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I don't understand the people of this wonderful city. It's as if we were all so contented with the sunshine, the Zoo, The Embarcadero, and all of the wonderful things the city has to offer, that we forget to pay attention to what is going on. Jerry "Show Me The Money" Sanders has just managed to misappropriate over $300,000.00 of city assets and no one has said a word! Not a peep! No comment by the local news, no KUSI Turko Files saying "I Ain't Right", no radio talk show hosts crying foul. Just everyone standing around saying "Well, I guess it's what they had to do". I am, of course, referring to the disposal of 7 police dogs, at a value of $10,000.00 each (At least that's what they made an officer pay for one when he died in his police car), and 9 trained police horses valued at about $30,000.00 each. At least they put the horses on Ebay (I wonder who's paypal account they used?), but they simply gave the dogs away. This is only the tip of the iceburg with Sanders. He's been systematically destroying law enforcement and fire protection in this city for the last few years. Soon, you'll have to make an appointment a week in advance if you plan to have a fire or get robbed, because you just won't get any help otherwise. How has Jerry done all this, you ask? He started out quietly enough, just working on paring down the budget. We all understand the necessity of doing that work, after the years of overspending and waste starting with Susan Golding and heading down the line of poor administrators to follow. The difference here is that Jerry has a plan. Not for the city, of course, but for his own political future. Early in his Mayoral tenure, he aligned himself with the real estate developers, sports teams, and others who could offer big campaign contributions for little favors. Sort of a "You build my big, expensive, and completely frivolous main public library, using my construction company, of course, and I'll donate huge to your bid for the state senate" type of situation. It started with a change in the way the city would honor it's commitment to health insurance for it's retirees. The city would change the health care for anyone who retired after June 30, 2009. This caused the city to lose nearly 300 police officers and a similar number of firefighters, none of whom have been replaced. Then, Jerry found out he still didn't have enough money to build his Library, his City Hall, or his new Football Stadium, so he started cutting again. Jerry took Fire Engines out of service at several fire stations, causing even less safety for our citizens, and causing response times that are a full five minutes slower than the national goal to be even longer, but that wasn't enough money left over. Jerry needed more cash to build his pet projects, so he eliminated seven police dogs and put their highly trained masters back on normal duty, with their dogs at home as family pets. Those dogs provide a level of safety for citizens and officers, because they can go after a suspect without endangering a police officer, but the money was much more important to Jerry. His office is cramped and he needs a new city hall! Then, Jerry attacked the mounted police, eliminating the entire mounted police unit in San Diego. Studies show that one mounted officer does the job of 100 officers on foot in crowd contol, but the hay was keeping Jerry from a deal with the Chargers, so the horses had to go! Still need more cash - What can we do? How about getting rid of the civilians who work as investigative aids, fingerprint technicians, front counter personnel, Police Service Officers, and other jobs the public doesn't understand. These people make a fraction of what the officers who will have to replace them make, but the public will never figure that out. Maybe that'll save me enough to get that Library! So Jerry laid off 200 people, give or take, who do essential work for the City, and who will have to be replaced by regular police officers, and, in some cases, detectives, taking another 200 police officers off the street. For those of you keeping score, that's 500 police oficers who have either retired, been re-assigned, or will now have to do the jobs of the civilians who have been laid off. Gee, I hope the bad guys aren't listening, because that's a real hit to the protection of our City in a real short period of time. So, keep up the great work, Jerry. I'm sure the City will continue to ignore your work, but I won't. I won't stop writing about this until you get what you really deserve, because I think you may be the smartest Mayor San Diego has had in some time, and you know exactly what you are doing to this City, and you are doing it with a plan to gain for yourself at the loss for everyone else.
I don't understand the people of this wonderful city. It's as if we were all so contented with the sunshine, the Zoo, The Embarcadero, and all of the wonderful things the city has to offer, that we forget to pay attention to what is going on. Jerry "Show Me The Money" Sanders has just managed to misappropriate over $300,000.00 of city assets and no one has said a word! Not a peep! No comment by the local news, no KUSI Turko Files saying "I Ain't Right", no radio talk show hosts crying foul. Just everyone standing around saying "Well, I guess it's what they had to do". I am, of course, referring to the disposal of 7 police dogs, at a value of $10,000.00 each (At least that's what they made an officer pay for one when he died in his police car), and 9 trained police horses valued at about $30,000.00 each. At least they put the horses on Ebay (I wonder who's paypal account they used?), but they simply gave the dogs away. This is only the tip of the iceburg with Sanders. He's been systematically destroying law enforcement and fire protection in this city for the last few years. Soon, you'll have to make an appointment a week in advance if you plan to have a fire or get robbed, because you just won't get any help otherwise. How has Jerry done all this, you ask? He started out quietly enough, just working on paring down the budget. We all understand the necessity of doing that work, after the years of overspending and waste starting with Susan Golding and heading down the line of poor administrators to follow. The difference here is that Jerry has a plan. Not for the city, of course, but for his own political future. Early in his Mayoral tenure, he aligned himself with the real estate developers, sports teams, and others who could offer big campaign contributions for little favors. Sort of a "You build my big, expensive, and completely frivolous main public library, using my construction company, of course, and I'll donate huge to your bid for the state senate" type of situation. It started with a change in the way the city would honor it's commitment to health insurance for it's retirees. The city would change the health care for anyone who retired after June 30, 2009. This caused the city to lose nearly 300 police officers and a similar number of firefighters, none of whom have been replaced. Then, Jerry found out he still didn't have enough money to build his Library, his City Hall, or his new Football Stadium, so he started cutting again. Jerry took Fire Engines out of service at several fire stations, causing even less safety for our citizens, and causing response times that are a full five minutes slower than the national goal to be even longer, but that wasn't enough money left over. Jerry needed more cash to build his pet projects, so he eliminated seven police dogs and put their highly trained masters back on normal duty, with their dogs at home as family pets. Those dogs provide a level of safety for citizens and officers, because they can go after a suspect without endangering a police officer, but the money was much more important to Jerry. His office is cramped and he needs a new city hall! Then, Jerry attacked the mounted police, eliminating the entire mounted police unit in San Diego. Studies show that one mounted officer does the job of 100 officers on foot in crowd contol, but the hay was keeping Jerry from a deal with the Chargers, so the horses had to go! Still need more cash - What can we do? How about getting rid of the civilians who work as investigative aids, fingerprint technicians, front counter personnel, Police Service Officers, and other jobs the public doesn't understand. These people make a fraction of what the officers who will have to replace them make, but the public will never figure that out. Maybe that'll save me enough to get that Library! So Jerry laid off 200 people, give or take, who do essential work for the City, and who will have to be replaced by regular police officers, and, in some cases, detectives, taking another 200 police officers off the street. For those of you keeping score, that's 500 police oficers who have either retired, been re-assigned, or will now have to do the jobs of the civilians who have been laid off. Gee, I hope the bad guys aren't listening, because that's a real hit to the protection of our City in a real short period of time. So, keep up the great work, Jerry. I'm sure the City will continue to ignore your work, but I won't. I won't stop writing about this until you get what you really deserve, because I think you may be the smartest Mayor San Diego has had in some time, and you know exactly what you are doing to this City, and you are doing it with a plan to gain for yourself at the loss for everyone else.