Looks like the "review" of the Public Administrator/Guardian will be "confidential." Good grief!!

Tim Kay

     Pen Pal alerted me to the agenda for the October 19 meeting of the OC Board of Supervisors—which can be found here at the county website.
     There, one will find a revision:

S45A. County Counsel - Direct County Executive Officer to conduct an investigation and review of the Public Administrator/Public Guardian office and ratify agreement with Snell & Wilmer, LLP for professional legal services and file a confidential report by 11/1/10 - All Districts

     There’s a link. S45A is a request from County Executive Officer Thomas Mauk for a “supplemental.” The reason: ratification of agreement with Snell and Wilmer, L.L.P. (attorney Timothy Kay) for “review of Public Administrator/Public Guardian.” Evidently, the request is an exception to something called Rule 21.
     Here’s the first page of the agreement, followed by a detail:

Click on graphic to enlarge

     This is from Page 2:

Click on graphic to enlarge

John "Orlando" Williams

     The upshot: the review/investigation will be “confidential.” It will be a "privileged attorney-client communication."
     I suppose that means that we’ll never find out what it says.
     Well, we can simply accept what the Board of Supervisors tell us it says.
     That wouldn't be a good idea. It's Orange County, Jake. The Board comprises five Republicans, four of whom have hired ethically challenged attorney Phil Greer in the past. Recently, even new Supe Shawn Nelson hired 'im.
     Yep. That Phil Greer. He's the go-to guy for corrupt Republicans in this County. He represented Fraud Boy Chriss Street (and, more recently, the odious Raghu P. Mathur).
     Greer happens to be Public Administrator/Public Guardian John Williams’ attorney too.
     That's right. Williams is a Republican.
     Good grief.

Wacky IVC sculpture is honored by OC Weekly

They like it; they really like it!

     The OC Weekly’s “Best of OC” issue is out—and guess what? One of those wacky sculptures that sprouted on campus (Irvine Valley College) a year or so ago has won in this category:

Best Public Art – 2010:

     Up Up Up to Where Even George W. Bush Has Got Soul (After Neil Young)
     Jason Butler's 2008 fabricated and forged steel sculpture at Irvine Valley College is a triumph of the living, the breathing and the thinking as curled tendrils spring from concrete and extend toward the sky, attaching and wrapping themselves around a rigid iron beam, a fencepost, changing their color from industrial gray and iodized red to a bright-yellow enamel. The name of the sculpture is inspired by and revised from Neil Young's ode to Richard Nixon ("Campaigner").

I've heard a fair amount of grumbling about this particular piece.

Abject Greed begets Fed Regulation begets Gloomy Outlook begets Wall Street Plunge begets My Thursday Smile

OK, not my smile

For-Profit Sector Plunges on Wall Street Amid Gloomy Outlook on Enrollment and Regulation (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     Stock values of for-profit higher-education companies plummeted today on Wall Street after the Apollo Group, parent company of the University of Phoenix, predicted a “significant” decline in enrollment — up to 40 percent — next year, according to the Dow Jones Newswires. The Apollo Group also withdrew its previously released financial outlook for the 2011 fiscal year, in light of the increased federal regulation the for-profit sector may face and the “heightened media attention, much of which has portrayed the sector in an unflattering light.”

     Media attention of what?
     Of the sorry facts, that's what.

Candidate T.J. Prendergast's commercial

October 14, 2010