John the Junketeer

WOOLLY COYOTE. Heads up! I heard from one of the OC Register's "watchdog" reporters today. I spoke with her a couple of months ago about trustee John "fiscally conservative" Williams and his junketeering ways. She's been waiting for public records that she requested of the district. She finally received them and will post soon—perhaps tomorrow.

OC Watchdog blog

On the phone with her today, I was reminded of the time that Williams defended his junkets to Florida (and Washington, D.C., etc.) by arguing that trustees have a duty to attend conferences:

1. Trustees have a duty to stay informed.
2. Trustees can stay informed only by attending trustee conferences.
3. Therefore, John has a duty to attend trustee conferences.

John interprets 3 as saying or implying that he, qua trustee, has a duty to attend trustee conferences in Florida. But no. That particular conclusion simply does not follow from 1 and 2.

John thinks that such manifest sophistry effectively responds to critics. Think of it!

Imagine so stupid a man running the county's Public Administrator/Public Guardian office. Surely such a man would screw it up and spend big money doing it.

And wangle a big car allowance besides.

(See also Fuentes gets hopping mad.)

OC FLOODING:

The OC Weekly’s Gustavo Arellano reminds us today about his own piece four years ago describing a certain famous rain and flood 62 years ago:

The tragedy of it all: Orange County’s own Hurricane Katrina: the Great Flood of 1938

Check it out.

SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE:

A few minutes ago, denizens of IVC received this curious email from Prez Roquemore's office:

This is an invitation to join President Roquemore as he shares his observations on the tragic Haiti earthquake on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010, from 4:30-5:00 p.m. in the PAC. He will share his insight, background, and some pending precautions to consider as we shake toward the ‘Big One’ in Cali.

President ROCKmore is indeed a geologist, and so—who knows?—maybe he has insights about this earthquake business.

And Yes! We need to think about our own imminent and inevitable earth-quakular disaster here in California. Good thinking! Plan ahead!

REPUBLICAN IDEOLOGICAL PURITY:

If you were to follow the endless demagogic chatter of OC Republican bloggers—and why on Earth would you do that?—you’d know that they’ve been buzzing and buzzing about a “big speech” to be given by their leader, local GOP chief Scott Baugh (Tom Fuentes’ successor).

Well, Baugh gave his speech last night, and so there’s even more buzzage.

Baugh is calling on the Central Committee to withhold endorsements of Republican candidates who take “public employee” union money.

But, as the OC Reg’s Martin Wisckol explains today (Some Republicans back away from leader’s call), “not all officials are climbing aboard”:

Here are some prominent Republicans and the amounts they took from Orange County employee unions in the 2008 election cycle (excluding independent expenditures). State Sens. Mimi Walters ($1,000) and Tom Harman ($4,400), Assemblymen Jeff Miller ($1,800) and Jim Silva ($3,000), and county Supervisors Chris Norby ($1,500), Janet Nguyen ($1,600) and Pat Bates ($500). The money came from the deputy sheriffs’, county employees’ and county firefighters’ unions. ¶ Baugh hopes to build a movement against generous employee pensions, which he believes is easier done when you don’t take union money. But not everyone in his party likes the strategy. ¶ “Behind the scenes, there has been anger from some elected officials because (Baugh’s speech) puts them on the spot,” said Red County CEO Chip Hanlon, who supports Baugh’s initiative.

Well, whatever.

You’ll recall that trustee Tom Fuentes sicced the OC Register’s Steve Greenhut on trustee John Williams a year ago because of the latter’s coziness with the Faculty Union.