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NICE PEOPLE — I was feeling lousy Tuesday morning until I bumped into Jenine Windeshausen and John Marin just outside of Circus Maximus, where a short time later the board of supervisors gave them longevity pins for their service to the county: 20 years for Jenine and a quarter-century for John. Just the sight of them made me feel like doing a samba, but, rather than dance alone in public, I took a photo of them, and here it is. They were among the dozens of county employees whom the board lauded for sticking it out for 20 years or more. (If the Yoder/Fitch/Miller p.r. firm will oblige, I’ll print all their names when space allows.)
Regarding the couple who perked me up Tuesday a.m., Jenine started
working as an investment specialist with County Treasurer F. Earl Corin
in 1987 and was elected to succeed him as treasurer-tax collector in
1994. She’s been handily re-elected twice since then. “Marvelous” Marin
began work as an assistant county architect in 1982 and went on to
manage the DeWitt properties before spending several years as the top
aide to the board of supervisors. He’s now the director of the
still-new Community Development Resource Agency. And for good measure
Tuesday, the supervisors bumped his pay up by five percent to $77.92
per hour....News that Steve D’Arcy, the Galloping Gael, will retire as
undersheriff next week came as no surprise. With 36 years (or is it
37?) in the public safety retirement plan, D’Arcy’s pension will about
equal his salary, which was well over $100,000 per annum. Sheriff E.N.
Bonner was a smart cookie to hire D’Arcy as his No. 2 gent when he took
office in January of 1995. All elected politicians need enforcers to
handle the unpleasant chores, and Steve was indeed Ed’s enforcer — and
an effective and loyal one. Devon Bell, who came from near-nowhere in
the department a year or two ago to become Placer’s first “assistant
sheriff,” will replace D’Arcy as undersheriff. Bonner, meantime, is
playing it coy about a possible run for a fourth term in 2010. Asked if
Bell would campaign for sheriff if he stepped aside, Ed replied, “I
wouldn’t mind turning over the reins to a very capable young man like
him.” Stay tuned. * * * POLITICAL PARTYING — If you’ve got the urge to merge with some Nevada
County Democrats, head up SR-49 to the Love Building in Grass Valley’s
Condon Park Saturday night the 10th and “rock around the clock” on the
dance floor, starting at 7 p.m. There’ll even be a jitterbug contest
like the one the late Pat Grieb and I won second-place in many moons
ago. Pay your $20 at the door...Closer to home, there’ll be a
fundraising get-together for Auburn’s Mike Holmes in the snazzy Carpe
Vino next Wednesday the 14th from 5 to 7:30 p.m. The tariff is $50 a
head or $99 a couple. Call Pat at (530) 889-1207 to reserve tickets and
if you can’t do that, just pay at the door. And oh yes, Mike is a
candidate for the GOP nomination in the 4th Congressional District. If
memory serves, his possible opponents (at least as of this writing)
might include Assemblyman Ted Gaines, Air Force reservist Eric Eglund
and even the incumbent, Rep. J.T. Doolittle, about whom I’ll write some
things a few lines down. * * * DOOLITTLE DOINGS — Nothing new about the ongoing federal investigation
of our congressman’s relationship with imprisoned lobbyist Jack
Abramoff. Despite the calls for his head from many of his Republican
fair-weather friends, Doolittle is still hanging in there and refusing
to bow out. He insists he’s a candidate for re-election to a 10th term
next year and, truth be known, a lot of Democrats are hoping he’ll be
on the November general election ballot. These particular Dems believe
that their guy Charlie Brown’s chances at winning will be better than
ever if Doolittle is his opponent (Brown lost to JTD by only three
percentage points in 2006). They base this on the fact that the 4th
C.D. remains overwhelmingly GOP in registration and that the Republican
voters probably would cast their ballots for one of their own if JTD
were off the ticket...Doolittle must have swallowed hard Tursday
morning when he read Debra J. Saunders’ “Doolittle, Inc.” column in the
San Francisco Chronicle. Saunders, in case you don’t know it, is the
premier conservative columnist in San Francisco (and probably the only
one). Saunders, who previously had suggested that Doolittle would do
the GOP a big favor if he stepped down, really socked it to him
Tuesday, reminding her readers that Roll Call lists him as one of the
House of Representatives’ “most vulnerable incumbents.” She goes on to
report that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
placed JTD on its “22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress” list. And she
adds that the arch-conservative Club for Growth hits him for voting for
tons of wasteful pork-barrel spending. Saunders really does another
number on JTD by detailing how he set up his wife Julie in the
fundraising business “that allowed her to earn 15 percent off of every
dime raised for Doolittle’s Superior California Fund. She also received
a cut for donations she raised for his re-election campaign — to the
tune of $140,000 over three years.” This is tough stuff from someone as
far to the political starboard as Debra J. Saunders. * * * ROUNDABOUT — So whatever happened to Paul Kellogg Richardson, who
served as Placer County’s elected district attorney from 1991 through
1994, when he was soundly beaten by Brad R. Fenocchio, one of his
prosecutors? Well, Paul has lucked out over the years. Governor Pete
Wilson appointed him general counsel/executive officer of the
Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which during the Wilson years was
definitely pro-growers and only lukewarm toward the UFW. Paul got to
serve in his ALRB post for a year into the Gray Davis regime and then
went to work for the district attorney’s office in Yolo County. And for
the past year, he’s been a robe-wearing commissioner of the Yolo County
Superior Court at about $136,000 per annum and a comfortable
pension-to-come...Looks like the DCA lawyer with only one name — Levin
— is in line to succeed Maureen Ohlsson Rodarte as president of the
Placer County Bar Association. He’s the only presidential hopeful on
the bar ballot...That was a first-rate profile story on our own Judge
Gene Gini (love that alliterative name!) in the October 24th edition of
the Daily Recorder, Sacramento’s legal newspaper. Gene was a star
prosecutor in several counties before Brad Fenocchio hired him, only to
lose him a few years later when Gray Davis appointed him to the bench
in 2002....Finally, thanks to fellow St. Ignatius Wildcat Ken Englund,
who retired as one of Placer’s top probation officers a few years back.
Ken noticed the recent news story about the Evangelista lad being
charged with possessing a BB gun on the Placer High School campus. Ken
recalled that years ago he had a similar case on his hands and there
was no law on the books prohibiting BB guns on school property. “I
brought this to the attention of State Senator Tim Leslie and we
designed legislation (Senate Bill 647) that eventually became Penal
Code section 626.10 in 1993,” pens Ken. Three cheers for Ken Englund
and, gulp, Tim Leslie!
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