Comments by BeachFan
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Posted on March 11 at 8:24 a.m.
MY chances of being elected governor of Ca. are the same as Abel's. NONE.
Posted on March 11 at 8:22 a.m.
Best of luck to you Mr. Harris. Yet another good, competent administrator chased out by this band of electeds and their pics to run the County.
Posted on March 1 at 11:56 a.m.
Andy is way out there and not associated with reality. BUT, the pension obligations, which are real dollars have not been addressed and virtually ignored by this group. You see cities like Santa Barbara and many others addressing them, albeit slowly. What is the projected shortfall for this fiscal year?? $7 million? Is there anywhere in their budget presentations that shows revenues meeting or exceeding expenditures.....Nope. Absolutely not. Haven't see one yet projecting out 10 years.
Apart from Parker, what is left of the department heads are exactly what Salud wants...yes men and yes women.
Posted on February 28 at 4:54 p.m.
Well, the County is in major need of reductions, added revenues, restructuring. The restructuring of Parks was a joke. Maybe adding just animal control would have made sense, but HUD???? Eliminate pet projects, maybe some more contracted services, eliminate some of the middle managers, more business friendly environment. Reality Check folks, extreme Enviromental positions don't generate $$, but allowing uncontrolled business expansion isn't the answer either.
SUPS. Give up your pet projects, give up facilities to local agencies where it makes sense (Like Cuyama pool to Cuyama). There are hard choices to make that while not popular, have to be done to keep from filing bankruptcy. While this nor any other paper have written on this, you can't keep running a government entity that is always in the hole by millions.
Posted on February 28 at 9:06 a.m.
Mr. Parker is an excellent Parks Director. The combined department is a joke and no one around has the expertise to hold competencies in departments that virtually have nothing in common that were combined .
Posted on February 25 at 11:17 a.m.
I think you miss my point Eck. I don't "hate" anybody. What we have in this County is incompetent understanding of finances and decisions based on politics, not sound policy. You are right, a CAO has to go with the decisions of the electeds and challenging them is usually not a good idea, especially in a public forum. BUT that being said, we are back to the basics of this discussion. How do you get a competent CAO with an elected panel that will not hire who and what's best for the County, but who serves their interest (primarily getting re-elected). I wasn't screaming for dictatorship. We are stuck with who we elected, and those we have elected are ruining the County.
Posted on February 23 at 12:27 p.m.
This Board would never hire a person who would challenge them. Their egos are too big. A good CAO would tell them that their ongoing spending on pet projects has to stop, close or transfer facilities that are money pits and serves tiny segments of the community, stop letting the special interests dictate policy a la EDC. Until all those happen, this county government will continue it's eventual slide into fiscal bankruptcy.
Posted on February 22 at 9:21 a.m.
Unfortunately Eck, the hiring and firing of department heads is in the perview of the BOS, not the CEO. This was changed the year after Doreen was elected. And we have see the results.
Unless the County goes back to the strong CEO format, it won't get better. This BOS will hire a-- kissers, not top tier professionals.
Posted on February 21 at 1:58 p.m.
Canuck. Some of the really good directors and deputies were forced out because they weren't part of the Good Old Boys. The best example is what happened in County Parks when Mr. Hernandez and Mr. Axelson both were forced out even though we had some great things going on in that department at that time. The Movies in the Sunken Gardens, the restaurant at Arroyo Burro, the dog wash stations, the Angler Center at my favorite beach, Goleta.
Both were outsiders and very competent. Just didn't play nice with electeds who care more about politics than the community.
Nepotism was alive and well when Mr. Roney was hired after being let go from an agency in which he was forced to resign after submitting $64000 mileage reimbursement. Why? Perhaps because maybe his wife and current Asst. CEO worked together in the City of Ventura. Again, this is factual. I'll let folks out there make their own conclusions.
Unfortunately, as long as the Directors are hired, fired by the BOS, don't look for any improvements. The current director Mr. Parker is the exception. Good guy, but tough assignment.
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Posted on March 14 at 3:44 p.m.
Congrats. See? You can kill invasive species without doing major harm to the ecosystem using rodenticides.
So much for the enviro extremist screaming that this approach would harm other island species.
On The Scourge Is Scrubbed