Just in time for the weekend

While perusing Inland Empire Craigslist this morning, I noticed this post from of course, an anonymous person who's left me several notes of endearment in the past. I'm not surprised to hear from him or her because last night, he or she made their first visit to my site in a while.

This person alleged that I was engaging in sensationalist practices in reference to a national award. Last year, I mentioned being nominated for the Koufax awards, which is an award open nationally to political bloggers, which is named after a famous baseball pitcher.

Nominations can be made by other bloggers or readers of your site and I was fortunate that several individuals nominated my blog in several categories.





Koufax-Best local and state coverage

Koufax-Best single issue

Koufax- Most worthy of wider recognition




The purpose of the Koufax Awards is to promote readership of blogs listed as nominees but also in general, and in these categories are some really outstanding blogs in many different categories. It's a privilege to be included among them. And frankly, after the abuse and harassment and threats I've received over "Five Before Midnight" since 2005 by various of course, courageous and naturally, unidentified individuals, it's always nice to hear that there are individuals who enjoy the blog and there are, across the country and the globe. People read it locally too and I've had many interesting conversations from many different corners of this city about it and some interesting compliments.

But the nasties don't like to be lost in the shuffle. They never do.

From individuals posting nasty and just sick comments on my blog to individuals opening up email accounts in my name and using them to harass me from a city-owned internet service provider, those who hate my blog and loathe me have certainly made their presence known. Some of them could have loathed me before I had a blog. Some could loathe me because I have a blog. Some might just loathe women or the world in general. Their anonymity makes all of that unclear.


As for "buyer beware" that's true and always very good advice about anything and everything including what the city promises its residents. It's your money that they are spending. It's your future or that of your kids and grandkids that they are borrowing against. It's the next generation which could reap the bounty or be saddled with enormous debt. So definitely, buyer beware on this front. Thank you anonymous one, for letting me borrow the phrase. I really appreciate that but now it's back to blogging.





Martin Luther King, Jr's day is almost here and it provides many people the opportunity to reflect on his life and revisit his writings including his best work which was written on a roll of toilet paper, pieces of newspaper and whatever else was available inside a Birmingham jail on April 16, 1963.



(excerpt)


"This letter is not a letter just to white churches -- it's a letter to the church," said the Rev. Ralph Watkins, an African Methodist Episcopal minister who is assistant dean of Fuller Theological Seminary's African American Church Studies Program. "Amazingly enough, many issues that Dr. King raised in that letter we are still dealing with."




This past year was a difficult one for the King family, because his eldest daughter, Yolanda had died in May. Her body was brought to Riverside's Tillman Riverside Mortuary just as her mother's had been, before being taken to Atlanta.

Yolanda had set foot in Riverside in 1999, in a sea of the turbulence that was hitting the city that year to dedicate a monument made in honor and in memory of her father, which was erected just outside of City Hall on Main Street. A group of people had walked to the event from a downtown church where a small service had taken place. When then Chief Jerry Carroll discovered that people were going to walk the several blocks to the ceremony, he was going to send out police officers but then Rev. Cynthia Cain from the Universalist Unitarian Church said no, people weren't marching, they were just walking.

Yolanda appeared happy to be in Riverside. I had several moments to speak with her after the dedication and she had said the monument was beautiful.

When Mayor Ron Loveridge talks about the King monument, he usually just says that King's family believed it to be the best representation of their father of any monument in the country. To different people in Riverside, it means different things. Some have said that they like the fact that it's adjacent to City Hall, the building where many decisions are made and it serves as a reminder. Others wonder if elected officials are paying attention to his message at all.

Yolanda wasn't the only one of King's children who visited Riverside. Her brother Martin Luther King, III also came to town representing the national organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In fact, he had been in Riverside a week or so earlier and was arrested at a civil disobedience demonstration at the downtown police station. On his way to a meeting at a local church afterward, he was allegedly pulled over by police officers and asked where he was going. Yolanda mentioned her brother and his action in her speech at the monument, clearly understanding the difference between the reception she received and that involving her brother, a family member that Loveridge has never brought up in public discussion.


So 2008, brings another commemoration of King's life and his death through a series of events in the Inland Empire including a walkathon this Monday morning sponsored by the organization which played a principle role in bringing the monument to Riverside. Hundreds of people make the walk down the street named after him to City Hall, about a 5 kilometer walk. Loveridge and one or two council members may appear at the event and often speak about what King means to them. But do they really mean what they say?

It's ironic because so many years, these walks and the candle light vigils and other events have taken place while events in Riverside make it clear that King's vision remains unrealized nearly 40 years after his assassination. For one thing, Riverside has not completely escaped its own history involving racism including in its workplace.

The law suits filed by 18 city employees in 1997 were settled several years ago with the remaining five or so plaintiffs who remained on the case while other city employees were pressured to drop off or face paying the city's attorney's fees. A position in which perhaps Ken Stansbury and the Riversiders for Property Rights could relate.

With past law suits payed out including the $1.64 million jury's verdict in the case of police officer, Roger Sutton and current investigations into racism in the workplace, Riverside seems to be standing still. The question also remains, will reporting racism and sexism including harassment and a hostile work environment cost you your job?


After a couple of conversations I have had with people this year who tried to utilize this process and were shown the door with not much of a passage of time between the two events, I don't think it's a process that I could easily recommend.


Then there was an exodus of departures by high-ranking Black and Latino employees in and outside of City Hall including the following.



Art Alcaraz, Latino, Director of Human Resources, resigned

Jim Smith, Black, city's budget director (before the Finance Department was placed under the City Manager's office) and interim Asst. City Manager, demoted and resigned

Tranda Drumwright, Black, Housing and Community Development Manager, fired and had been told by supervisor she was not "management material" but a White woman with less experience and education apparently was.

Pedro Payne, Black, Executive Manager, Community Police Review Commission and former Director of Community Relations, "resigned" after having the misfortune to run into City Manager Brad Hudson and Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis' vision for the CPRC.



These aren't the only Black and Latino employees to be treated in ways that are less than honorable by this city. And other employees like Vince Moses, who directed the Metropolitan Museum then abruptly retired. Columnist Dan Bernstein of the Press Enterprise wrote this column in 2006 discussing some of these issues.

Is it age? Are older employees being given the brush off, unless they have prior tenures at Riverside County?


Currently, there's allegedly a hiring freeze in the city and many positions that are vacated are not being filled. This has happened before but it seems to be more large-scale this year given that city departments will be cutting their budgets by up to 15% while the Riverside Renaissance railroad rolls on. In some departments, the city may not be able to deliver what they had promised which has dashed some hopes, because it's hard to be promised something that you've asked for probably more than once and then have it taken away.

These cuts will impact city services, especially being on a large scale. Last year, some civilian positions were allegedly frozen temporarily in the police department and service in that agency including doing police reports by phone were impacted.

If you are an "at will" employee, perhaps it's time to be more nervous than usual. One position that almost became "at will" last year will soon be vacant and won't be refilled. Equipment won't be purchased. It's not clear what the next fiscal year will hold because the budgets are still works in process but it's not going to be pretty.




Calling it "needless squawking", the Press Enterprise Editorial Board is saying No on Measure A, which is the ballot initiative coming to Riverside voters on Feb. 5 that would pass assorted regulations having to do with roosters not citywide but in certain "agricultural belts" like La Sierra and small portions south of Victoria Avenue.


(excerpt)


Voters will be hard-pressed to spot any need for this measure, however. The city cannot say how many complaints about crowing roosters it gets each year, and much of the discussion about this measure centered on only one property.

The change would bring city code in line with Riverside County's poultry rules, but it is tough to believe the city faces a huge influx of rooster-loving residents fleeing county oppression. And claiming that the new rules would curtail illegal cockfighting asks voters to believe that people unfazed by criminal penalties will fear a fine for violating city code. Riverside police only announced one instance of cockfighting charges last year, anyway -- hardly a crime wave.

Even voters who cannot tell an Andalusian from a Rhode Island red can see Riverside has more pressing matters to address than sound-proofing chicken coops. Measure A is needless official squawking, and voters should reject it.


The editorial brushes on some reasons why this measure might have been pushed but doesn't quite go there. Concerns have been raised that the measure that was proposed by outgoing Councilman Ed Adkison who represented Ward Five might have been an attempt to urbanize the city's remaining rural areas. Particularly since its backer owns a engineering firm which has done a lot of business in Riverside including on city approved projects.


If you've got something to say in the current survey on Measure A, there's still time. Currently the vote is 12 to 4, favoring the ballot measure.




If the Press Enterprise's editorial board is taking on the Adkison initiative, the Inland Empire Weekly is taking on the Press Enterprise's handling of Temecula's city council.




Two new councilmen in Norco share their visions. One's a horseman. The other, is a doctor from South Africa, who may be the first Black city councilman in Norco's history.

Riverside's had only two Black city councilmen, Jack Clarke, Sr. and Ameal Moore and there have been several others who have run as candidates including Debrah Freeman who ran for the Ward Four seat in 2005.