THE NATIVES OF MODESTO ARE RESTLESS

May 19, 2009

Forwarded to distribution list for your information.

Dave,

The real question is,  who instructs the City Manger?  Are we to blame the city manager for obeying orders from those that interviewed him and gave him the job?  It should be clear that the position of mayor is still ceremonial.

Nyhoff was given a lot of taxpayer money to keep his mouth shut and do what he was told.

Will, well, it turns out that you were right.  We are truly amazed by our new City Manager. 

                                      Mr. Nyhoff’s accomplishments seem to include

1.    We are still the highest per capita auto theft city in America

2.    Our city’s home invasion robbery problem is twice as bad as last year

3.    He has apparently had a dust-up with Chief Wasden, resulting in Wasden hastily leaving the MPD.

4.    The Council has apparently decided to replace Wasden with Harden, meaning that the Council is satisfied with the job MPD is doing

5.    The City’s 2009-10 budget is in worse shape than the 2008-09 budget

6.    Today is May 18^th, and there has not been one bit of budget information made public, or published in the BEE

7.    There is no candidate announced to run for 4 of the 5 open Council seats. 

8.    Our water rates are now triple what they were in 2004 and no water project has yet been started!

9.    As of today, the Council is still planning to put a ½ cent sales tax increase on the ballot in November

10.Other than spending money the City does not have, the Council appears to be doing nothing

Will, once again, we are very surprised by the accomplishments of the City Manager, the Mayor/Council.

                                                                   Dave

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YES, THE GREEKS INVENTED SEX

The Sabatino Report

www.thesabatinoreport.com

This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Former Mayor Carmen Sabatino has moved from your car radio to your computer.

Go to www.voiceofmodesto.org  at 10 this morning and click on Blog Talk Radio. The program is interactive and you can either call or text into the program.  The program is on demand anytime of the day or night.

The phone number is 846-1814

May 14, 2009

Who is Judy Sly promoting for public office?

It is probably not City Councilman Garrad Marsh. 

The headline reads: Panel warns Marsh to skip land-use vote

A more accurate notice could have read:  Panel advises Marsh to skip land use vote. 

Marsh is a developer but he obviously has not been adopted by the Petrulakis, Zagaris, Party as part of their team.  The Petulakis Zagaris minion and Ceo of the Building Industry Association, Steve Madison, did not file the complaint himself, but used the services of City Attorney Susana Wood.

We would like attorney Wood to seek advice as the reporting requirement of Mayor Ridenour’s income from the Sheriff’s Department.  According to Wood, that is not open for discussion.  Perhaps Wood, as an attorney, could define malfeasance.

Madison brings up the larger issue that involves much more land than the Marsh development.  The Zagaris controlled council will not  approve development land that is not under Zagaris control.  Councilmember Keating will push for projects that will benefit Zagaris as she has done throughout her political career.

Keating receives her instructions by texting during council meetings.  When she was given the news that she would not be supported for mayor, she quietly began to accept her council salary last October.  Marsh and Hawn, probably mayoral candidates continue to not accept the pay raises delivered to the council by George Petrulakis through the travesty of the Measure M vote which wrote the City Charter to the advantage of developers.

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Is this what you want the police budget to include?

On May 6^th the Modesto Police Department offered a “Free Business Academy for Business Owners and their employees” class at the Modesto Police Department.

The goal is “strengthening our community through education and crime prevention.”

The goal of the Modesto Police Department was to “Protect and Serve”.  That is where taxpayer dollars should be spent. 

Perhaps the Modesto Chamber of Commerce should adopt the task of “strengthening our community through education and crime prevention” class. The money can come from the dues that are paid by chamber members. 

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The Sabatino Report

www.thesabatinoreport.com

This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Former Mayor Carmen Sabatino has moved from your car radio to your computer.

Go to www.voiceofmodesto.org  at 10 this morning and click on Blog Talk Radio. The program is interactive and you can either call or text into the program.  The program is on demand anytime of the day or night.

I am passing this along for everyone’s info.

Hi Carmen, this was posted on the Mod Bee Hive blogs today. Very interesting reading. Just for your info...

Sheriff Christianson and Title 18 USC §1346 … Yet another perspective …

Submitted by Shamott on Mon, 2009-05-11 16:51.

• Law Enforcement

To commit a violation of Title 18 USC §1346 is to commit a felony. Former Orange County Sheriff Mike Corona can attest to that as he is going to go to prison for several years. Here is a beginning example of what may be construed as violations of Title 18 USC §1346, and if not that then just another example of extremely poor judgment.

Let's set the stage. Take contributions from a local business, Prime Shine, Inc.    Prime Shine, Inc. donated money to the Sherifff's campaign coffer, which is fine. On May 15, 2007, well after the election, Prime Shine, Inc. donated $2,500 to Adam. This information can be found on Adam Christianson’s campaign receipt and expenditure forms. There is nothing wrong with a local business wanting to support a candidate of their choice by making monetary contributions. There is nothing wrong for a candidate accepting a campaign contribution from a business either. This is the American way and such conduct is perfectly legal and honest.

But what happens afterwards? 

I would ask you to visit our Sheriff’s current website at www.stanislaussheriff.com, a site that is paid for by the County of Stanislaus taxpayers. Scroll down until you find the Stanislaus County K9 Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, click on it and you are directed to www.SSK9.com, which seems innocuous enough. Click on the button on the menu on the left, defined as “Sponsors”.

• You will find the logo for Best Buy where if you click on it you are directed to www.bestbuy.com.
• You will find the logo for Lo-Jack where if you click on it you are directed to www.lojack.com.
• You will find the logo for K9Armor where if you click on it you are directed to www.k9armor.com.
• You will find the logo for Crescent Work and Outdoor, also referred to as Crescent Supply, where if you click on it you are directed to www.crescentmodesto.com.
• You will find “Empire Sportsmen's Association, 5801 McHenry Avenue
  Modesto, California 95356-8828”, without any hyperlink.
• You will find the logo for Prime Shine Express Car Wash where if you click on it you are directed to www.primeshine.com.

If you right-click on the white part of the screen of www.ssk9.com, you will see the properties at the bottom of the list in the window. Click on the “properties” and you will see where this site for the Stanislaus Sheriff K9 Association has a URL address for its web hosting located ON the taxpayer funded website of www.stanislaussheriff.com.   Yep, it looks like our tax dollars are paying for this 501(c)(3) non-profit sponsor advertiser page.   But wait, there's more...

In the present case under discussion in regard to the Prime Shine campaign donation, the Sheriff has permitted or provided the benefit of advertising on a government website he controls to a firm from which he received campaign contributions. For our Sheriff to accept political contributions and then provide or permit a benefit such as this, the question then becomes, is this deprivation of honest service by our Sheriff to those businesses who did not make political contributions?

If one wants to be a sponsor of the Stanislaus County K9 Association you can do so by emailing This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it  .   How does a business get to advertise on the Sheriff’s website?  Who makes the decisions whether one can or cannot advertise?  What are the criteria?  Why is the county government providing private business a venue to advertise?  Are these businesses paying for this type of advertising and getting it courtesy of a taxpayer paid website?

The www.ssk9.com website (from information provided on Internet WHOIS information) has listed the administrator of the website as Gordon Brussow, who works for Adam Christianson and is a county employee. The www.stanislaussheriff.com website also lists the administrator as Gordon Brussow. Both websites list Mr. Brussow’s county email address, physical address and phone number, all at the Sheriff's office location. Why is a county employee the administrator/technical contact for a non-profit organization’s website? How much county taxpayer money has been spent on this type of “gift” of public resources?

In my opinion this type of situation should never occur and these questions should never have to be asked. The line is being crossed where it should not be. I would urge all of you to see it for yourself before these links disappear with the posting of this blog. I suggest you all make screen capture shots of all of these links that show the hyperlinks back to the Sheriff’s county funded website as proof.

There are more questions of the Sheriff’s conduct when put up to Title 18 USC §1346 and the associated case law surrounding it. However if you think the FBI would open an investigation of our Sheriff specifically to see if Title 18 USC §1346 has been adhered and no deprivation of honest services has occurred, I would think twice. I doubt it after the FBI and the Assistant US Attorney’s who prosecuted Raul DeLeon’s case got their “rear ends” kicked.

What other “boo-boo’s” are out there? There will be more examples brought out in the following weeks. Is  this Sheriff doing things because he can, and not questioning the moral side of his actions?  Remember, he said he was the "1000 pound Gorilla".

As always, you be the judge.

Thanks for reading.

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The Sabatino Report

www.thesabatinoreport.com

This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Former Mayor Carmen Sabatino has moved from your car radio to your computer.

Go to www.voiceofmodesto.org  at 10 this morning and click on Blog Talk Radio. The program is interactive and you can either call or text into the program.  The program is on demand anytime of the day or night.

May 7, 2009

On your computer at 10…call 846-1814 for the Morning Mayor

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE NAACP

Local NAACP calls for an independent study of use of excessive force in Stanislaus County.

There will be a Town Hall meeting on use of excessive force, in which citizens may express their concerns, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm, tonight in the King-Kennedy Memorial Center, 603 Martin Luther King Blvd. A representative from the U.S. Department of Justice has been invited to attend.

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Comment:

The NAACP and the Department of Justice might well expand their inquiry into “abuse of power” by law enforcement officials in Stanislaus County.  The California State Bar might also get involved in serious violations of ethics engaged in by local officials.

District Attorney Birgit Fladager is accountable for District Attorney investigators, Jacobsen, Bunch, and Burrell.

Her failure to act endangers the citizens she has sworn to protect.  Again, “abuse of power” is an expanded understanding of  “excessive force”.  I would hope the “game” is finally over.           

          --- Carmen Sabatino, former Mayor of Modesto

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