Police seize video from party fight

Today's Manteca Bulletin has the story of an off-duty police officer and his son who were involved in a fight at a party over the weekend that resulted in at least one person being sent to the hospital. No one was arrested and the names of the officer and his son were not divulged. It's one of the most read Bulletin stories online today and there are a lot of comments from readers.

The details about what kind of party it was and what the fight was about are sketchy but what interests me most is what happened after police were called. Apparently someone had a camcorder or a cell phone with video capability and took video of the fight. He was ordered to cease taking video and the camera/cell phone was confiscated by police as "evidence." There was no arrest made and according the police, no formal "complaint" made, so why is the camera/cell phone evidence? The kid asked if he could download the video before they took it, but his request was denied. He was told that the video was going to be downloaded by the police and the device returned to him with everything intact. He tried to get it back Monday, but was told it was still being held as "evidence."

I have some personal experience with property being confiscated by Manteca police...twice. Manteca Live has been photographing the city of Manteca for years. One time, the police decided they didn't like what we were taking pictures of so they confiscated our camera and held it as "evidence." It took us a full year and an attorney to get that camera back. The second time they didn't take the camera, but they took the expensive mini hard drive out of it and we never got it back and it's been about 4 years now.

The text of the 4th Amendment of the Bill of Rights reads: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The police in Manteca must think the "seizure" part doesn't apply to them.

Test your civics savvy

If you're interested in government (and if you're reading this blog I think you are), then test your knowledge of how our government is supposed to work. Take the multiple choice "Civics Quiz" by Intercollegiate Studies Institute. It'll probably take you about 10 minutes to complete. Seventy-one percent of Americans fail the test, with an overall average score of 49% ... an F.

ISI published the "Civic Literacy Report," a scientific survey of civic learning among college students from 2006-2007. ISI poses the question "Do Americans possess the knowledge necessary to participate wisely in the affairs of the nation?" The answers are disturbing.

Council / staff plot in all day session

The Manteca City Council met with city government "staff" in a marathon meeting on Thursday. Here we learned of the plight of the economy, how the city refuses to cut spending and hopes to convince people to raise their taxes.

Mystery 1: Why was this meeting held at the "Godfather Room" at Chez Shari and not at the council chambers? The room wasn't any bigger or had better AV equipment.

Who made the seating arrangement I wonder. If you notice, the council was staggered around the table with city bureaucrats between them. I wonder if this was the create the psychological impression that the council members were "part of the team" (instead of their proper role as the representatives of public oversight of "the team.")

The meeting started at 0830 and as you can see there was a small spread of coffee and bagels and little donuts but nothing too extravagant. (They could have done the same thing at city hall.) I didn't get to see the exact lunch arrangement as the public wasn't invited (hmm!) but it looked like some kind of sandwich / buffet thing.

The chairs they "provided" to the press and public felt like they had spikes in them. The staff and council sat in plush cushioned chairs. As you can see the room was arranged somewhat like the war room in Dr. Strangelove, including a Big Board.

Nevertheless, enduring the torturous chairs paid off with a deeper knowledge of how city government works. Here's what I learned:

The government seems to exist for its own sake and for its own survival. There was no talk of any program that would improve the lives of ordinary people; each department head discussed how they were going to struggle to keep their own fiefdom fully funded.

The police and fire have agreed to taking two weeks off "to save money." However are still giving themselves a 4 or 6 percent "COLA" raise in pay, which is more than the amount saved by the furloughs! In other words, they will take an extra two week vacation, tell us that's "saving money" even though it costs more this year! (The furlough "saves" about 3.8 percent and their raises are 6 percent.)

No one asked how the "cost of living" for one group was four percent but for the other group it was six percent.

The "cutbacks" talked about by the police and fire chief, considering the extraordinarily generous funding of "measure M/ public safety sales tax" was appalling. They talked about not responding to home burglaries because their were "many false alarms" -- even though by his own figures about 52 times last year the home burglary alarm was not a false alarm. But evidently the police can't be bothered with trivialities such as protecting the homes of the citizenry. The fire chief talked about cutting back on some medical services and cancelling the public CPR training.

To be honest I couldn't even listen to what the police or fire chief was saying once they started yammering about "cutbacks." This talk was so disgraceful after all they had promised if we passed "measure M" that it was an outrage.

Finance Director Suzanne Mallory read a long "doom and gloom" forecast in the morning. In the afternoon she told us this time last year about 250 homes had gotten "48 hour notices" (notices to shut off utilities for lack of payment). She said that in general about half of those would be cleared before actual shut off, so that would be about 125 or so that would actually be shut off. She said that this year, there are 1,000 or so 48 hour notices, and assuming that same fix rate over 48 hours they are expecting about 500 shut offs.

She further explained how you can't pay on line "because we don't know the exact amount" and the office is plagued by an antiquated telephone system that only has five lines. And if you're caller six you just get a ringing with no answer. So it's "very difficult" for someone who gets a 48 hour shut off notice to fix the problem. (As for why they can't figure out the exact amount they need to pay when they send out the 48 hour notice I have no idea.)

The next bombshell was dropped by City Manager Pinkerton. He whined how other cities "the same size as Manteca" collect so much more in taxes. For example, he said Pleasonton is about the same size as Manteca but it collects about twice as much in taxes per person. And even more so with San Francisco. Therefore, he suggested, Manteca should add a new "utility tax." He figured that the rate could be anywhere from 1 to 11% and we should set the rate so that they extract about another $100 to $200 per family.

A quick summary of the reaction of the Council:

Mayor Weatherford: Fantastic idea!
Debrum: Champion!
Harris: Not so fast, need more cuts first.
Hernandez: Maybe. "Neutral"
Moorhead: "I'm just taking it all in!" (later expressed reservations?)

By the way bringing this subject up and polling the council without any of this being on the agenda is illegal as hell but it's futile to complain. It's probably better that we know where they stand.

Rounding out the day was the "planning guy" -- the single department most responsible for poverty in the City of Manteca. He explained how in his unquestionable judgment the "business park" he pointed to on the map wasn't a good idea and he told the planners to "stop working on it" and then explained how this wondrous "Centerpoint" project was the greatest thing since the invention of the cow.

At about this point I was expecting a guy in a wheelchair and one black glove to roll in and address them as mein fuhrer. Overall, a horrifying day.

Dhaliwal nixes Lathrop logistics center

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's despite the doom and gloom in the news. Celebrations seemed subdued this season compared to most years...not as many brightly lit decorated houses, no big holiday parties for employees at businesses that used to go all out at Christmas, people getting a pink slip instead of a bonus from their employers. Reality is setting in after a decade of living high off credit cards, inflated salaries and bloated home prices. It had to end sometime. The housing crash seemed like such a surprise to everyone. Didn't anyone think it was crazy to have homes in Manteca and Lathrop selling for over half a million dollars when the average salary in Manteca is $36K and the median household income is less than $50K? California, as usual, is facing huge budget deficits at the state and local levels and there's talk of raising taxes and fees everywhere.

I heard on the radio that Governor Schwarzenegger wants to help California's economy by lifting some onerous restrictions that make doing business in the state almost impossible. We see examples of just how "business unfriendly" California is everyday in our own back yards. In Manteca, a small used car dealership is fighting against the city's mandate that the owner plant 10% of his property with trees and other landscaping. The issue was appealed at Tuesday's Manteca City Council Meeting and the council decided not to take any action yet. A few months ago, another business owner had his dreams of a custom hand-car wash dashed because neighbors and the council just didn't like it or the location and he was denied a permit.

In Lathrop, Councilman Sonny Dhaliwal is saying NO to Gordon Trucking's proposal to build a new logistics center on Harlan Road. He claims there are too many trucks in Lathrop now and why should they give sewer capacity to them when they could bring in two Country Kitchen restaurants instead. Huh? He doesn't want Lathrop to turn into "Truck Town." Does this sound like reasonable decision-making? How is turning away a company like Gordon Trucking helping Lathrop? What do you think employees at restaurants make? Minimum wage if they're lucky. For all the big talk about bringing in "jobs" that Lathrop and Manteca do, the jobs they're really talking about bringing in are retail and service jobs that don't pay high wages but fill the cities' coffers with sales tax revenue.

Until government leaders get their heads out of their asses and realize that they are not helping their communities by concentrating on retail businesses and restaurants, places like Manteca and Lathrop will continue to be bedroom communities where folks have to commute over the hill for decent paying jobs...unless of course they have a government job.

The three stooges strike again

Friday December 26, the Sun Post did an article about another "special" closed door meeting that was held by the Lathrop City Council on Saturday, December 20. This was the second special meeting in less than a week under questionable circumstances. I heard about the meeting and expected to see something about it in Monday's Manteca Bulletin, but the topic and the outcome must have been deemed non-newsworthy by them because there hasn't been a mention of it in the daily paper. You'd think spending $1.5 million in taxpayer money might rate a little higher on the newsworthiness scale than spending $250 on a party. While the Bulletin wrote a lengthy article about Lathrop's fondness for throwing receptions and parties, they've been silent on the latest shenanigans engineered by Councilman Robert Oliver and one of Lathrop's biggest developers TCN Properties (Tom and Cathie Luckey).

As reported by the Sun Post, Councilmen Oliver, Dhaliwal and Mateo voted to pay TCN Properties more than $1.52 million to complete a project that was originally negotiated to cost $1.2 million. Mayor Kristy Sayles and Vice Mayor Martha Salcedo voted no. According to Mayor Sayles, TCN is having financial problems and so the council voted to help them out by giving them a few hundred thousand extra for fulfilling their contract with the city. Sounds like the Lathrop ATM machine is still in operation thanks to the three stooges.

The Luckeys were pleased with the 3-2 vote to pay them the extra money and thanked Councilmen Oliver and Dhaliwal who negotiated the deal which reportedly includes some concessions to keep TCN "in the black." Once again, rookie councilman Chris Mateo sided with the Waterboy to stage a rushed vote on an issue favorable to local developers involving taxpayer money.

Some things to ponder: We've got the special meeting Oliver called to push through the hiring of a developer's employee as city manager and now the special meeting to approve a contract to pay money that Oliver says is owed to a developer (despite the city saying TCN owes them). Who's being represented? You, the average citizen? or special interests?

Lathrop citizens enjoy "party politics"

Here's a view of the infamous "waste of public money" cake. If you look closely, you'll see it's not even a cake, it's a space-station like conglomeration of cupcakes. That saves money from having to cut it, provide plates, etc. On the sides you can see some of those "donut" balls. None of this is any significant expense. Yet the Manteca Bulletin finds fault with this "extravagance!" Sounds like someone has run out of things to criticize.

Maybe the decorative icing is the problem? But how expensive can that be? Apparently you can get a cake inscribed with happy birthday Adolf Hitler for a few dollars at Wal-Mart.

I've noticed this is a common "complaint" or attack. The uninformed complain about some tiny insignificant expense and never complain about the vast waste of tax dollars being spent somewhere else. Sort of like what Bastiat called the "seen vs. the unseen." The "seen" is complained about but it's usually the "unseen" that is more important.

I normally hate the argument that something is such a small expense it doesn't matter -- after all, every penny does count. But keep things in perspective: in the time it takes you to walk from the back of the room to the podium or fill out a purple complaint form speaker slip, the city spends more money than on that plate of cupcakes. It would probably cost more to stop the party than to have it.

Minor expenses are important but the distinction here is that it provides some public benefit. Note in the photo at right citizens get to meet their elected leaders. Shown in the background is the extravagant punch fountain -- which was actually a cheap plastic thing that ran out of punch about 5 minutes into the event. I couldn't fill a thimble with what was dribbling out of it.

The Bulletin writer screeches about "throwing a party without sending an invitation to those who foot the bill, namely the taxpayers." Au contraire -- the reception was published in advance and the doors were thrown open at 6 pm and anyone could come and partake in the goodies. You, the taxpayer, were invited and people did come by.

Instead of complaining about a plate of cupcakes worry about the millions being spent keeping land developers, civil servants and union bosses happy.

Instead of complaining about inviting us to a party let's ask why other cities like Manteca have their parties in secret. They have them, but we're never invited. Maybe they learned that if you invite the tax payers to the party someone will invariably complain about the "waste" and extravagance.

The Road to Serfdom

Here is the economics lesson from Friedrick Hayek in the cartoon form I mentioned at the Manteca City Council meeting. (It was previously mentioned in the entry on 5 Dec.)