole "Paularino Park" issue is just one of his many attempts to make life miserable for the Hispanics in this community. (Yes, I said "Hispanics". I don't have to follow the Los Angeles Times style book here in my blog, so I'll just go with the term the federal government uses.)
It's interesting to note that the Orange County blog world has discovered this guy and have pilloried him and his relationship with the majority on the City Council for most of the past couple weeks. It's about time someone else started shining the light of truth on him and his activities and agenda.
***
The Parks & Recreation Commission meeting last night was very enlightening. We had a chance to watch the Chairwoman, Wendy Leece, in action again.
Leece, the anointed running mate of our young jailer/mayor for a council seat in November, demonstrated for us again just how ill-prepared she is for any kind of a leadership role in our community. Even though she has several years on the School Board under her belt and 18 months on the Parks & Recreation Commission, she has absolutely no clue about how to run a meeting. She lacks focus and preparedness. She just talks and talks and talks until she runs out of things to say - then talks some more. Watching her attempt to discuss an issue is like watching someone watching a tennis match. She twists her head from side to side, attempting to be sure she's got her peers attention - like some kind of drug-crazed owl. I half expect her to do an impersonation of Linda Blair in The Exorcist one of these evenings, with her head spinning like a top! Watching her try to conduct these meetings is like watching a Tupperware party, except without all the cool burping boxes. Leece maintains no discipline on the dais - it's all chatter, all the time. She certainly doesn't have the skill set to perform on the City Council. It was especially frustrating watching her pander to the activist mentioned above, although not at all surprising, since she's one of his devoted disciples.
I suspect watching her during her campaign will be like watching someone trying to cross a stream by jumping from one slippery rock to the next. I'm betting she'll get her feet wet more than once on that journey.
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