Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

˜Albert Einstein˜

Well, the short answer is that someone (people) with the ability to approve spending large sums of taxpayer money to settle personal vendetta did so.  Or it could be that half-assed attorneys gave half-assed legal advice for the purpose of building up billable hours?

Today, I obtained two bits of information.  First, I now have a copy of the Judge Alvarez’s ruling on the county’s motion for summary judgment in Uffer v. County of San Bernardino.  Read it here:  UfferMSJ

Once you read it, then answer the following questions:

1. The county of San Bernardino paid not one, not two, not three, but four attorneys to appear at this hearing to argue the county’s case.  This included flying one in from Oakland because apparently the other three were not quite competent enough.  Is this a good use of taxpayer money?
2. According to a response I received on a CPRA request I received today, the cost of attorneys so far in this case is $782,452.20, not including uninvoiced/unpaid fees already encumbered.  I hear the real total is over $1 million.  Would you say the county is getting its money’s worth?

I also submitted a CPRA request for the case against the Public Attorneys Association.  The county lost that case big time and then lost again when the PAA asked for legal fees.  The county appealed the judge’s decision in granting the PAA attorneys fees for filing a frivolous case against the PAA.  Rather than just paying up, it appealed to the Fourth District Court of Appeal.  How much as this cost taxpayers so far in attorney’s fees?  So far it has cost $92,055.00.

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For those of you who believe them when they say they feel our pain, take a look at what they currently make and see if you agree. Click on the image to enlarge it.

As simple-minded as Josie’s proposed reforms are, it is hard to believe she came up with them on her own. They have Greg Devereaux written all over them.

Let’s take a look at them:

1) Direct the county chief executive Greg Devereaux to research and provide recommendations requiring standardized contracts for supervisor staff and regular work performance evaluations consistent with other county employees

So who benefits by standardized contracts?  Devereaux.  But the rest of the recommendation is interesting. Typically, county work performance evaluations consists of up to eight categories, an overall score, and verification of step increase, sick leave usage, and car insurance.  What would a BOS employee work performance evaluation look like?  Here are some suggestions:

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Not to sound  like a broken record or anything, but when I was sent the link to the story below in the Press Enterprise calling for Supervisor Neil Derry’s resignation, I was 98 percent disgusted with the yellow journalism at the PE for the past two days and 2 percent feeling a bit satisfied.  I have to completely agree with Jim about Cassie’s column.  Her bias towards Dennis Hansberger was obvious.

But what is more disturbing is that no one at the PE seems to be able to do one iota of investigative reporting.  They are taking the AG’s affidavit as though it was written by God himself whose integrity should not be questioned.  The AG lied in that affidavit but no one at the PE is able to do  even a minimal amount of research to verify the “facts.”  At least the Sun tried to write balanced stories, although those reporters could have done a little more investigative research as well.

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