Mayor Attacks Cassidy's Liberal Cred

SANTOS: "HE'S THE NEW LOU FILIPOVICH"
San Leandro Mayor Tony Santos and his opponent former School Board Trustee Stephen Cassidy are probably not friends and the long slog of campaigning for mayor will not alleviate their constant backbiting.

During a council meeting Monday night Cassidy sternly criticized the mayor and city council twice for allegedly positioning the newly-created Budget Task Force Committee to follow the city's agenda to raise revenue through taxes. Cassidy also charged the city with failing to fund school crossing guards while preparing to spend $75,000 on an informational tax campaign. Santos used the opportunity to further ratchet up his rhetoric this week against Cassidy, likely signaling the beginning of a vicious political fistfight.

Santos, at times, looked on with exasperation, but made no public comment to Cassidy's charges. Afterwards, he said "Cassidy, in my mind, is becoming the new Lou Filipovich." The reference to Filipovich, who was the Republican challenger to Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi last year, in San Leandro terms, is akin to Hillary Clinton calling Barack Obama, the next Newt Gingrich.

Filipovich is known for speaking on numerous topics during council meetings. At one hearing earlier this year, he turned in four separate public comment cards and was the only person to speak that night. The scene of the elderly Filipovich repeatedly shuffling back and forth from his seat to the podium four consecutive times to lecture the council on taxes is one of the funniest moments of the year.

On Thursday, Santos again compared Cassidy to Filipovich, but added a scathing attack on Cassidy's liberal credentials. "You want to call yourself a progressive like Cassidy does and then support cutting jobs and taking funds out of the hands of employees. Progressives don't go against employees. Like I said the other day, he's no different than Lou Filipovich."

In recent months, Cassidy has honed his message around the city's growing budgetary problems and attempts to alleviate its demise by increasing tax revenues. He has also publicly shined a light on the mayor's terse email messages to himslef and other constituents, saying Santos "praises me in public and puts me down in private."

Their tit-for-tat began this spring when Cassidy criticized Santos' handling of the city's finances. Santos countered with "Here's a guy, when he was on the school board, who couldn't balance his own budget and he wants to tell me how to balance mine?" Subsequently, every mention of Cassidy to Santos elicits the same talking point and the war of words continues.

PHOTOS: San Leandro mayoral candidate Stephen Cassidy; Lou Filipovich, a two-time Republican candidate for State Senate, was defeated last year by Mary Hayashi for Assembly.

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When Mad Men meets Madoff

BAY AREA BANK FAILS AS A PARABLE OF OUR FINANCIAL RUIN
Before Pacific National Bank suffered the ignominy of being a victim of financial hubris, it was a stable, family-owned community bank called California Savings Bank. The failure of the 100 year old institution illustrates how lenders, once the bedrock of trust became bloodthirsty vipers in a psychotic rampage for greed and power and nearly knocked the country off its hinges.

I worked for California Savings Bank for the last four years of its existence before the Symon family uprooted its century long interest in the bank and sold it to the First Bank of Oak Park (FBOP) in 2004. It's easy to describe California Savings today. Think of the 1960s drama "Mad Men" and delete the image of men in pomade-slicked hairstyles. The main office on Fourth and Market in San Francisco, which I worked and is now a Diesel store, still had garish orange carpet and the wallpaper still reeked of smoke from a bygone era when workers smoked at their desk at ate lunch leftovers straight out of the Betty Crocker cookbook. The decor of the office had not change since the Johnson administration, but its attention to financial fairness rooted in good business acumen and a foothold in the success of the community had also not changed.Today this anachronism speaks to how Wall Street bankers become godless purveyors of excessive usury and reckless financial motives nearly ruined the American Dream for a generation.

When the Symon family announced its attention to sell the bank to the Illinois-based FBOP in 2004, there was a palpable belief extensive change was about to occur. Many of the office workers had been with the company for decades. The company did not dabble on the investment side of banking beginning to thrive thanks to the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, which tore down the regulatory wall between retail banking and investments that would eventually spew toxins all over the world of finance. At times, people in the loan department were amazed anyone could survive the bank's stringent lending standards. They didn't even make construction loans.

FBOP, which had been slowly increasing its presence in the lucrative California market by purchasing small banks in Southern California looked at California Savings and its then-22 branches in Northern California as a potential asset ready to pour money like a broken ATM machine. The 21st century hit California Savings hard one day in early 2004, when a president of FBOP visited his newly-conquered inhabitants. Stern and cocky, but a bit undersized, the executive openly mocked the former owners for how they operated the bank. "Did they not want to make money," he said in a nicely-tailored suit and shiny black loafers that starkly contrasted the ubiquitous orange carpet. "There was a job here for everybody," he said, "if you wanted to work for it." The sentence was ominous. In time, those deemed "dead wood" were slowly laid off. Gone were worker with over 30 years invested in the bank. In hindsight, workers due to be let go were given little to do while being told they were not working hard enough.

California Savings moved its San Leandro branch from Bayfair shortly after to new digs on Parrott and E. 14th and renamed itself Pacific National Bank. Reports say regulators had been looking at the failing bank for over two months. The cause, the Treasury Department, says was a load of poor investments in the nearly worthless Fannie Mae. The true cause is symptomatic of everything that is wrong with banking, the morality of Wall Street and the predicament we have been placed where unemployment sits in double-digits and the poor get poorer and, if you're Goldman Sachs, the excessively rich get obscenely rich.

There was a time when being a neighborhood banker was viewed as a friendly face. The fate of the bank was intertwined with your own. Bankers were not out to put your livelihood at risk. If you could not pay back a loan you were not given it to begin with. The banks were still a business with an eye on the bottom line, but its aim was not to strip mine the community of all its money to impress their managers and pad their own personal portfolios. "Did this bank want to make money?" is the problem. Undoubtedly, FBOP made millions from transforming California Savings into a "modern" institution, but in the end, like Bernie Madoff, AIG, Bear Stearn, Lehman Brothers and millions of displaced former homeowners, we all paid in the end.

-STEVEN TAVARES

PHOTOS: Above, the male cast of the television drama Mad Men. Below, Bernie Madoff.

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Q&A with Former Healthcare Director Suzanne Barba

Suzanne Barba was a Eden Township Healthcare District Director from 1990-2006. She was replaced by current member Carole Rogers. During the last half of her tenure she sat on the board as Sutter Health entered the District and helped negotiate contentious agreements with the hospital provider in 2004 and 2007. She sat down Friday afternoon with The Citizen in San Lorenzo.

Sutter Health, at one time, had great interest in building a facility in the lucrative Dublin/Pleasanton market. Is it fair to say the District was trying to cut its loses by keeping Eden Medical Center over San Leandro Hospital or risk have no hospital at all?
When the board sat down with the other Sutter boards to look at where the business would be going, when you're doing strategic planning, of course, the eastern section looked really ripe because that's where the growth is. Castro Valley isn't growing very large. San Leandro isn't growing very large. Hayward is pretty static. Yeah, that was one of things we were afraid of. We were wondering whether they were going to retrofit [Eden] because they would rather be in Dublin. Well, as it turns out, they stayed with Eden and they're going to build us a new hospital.

When you negotiated the Memorandum of Understanding in 2007 with Sutter was there any worry about the sections allowing San Leandro Hospital to be closed if it did not turn a profit and whether that could actually happen or was that not a concern at the time but subsequently became a huge factor in where the hospital's fate stands today?
We really thought it was going to be okay because of the kind of effort we were putting into it. We tried to make the employees happy by raising their benefits and salaries and I think you can look at the seniority at a hospital and know whether they love their hospital. San Leandro is a good hospital, but it has changed hands and I don't think this Prime Healthcare is a good deal for San Leandro. It's a for-profit. [Owner Prem Reddy] has a history, but some people in San Leandro think its worth it. He's promising the world and you know he's not going to be able to deliver because the hospital is not making money. If he's making money, it's because he's cutting corners.

When you talk about stars aligning, the county needed a place to put their rehabilitation facility, so here was a hospital losing a lot of its services anyway. So it seemed that we were doing good for the county. They don't have to worry about retrofitting [Fairmont Hospital]. It's good for Eden and the hospital stays in San Leandro.

There has been rumors that Sutter is using cost-shifting maneuvers to make it appear San Leandro Hospital is losing money when it is not. One story is Eden donates a large piece of medical equipment to San Leandro Hospital but is listed on San Leandro's books as a severely overpriced expenditure for installation. Do you believe San Leandro Hospital is losing money despite doctors and nurses who describe a bustling facility?
I think it's losing money. [District Director] Carole Rogers had an auditor look at the hospital's book. They spent $40,000 and when they did the audit it came out the same way.

Why is San Leandro Hospital losing money?
One of the problems is doctors like Vin Sawhney are part owners of a surgery center that is in competition with hospital and that's what a lot of the doctors did. They either have a surgery center or started doing some of the stuff in their offices.

What do you believe the outcome of this will be? Will it stay as a fully-functioning hospital with emergency room services or become rehab for the county?
I don't see how it can stay open. It's losing money. Nobody can really stay in business like that. That's the bottom line whether you want it to stay open or not.

Despite enormous pressure from doctors, nurses and the public, it is still likely San Leandro Hospital will become a rehab facility. Do you any remorse or regrets for your part of negotiating the agreement if this happens?
I regret all those things that came together as a perfect storm had happened and then got worse. The doctors got mad and a mad doctor is not a cooperative doctor and they're not working from the same agenda. The outrage I hear from San Leandro is the hospital being built in Castro Valley is too small. Well, the trend now is to outpatient surgery. The new hospital will have about 100 rooms that can be converted when needed. They're not staffed, so you don't have to staff those rooms that are empty, but if a pandemic occurs, they can convert those rooms into a larger hospital for all those people. You can look around, nobody is building monster-size hospitals anymore.

Critics say without an emergency room in San Leandro people are going to die. Is Castro Valley really too far for someone in San Leandro to get care?
It's ten minutes and if it was a trauma situation they would be helicoptered over no matter where they are. If they're talking about screwing up the building of the new hospital, they're talking about losing the trauma service, so they better not wish for something or the they're liable to get it. If they mess up Eden's plans then they don't have a trauma center in this area.

Wouldn't you say it's too late to use the "we might lose Eden, too" scenario when Sutter is already tearing up the earth in Castro Valley?
[Former District Director] Frank Rico is of the opinion that Sutter is just waiting to leave. No matter how much money they have put in so far, it's nothing compared to what it is going to cost to build the whole thing. They are just looking for an excuse to back out and maybe go to Dublin.

And, you know, poor San Leandro, they are going to have a beautiful Kaiser there and I don't think people realize you can go to the emergency room at Kaiser even if you're not a member--it's state law. I went to Kaiser emergency once. They stabilize you and then they send you, if they have to, to your regular hospital and then they bill. I remember at Eden, they had over a million dollars in money owed by Kaiser for patients they treated. They are so slow to pay.

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One Question on their Minds: What will you do for SLH?

DVORSKY FEIGNS NOTE TAKING; STARES BLANKLY AT CANDIDATES

By STEVEN TAVARES
The Citizen

CASTRO VALLEY, Calif. - Every question the remaining members of the Eden Township Healthcare District posed seemed superfluous except for one. What are your thoughts on San Leandro Hospital? All the answers appeared to suit member Dr. Harry Dvorsky. He refrained from questioning the first round of three candidates to replace Dr. Walter Kran, who resigned in late September. The Board will reconvene again Nov. 10 to interview three more applicants.

One candidate who will have to wait is Dr. William West, who some believe is the front-runner to replace Kran. West will not face the board until their regularly scheduled Nov. 18 meeting. The announcement, made by Board Chair Dr. Rajendra Ratnesar signals Kran's successor will not be named after the second round of interviews next week as some suggested, but just nine days from the deadline to make decision or risk handing jurisdiction over to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

Three applicants introduced themselves to the board Thursday evening at the newly-opened Castro Valley Library. Lester Friedman, the only applicant from outside the medical field; John Chin, a controller for Nightengale Nursing and Dr. Norbert Ralph faced the board with Director Carole Rogers on speakerphone.

Friedman portrayed himself as outside the lines of the District's battles with Eden Hospital and San Leandro Hospital saying, "I have no conflicts with the hospital or anything that should occur." He told the board he has witnessed firsthand the specter of two overflowing emergency rooms when he was transferred to San Leandro Hospital on diversion from Eden. "Any closure would be catastrophic," Friedman said, "If you take away one facility, it's obvious what will happen."

Chin told the group he was uninterested in running for re-election. He said he only learned of the opening while reading the paper at a coffee shop a day before the Oct. 16 deadline. He jokingly wondered what was in his latte that day. Chin said his current position on the turmoil at the District is "neutral" but later struck an opposite chord after reading the board's bylaws in regard to San Leandro Hospital's alleged money-losing operations. "Are we asking the right questions?" he said. "Do thinking about profits fit the needs of the community?" In response to the answer, Ratnesar appeared to wince. When asked by Rogers, the unabashed supporter of keeping San Leandro Hospital's emergency room in operation, about his opinion of alleged cost-shifting by Sutter Health in the District and among the corporation's multiple subsidiaries, Chin called cost-shifting "legitimate according to Medicare."

The board appeared to have a problem with the proximity of Dr. Norbert Ralph's practice to the District. Ralph said he spends four days a week in San Francisco along with a work in Modesto. He also maintains a small practice in San Leandro, but both Directors Dr. Vin Sawhney and Ratnesar came back to the question on separate occasions. Ralph also offered no specifics on any of the questions posed while admitting he was "generally aware of the District's situation" and could offer an "open mind."

The bulk of the questions emanated from either Sawhney or Ratnesar with Rogers, who is out of the area, offering one question to each of the three candidates via conference call. Conversely, Dvorsky, whose mentally acuity has become a looming issue since his vote is likely to appoint a new member, looked dazed and disoriented throughout the process. He declined to ask questions to any of the candidate and appeared to be moving his pen above a piece of paper feigning to write notes. Other moments, he stared blankly at each applicant, which oddly may have significant ramifications for the next two weeks. Some believe Dvorsky's familiarity with West, who is believed to be favored by Rogers, could help gain the director's decisive third vote thereby stacking the board with a solid majority of member interested in keeping San Leandro Hospital open.

Three more applicants will stand before the board Nov. 10 at 5:30 p.m. at the Castro Valley Library; former Director Dr. Francisco Rico, medical supply owner Steven Ree Worley and two-time board candidate Dr. Ronald Hull.

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THE CITIZEN MANIFESTO

THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM IS BRIGHTER THAN YOU THINK and Why this is good for youNewspapers are dead. Journalism is not. In fact, we are entering an era of extraordinarily fearless and important journalism, the problem is mega-billion dollar media companies don't want you to know about it. The New York Times, by some estimates, is on its last legs. The Washington Post is viewed as stable not because it makes money, but since it derives a majority of its income from shrewd outside investments. The San Francisco Chronicle nearly tanked earlier this year and oddly based its reemergence not on the future, but by investing in printing presses in Union City.

We are asked to imagine a community without a newspaper as if it is a business decision for ordinary citizens. Actually, the community has spoken with its quarters and dollars and leisure time. They simply do not need an obsolete, resource-guzzling pile of paper in their lives, especially when something more practical is available at their fingertips via their home computers and mobile devices.

The ubiquitous fear of newspaper's demise and its systematic reporting through thousands of stories and opinion columns speaks to the problem of newspapers and its rapidly dwindling power to control the flow of news typically not in the best interests of the common person. I also leads directly to why news websites with very little overhead like The Citizen are the future of how news is disseminated.

The mainstream media, as we know it, is a cartel of billion dollar companies. Like every community of corporations, the bottom line and survival is paramount. We have seen this dogma bring enormous damage to the nation's economy. Newspapers, even in the so-called golden age of newspaper during the first half of the 20th century, have always had special interests in mind. Advertising, in some ways, has always tempered the tone of media coverage. We see it in the East Bay where coverage of the possible closing of San Leandro Hospital has been woeful and, at times, oddly silent. The Hayward Daily Review (it can be argued calls it editorial shots from San Ramon) and the San Leandro Times--the two top news resources in San Leandro--have both accepted checks from Sutter Health in return for large ads. Their lack of editorial common sense is appalling when you imagine the closing of San Leandro Hospital could possibly mean the untimely death of over 1,000 people without the use of emergency room facilities in the city. The San Leandro Times provides cursory coverage, while the Daily Review has published exactly one article on the subject since July. The mantra has been what will happen when a city or region loses all of its newspaper? The better question is what happens when the newspapers we have fail to cover anything at all?

The Internet and citizen bloggers have dealt the business model of newspapers a mortal blow. This is good for you. This is actually historic. It marks the return of the printing press to the people. Today, proponents of Net Neutrality keep the playing field level. As it stands today, the dream of every cub reporter hoping to be the next Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein can actually be realized by his or her own entrepreneurial convictions.

HYPERLOCAL JOURNALISM
Flash forward now to see the future of journalism. It is viewed in three parts and contains nothing discernible to anything the media currently extols. Niche reporting, localized coverage and small-business ingenuity and innovation.

It does not resemble taking the same copy from the daily paper and recycling it in electronic form. It does not entail jazzing up the story with audio, video features and instant polls. In fact, it may not even contain trained journalists as the majority of its producers. A major aspect regarding the demise of newspapers and the eye balls that once scanned the broadsheet is the overall product. The writing is not bad, but through the constant filtering and lowest common denominator theory of producing a paper for all, what is left is a dry and colorless, just-the-facts-ma'am article. Where is the rich description of events and scathing humor that can enliven stories? What you read is neutered journalism and it makes reading a chore, something to digest like fast food, but carries very little educational nutrition. Millions of young viewers watch Jon Stewart mock the media and government while greatly informing viewers. If you believe humor and the dissemination of the news is unseemly, then go vote for the Academy Awards where comedy is frown upon as an example of the Oscar for Best Picture. The future of journalism will truly arrive when young writers who can meld the basics of reporting with the free and easy, immediate dimension of blogging begin to emerge from colleges across the country.

THE NUT TO BE CRACKED
So, what is The Citizen? I spent two years at Cal State-East Bay writing articles focusing on San Leandro politics as my beat. During that time, I interned at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco. Writing, as they say, is easy, but reporting is what makes a journalist. You can't write without toiling with words every single day and can't report without making strong connections with people inside and outside your subject. I noticed, though, a disconnect between what I was learning and what I saw everyday following the media. Through learning the intricacies of reporting and the connections made at the Commonwealth Club, I believe The Citizen is the missing link. I listened one night as the former Time magazine columnist and anchor of CNN's Crossfire tell the San Francisco Chronicle's Phil Bronstein, he believed the vision of journalism's future--"the nut to be cracked"--would be created by someone unknown and local. He even joked it might come from the middle of nowhere. Maybe, Idaho. I doubt Mr. Kinsley has ever been to San Leandro.

The future of journalism will truly arrive when young writers who can meld the basics of reporting with the free and easy, immediate dimension of blogging begin to emerge from colleges across the country.
______________________

Journalism will become no different than a small-business owner identifying a need for a service in an area of a city or small town. Better yet, a town could have the need for more than one shoe store because of demand for it. There could be a high-end demand for expensive heels in one part of town, need for cheap children's shoes in another, while little Johnny might want a pair of those popular new Jordan's. Everyone has their niche and succeeds. This is how journalism will operate.

By everyone doing their particular niche well, the community will be far more informed and protected than at anytime since the founding of this country. It is why Benjamin Franklin's visage rests on the right column of The Citizen. He stood for a stiff, biting brand of opinion and satire that rallied the colonists against the King of England. In fact, the history of the American people from the beginning was rooted in an abnormally voracious appetite for news. Those ungainly broadsheets and messy inky fingers have merely been replaced by the common person asking questions of their leaders more efficiently and effective as bloggers and citizen journalists. The image of a young man in his underwear writing a blog in the basement of his mom's house is a mocking meme designed by media machines to ridicule the growing voice and reporting power of regular people.

EVERYONE HAS AN AGENDA
Every good newspaper has an agenda, they just choose not to expressly advertise it. You know the New York Times is liberal. Fox News is conservative. The Wall Street Journia is business-friendly. In England, newspapers are openly linked to various groups like labor and conservatives and some are even financially backed by some of the groups. These disparate groups represent niches in readership and customers flock to them. To some in the U.S., this loss of some sort of journalistic "objectivity" is a slap at the fabric of America. The thing is, it was never really put in practice. With the rise of bloggers, Americans are now fully acclimated to the British style of journalism. People now read what interests them. A liberal reader visit the DailyKos without ever thinking of clicking the National Review. We want our own convictions validated. This does not divide the nation as pundits will tell you, but further informs the electorate. If it did have an corrosive effect, then explain how a recent survey now says only 20 percent of Americans identify themselves as Republican? Only four years ago, George W. Bush garnered over half the vote for president. Are you going to tell me conservative voters only read right-wing websites and periodicals and decided to jump to Barack Obama's side because of Bill Kristol and Michael Barone?

The Citizen, too, has an editorial agenda and it is this: to watch, praise and criticize the levers of local government from the mayor's office, city council and school board to Sacramento with our assemblywoman and state senator, in addition, to our representative in Congress. We need to know what they are doing in our name and know when their representation no longer jibes with our needs and desires. Every story published in The Citizen is written with the idea the information will inform voters as they step into the voting booth on election day.

FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE
With The Citizen, I hope to take the slice of the community dealing with politics and do it more efficiently and independent than any outlet in the entire East Bay. The Citizen stands for the people, it is a populist web site. It emphasizes leaders who are courageous in their convictions and lead by example, whereas, too often the leaders of this city participate in a political backslapping in the name of fair play. This does not get things done. The Citizen strives to highlight the decades-long racial disparity in the city. San Leandro has always been wildly successful in attracting female political involvement, but in a city and region bursting with Hispanic and Asian residents, the current power structure is alarmingly still white. Of course, The Citizen also stands for the future. San Leandro's will hopefully be one of the forerunners of reliable green technologies and businesses while becoming a focal point for the arrival of a young and vibrant creative class. It is imperative the city move from an older, bifocaled view of the world to the rose-colored lenses of young people and families.

In the coming months, the elections for the mayor's office and city council will prove the utility of The Citizen as it hopes to inform and shape the future for the city and one day soon its surrounding neighbors. I want to thank everyone who has already joined the revolution with their time and comments and look forward to attracting more followers in the coming months and years.

Sincerely,
Steven Tavares

UPDATE

This treatise was written nearly one year ago and I'm proud to say every story written since has been honest to the mission of The Citizen. In the past few months, the hyperlocal theory of producing engaging journalism more efficiently than the stodgy legacy papers has been validated, although with the helping hand of billion dollar corporations. The emergence of the AOL-backed Patch group of local web sites in various parts of the country, including areas of the East Bay (not San Leandro, but nearby San Lorenzo and Castro Valley) illustrates models like the East Bay Citizen have attracted the eyes of people who believe the endeavor can make money. The Patch websites are run by a single journalist. They are quicker to the punch than legacy papers and sometimes infuse humor in their pages (although not as often as I would like). But, problematic differences remain. For instance, the forthcoming San Lorenzo Patch is written by a journalist from the East Coast. A recent article in the Castro Valley Patch reporting the building of Eden Medical Center sounded too much like a reporter who only recently learned of the issue with that hospital, Sutter Health and San Leandro Hospital. Enigmatic Eden CEO George Bischalaney, sensing this, gave the site an interview. The Patch is not perfect and lacks a local organic feel, but it does prove the main premise of the what I wrote last November--journalism is in the hands of the people, not by those merely looking for a quick buck--and this development is in the best interests of our community and society as a whole. Innovation in journalism is now bottom up. Besides, IBM did not revolutionize the future of the Internet, so why would you expect 150-year-old newspapers to change the way you digest the news?

Steven Tavares
October 9, 2010

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Councilmembers Criticize Politicizing of Budget Committee

NEWARK'S MEASURE L COULD BE A TEMPLATE FOR CITY'S TAX INCREASES

By STEVEN TAVARES
The Citizen

What started as an avenue for citizens to help the city make tough budget decisions is morphing into the realm of the political. The San Leandro City Council unanimously approved Monday night the creation of a 13-member Ad Hoc Citizens' Budget Task Force hoping to provide the city guidance in prioritizing services and programs for the next year.

The committee, which begins work with an educational session Nov. 12 and concludes in January, will be preceded by a $75,000 informational mailing and consulting campaign on the need to raise revenue in the city. Some councilmembers criticized the politicizing of the issue before the committee even makes a single recommendation. Councilwoman Diana Souza said it was like "putting the chicken before the egg" while Councilman Bill Stephens questioned the city's intentions with the campaign.

"Sounds to me what we're trying to do is move an agenda forward and then also have an ad hoc committee that will support that agenda," he said. "It think we have it backwards."

The committee creation hopes to stay clear of vociferous outrage residents conveyed towards the mayor and council over cuts this year to services including crossing guards and access to the city's recreational facilities. Mayoral candidate and former School Trustee Stephen Cassidy first suggested giving more voices input into the budget process, which some economist worry, despite recent news of the economy dipping out of a recession, the economy may worsen before getting better. Cassidy has recently blogged about City Manager Stephen Hollister's $75,000 "contingency fund" for the informational campaign and wondered why money was not available for other services, such as school crossing guards.

"You want to hire outside consultants and spend $75,000 to convince the community you're watching every nickel and dime and being spendthrift as possible," said Cassidy. "It's going to backfire on you. You should be conducting community forums, you should be getting out there yourselves. You shouldn't be relying on third party consultants to be communicating with the public directly."

Hollister says the campaign will be educational and would not advocate a specific revenue measure. He estimated mailers delivered across the city would cost $40,000 with the rest going to consultants. Observers say drumming up support for much-needed revenue enhancements is similar to the strategy the city of Newark is conducting to pass Measure L, a 3.9 percent utility tax initiative, voters will decide today.

Here is the 13-member Ad Hoc Citizens' Budget Task Force named Monday night: Tom Dlugosh (Chamber of Commerce), Johanne Dictor (Bill Stephens), Vic Entrikin (Diana Souza), Mike Fitzgerald (HOA Rep), Patrick Grajeda (SLCEA), Surlene Grant (Ursula Reed), Edras Gustin (Tony Santos), Benny Lee (Joyce Starosciak), Bob Leigh (HOA Rep), Tom Overton (SLMO), Dale Reed (Michael Gregory), Kathy Sanchez (Jim Prola), Mike Sobek (POA).

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