Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

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This from the County Executive Officer’s Friday memo:

Layoff Notices to County Employees:
“On Wednesday, October 13 two employees received official written notice that his/her position will be eliminated by November 1, 2010. The employees being affected by these reductions work in the County Executive’s office, CDA Administration and Probation. The layoff notices inform employees of any rights they might have to demote to other positions within his/her respective classification series or department. Employees are being referred to the County Human Resources Department for assistance in applying for other county jobs that may be available.

This action is being taken due to the severe revenue shortfall caused by poor economic conditions, loss of grant funding and lack of work. If you have any questions regarding the layoffs, please contact Human Resources Director Gayle Satchwell.”

County Executive Takes Pay Cut in Response to Budget Shortfall:
“In response to a severe budget shortfall, I have offered to reduce my salary by 5% and contribute 4% of my pay towards the county’s pension costs. This totals a reduction of 9% of my pay. This reduction in salary will be presented to the Board for consideration in open session on October 26, 2010.

I am taking this action because the County continues to struggle with balancing its budget.

Due to declining revenues and increasing costs, the County will face a severe fiscal challenge in 2011. In order to maintain existing service levels and stop our employees from losing their jobs, costs will have to be reduced.

I do not believe in asking employees to make sacrifices that may adversely impact them or their families without being willing to make a sacrifice myself. I hope that my contribution “will make a difference.

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The commercial printing business is undergoing rapid consolidation. Quad-Graphics, which prints our regional magazine, merged with another printer to create the world’s largest printing conglomerate this summer. Quad prints Business Week, Newsweek, Time, People — and Playboy.

When the deal was announced, I asked if the Reno plant where our magazine was printed would close. It seemed likely to me, knowing how consolidation goes. “No,” I was assured.

A month later it quietly closed, eliminating 90 jobs there. (Being a “scoop monger,” I phoned the Reno Gazette-Journal to tell them, they thanked me and wrote it up the next day. Details are here).

Now the magazine is printed in Merced, so I want to check out the new plant. Quad has the right kind of presses and prints on the paper we like (50# #4 gloss) — a better quality stock than for similar publications.

I like to spend money on vacations, but I’m a miser on business trips — always have been. I went to Google maps and looked for the closest motel to Quad’s Merced plant.

I searched for “motels” and got Motel 6, Quality Inn and Vagabond. Then I searched for “hotels” and got Motel 6, Quality Inn and Vagabond.

I booked the “refurbished” Motel 6 for $39.99, a good rate for a quick trip.

I’ll go down Hwy. 99, in its heyday until the ’60s when I-5 came along. It’s a route “where time stood still” and offers a “slice of life” of the Central Valley — Stockton, Modesto, Merced and so on.

Plus, at Motel 6, I can bring along the dog for my road-trip. She’ll ride shotgun.

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I visited the Sharron Angle for Senate campaign office in Reno this summer (in the same mall as Dorado Chocolates) and grabbed some bumper stickers and small signs mounted on popsicle sticks, just for posterity’s sake, as I reported previously.

I’ve also been watching the Nevada televison stations’ coverage of the race — and the rash of ads — from Lake Tahoe. This race is a mudfest — makes me feel at home.

Here’s a AP video clip of last night’s debate between Angle and Reid in Las Vegas, where Angle tells Reid to “Man up!”

An Angle TV ad is below. It goes like this: “Reid actually voted to use taxpayer dollars to pay for Viagra, for convicted child molesters and sex offenders. What else could you ever need to know about Harry Reid?” Get my drift?

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Are Prop. 23 supporters quietly waiving the white flag?

The flood of money that was supposed to show up for the Yes on Prop. 23 campaign in the closing weeks of the campaign hasn’t materialized.

To the contrary, Prop. 23 opponents are out-raising supporters by more than 2-to-1.

“It’s pretty late in the game for a surge, especially since votes are already being cast,” Jack Pitney, a political-science professor at Claremont McKenna College, told the Mercury News. “Yes on 23 may have underestimated how much it would cost, and how intense the opposition would be.”

In addition, most of the available airtime for political ads is locked up because of the hotly contested gubernatorial and Senate races.

The largest contributor to Yes on 23 to date is Valero, a San Antonio company that operates two refineries in California.

The deafening silence of Yes on 23 contributions comes as polls show undecided voters lining up on the “No” side.

Some shareholders of oil companies who support Prop. 23 campaign, meanwhile, are starting to scrutinize the wisdom of the spending.

“As shareholders, we’re concerned that Tesoro’s support for the highly controversial Proposition 23 could lead to a decrease in shareholder value by damaging the company’s reputation and negatively impacting the business environment in a state where Tesoro has significant operations,” a shareholder rights group told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Prop. 23′s biggest supporters have included our Congressman Tom McClintock and our Assemblyman Dan Logue, the tea party and CABPRO, as well as the right-wing blogging contingent here.

They have been hammering the Sierra Business Council, which opposes Prop. 23, with some NH2020-like rhetoric — nasty and personal.

Though McClintock and Logue are expected to win re-election, the issues or candidates they support did not fare well in June.

As I’ve said all along, “most of us are in the middle” or political centrists.

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