Letters
- Details
- Written by: Dave Geck
What is most upsetting to me at this point is that the focus on the grand jury report is detracting from the effective programs and services that are being provided by the Lake County Office of Education. Our dedicated staff spend long hours supporting students and families as they strive to succeed in our schools.
We serve students in all of the districts in Lake County and we run grants that also serve teachers and schools in the surrounding five counties.
For instance, staff in our office helped train over 600 preschool teachers and directors throughout our region, Our Safe Schools Program provided mental health counseling to over 450 students in schools throughout the county, they also collaborated with 13 agencies and programs in Lake County to sustain services to students and their families.
We provide support to 63 schools that are in Program Improvement because of No Child Left Behind requirements. Our child development programs operate14 high quality preschool classes adding this year a new preschool in Lakeport and one in Middletown and extending the day in Kelseyville serving in total 360 students. After school programs were expanded to serve an additional 280 students this past year.
We provide business services to all of the districts helping them with payroll and budget reporting. Our curriculum and instruction program trains teachers through the year and is currently training over 160 teachers from the districts in how to implement the new math textbook series for this school year. This is only a partial list of the valuable programs and services we are providing. We are compiling an end-of-year report that will list all the accomplishments of the staff at LCOE.
I understand the role of the grand jury in investigating complaints but I am troubled by the process. We believe that many of the findings are based on either misunderstanding of the facts or incomplete information. In the interest of fairness and accuracy we are hopeful we will have the opportunity to share and discuss our response with the grand jury.
In some cases we are hampered by the general nature of the findings. In our followup with the grand jury we look forward to providing the personnel policies and procedures related to the complaints. We also can discuss specific information about specific employee cases.
We are examining all the concerns about expenditures in order to make sure that the expenditures are in line with the grant requirements. It is worth noting that grants often require training of program staff and those trainings or meetings are most often out of the county and in Sacramento, Bay Area or Southern California.
In summary I would like to say that we are committed to operating high quality programs and to continuously work on improving our services. If we have policies or procedures that need to be changed we will do so. We look forward to working with the grand jury and addressing all of their concerns.
Dave Geck is Lake County superintendent of schools.
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- Details
- Written by: Lake County News Reports
His name is Clear Lake Riviera Community Association. His letters have official looking letterheads. He uses words like “abatement,” “code enforcement” and “members in good standing.” His envelopes seem legitimate. Board members wear sanctioned titles like “president” and “first vice president.” Some people say they admire his new clothes.
Unhappily for the emperor, a little boy lives in the Riviera. Some people call him the Riviera-Little-Boy. He keeps saying, the emperor is naked. Heads are turning. Everyone is taking another look.
Riviera Caesar isn’t wearing new clothes at all, says the little boy. He's just another nude old dictator who thinks CC&R laws are for homeowners, not him. The little boy has many naked stories to tell.
Riviera-Little-Boy saw President Alan Siegel and First Vice President Sid Donnell violate two-year term limit laws of the Riviera CC&Rs (Article VI, Section 1 of Riviera rules that establishes term limits, “Directors shall be elected for terms of two years and shall serve until their successors are elected and qualified, and not be eligible for re-election after serving a 2-year term until they shall have not been a director for at least one year…” Also, Article VI, Section 5 of the by-laws says, “The board may fill a vacancy by calling for a special election to choose a new director.”). Alan and Sid didn’t call a new election. They didn’t get the approval of the homeowners to break the by-laws. People saw they were naked and they resigned.
The little boy also saw Alan and Sid (along with board members Boone Bridges and Sandra Orchid) amend Riviera CC&Rs without the acceptance of the owners. Their amendments (mailed to the owners in June 2006) weren't approved by the owners but the emperor started enforcement anyway; flagrant violations of Riviera CC&Rs (Article One) and California civil code (section 1355a). One of the unclad sultan’s amendments instituted a wolfish fining policy.
Outside the above laws, the rapacious and plundering emperor devours Riviera widows and single parents like a dragon. His fines are $250 per month if they don't cut Manzanita bushes according to some freakish desires of his bush inspectors. The little boy saw many disadvantaged and poor people crying because they didn’t have money to cut the bushes or pay the unlawful fines. One widow in Los Angeles can’t sleep at night. She can’t figure out how to raise $3,600 required (by one emperor-recommended bush contractor) to trim her chaparral. She had a worried look on her face because she knows live oak grows fast and the emperor orders it cut every year. He saw money pouring out of the savings accounts of Riviera’s elderly and into the pockets of the emperor's brush-cutting contractors.
Riviera-Little-Boy also saw the disrobed kaiser's invalid election of 2008. The emperor showed no respect for California civil codes that govern elections of homeowners associaitons (1363.03a1, 1363.03 a2, 1363.03 a3, 1363.03 a4, 1363.03 a5, 1363.03 a5a, 1363.03 a6c3a, 1363.03 a6c3d, and 1363.03 a6h). He violated nine laws. Also, the emperor’s ballot said four openings, vote for two, when the law says vote for four when openings are four. Most voters only voted for two in a very close election. The boy saw ballots thrown in the trash and heard board members tell owners they couldn't see ballots when laws say they can. People saw all the nakedness of the election. The emperor ordered a new election after consulting his attorney. Unfortunately, the little boy thinks the emperor will break the same laws in a new election and the people will see the same nakedness.
It gets worse. Riviera-Little-Boy saw one elderly lady drive 300 miles to attend the annual meeting described in a 2008 voting package the emperor mailed. The meeting was canceled at the last minute because a crowd of angry homeowners showed up. The law says emperors must notify shareholders in advance when annual meetings are canceled so they don't waste time and money traveling. The emperor didn't care about this law, either. Homeowners who had questions didn't get answers from emperor au natural.
The naked emperor is not above threatening his critics or even the “free press” with strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) in an attempt to silence them. He’s breaking another law with his threats and intimidation by burdening them with costs of legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition (California code of civil procedure 425.17). Winning his suit is not the purpose of his threats. His goal is accomplished when the “free press” spikes stories and homeowners succumb to fear and intimidation and abandon their criticism.
Riviera-Little-Boy sees all this injustice and wonders, where's the law? Who’s protecting the loyal subjects from the wicked ruler? Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, he said. The elderly, poor and disadvantaged, are suffering everywhere. The emperor is crossing state lines and using the US mail to collect his atrocious fines of $250 per month, outside laws of his own CC&Rs. The boy says, it’s not “just breaking civil laws” when dishonest business practices cause the elderly to lose large amounts of money. He says anarchy reigns in the Clear Lake Riviera Community Association clubhouse. Sheriff Mitchell, District Attorney Hopkins and Attorney General Brown all have investigation teams. Riviera-Little-Boy thinks they might be friends with the emperor or don’t care. Why don't they make the naked king keep the CC&Rs? “Hire an attorney,” they say. The little boy may hire an attorney. Something must be done to stop the beastly crimes against humanity.
DA Jon Hopkins has a record of investigating and prosecuting anyone in Lake County who takes a relative's credit card and charges $2,000 or $3,000 without permission. That’s a white collar felony. He's extremely concerned when credit card companies lose money. Apparently, he’s not concerned for real people like retired homeowners in the Riviera. How long can he turn his head and pretend he doesn’t see?
There are other stories the little boy could tell. He will, if the emperor doesn't get dressed.
Darrell Watkins has lived in Clear Lake Riviera for 23 years.
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- Details
- Written by: Lorrie Gray
A large round of applause goes to George Feola of Bicoastal Media, who sent the mobile broadcast unit for radio station KXBX to keep a running count of donations, and urge listeners to come to the park and enjoy the event. They also provided pre-publicity for the food drive on all of their radio stations for several weeks.
Special thanks to Paul Thomas and his sound engineer for their talents and time. Because of your on air promotion, the wonderful group of folks from Tree of Life arrived with over 1,000 pounds of food toward the cause. Words alone really can not express how much that meant to us.
It might surprise some of you to know that summer is the hungriest time of year for many families. That is because those kids who are eligible for reduced rate or free lunches are not in school, and therefore not getting that meal. Our goal for the day was to collect 10,000 items, specifically for those kids, and although we fell short of that number, we had sufficient donations to supply 30 Lake County families with food to help them bridge the summer gap.
Thanks go to the Clearlake Rotary Club for making a cash donation that we turned into 146 items. Thank you to the individuals who took the time and effort to drop off any number of items, from one to one hundred.
Many thanks to the Lake County Record Bee for including our food drive in the community events calendar, as well as printing an article publicizing the effort. Additionally, thanks to the Lake County News online for printing our article.
All these things counted up to a successful first annual “Cans For Our Kids.”
Many thanks to the Lake County Community Action Agency who loaned us their lift gate truck for our collection point, and their ever capable driver Jim for his time on his day off.
Thanks to the Lake County Office of Education for the warehouse space for short-term storage, as well as their Healthy Start program members for sorting and delivering the donations to the appropriate families.
Thank you to Tammy Alakszay of First 5 California for coordination our efforts, and her AmeriCorps members for their assistance.
Enormous thanks to my sister, Kerry Ellis, for driving up from the Bay Area to spend the day in the back of the truck, when the temperature outside was 103 degrees.
Without the aid of our own Hunger Task Force members Bev Bergstrom, Dianna Brooks, Ginger Frank and Hedy Montoya, who ran our booth for the kids’ activities, the day would have been a lot less fun.
Thanks also to Mary Sherman and her Konocti Kids’ Day organizing committee for letting us piggy-back our food drive onto the event. We appreciated your cooperation.
Finally, thanks to Mayor Curt Giambruno and the Clearlake Public Works Department for the barricades and making our collection point safe and secure.
Thanks again, everyone. See you in 2009.
Lorrie Gray is a member of the Lake County Hunger Task Force. She lives in Kelseyville.
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- Details
One of the "founding fathers" of the United States, John Adams, is credited with the following statement: "We shall have a government of laws, not of men." This is an affirmation that those who exercise power over us are not free to do entirely as they wish, but are subject to limits set by law. This rule of law is what is meant to differentiate the United States from a dictatorship. It is also on this principle of protection from tyranny that a separation of power was implemented between the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches of government.
There is no doubt that former monarchs, and all the dictators who have exercised their unlimited power throughout history, have felt entirely justified in using coercion to protect not only their government but their nations or kingdoms. They have felt that it was necessary to imprison, torture and kill people whom they decided or discovered were their enemies and the enemies of their nations, whether these people were foreigners or citizens.
The fact that they alone could declare who was an enemy, and that they had free rein to determine the appropriate punishment of individuals perceived to be threats, was, among other things, what defined their governmental systems to be tyrannical, oppressive and bloody. It is as a reaction to these kinds of governments that the United States was formed as a nation, and it is from this type of tyranny many immigrants fled here, at least this is what we are taught.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey asked Congress to issue a new declaration of war. This would make the entire globe, including the United States, a battlefield where the president alone would get to decide who is an enemy combatant, and would have the unilateral power to lock that person up forever. This proposal would redefine the United States as a dictatorship.
You might think, like the serf living under a king in the 12th century, that if you did not break any laws, did not express any controversial opinions, and generally kept your head down and were a "good American," you would be safe, and only the "bad guys," as defined by the president-king, would be apprehended and put away. You might think that tyranny will never happen in America, that American presidents will never cross the line.
But the entire effort of the "founding fathers" was to establish limits on executive and other governmental powers so the people would not have to rely solely on the hope that their next leader would be compassionate and benevolent, and not a psychopathic, paranoid oppressor. This is why they established a government of laws, not of men ... laws were to protect the people from all potential abuses of power.
It is my opinion that Attorney General Mukasey's proposal is nothing less than subversive, subverting fundamental legal protections for the American people and the foundation of the American government. Subversion does not always originate from extreme left wing ideology, it also comes from extreme
ring wing ideology.
I urge all who are concerned by this new attempt at tearing the Constitution by this administration to contact Congress right away to put a stop to this silent and covert fascist revolution.
This is not about Democrats versus Republicans anymore, but about America versus a new kingdom, and I hope all who can see clearly past political differences join in to save what is left of the legal fabric of this nation.
Raphael Montoliu live in Lakeport.
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