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MEET A NEW FRIEND — Say hello to Spencer Daniel Song-Jin Klein, the handsome son of Placer County’s Cacey and Aaron Klein, who brought him home last month from Seoul, South Korea, where he was born last St. Patrick’s Day. Daniel is a fine broth of a lad and destined for great things, and all of us political prognosticators wish him and his swell parents a very Merry Christmas and a Wondrous New Year.
* * * POLITICAL POTPOURRI — Let’s not forget that Aaron Klein, the new poppa,
will be running next November for a second term on the Sierra College
Board of Trustees as will his pal Scott “Mini-Me” Leslie. It’s doubtful
if Jerry Simmons will try for another term on the Sierra board. He’s
still recovering (and doing well) from the clobbering he took in 2006
when he tried to unseat District 2 County Supervisor Robert Weygandt.
That was an oddball election, with Simmons banking a lot on the
endorsement of his candidacy by the deputy sheriffs’ union, which
reportedly got buffaloed into backing him by a ranking county
politician who told the county cops that if they didn’t support Jerry,
their own salary measure on the same ballot would be opposed by the
county’s Republican machine. Remember what happened? The deputies’
measure was defeated, but not by much, while Simmons lost by better
than 2 to 1...Now comes the word that Brad R. Fenocchio, Placer’s
popular district attorney since 1995, will retire in 2010 and not seek
a fifth term. It looks like Scott Owens, one of Fenochio’s star
prosecutors as well as the office’s standup philosopher and media
relations specialist, will go for the job. — with the blessing of his
retiring boss and fellow deputy DAs. In case you forgot or came in
late, Fenocchio was a journeyman prosecutor who was drafted by his
colleagues to run against one-term DA Paul Richardson in 1994. Brad won
handily and has continued to face little or no opposition in his
re-election bids. But back to Scott Owens for a moment. He’s been on
the county payroll since 1983, first as a probation officer and then as
a prosecutor after earning his J.D. at UOP’s McGeorge Law School. He’s
a fine gent, too!
* * * MORE POLITICS – Wow, did County Assessor Bruce Dear take a hammering in
the latest edition of Tax Talk, the League of Placer County Taxpayers’
meaty newsletter! The article homes in on the “revolving door”
employment problems in Dear’s office. On the chance that you’re a late
arrival, Dear is one of the county’s most successful politicians. He
was a relative unknown when he ran for the office in 1990 and won,
defeating two better known fellows, now-retired Chief Appraiser Warren
Burns and Kevin Eckard (Yea, Kevin!), the veteran state probate referee
who’s still at it. Bruce is said to be readying himself for a run for a
sixth term in 2010, but I doubt if he will...By the time most of you
get your paws on this opus, Scott Gnile of Lincoln will have been
seated as the 2008 president of the Placer County Board of Education,
succeeding Auburn’s Don Brophy, who recently sustained a setback of
sorts when the county charter review committee declined to recommend
that the job of county superintendent of schools be made appointive by
the board rather than elective....This charter review committee is the
same outfit that recently recommended that the board of supervisors’
annual compensation be hiked from $30,000 to more than $90,000, but
only if the supervisors put the proposal on one of next year’s ballots
(probably June) and the voters approve it. The aforementioned
taxpayers’ league probably will be heard from on this next month when
the committee makes its report to the supervisors. Some critics might
even note that when the supervisors’ salaries were cut back to $30,000
by the passage of Measure A in 1992, the board members started hiring
administrative assistants whose salaries are now in the neighborhood of
$60,000-$70,000 per annum (plus benefits). I’ll say this, though: those
AAs work long and hard for their bucks and take a lot of flak in the
process. * * * ROUNDABOUT — With all the lawyers, jurists, private eyes, cops and
robbers braving the damp weather at last Thursday’s grand light-up at
Frank Calabretta’s Bail House, there was bound to be a juicy rumor
making the rounds and here it is: Placer County will get two more
superior court judges some time next year. A few lawyers have already
let Governor Schwarzenegger’s appointments office know they’re
available...This just in: Brian Jensen, another alumnus of the J.T.
Doolittle School of Take-No-Prisoners Politics, has just been named to
head the Mitt Romney for President Campaign in California’s widespread
4th Congressional District, where he used to work before bailing out
when the federal investigation of his old boss’s dealings with crooked
lobbyist Jack Abramoff was gathering steam. I imagine that JTD is a
Romney booster, too, but he’s keeping quiet about it. Don’t forget that
another local political figure is also involved in the GOP presidential
derby: Assemblyman (and former Placer County Supervisor) Ted Gaines is
county chairman of Rudy Giuliani’s campaign that’s placing a lot of
emphasis on family values (it is?). Gaines has also let it be known
that he just might be available to replace JTD in Congress...I guess I
was off-base when I wrote that Gordon Hinkle was quitting JTD’s
district staff to accept a Schwarzenegger appointment as an information
officer for the state’s massive (and screwed-up) prison system. I’m
told that Hinkle had applied for the state job before he went to work
for the congressman earlier this year....Bully for the county
supervisors: they just reappointed former District 5 Supervisor Larry
Sevison of Agate Bay to an at-large seat on the county planning
commission. Sevison, one heckuva terrific guy, has either been a
supervisor (one term) or planning commission member for the past 35
years...Publishing world news: California Construction magazine, a
McGraw-Hill publication, has just announced the selection of the County
of Placer’s environmentally perfect Community Development Resource
Agency headquarters at DeWitt Center as the best civic installation
building in the state...And the PlumpJack Squaw Valley Inn is holding
down the No. 21 spot on Conde Nast Traveler magazine’s list of the top
50 ski hotels in North America. Resort at Squaw Valley is 24th and the
Village at Squaw Valley is 30th. And they’re all in Placer County!
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