From our WTF Department
Major Jerk
Yesterday a funny thing happened in the California National Guard. I say funny, but I don’t mean in a haha kind of way. I mean in a WTF kind of way.
Some jerk in the National Guard, a guy by the name of Major General William H. Wade II was forced into retirement. You see he was caught double dipping – hold on – he’s a Major? Does that make him a major jerk? I think it does.
A Sacramento Bee investigation determined that ‘ole Major Jerk had received about $155,000 in improper double-dip earnings. Basically this guy was getting two day’s pay for a single day of work.
A Guard auditor concluded that Major Jerk did in fact owe the state $155,000, but due to the statute of limitations for recoupment (whatever!) they could only go after him for a tad over $88,000, which he has yet to pay anything back.
So as punishment for lying, cheating, and stealing from the National Guard – basically us tax payers – they have decided to “summarily remove” him from the Guard, forcing the poor schmuck into early retirement.
Really?
I can assure you if anyone in the private sector came under this kind of scrutiny, they would have been fired as in – Don’t let the door hit you on the way out fired. As far as retirement? How many people in the private sector have a sweet ass retirement waiting for them at the end of their career? I’m betting not many.
Let’s face it, this state and this country are in a sorry state. There are a lot of Major Jerks out there, each one destroying the very fabric of this country. For example, when confronted by federal officials the California Guard refused to respond to federal inquiries, claiming it amounted to undue federal intrusion. “We bristled,” a top Guard official told The Bee, because “we are very protective of our state status and state sovereignty.”
Bullshit.
The bottom-line is we need more people in office who are willing to clean up government.
I’d like to thank the Bee for bringing this to light.
Randy Miramontez - Downtown Sacramento - Bay Area ConcertsSacramento City Manager $305,940 Package!
I do believe the Sacramento City Council has their head in the sand, or somewhere else.
You might recall that the Sacramento area is in an extremely tough financial situation. To pile on the bad news, a few months ago the Sacramento area was ranked fifth in the nation in Forbes magazine as one of the “20 most miserable cities” in the country. And it doesn’t stop there.
A couple of days after Forbes hit the stand, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that Sacramento’s job performance last year was the worst among the nation’s major metropolitan areas. And let’s not forget about the real estate market. Home prices have continued their decline between the first and second quarters of this year, while most areas of the country realized gains during the same time period.
All this has led Sacramento to take some drastic steps. The forward thinking City Council approved a “crash tax” that was aimed at non-Sacramento drivers who were at fault in an accident within the city. The Sacramento fire department referred to this as a “scene stabilization” fee. This was met with quite the backlash from both insurance companies and citizens of Sacramento. The main argument was that this would cause people to stop coming into the city and spending money. Thankfully level heads prevailed and the crash tax was rescinded.
The impact of this downturn has led to eighty Sacramento city police officers being laid off. Teachers and firefighters are also experiencing layoffs or hours being cut. Next year only three community centers and three swimming pools will remain open. Sacramento State students are paying higher fees, adult health care facilities are shutting down, and the list continues to grow.
But wait! There’s some good economic news on the horizon, but only if you’re the newly hired Sacramento City Manager. John Shirey was recently hired with a total annual package coming in at a whopping $305,940! That’s the highest in the region and more than any other city employee in the history of Sacramento. Oh it gets better. You know ole mayor Kevin Johnson has been pushing for a “strong mayor” model for some time. If that were to happen Shirey gets a nice 6 month severance package. Crap – did I forget to mention he gets the 6 months severance even if he gets fired!!
What do we make of this? Well for starters Shirey is a good negotiator and the city council has their head up their wazoo and not the sand. What were they thinking? With a vote of 7 to 2 the city council gave the okay to hire Shirey at a 16% increase over the last city manager.
So I’m filing this story under our WTF department. How can members of the city council be so clueless when it comes to finances. Good luck negotiating with any of the unions such as the police or fire. While the police department and others are taking it in the shorts, the city council believes it’s business as usual and the economy isn’t impacting the city of Sacramento.
Wow! Really guys? Y’all need to get a clue. Do any of you read, watch, or listen to the news of any type? If you did, you’d realize that Sacramento is in a world of hurt and paying the city manager more than his predecessor is not going to bring more revenue into the city. Paying him more will only hurt any goodwill that you might have had with the people of Sacramento and city employees.
So to wrap this up I’d like to welcome the Sacramento City Council to our WTF department. Where we highlight the incredibly misguided individuals who have the ability to impact our lives – usually in a negative manner.
Randy Miramontez - Downtown Sacramento - Bay Area Concerts‘Electric Daisy’ Sparks Riot in Hollywood
The premier of Insomniac’s documentary “Electric Daisy Carnival Experience” was marred by riots last night at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
It appears Ryan Raddon, better known as DJ Kaskade tweeted that he was going to perform live in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Starting around 5:00 p.m. attendees and fans started arriving in the thousands. Commuters and tourists alike were surprised to find themselves in the middle of a free for all riot.
Police arrived on the scene and shut down Hollywood Boulevard trying to disperse the crowd. People started throwing objects and it all went south from there. Police donned riot gear and then really started dispersing the crowd. Some idiot actually started a police car on fire. How smart was that? With all the video cameras out there, I’m certain that will end up on youtube shortly and the poor schmuck who started the fire will find him, or herself, facing charges. No concert for them.
For those of you who do not know, Electric Daisy Carnival is an annual electronic dance music festival. It’s always been held on the last weekend of June in Southern California up until this year, when it was moved to Las Vegas, NV. Satellite events have also been held in Dallas, Colorado and as far away at Puerto Rico. This year attendance was estimated to be 215,000 people.
And for those of you who know the dumb ass who started the fire, let him know it’s only a matter of time. I say him because let’s face it. Women tend to me more civilized and would never think of starting a police car on fire, unless the police officer was their significant other who just recently cheated on her – then all bets are off.
Randy Miramontez - Downtown Sacramento - Bay Area Concerts
