Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

“Today, we watched with great pride and overwhelming emotion as Chelsea and Marc wed in a beautiful ceremony at Astor Courts, surrounded by family and their close friends,” the Clintons said in a statement. “We could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate the beginning of their life together, and we are so happy to welcome Marc into our family.”

There’s a California connection: Chelsea and her husband, Mark Mezvinsky, went to school together at Stanford University.

And a wedding can break down political barriers: Many of us have fond memories of our weddings and those of our loved ones.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

The Union has a front-page article this weekend titled “St. Joseph’s Cultural Center: Grass Valley Gem to Sparkle Again.”

One sentence reads: “Terry Lamphier, a licensed general contractor recently elected to the Grass Valley City Council, used a $1,500 grant in 2009 to restore the 1894 doorway to the hall. In 2007, he refurbished the expansive stairs to the hall, with the help of local businesses.”

Dear editor/publisher: Terry was recently elected to the county Board of Supervisors, not the Grass Valley City Council. It was front-page news. Do you read behind the copy?

Terry just “don’t get no respect” from this newspaper. Let’s hope his fellow supervisors treat him better.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

In February 2009, the eight weekly newspapers that comprise the Taconic Press group in upstate New York closed, raising concern within the small communities who lost their only local paper. It’s a familiar story nationwide.

But up stepped the Hudson Valley News, run by an experienced newspaperman, with a website and print edition. “Unlike the previous incarnations of the local paper, this is going to be a tabloid format. It’s going to jump off the page,” Executive Editor Jim Langan said in a television interview (see below). “It’s going to be presented in a little snarkier, more entertaining fashion.”

It’s working too.

This week the paper is in the spotlight, getting the scoop on the wedding of Chelsea Clinton and her beau, Mark Mezvinsky.

“TV crews from CBS, NBC, ABC, as well as reporters from as far away as Russia, Spain and Italy, have been swarming Rhinebeck,” according to Langan’s article. “Rumor has it even the wooden Indian outside the Rhinebeck Smoke Shoppe has been interviewed.”

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

I was LOL (laughing out loud) when I read the celebration for “transparency” for salaries at the Rood Center this weekend following the fiasco in the City of Bell. The local media was getting spun too. But it wasn’t always that way.

“In light of the corrupt and insane actions by the City of Bell that have come to light recently, we are making a concerted effort to remind residents of Nevada County the salaries for all County staff positions can continue to be found on our County website at http://www.mynevadacounty.com,”; the county’s Friday memo read. “This information will be more prominently displayed on our home page within the next week.”

That’s real progress, because when I was Editor of The Union back in 2007, the arrows were flying (and landing in my back) when it came to discussing city and county salaries and — as I ultimately did — “prominently displaying” them on the front page of the newspaper. “How dare you?” some people suggested.

We also wrote the original stories about the “double dipping” undersheriff John Trauner — whose father was a dean of local government — to underscore the problem with public sector benefits. The arrows flew on that one too.

It required some real effort to publish the salaries of Rood Center executives, including lots of discussion about using the proper “benchmarks” to measure — not hide — earlier pay increases. An email went out to Rood Center department heads that their salaries were going to be published in the newspaper.

At the time county Supervisors were discussing whether to grant across-the-board pay raises to county workers — a plan that I questioned but was approved. It got the ball rolling on increases for department heads and the county executive officer — all ahead of the recession.

In Grass Valley and Nevada City, government officials were receiving double-digit pay raises. And all of them were handing out the same runaway benefits that we are discussing now.

This was a story I wanted to pursue because — even back then — you could see the handwriting on the wall with what I called “the great California train wreck” in one editorial. It was just harder to get people to listen. Now we’re all listening.

“I’ve always wondered why in a county that is so predominantly GOP that I don’t hear as much concern as I expect about big government and fiscal restraint,” I wondered in August 2007.

Or as I wrote in March 2007: “You already know about Gene Haroldsen, who was paid $105,000 in accrued sick and vacation pay after being fired as the city administrator of Grass Valley. You also know that Haroldsen’s interim replacement – former Yuba City manager Jeff Foltz – is making $13,000 per month. That’s more than what Haroldsen brought home.”

“By the county’s own admission, rank-and-file contracts are coming up for renewal, retiree health insurance will have to be paid upfront every year, and the jail needs to be expanded.

“But that’s not all. Like it or not, our county’s economy is hitched to Sacramento’s wagon – for well-paying jobs, school programs, drug-rehabilitation programs and infrastructure improvements. If they put a kink in the funding spigot hose – and I think they will – we will suffer.

“It’s not too late to avoid the budgetary train wreck. But it’s going to take a major reality check, shedding the attitude of government entitlement, as well as a concerted effort by government, administrators, taxpayers and labor unions to preserve what makes our Golden State golden. Otherwise, we’re going to wind up like the ‘Cannonball Express’ – without any heroic song.”

Sound familiar?

Here are some of the articles from back then:

•“Raises OK’d for county workers, officials”
•Ignoring the elephant in the corner
•Big raise for county executive
•Leading by example?
•Undersheriff retired but stays on payroll
•Undersheriff who retired “twice” takes new county job
•Would you like one dip or maybe two?
•An editorial by Mike Sherman defending the county executive officer’s pay raise is here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 10 Comments »

This New York Times article is making the rounds on the Facebook pages of Reinette Senum and “See Jane Do.” It’s very interesting and comes as the cities in our area are considering ordinances to make backyard farming (including raising chickens) easier:

“Lawn mowing and baby-sitting are standard summer jobs for the enterprising teenager. Alexandra Reau, who is 14, combines a little bit of each: last year, she asked her dad to dig up a half acre of their lawn in rural Petersburg, Mich., so she could farm,” according to the Times.

“Now in its second season, her Garden to Go C.S.A. (community-supported agriculture) grows for 14 members, who pay $100 to $175 for two months of just-picked vegetables and herbs. While her peers are hanging out at Molly’s Mystic Freeze and working out the moves to that Miley Cyrus video, she’s flicking potato-beetle larvae off of leaves in her V-neck T-shirt and denim capris, a barrette keeping her hair out of her demurely made-up eyes.”

I’ve written previously about the benefits of C.S.A’s and growth of agriculture and gardening in our county.

Meanwhile:

•A blog dedicated to backyard farming is here.

•A chicken coop website is here.

•An article, “Backyard Farming: Is it worth it?”, is here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 15 Comments »

Ed Yarborough pulling nomination papers for one of two Grass Valley City Council seats that are up for grabs reminded me what a “shallow bench” we have for elected positions in our county.

Barry Pruett’s run for nonpartisan clerk-recorder — where he had no experience in that office but a real political bent — also was a reminder. While I’m fond of Sue Horne in some ways, she had no experience in an assessor’s office.

Ed’s big concern is always what he considers to be a growing illegal alien problem in Grass Valley — a preposterous stand to many.

Many of our elected positions wind up being appointed, or people just run unopposed.

To be sure, our area is not alone. But why can’t we attract better, more qualified candidates for our elected positions:

•We are faced with an aging, declining population, shrinking the pool of applicants. Many of them are “recycled” from other races.

•The political mudslinging during campaigning that goes on in our county is too much for many qualified professionals to stomach. While the left has been guilty in the past, the extreme right in our community has held the honor lately.

•Though declining, there are “good old boy” networks that make it difficult for an outsider to penetrate. Too often it’s not “what you know but who you know.”

If our population can start growing again, with an injection of “new blood,” there is hope for change. But I’m not expecting that anytime soon.

We have beautiful surroundings on the edge of the Sierra.

But there also are drawbacks to drawing new residents — and mounting competition.

I would also argue that we have become a magnet for some politically extreme behavior — we are home to the Tea Party’s co-founder, very conservative Tom McClintock and a vocal “far right” contingent — and are not really in sync with the rest of the state. Many people who are looking to come here from more “progressive” areas, from San Francisco Bay Area or Southern California, would wince.

The declining enrollment in our schools and all the trouble that comes with it is not a benefit, either. We have been known for our high quality schools, and it will be a challenge to keep them strong.

Real estate has come down, but it still is comparatively high when you look at the dearth of high paying jobs in our area.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 27 Comments »

Prop. 23 — the proposal to stifle AB 32 or the “global warming act” — is getting routed, according to a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.

“Decline to state,” or independent voters, are solidly against the proposition. They are a key voting block.

Our very conservative GOP Congressman Tom McClintock and Assemblyman Dan Logue are leading the effort to suspend enforcement of AB32 until unemployment falls to 5.5 percent in the state — a goal that has been rarely achieved in the past. AB32 calls for the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The poll also shows Jerry Brown ahead of Meg Whitman and Barbara Boxer leading Carly Fiorina, as Calbuzz reports. Voters also oppose offshore oil in PPIC’s poll.

According to Calbuzz, “While PPIC did not poll the ballot language of AB Prop. 23, because the final version was not available when they were in the field, researchers did ask about the jobs argument:

Do you think that California doing things to reduce global warming in the future would cause there to be more jobs for people around the state, would cause there to be fewer jobs, or wouldn’t affect the number of jobs for people around the state?”

Calbuzz also concludes: “As a practical matter, the PPIC poll represents especially bad news for GOP Senate candidate Fiorina. She has positioned herself on the far right on a host of issues, her support for Proposition 23, coupled with her mocking of Boxer’s oft-expressed concern about climate change (Fiorina calls it a fixation on the weather) and her questioning of the science of global warming.”

As for Prop. 23, the poll shows voters:

•Favor AB 32 by 61-to-28 percent; Democrats support it 80-10, Republicans oppose it 49-39 and independents support the law 73-16 percent.

•Believe that global warming is a very or somewhat serious threat to the economy and quality of life in the state by 63-to-35 percent; Democrats perceive it as a serious problem, 86-12 percent while Republicans do not find it so, 55-41 percent and independents express serious concern 77-to-22 percent.

“For the 2010 campaigns, however, the most important numbers on the climate change issue show that likely voters, for now at least, are rejecting the central argument of the conservatives and industry groups spearheading the Prop. 23 effort, namely that tough greenhouse gas emissions regulation is a ‘job killer’ making the recession worse,” according to CalBuzz.

The full results are here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 42 Comments »

The White House will decide as early as this weekend who will get access to the front-row seat in the briefing room once occupied by Helen Thomas.

A battle is raging between NPR, Fox and Bloomberg for the seat vacated by Thomas after her controversial remarks about Jews and Israel.

“Our forbearance was bolstered by assurances from the WHCA board that if we were patient and waited our turn, Fox would eventually get its right [no pun intended] seat in the front row,” Fox wrote. “And now that time has come.”

CREDO, arguing in favor of NPR, cites the injustice perpetrated against Shirley Sherrod and calls Fox a “right-wing propaganda outlet, not a legitimate news agency,” according to Indyposted.com.

“It’s bad enough that we have to fight the constant smear campaigns and appeals to racial paranoia from FOX and the right-wing media. We can’t let them have the best seat in the White House press briefing room and the legitimacy that it confers,” according to CREDO, a publication of Working Assets.

It has a petition to help NPR beat Fox News for the chair.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 16 Comments »

So says Todd, once a supervisor in our county, over on Russ Steele’s blog. Todd is a founder of CABPRO. It’s a bold statement, considering that our county recently has voted for Obama, Charlie Brown, Terry Lamphier and Greg Diaz (not McCain, Tom McClintock, John Spencer or Barry Pruett).

Who do you think has the bigger problem in our community, the political left or the right? Here’s what I’d argue in response to a Greg Goodnight comment:

Greg: “Jeff, we’re just back to the solid Left (even if they self identify as “moderate”) telling the Right how to win friends and influence people.

With Clint Curtis as our Democratic congressional nominee, I think the local Left has problems of its own.”

Greg,

You’ve lived here too long. We’re not “back” to anything.

The local Left in our county has little control over who is the Democratic congressional nominee, just like the local Right.

But it has a growing political base, made up of people from AAPLE, the Peace Center, SYRCL, BriarPatch, KVMR, etc. They all get along, too. It also includes people who move here from urban areas to embrace the environment, the farm-to-table movement and other “green” activities. And this also includes moderate Republicans who embrace those values.

Add all that up, and compare it to the solid to far Right: CABPRO, Steele, Rebane, Barry Pruett, Todd Juvenall, the GOP central committee. Even many moderate Republicans are loathe to accept many of their views. You forgot, for example, that two moderate GOP supervisors endorsed Diaz, not Pruett. Sue Horne won because of her name recognition. On top of that, neighboring Placer County is going “left,” not right.

The Internet also is removing the bottleneck of communication in a small town, providing lots of opportunity for like-minded people to collaborate.

Who do you really think has the bigger problem?

Filed under: Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

Check out this “Other Voices” that ran in The Union back in 2002: “Republicans need to wrest control of their party from CABPRO and never allow any other group to politicize the supervisorial seats that are intended to be non-partisan,” it reads. “This is a strange time for Republicans in our county.”

Sound familiar? The editorial is here and below:

“Calling all citizens: Nevada County needs your help

Marty Pezzaglia

When I was a midshipman at the California Maritime Academy, the call letters S.O.S. were used to signal distress in times of emergency. Today, Nevada County is in distress relative to the slickest political coup Nevada County has ever seen. The chief puppeteer pulling all the strings is CABPRO (The California Association of Business, Property and Resource Owners), a nonprofit California corporation that has never filed for tax-exempt status, a clever ruse to avoid financial disclosure.

CABPRO campaigns for Drew Bedwell and Robin Sutherland, their two supervisorial hopefuls for Districts 3 and 4. CABPRO also sponsored the first version of the budget -busting “reimbursement” initiative on the November ballot. CABPRO is run by former Supervisor Todd Juvinall and Field Director Pat Davison, both of whom have strong ties to the “Wise Use” Movement. (Pat is the former CA field director of the now-defunct People for the USA, headquartered in Boulder, CO).

Together with former Supervisor Fran Grattan Freedle, and Drew Bedwell’s secretary of “Protect Your Property Rights,” Shirley Hendrickson, this coalition removed Karen Chileski from her post as chair of Nevada County’s Republican Central Committee.

If the move against Chileski didn’t upset the majority of caring Republicans in this county, Rene Antonson’s decision to run as a write-in candidate for District 4 surely has. His decision has created such turmoil within the Republican Central Committee that the master of dirty politics in Butte County, John Gillander, has joined the fray to destroy Antonson’s campaign, as evidenced by Gillander’s scathing letter to The Union on July 23, where he said he wouldn’t vote for Rene … guess not, since he doesn’t even live in this county.

John Gillander’s brand of politics makes Drew Bedwell look like Mr. Congeniality. Check out http://www.chicopolitics.com, or the Chico Enterprise Record archives and research Gillander. But what do Gillander and Bedwell have in common, other than their mutual desire to dismantle the workings of local government as we know it? Gillander is also connected to the notoriously unethical former chair of the Butte County Republican Party, David Reade.

How are all of these people/groups related? All roads lead right to David Reade’s political machine known as “Pillars”, in Chico. On Dec. 2, 2001, the Chico Enterprise Record defined David Reade as the master of dirty politics. David Reade was Supervisor Sue Horne’s campaign consultant and David Reade is Robin Sutherland’s campaign consultant. And Drew Bedwell and Robin Sutherland are CABPRO’s picks for the Republican Party.

This is a strange time for Republicans in this county. A vote for Bedwell or Sutherland would put the county Board of Supervisors under the control of CABPRO and their fiscally irresponsible agenda. A vote for Rene Antonson in District 4 runs the risk of splitting the Republican vote, and this has the CABPRO-controlled Republican Central Committee going nuts because Rene is an outspoken critic of CABPRO and they can’t control his voting the way they hope to control Robin’s. Maybe Robin will drop out of the race and we will see Drew and CABPRO try to heal the wounds and endorse Rene in November. Even PYPR’s secretary Shirley Hendrickson has recently moved over and is firing shots at Robin Sutherland, as per her Aug. 2 article in The Union titled, “Indian Gaming An Issue,” which must make even Drew queasy.

CABPRO has brought shame to the Republican Party by engaging in the lowest forms of dirty politics imaginable … as close to the McCarthy era as we have ever seen. Republicans need to wrest control of their party from CABPRO and never allow any other group to politicize the supervisorial seats that are intended to be non-partisan.

What CABPRO has done to this county requires an S.O.S. to all concerned citizens, regardless of party affiliation, to bring sanity, civility, and accountability back to local politics. All of us, including the county budget, will be on the endangered species list if CABPRO succeeds in November.

Marty Pezzaglia lives in Nevada City.”

Filed under: Uncategorized | 25 Comments »