Pasadena Sub Rosa

PUSD COVERUP HITS THE CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Pasadena school district withholds public records of alleged theft of school bond funds

By Caroline An and Nathan McIntire, Staff Writers

Article Launched: 10/30/2008 10:42:48 PM PDT

Superintendent Edwin Diaz said the district's legal counsel advised him to withhold all records and other details surrounding the alleged theft of Measure Y money that was earmarked for improvements at Washington Middle School in 2006.

"We directed the attorney to investigate all legal options to see what options we have for recapturing the funds" through civil litigation, Diaz said Thursday. "Releasing any information that was part of the investigation could inhibit our options in moving forward."

Through his secretary, PUSD attorney Terry Tao declined to comment.

Upon becoming superintendent in March 2007, Diaz began reviewing Measure Y. He said he uncovered irregularities that prompted him to ask a PUSD attorney to conduct an investigation.

The district turned over the attorney's findings to the Pasadena Police Department, which conducted its own investigation. The police then forwarded a complaint to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, which declined to file criminal charges, citing insufficient evidence.

Diaz said the district is continuing to look into the alleged theft, building a case for a possible lawsuit against a contractor whom officials believe absconded

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with the Measure Y funds. School district officials will decide in the "next few weeks" whether they will sue the company, Diaz said.

Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said the documents referred by district officials to police are public record under the California Public Records Act.

Public documents can be withheld if they are produced during the course of litigation, Scheer said, but not if they existed before a lawsuit was filed.

"There is an exemption for documents relating to pending litigation, but it has to be pending litigation," Scheer said. "If you're merely investigating and gathering documents like that in anticipation of litigation in the future, that's not enough."

Diaz also refused to say how much the district is paying its attorney to look into the matter. He and other district officials said they did not know how much has been spent so far on legal fees related to the probe.

Before the theft allegations surfaced last week, Diaz had made one public statement regarding irregularities in Measure Y spending - following a closed-session school board meeting on Aug. 28, 2007.

At that time, Diaz told audience members that "certain irregularities were discovered" in the district's facilities department. He said the case was turned over to the Pasadena Police Department for investigation.

Diaz added that he would "update the community when it is appropriate to do so."

On Thursday, Diaz said any further comment at this point would be inappropriate.

"Acting on the advice of our attorney, we have to keep confidential until we develop a course of action," Diaz said.

School board president Tom Selinske said district officials must "maintain confidence and protect everyone's rights" as officials lay the groundwork for a possible lawsuit.

According to the District Attorney's charge evaluation worksheet, the allegations surround Eric Peterson, a former project manager for contractor Pacifica Services Inc.

The District Attorney's worksheet said PUSD officials suspected that the company improperly billed the district for work that was never completed - or was completed by others - at Washington.

The district hired Pacifica to complete the Measure Y modernization projects. The contract required Pacifica to provide regular updates to a citizens' oversight committee. It's unclear if those updates were regularly provided, officials said.

Peterson said Wednesday he was the "13th project manager. Everybody else either went nuts or walked off the project," which he characterized as "pandemonium."

Peterson then declined to comment any further.

Pacifica's relationship with the district ended in 2007, when its contract expired.

On Tuesday, voters will decide the fate of Measure TT, a $350 million bond that PUSD officials say would fund school upgrades and renovations. If passed, homeowners would be taxed about $46 per $100,000 of assessed home value.

Selinske remained confident that residents will support the measure and said that oversight issues that plagued the Measure Y projects will not be repeated.

"We need to do things to improve facilities in this community. We think we're going to see positive support from the community," he said.

PUSD MEASURE TT SUPPORTER PAUL HUNT HAS FOOT IN MOUTH DISEASE

NOTE: Read the email below from Paul Hunt, supporter of PUSD Measure TT on the Nov. 4 ballot for what might be called a $350 million "Tinsel Tax."  Hunt admits that Measure TT is nothing but a jobs program meant to stimulate the economy.  Then read PUSD watchdog Rene Amy's email underneath it.

Paul Hunt email excerpted from PUSDGreatSchools website:
Oh, please!  The $3,500 tax will be levied over a 30+ year period.
The recession won't last that long.

Besides, if you are concerned about the economic recession,
infrastructure construction (like the Measure TT projects) is one of
the most effective ways to stimulate the economy.  See Table 1 in
http://www.economy.com/mark-zandi/documents/assissing-the-impact-of-the-fiscal-stimulus.pdf.

Paul Hunt

Rene Amy email excerpted from PUSDGreatSchools website:
> Anyone even considering voting for the $3,500-per-every-man-woman-and
> child tax (that's including interest payments) to gussy up schools that
> must be closed should read the piece below.
>
> All experts expect the economy to get significantly worse before things
> get better.
>
> There will be more foreclosures, more jobs lost, more pain.
>
> TT - the wrong tax at the wrong time.
>
> Btw, in these troubled times, don't expect PUSD to do anything drastic
> like cut back on its larger-than-ever P.R. department.
>
> Rene

FINANCIAL CRISIS IS THE "TAX EFFECT" - OPPOSITE OF "WEALTH EFFECT"

Note: The so-called national financial crisis appears more and more to be a "tax effect" of looming increases in capital gains and other taxes that will kick-in after the election. As pointed out by the Minneapolis Federal Reserve on this website, there is no data indicating a credit crunch.  Markets work on the principle of anticipation. The weakest industries dependent on a continuation of the existing tax structure (i.e., housing, auto production, lending to risky borrowers, etc.) are the ones collapsing and requiring bailout. Regardless of elections, our economy is moving not to socialism, but to fascist-like corporatism.  Next to be partially nationalized will be the airlines following a trend of precursor bailouts after 9/11. It might be better for the nation if a Republican were elected to the Presidency to give legitimation to this historic shift to fascist-like corporatism. Otherwise many Americans will never accept what appears to be socialism foisted on them by one of the most Leftist presidential candidates in history. Read article below: 

Stocks Pay Price Of Coming Tax Increases

By GROVER G. NORQUIST | Posted Thursday, October 30, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Some Americans are concerned that if Sen. Barack Obama is elected president, his plans for higher taxes on personal income, capital gains, dividends and corporations will damage the economy.

It is a little late to be worrying about this. We are already in the midst of the Obama recession. But to be fair, we should give House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at least equal billing.

Why has the stock market collapsed? Why wouldn't it?

In 2003, the Dow stood at about 8000. The then-Republican Congress and President Bush reduced the capital gains tax to 15% from 20% and the tax on dividends to 15% from 35%. In the next three years, the Dow rose 50% to 12,000, and household net worth rose to $56 trillion from $40 trillion.

This is the "wealth effect" of taxation. If you own stock in a company and the tax on earnings by that company is reduced, the value of the stock increases. If taxation on the company is increased, you would pay less for the same stock.

Microsoft stock is worth less if you attach the boat anchor of higher capital gains taxes, higher corporate income taxes and higher dividend taxes. But this is not what will happen if Obama is elected. It's what already happened on Nov. 7, 2006, when Democrats won the majorities in the House and Senate.

The tax cuts of 2003 that sparked the increase in national wealth are scheduled to end on Jan. 1, 2011. It does not require a President Obama to make those taxes increase. All it requires is for the Democrats to control either the House or the Senate with enough votes to stop legislation to extend the tax cuts.

And the top individual tax rate, now at 35% but also paid by many small businesses, will snap back up to Bill Clinton's 39.6% on Jan. 1, 2011.

Pelosi and Reid both voted against the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. We know where they stand. Every Democrat in the House and Senate has voted repeatedly for higher taxes since that party became the majority in January 2007, and House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel has unveiled his "mother of all tax hikes" to increase taxes by $38 billion over 10 years.

Presidents don't cut taxes or raise taxes. They sign the bills sent to them by Congress.

Obama originally campaigned for raising the dividend tax to 39.6% from 15%. Then, when his contributors from Wall Street pointed out how devastating that would be to the stock market, he changed his rhetoric to calling for an increase to "only" 20%. But if Congress does nothing, the dividend tax increases to 39.6% on Jan. 1, 2011.

Americans for Tax Reform worked with John Rutledge to calculate how Obama's and McCain's tax policies would affect the stock market. The calculator appears at ATR's Web site, www.atr.org.

You can enter the size of your 401(k), and it will calculate its value under four different scenarios: if Obama's tax increases pass; if McCain's tax cuts are enacted; if Congress' plans are enacted; and if Americans for Tax Reform's fantasy tax cuts, including abolishing the capital gains tax, were made law.

The Obama tax plan will reduce the value of the stock market and your 401(k) by 6%. The House Democrat plan will drop the market by 16%. Remember, Obama cannot impose his tax plan — he has to sign what Congress sends him, so Congress' tax plans are more important than Obama's campaign speeches.

If Republicans won the House and Senate and McCain's tax plans were enacted, the market and your 401(k) would increase by 46%. And if you pass the McCain plan and add ATR's abolition of the capital gains and dividends tax, the market and your 401(k) would increase by 58%.

But the market can read the newspapers and is aware that the Democrats control the House and Senate now and likely will for the next two years. This means the market gains since 2003 due to lower capital gains and dividend taxes will disappear.

The market has already begun to drop in anticipation of the coming tax increases. The Pelosi-Reid-Obama recession has already started.

Of course, if Obama and the Democrat leaders in Congress have tax hikes and regulatory burdens planned that they haven't shared publicly, the market will drop even further. It can get worse.

Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform and author of "Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives."

LARRY WILSON: USE CARROT FOR CONSERVATION

Catch Larry Wilson's editorial on water conservation in today's PSN where he advocates incentives rather than punishments for water conservation. Kudos to Larry Wilson.  His editorial can be found here:
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_10604507 

The following excerpt references this blog and a prior blog posting - read here:  

The education campaign must be intensified. People must start taking personal responsibility. And we like the positive suggestion from one Web site, apparently run by City Hall gadfly Wayne Lusvardi, that borrows from an energy conservation plan currently being tried up north: "The Sacramento Municipal Utility Distict is running a pilot experiment on 35,000 homes of similar size and similar heating systems. Each month it sends an energy report card to each home showing how much energy each customer used compared to the average customer. Homes exceeding the average get an unsmiling face and homes that beat the average a smiley face.

"Sounds better than setting up a Soviet-style informer system in neighborhoods whereby neighbors can retaliate against each other if they are seen hosing walks or washing cars in their driveway."

VOTE NO ON MEASURE TT

Vote NO on Measure TT

 

Two weeks ago, the Pasadena Star News recommended a “No” vote on Measure TT. That is PUSD’s $350 million bond proposal which would be the largest ever property tax increase in Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre.  

 

The reasons for the Star News opposing Measure TT include its vaguely defined projects, a lack of clear priorities, a poor record of administering capital projects, declining enrollment, and imposing a huge property tax increase in uncertain economic times.

 

Since then, and at the last minute before the election, both the Star News and the Pasadena Weekly have discovered and reported that new fraud in connection with the PUSD’s last bond has been under investigation for more than a year and that contractors to the PUSD who stand to collect millions in fees if Measure TT passes have financed a large portion of the “Yes on Measure TT” campaign.

 

We have been told about the safeguards and citizen’s oversight committee that will be established for Measure TT. Well, there was an oversight committee for PUSD’s last bond and the Pasadena Police Department still can’t figure how much of that money was stolen. And the L.A. County District Attorney says he can’t prosecute the case because the PUSD records are in such disarray. My question this time is: Who will watch the oversight committee?  

 

Last minute financial disclosure reports now reveal that a large portion of the funding (and by far the biggest single contributors) for the “Yes on Measure TT” campaign has come from current and prospective PUSD contractors who will earn millions of dollars in fees but only if Measure TT passes. That must be legal… But do you think it is right? Now you understand where a lot of the money behind all those flashy “Yes on Measure TT” campaign mailings is coming from.

 

Measure TT should be rejected and the PUSD must come back with a credible program that can pass scrutiny.

 

In brief, Measure TT should be rejected because:  

 

1.                  PUSD has a very, very poor record of fiscal management

 

2.                  PUSD already spends significantly more per student than nearby school districts with high achievement yet it delivers far less

 

3.                  The 1997 bond for $240 million was poorly administered and did not deliver the improvements that were promised

 

4.                  The District today has nearly 25% fewer students that was projected when the last bond was passed

 

5.                  The $240 million in funds from the 1997 bond plus the additional $350 million being sought now is nearly enough to build, from scratch, new classrooms for every PUSD student

 

6.                  PUSD was not even able to get unanimous support from its own School Board members when it voted to put Measure TT on the ballot

 

7.                  The projects on which the money would be spent are vague and un-prioritized. Taxpayers have absolutely no idea what they will get for their money

 

8.                  While asking for hundreds of millions of dollars for new projects, the PUSD has not even figured out what to do with its many surplus facilities resulting from its declining enrollment

 

9.                  The PUSD seems to have no plan other than “spend still more money”  

 

10.              Before it is given a third of a billion dollars for more 'projects,' PUSD needs to demonstrate that it understands, even though it spends more per student than other districts, why its students perform so poorly  

 

 

Ross Selvidge, Ph.D.

Pasadena Resident

Graduate of Eliot Junior High School and John Muir High School

Supporter of Public Education

Chairman, Pasadena Public Library Funding Task Force: 1993, 1997, 2006

_________________________

STATE TO CUT IMPORTED WATER TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TO 15% OF ALLOCATION

The Department of Water Resources announced it will deliver just 15 percent of the amount that local water agencies throughout California request every year. Read here
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/10/30/financial/f104642D40.DTL
 

MWD HAS ENOUGH WATER STORED IN DESERT AQUIFER FOR CITY THE SIZE OF PASADENA FOR 3 YEARS

The Metropolitan Water District has a number of underground storage aquifers in the event of a drought in Southern California.  The largest of these underground storage reservoirs is in Bakersfield and in Coachella Valley.  The Desert Water Agency in the Palm Springs area has 77,500 acre feet of groundwater stored in its aquifer which is available to the Southern California's regional water wholesaler the, Metropolitan Water District, in the event of a drought. That's enough water for a population of about 150,000 families (about 375,000 people) for a year.  Pasadena is dependent on 40% of its own groundwater and 60% imported water.  Hypothetically, 77,500 acre feet would meet Pasadena's imported water needs for nearly 3 years. However, MWD must supply water to all its member agencies in six counties, not just Pasadena. Read more here.

http://www.mydesert.com/article/20081029/NEWS01/810290305/1006/news01

PRIMER ON GLOBAL WARMING

Best visual primer on global warming I have run across - link here:
http://joannenova.com.au/globalwarming/skepticshandbook1-4.pdf

THOU SHALT NOT JUDGE................

PAIN-FREE PROTESTERS

Karen DeCoster, Economist
Excerpt
A reader, Steve Vaughn, sent me a favorite quote from his mother Marie: "The problem with being unique is that you have to do it all by yourself." This quote reminds me that the problem with the majority of people today is that they can’t be unique because they don’t know how to do much of anything by themselves. They have been collectively brainwashed, dumbed down, and indoctrinated with feel-good claptrap that keeps them occupied and compliant, and unlikely to defy further encroachment into their lives. They’ll drag their re-usable grocery bags all over the place to save the earth, because it makes them feel good, and because someone told them it was the right thing to do. But they won’t question why it is that they are being looted and lorded over so that wealthy Wall Street executives and 29-year-old traders driving Maseratis can continue their ways with the aid of policy prescriptions, subsidies, and outright nationalization of the financial system.

These types of people are willing to take all kinds of time to organize or participate in an awareness event for suicide, breast cancer, autism, diversity, mental health, landmines, depression, rape, eating disorders, domestic violence, anti-racism, second-hand smoke, and even genital integrity. Awareness of such feeble matters is trouble-free and convenient. Being a round peg is painless, and you get to be a part of a group. You can all feel good together, and you don’t have to bear the painful burden of thinking. You’ll never see people striking up an awareness event for protesting the Federal Reserve, central planning, economic nationalization, imperial wars, police state militarism, lifestyle fascism, inflation, stock market engineering, or the security state. Oh, these people will gently protest gas prices, but that’s because they need cheap gas to engage their daily bread and circus regimen.