That shitty crew we call the OC Board of Supervisors

Moorlach sure can pick 'em. Sitting with pals Phil "Shyster" Greer and Chriss "Fraudster" Street.

     Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach has a blog, you know. It’s called “John Moorlach’s Postings.”
     A few days ago, he blogged about the PA/PG—i.e., John Williams, former SOCCCD trustee and pie enthusiast.
     Moorlach wrote:

     There is a philosophy floating around certain political circles that once you’re voted into a countywide position, you don’t have to do much. You can enjoy traveling to conferences. You can spend time on the golf course. You can pontificate on the issues of the day. You can go to functions and be introduced. Just let staff run the department and enjoy the spoils of being elected.

     Naturally, our hero, Mr. Moorlach, opposes this philosophy.
     He’s describing Williams, of course.
     Are we supposed to be impressed? Edified?

Williams

     Now, despite Williams’ manifest mediocrity (just look at 'im; or listen to him speak a sentence, any sentence), back ten or so years ago, Moorlach jumped aboard the Williams bandwagon and promoted the ridiculous fellow.
     Why? Was it the way Williams wears piety and patriotism on his sleeve? His' boyish charm? His winning way with little old ladies?
     There were early signs of Williams’ incompetence and willingness to exploit the perks of his position. Moorlach did not notice. The evidence mounted.
     Eventually, seven years into the Williams regime, there were those two "scathing" Grand Jury reports. The Supes blew 'em off. (I recall a meeting I and three others had with new Supervisor Shawn "Gasbag" Nelson about Williams; Nelson scoffed when I mentioned the Grand Jury. He was visibly annoyed. Evidently, he was expressing the received view among Supervisors. "Don't even get me started with the
Grand Jury," he bellowed.)
     But some of us pressed the Williams issue. We wouldn't let it go. New facts came to light. Some were very serious. And there were troubling connections between Williams and other OC officials. Williams seemed to be part of that asshole network for pious-but-vicious-and-greedy Republicans that nearly everybody in this County seems to tolerate.
     The DA's girlfriend, eh? And Tom Fuentes arranging meetings with important people. And unaccountable over-reactions to ADA phone calls. What does it all mean?
     Oh my.
     After a while, the clever Mr. Moorlach started to get a freakin' clue. He seemed to be an inch ahead of the other Supes (though miles behind any one of Williams' critics).
     Moorlach ain’t much, that's for sure, but he’s probably the best of that shitty crew we call the OC Board of Supervisors.
     Good Lord. Good freakin' Lord.

1. Janet Nguyen  2. John Moorlach  3. Bill Campbell  4. Shawn "Gasbag" Nelson  5. Pat Bates

"most invisible elected powers escape real scrutiny"

     Up in Los Angeles, the most excellent blog LA Observed notices what we've known for years: the LA Times and other media do not cover college board politics.

excerpt:

The Times' usual practice with the college board has been to send an unlucky reporter who knows little to nothing about the issues or the candidates to spend a day or two on a pre-election roundup. This time that story ran March 2, and it mostly lists names and lets the incumbents say why they should be reelected. Once again, L.A.'s most invisible elected powers escape real scrutiny. And like with Bell, which Times editors decided years ago to stop covering, people are shocked to discover that once the media looks away there are problems.

     They discuss this in the wake of the Times' six-part series on the fiasco of the college district 5.7 billion construction program — and in the context of tomorrow's election.
     To read the LA Observed blog post in its entirety, click here.

A prayer about Ronald Reagan in the Ronald Reagan meeting room

     At last Monday’s meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees, trustee Tom Fuentes did the invocation. He laid it on pretty thick, and even managed to throw in a mildly offensive reference to Ronald Reagan.
     He prayed as follows:

Let us pray. Almighty and eternal God, you the God of whom we say, “in God we trust”; you the God of whom we ask, “God bless America”; you the God of whom we speak when we proclaim our people to be “one nation under God”; we ask you to bless our gathering this evening. We ask you to guide us in our decision-making; we ask you to bless all those who work in our district to educate and serve our students; we ask you to bless all the students who come to learn; we ask you to bless the people of the South Orange County Community College District. And in this month of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan, whose role in the founding of this college and of our district was so critical, we remember him. Amen.

     To see the prayer, go to District’s streaming media archives.
     Scroll down; click on VIDEO for the February 28 meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees.
     That should open the video player (Mac users, use Firefox).
     Fuentes’ invocation starts at exactly one minute into the meeting.

Tommy Tales: lobbying plus piety. Genius!

     In this morning’s OC Reg (Water executives wined and dined, report says), Teri Sforza reports the excessive spending—on dinners, hotels, and wine—by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. According to a San Diego Union Tribute report, says Teri, one MWD lunch cost $1,861.50, including six bottles of wine costing $55 each!
     Who do these people think they are, John Williams?!
     You’ve gotta watch those water board people. And boards generally, I guess.
     And you’ve gotta watch those who lobby boards, too--although, evidently, the OC Board of Supes doesn't really think so. (They've notoriously resisted efforts to pursue lobbyist registration in the County.)
     I’m reminded of the time that Tom Fuentes and a pal wined and dined a local water district board for the sake of securing juicy contracts for their employer (at the time), Robert Bein, William Frost & Associates.
     Some people started using the dreaded “G” word. There was an FBI investigation. Soon, Tom left BFA.
     Check out this Times article from 1993:

O.C. Company's Gift-Giving Gets Attention (LA Times, 1993)

     …[Robert Bein, William Frost & Associates or RBF] employs the services of two well-known political figures—county Republican Party chairman Thomas Fuentes and Costa Mesa City Councilman Peter F. Buffa, who also sits on the agency overseeing the San Joaquin Hills toll road.

     RBF has given officeholders tens of thousands of dollars' worth of gifts and campaign donations. And it has hosted many politicians at special company events, such as an annual Christmas party aboard a yacht in Newport Harbor and an Easter prayer breakfast at Le Meridien Hotel in Newport Beach.

     The company appears to have developed a particularly close relationship with top officials at the Santa Margarita Water District.

     RBF has provided district General Manager Walter W. (Bill) Knitz and his assistant, Michael P. Lord, with nearly $14,000 worth of meals, trips and other gifts in recent years—at the same time the firm was receiving about $13 million in engineering work from the water district.

     The FBI and the Orange County district attorney are now seeking to determine whether Lord and his boss violated federal or state laws governing the gifts that public officials can receive from people who have business before them. 

    Friday, both water district officials were suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigations.

--That Easter prayer breakfast bit, that's a nice touch. Lobbying plus piety. Genius!

See also:

Guiding With an Iron Hand (LA Times, 7/11/96)

Excerpt:

     Until last year, Fuentes served for nearly 20 years as vice president of Robert Bein William Frost and Associates, a large Orange County engineering firm.

     Fuentes performed mostly personnel work for the firm and sometimes lobbied public agencies for contracts. Fuentes had a trademark: a dozen long-stemmed roses for select local politicians.

     "Do elected officials take my phone calls because I am party chairman?" Fuentes asked. "Yes. But the overwhelming majority of my work was internal."

     Earlier last year [i.e., early 1995], Fuentes left the firm. He said he did so because he had an opportunity to sell his large stake in the company at a good price.

     Company President Bob Kallenbaugh would not comment on the reasons for Fuentes' departure, but he said the firm and Fuentes are on good terms.

     Early last year, while still with the company, Fuentes lobbied members of the Anaheim City Council for the appointment of Tom Tait. Tait was appointed to the City Council in January 1995. Shortly afterward, in March 1995, Fuentes became a vice president at Tait and Associates, an Orange engineering firm where Tait is president.
     Both Fuentes and Tait insist there was no link between Tait's appointment to the council and Tait's hiring of Fuentes a month later.

SEE ALSO:

● Firm Spent $12,000 on Water District Workers (LA Times, 1994)

● Water Officials Told to Report Past Gifts (LA Times, 1994)

Bob Park: The Truth is Out There

Santa Ana: August, 1965. Never satisfactorily explained.

MASS EXTINCTIONS: FIVE OVER THE COURSE OF 540 MILLION YEARS.
     The extinction of species is to be expected in a violent universe; that's why we have paleontologists. They have identified five mass extinctions over the past 540 million years in which the number of species declined by over 75% in a geologically brief interval. These mass extinctions mark the end of the Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Triassic and Cretaceous Periods. Recovery from each of these episodes took millions of years. There is a growing conviction among paleobiologists that Earth is on the brink of mass extinction—six. The only exception is Homo sapiens. By any measure, Homo sapiens is thriving at the expense of wild species. Now numbering almost seven billion, the population has doubled since Paul Ehrlich published the Population Bomb (Oxford, 1968) which warned of mass starvation by the turn- of-the-century.

BRITISH UFO FILES: THE TRUTH IS STILL OUT THERE.
     Yesterday, the British National Archives released thousands of pages of files related to UFO sightings. The only mystery is why this crap was kept secret or kept at all. It served only to fuel the UFO myth. Within hours of the release, a new cover-up had emerged. The British government admitted that the files on the Rendlesham Forest Incident have disappeared. That must be the file with the unequivocal evidence of a space-alien conspiracy. I was sympathetic. A decade earlier, pressured by Rep. Stephen Schiff (NM), the US Air Force sent everything it had on UFOs, to the US National Archives in a number of huge wooden crates. Along with a historian, I was asked to be present when the crates were opened and verify that the contents were not tampered with. In addition to paper, there were films and photographs and some hardware. Much of it seemed to have little or no connection to the UFO controversy. That so much could have been made of so little, indeed of nothing at all, continues to amaze me.

Cat peevitude

GOP connections, fiascos, and the hefty pricetag

How Much Could the Williams’ Fiasco Cost Taxpayers? (Voice of OC)

     …[T]he big question facing supervisors is whether to agree to hand [OC Public Administrator/Guardian John] Williams the payoff he seeks in exchange for resigning – estimated at a year or more of salary – which he argues he secured when voters re-elected him to office in 2010.
     Yet voices are rising against offering Williams any kind of payoff, complicating the negotiations.
. . .
     Williams assent was a byproduct of his local GOP connections, cruising into office with solid endorsements from GOP heavyweights such as County Supervisor John Moorlach.
     Yet by 2009, he was under fire from the county's grand jury, which issued two scathing reports that criticized Williams' growing bureaucracy and management staff….
     He also was the focus of a county audit that looked at his extensive travel, questioning whether he could legitimately charge taxpayers for work when he was off on educational conferences connected to his work as a school district trustee.
     Moorlach turned against Williams hard, especially after the grand jury reports, removing his endorsement before the 2010 election and becoming a vocal opponent.
. . .
     Both [Bill] Campbell and [Janet] Nguyen have now called for Williams' resignation.
     And while Williams won re-election to countywide office last June, in what could have been seen as a harbinger of Williams' collapsing support base, he lost re-election to the OC Republican Central Committee that same month.
     Those kinds of political insiders, so key to Williams' quiet rise, are now the very ones telling supervisors to play hardball as Williams tries to negotiate his way out.

"Surprise information" derailed action

from the Register:

     The fate of Public Administrator/Public Guardian John S. Williams is expected to be resolved in the next few days, county supervisors said following a special closed door meeting Friday morning.
     County supervisors have called for Williams to resign from office while the county is in the midst of restructuring his troubled agency. The move comes in the wake of intense criticism, the board’s vote Tuesday to strip him of his public guardian role and a lawsuit against the county for the handling of the multi-million dollar estate of TapouT co-founder Charles “Mask” Lewis.
     Williams has offered to step down from office in return for certain considerations that so far have not been made public, but the supervisors did not vote on whether to accept the terms. Supervisor Shawn Nelson said “surprise information” given to supervisors at Friday’s closed session derailed a planned discussion on a number of options to deal with Williams’ position.“If that information is accurate, we may not have to vote at all,” Nelson said. “It would make all of this a moot point.”
     Nelson declined to elaborate on the new information.
     “We’ve got to do what we think is prudent to protect the people of the County of Orange,” Nelson said.

To read the rest, click here.

Shades of the South: Hate Comes to Orange County

     Remember scenes from the civil rights era in the South? You know, those scenes outside newly integrated schools when whites gathered to heckle black students and their families, their faces utterly distorted by hatred and fear?
     Well, take a look at this:



     This is footage from the February 13, 2011 fundraiser dinner for ICNA Relief in nearby Yorba Linda. (Bear with it. It starts a little slow and at first you can make out what people are saying - but then it becomes all too clear. 6 minutes in length.)
     ICNA Relief is the social services branch of the Islamic Circle of North America, a leading American Muslim organization. The dinner raised money for social services projects. You know, homeless shelters, hunger programs, etc. The video was produced by CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
     People attending the annual dinner were met by protesters and speakers such as local elected officials, including Rebel Girl's own congressman Gary Miller, his fellow congressman Ed Royce and Villa Park councilwoman Deborah Pauly who appears to openly advocated murder:

     "Let me tell you what's going on over there is pure, unadulterated evil. And I don't care . . . I don't even care if you think I'm crazy anymore. I have a beautiful daughter. I have a wonderful 19-year-old son who is a U.S. Marine. In fact, I know quite a few Marines who would be happy to send these terrorists to an early meeting in paradise."

     Watch and see.
     The footage of young children as they walked by the flag-waving hate-spewing protesters is especially disturbing. It's not hard for Rebel Girl to imagine this happening to her students, to yours.
     It's getting increasingly ugly out there folks.
     Those of us who haven't yet done so need to find a way to stand with the people who are on the receiving end of this kind of hatred.
     We need to condemn our local public officials who showed up and sanctioned this kind of behavior.
     Congressman Gary Miller: Call his office in Washington. Offfice is open M-F 8-5:30 EST - 202-225-3201
     Congressman Ed Royce: His Washington office: (202) 225-4111
     Villa Park Councilwoman Deborah Pauly: dpauly@villapark.org
     If you've never done this before, welcome to democracy. Don't be afraid. Think about how those people walking by those protesters felt. Hell, think about those brave Egyptians in Tahrir Square.
     Don't be afraid of picking up the telephone or writing and email whether or not you live in their districts or not. We all live in the same country.
     Be more afraid of what might happen if you don't.

*
See also Video: Councilwoman condemns Muslim speakers

The Machine

Tom has labored over the machine for decades.

     The blogosphere is abuzz with talk of John Williams’ impending resignation and speculation about the kind of “deal” he’ll get from his clueless and hinky bosses, the OC Supes--who heedlessly built Williams up and who refused to fire him when his incompetence became plain.
     The yammering was set off by an OC Reg “Total Buzz” piece earlier today (we posted excerpts).
     Not long ago, Todd Spitzer posted a lengthy comment to that Reg piece. Unsurprisingly, Spitzer thinks that Williams should be fired and that he should not continue to receive any sort of County salary.
     —And get this. Two prominent flacks for the Fuentean cronyistic corruption that is OC political leadership—John Fleischman and Matt Cunningham—have decided to post Spitzer’s remarks, sans commentary:

• Todd Spitzer Weighs In On News Of Public Administrator Williams' Possible Resignation (in Red County [operated by Cunningham])
• Todd Spitzer: OC Supervisors Should Not Cut Any Deals With Public Administrator John Williams (in Flashreport [operated by Fleischman])

     Check out Spitzer’s comment (I've trimmed it a bit):

   Some believe that Williams … is trying to coerce Supervisors into believing that he is owed his entire four year salary irrespective of the stripping of his duties as Public Guardian at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting…. I simply ask: “Where else, but in big government, can an elected official be deemed incompetent on a 5-0 vote and still expect to receive his entire four year salary?
   This is a long, complicated story, about how Williams’ went from being elected Public Administrator to also becoming the appointed Public Guardian. But what is clear: after two Grand Jury investigations against him and his administration, his hiring of politically connected insiders who he thought could shield against his incompetence and his arrogance of power for going after personal estates of those who died without a will … so that Williams could generate enough estate administrative fees to offset his inappropriate personnel promotions and pension spiking, he now wants out—but on his terms of course. That … means more money and/or pension credits.
   There are three strong reasons that the Supervisors do not need to pay Williams one more dime as Public Guardian. First, the County Ordinance that merged the elected Public Adminstrator with the appointed Public Guardian clearly allows for the separation of those offices by the Supervisors at any time….
   Second, at the time he filed for re-election for Public Administrator, he had just escaped a 3-2 vote allowing him to remain as Public Guardian on December 5, 2009. …[H]e had absolutely no expectation that he would be guaranteed the Public Guardian position….
   Lastly, he is one of the only department heads that has retained outside legal counsel to advise him and speak on his behalf. …[U]nmerging an elected and appointed position does not impact the electorate’s decision. In addition, a 1953 Attorney General opinion allows a governing board that appoints an elected official to additional duties … to be stripped of those appointed duties at any time during the elected four year term.
   Right now someone thinks that John Williams has leverage to strong arm the Supervisors into a settlement. I can understand why the Board needs him out [of the] Public Guardian/Public Administrator’s office. The place has to function. To accomplish the same goal, he should be placed on administrative leave for his role as the Public Guardian until the ordinance is in effect on March 15. The Public Administrator’s office should immediately be segregated from all operations of the Public Guardian. At the same time, the Board should refers its confidential investigation of Williams to the Grand Jury who has the ability to remove an elected official from office, in this case, Williams as the Public Administrator. The Grand Jury should immediately commence a review of all the investigative work that has been done to date and make a decision about Williams’ fate.
   There is no doubt now that John Williams has been an ineffective and incompetent administrator. It has cost him his job. At the same time, why should the taxpayer suffer and have to pay Williams another bloated salary and/or pension pay-off?
   This would not be tolerated in the private sector. We hear all the time how we need to make government work like the private sector. This case needs to be the stake in the ground. There can be no clearer example of why the Board should show Williams the door. Not only the door of the Public Guardian’s office but also the door of the courthouse. Because that’s where Williams should have to go to explain why his incompetence should be rewarded with taxpayer’s hard earned money.

     Well, I guess we’ll see what happens—tomorrow.
     It's starting to look bad for the Machine. My oh my.

See also John Williams Offers to Resign as Orange County Public Administrator/Public Guardian (OC Weekly)

Fookin’ Prawns?

     I invite you to check out "Fookin’ Prawns,” posted today on the Orange County Blue Philosopher blog. It’s written by student Alex Villarreal.
     It’s about aliens, sort of.

Endgame for an incompetent (What's it all about, Tommy?)

Tom often arranges for pals to suck on the public teat

Endgame Begins for Public Administrator John Williams (Voice of OC)

     “Voice of OC first reported the private negotiations in early February after a private attorney hired to review Williams' operations concluded he was incompetent and exposing the county to liability, according to those who have been briefed on the report, which was never put in writing….”

     —I wanna hear from John's mentor and handler, Tom Fuentes. Where are you Tom? Got anything at all to say? Please tell us why you do the things you do. Tell us about your network of creeps, past and present. Why, Tom?  Why?
     At long last:
     What's it all about?

There's the exit

Public Administrator proposes resignation (OC Register; Kimberly Edds)

     Public Administrator/Public Guardian John S. Williams’ possible resignation from office will be the subject of a special closed session Board of Supervisors meeting Friday, Chairman Bill Campbell confirmed….

     Ah, yes, but will the fellow still be paid? How much?
     And will we ever see the district's "review" of Williams' office?
     Transparency is good, no?
     Oh, I forgot. It's OC.

“They need to learn how to learn”

CUNY Adjusts Amid Tide of Remedial Students (New York Times)

     The City University of New York has long spent much of its energy and resources just teaching new students what they need to begin taking college-level courses.
     But that tide of remedial students has now swelled so large that the university’s six community colleges — like other two-year schools across the country — are having to rethink what and how they teach, even as they reel from steep cuts in state and local aid.
     About three-quarters of the 17,500 freshmen at the community colleges this year have needed remedial instruction in reading, writing or math, and nearly a quarter of the freshmen have required such instruction in all three subjects. In the past five years, a subset of students deemed “triple low remedial” — with the most severe deficits in all three subjects — has doubled, to 1,000.
     The reasons are familiar but were reinforced last month by startling new statistics from state education officials: fewer than half of all New York State students who graduated from high school in 2009 were prepared for college or careers, as measured by state Regents tests in English and math. In New York City, that number was 23 percent.
. . .
     “Most students have serious challenges remembering the basic rules of arithmetic,” Dr. [Jerry G.] Ianni said of his remedial math class. “The course is really a refresher, but they aren’t ready for a refresher. They need to learn how to learn.”
. . .
     The knowledge gap at community colleges is increasingly being recognized as a national problem. About 65 percent of all community college students nationwide need some form of remedial education, with students’ shortcomings in math outnumbering those in reading by 2 to 1, said Thomas R. Bailey, director of the Community College Research Center at Teachers College at Columbia University.
     Nationwide, as at CUNY, fewer than half of students directed to take one or more remedial classes — “developmental education” is the term administrators prefer — complete them.
. . .
     Throughout high school, I was a good math student, and to find out that it was my lowest grade of all three was really surprising,” said Mr. Payero, who graduated from the High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry....

More Williams ignominy: "no confidence"

Team Fuentes

"No comment."

Supervisors: Public Administrator should resign (OC Reg)

     County supervisors are calling for beleaguered Public Administrator John S. Williams to resign from office as they systematically restructure his troubled agency in the wake of intense criticism and a lawsuit over the handling of the multi-million dollar estate of TapouT co-founder Charles “Mask” Lewis.
. . .
     Chairman Bill Campbell told us he talked to Williams personally and suggested he resign.“It would be best for him, the county and the citizens,” Campbell said.
. . .
     Supervisors gave unanimous preliminary approval Tuesday to voiding a 2007 county ordinance which made the elected public administrator the ex-officio public guardian. If the change is adopted, a new public guardian would be in place April 14 to head the newly created Orange County Public Guardian Department.
. . .
     “He certainly received a vote of no confidence yesterday,” said Vice Chairman John Moorlach Wednesday. “The best thing for everyone involved would be for him to resign.”
     “He’s not fit to run the office at this time,” said Supervisor Janet Nguyen. “We need to move on.”
. . .
     “We have absolutely no comment,” said Williams’ attorney, GOP insider Phil Greer, when reached by phone Wednesday.
. . .

     If Williams refuses to step down, an Orange County grand jury can be convened to remove an elected official from office based on improper performance, Campbell said....
     The county can also reduce Williams’ pay to reflect his responsibilities as the public administrator and not the public guardian as a way to pressure Williams to step down, Campbell said….
. . .
     Renewed calls for reform were made last fall after then-Assistant District Attorney Todd Spitzer was fired by District Attorney Tony Rackauckas after he made a call to the Public Guardian’s office regarding a case. Rackauckas’s fiancé, Peggi Buff, is the assistant public administrator/public guardian.
     “It took real courage for the Supervisors to unanimously put aside politics to expose the corruption at the management level of the Public Guardian’s Office,” Spitzer said. “We are all shocked at the political interests who have a stake in the operations of that department. Now a new Public Guardian can actually protect the public.”
     “We cannot tolerate John Williams’ personal interests and the interest of his political cronies to butt in where big government has no business,” Spitzer said....

Great fall: coming soon

A furry troll

Furry troll

     SHIRTLESS CHAPMANIAN REPUBLICANS. Just wanted to mention that our pal Vern is having fun today with Chapman U. I even joined in the fun.

     THE IVC "MASTER PLAN." I keep meaning to report on that big “master planning” all-college meeting at IVC the other day, but I’ve been way too busy, what with a job and all (plus a four-and-a-half hour DMV experience yesterday). I could only attend the first half hour of the meeting, and things only started jumpin’ after I left.
     I’m told that, at the meeting, administration announced that there will be some kind of Humanities and Languages Building after all! Haven’t nailed down the details yet. Something about a two story version of a remodeled A400—and then the construction of something new, a couple of years later. I'll try to nail down the specifics.
     So I guess some of that caterwauling (not just DtB's) that “humanists” have been doing in the last few weeks has produced results. Good.
     Evidently, gkkworks (the architectural/planning/construction firm) was overwhelmed by the fact that people actually emailed ideas to ‘em; so they weren’t prepared to, like, write back or nothin’. Their little gizmo with the rat wheel flat broke down. That explains their blowin' off our inputtery. That's the story, anyway.

     THE "INDIAN" CONNECTION. I’ve been doing a little research, and it turns out that gkkworks is guided by a fella named Praful Kulkarni. According to his bio,

Kulkarni started GKK Corporation in 1991, backed by two investors whom he bought out within five years. Besides expanding throughout California, he wanted to establish operations in India—both to secure work in that country as well as tap into less expensive labor for its projects in the U.S.

     He's from India, eh? Outsourcing to the homeland, are we?
     Well, one of my top secret imbedded sources (Deep Coat) recently told me that there’s some kinda district or professional rule according to which these companies are supposed to be “rotated” so that they don’t get worrisomely cozy with our district/colleges. And that rotation thing doesn’t seem to apply to gkkworks: they were involved in ATEP planning/construction and, of course, they’re now involved in planning the next phase of construction at the two colleges.
     So why, I asked, is gkkworks an exception to this rule? What gives?
     Deep Coat stared at me in silence.
     I said: “Um, could it be that the former Chancellor, Raghu P. Mathur was pleased to find that the Big Cheese at gkkworks hails from India?” I asked.
     Deep Coat didn’t move a muscle. He continued to stare.
     But his eyes danced.
     Well, that’s good enough for me!

     AN UGLY, FURRY TROLL. Recently, some (all?) of us received a slightly outré invitation from the "Project Director" of the “Teacher Preparation Pipeline Grant,” whatever that is. According to the email,

The Office of Career Technical Education and Workforce Development at Irvine Valley College is excited to offer you the opportunity to present the best of your teaching tips and tools--those things that you wish you had known when you first started teaching--at one of our Teacher Preparation Pipeline (TPP) workshops this spring at IVC. The college will be conducting a series of workshops to support new, adjunct and full-time instructors in their professional development endeavors surrounding teaching and learning.

     Well, OK, whatever.
     Oddly, next, somebody named Robert emailed the whole freakin' universe with the following grammatically subcollegiate response:

Thank you for the invitation I am not interested.

     OK.
     But then we were all spammed with this further response from the notorious Patrick Fennel of Saddleback College:

Is this for real? Count me out of your Cult Re-education Program—Patrick J. Fennell, Ph.D

     I don’t often hear from Patrick, but when I do, it’s always something like this.
     Cult Re-education Program? A bit of an over-reaction, doncha think?
     Patrick is a theatrical fellow. Years ago, I was at a restaurant somewhere down in South County with a friend. Suddenly, two booths over, an ugly, furry little troll stood up. It pointed at me (like Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers) and bellowed:

     “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword!”

     The poor fellow trembled like a leaf. It was as though he were challenging Beelzebub Hisself!
     My companion looked at me and asked, “Who the hell is that?”
     “Ignore him,” I said. “It’s just Patrick J. Fennell.”

     NANCY’S ON THE CASE! Be sure to check out Tere’s most recent SOCCCD “Update.” It includes the immortal lines, “‘I can see him breathing and sweating,’ [Padberg] said.” The “him” is none other than Homer, “a wireless high fidelity human patient simulator.”

Patrick J. Fennell spotted on campus with two pals:

Resign

'I Believe John Should Resign' (Voice of OC)

     …"I believe John should resign," said Supervisors' Chairman Bill Campbell after the supervisors' unanimous vote.... He added that Williams is "in over his head."
     "Actions speak louder than words," said Supervisor Shawn Nelson when asked why supervisors didn't say a word from the dais before voting on Williams' future.
. . .
     There are also questions about the fate of William's second-in-command, Peggi Buff — who is also Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas' fiancé. Nelson, for one, said political appointees like Buff should not be spared if their boss gets the ax.
. . .
     "It's an area that needs an expertise he doesn't have," Campbell said. "I'm disappointed in myself for not figuring out sooner that he was in over his head."....

Below is the resolution read for John Williams at the December meeting of the BOT.

Click on the graphic to make it larger

Split

Supervisors agree to split public administrator and public guardian (OC Reg)

     The Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to strip beleaguered Public Administrator John S. Williams of his public guardian duties and appoint a successor. The supervisors are struggling to clean up the agency, which has come under intense criticism, including a lawsuit accusing the county of negligence for allegedly mismanaging the multi-million estate of Tapout co-founder Charles “Mask” Lewis.
. . .
     Williams, who is elected public administrator and appointed public guardian, did not appear at the meeting and has not spoken out publicly about the proposal. Neither he nor his private attorney, GOP insider Phil Greer, responded to requests for comments.
     The Board of Supervisors last month agreed to hire an executive manager to overhaul the culture of the troubled department and make immediate personnel and policy changes. County Chief Executive Officer Tom Mauk has proposed having that manager take over the county’s public guardian role: Overseeing the affairs of the elderly or ill who have no one to watch out for them.
     Vice Chairman John Moorlach, who proposed the 2007 ordinance to combine the two positions, apologized for the ordinance Tuesday and expressed frustration that repeated requests for reform fell on deaf ears.
     “John Williams was not what I would call a fully engaged and proficient department head,” Moorlach said. “I guess I’ve been let down by someone in a key management role…I had better hopes.”….

• In related news, County Supervisor (and gasbag) Shawn Nelson has “decided upon his wife, Sharon, as the Fourth District's newest addition to the Council board of Directors.” (See here.)

Supervisor Shawn Nelson

Part 2 of the Times series on LACCD construction

Katbi

A new complex riddled with ills that are costly to cure (LA Times)

     The opening of a new health and science center at Los Angeles Valley College should have been cause for celebration. The complex included the first new classroom building on the campus in more than three decades. There were chemistry and biology labs, a greenhouse, an aviary, even mock hospital rooms for nurse training.
     But when students and professors poured through the doors, excitement quickly turned to dismay….
. . .
     Nizar Katbi, founder and president of FTR [in Irvine], defended his company's performance. In an interview, he said FTR met its obligations even though architectural plans were often vague and energy-conservation features posed difficult challenges.
     "Every problem brought to our attention has been addressed and taken care of," Katbi said.
     Dozens of interviews and a review of hundreds of internal e-mails and other documents tell a different story….