Does anyone who's following the wal=mart corruption have any idea what might happen with the vote today? So is it correct that some of the contributions can actually be used by the mayor for his SUV payments, payments to various teen girls to keep them quiet about showering with him, etc.? And Schenerer's shit is insane as well. Also, even the city manager has called out these two fucks for operating their "non profits" out of city hall. Thank Jah for Cosmo.
The Bee has been all over the funding scandal for STOP, which is fine, I'm not a hyprocrite to complain about that, but not digging into this scandal, which is much slimier AT ALL. This story gets the front page AGAIN and the arena vote is relegated to metro.
Their big investigation lately has been into the DUMBEST story about one con woman who did some lame shit in Dixon. They devoted about a million words and a bunch of front page stories to this non-story. Then their editorial SURPRISE is that the city should just allow big boxes. NO MENTION of KJ or Schenirer's need to recuse themselves, or even the need for a discussoin on whether they should.
Our city government is so fucking insane. Again, I ask, is this kind of corruption normal?
WalMart has been buying their way into communities for a very long time. They give huge donations, build parks & playgrounds, pledge to hold charity fundraising events, etc. If there's a way KJ can use the funds for the purposes you mention, that's on the city for not properly regulating the non-profits. I don't know how closely other cities have regulated that sort of thing. Sadly, I do think this kind of corruption is normal, but it's usually not so blatantly obvious.
ReplyDeleteOh, and the way the city is just rolling over for Walmart so easily makes us look like a cow town, not a world class city. (Not that I care at all about those things, but our mayor & city council seem to.) Other cities put up much more of a fight and get much more in return. In comparison Sac's selling out for pennies, which makes our politicians look like the small town chumps that they are.
ReplyDeleteNormal.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they'll vote on Walmart tonight, though; Schenirer and others want no neighborhood exemptions, so it'll likely be kicked back to staff.
NM
STOP wasn't the recipient of the check, it was a separate nonprofit that offered to help STOP gather signatures. STOP never got a dime from Hansen, but that hasn't stopped the Bee and the assorted Clown Downtown types from claiming that's what happened.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, because the millions of dollars went from Wal-Mart to Michelle Rhee's nonprofit effort to eviscerate public schools, part of which pays Rhee's paycheck, some of the money may end up putting food on KJ's table, but not his SUV (the city pays for that) or a special contribution to the "make problems go away checkbook" fund. However, the city attorney decided that it didn't rise to the level where he would risk getting fired by the City Manager for saying so.
Mr. Burg is correct, STOP was never given any money by Hansen, you would never know that by reading the Bee or watching the news.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the big box thing, I read the city staff report at:
http://sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=21&event_id=1984&meta_id=402114
and it appears the main complaint is that our onerous rules make it too hard for big boxes to get approval. But interestingly Elk Grove with similar restrictions to Sacramento is home to a number of big box stores. Such bullshit.
KBS
Maybe WalMart convinced the City Council letting them in would make Sacramento a World Class City, just like it did for Mexico City.
ReplyDeleteTHe local media "coverage" of STOP and the general arena business is so one sided to almost make you wonder if they got paid off. Especially the local news where yeah, Channel 10 gets a certain amount of revenue off of broadcasting the Kings' games. But the cheerleading and breathless updates about how people trying to stop the arena are controlled by the Maloofs & Chris Hansen is pretty awful.
Channel 10 is the worst because of they clearly want to keep the Kings on their station. I don't think they are paid off, the more likely (and frightening) explanation is that people in TV journalism are just kind of dumb. Think about when the media attempts to report on a topic you actually know something about (e.g. law, medicine, science) and how incorrect their stories are, they are getting every story that wrong.
ReplyDeleteOn another topic did anyone watch the city council meeting last night? Kevin McCarty was awesome. The city staffer looked really uncomfortable when he was being questioned. My favorite was when McCarty got staff to admit they basically just made up the 1.5 million dollar sales tax leakage number. Too bad nobody listened to him.
http://sacramento.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=22&clip_id=3330&meta_id=402376
KBS
Hansen has been quite a letdown.
ReplyDeleteI want that money back that I contributed.
ReplyDeleteHansen = DINO
ReplyDeleteMaybe the reason you have to justify every vote is because you have changed your position on everything.