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ALL IN THE FAMILY? — Former New York City Mayor and GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani had some visitors during one of his recent West Coast swings — Auburn’s Nat and Delia Giuliani. Nat Giuliani, a native San Franciscan, and Rudy Giuliani, a native Brooklynite, apparently are distant — very distant — cousins whose forebearers had roots in Lucca, Italy. Should Rudy win the California primary on February 5 and go on to capture the GOP nomination, chances are he’ll do some later campaigning in northern California and maybe make a stop in Auburn. For the benefit of the latecomers, Nat Giuliani was Auburn’s No. 1 men’s clothier for five decades before retiring a few years ago. (Sodden thought: Christmas without a shopping spree at Nat’s — and his generous credit terms — is the pits.) And while we’re at it, here’s a tardy salute to Nat and “Dee” on their 60th wedding anniversary, which we missed last summer, and a Merry Christmas/Happy New Year greeting to their terrific kids, attorneys Sandy Amara and Mary Ann Collins and dentist Bob Giuliani, and all the grandkids.
* * * ROCKLIN RUMBLE — A battle royal is shaping up over Measure H on the
February 5th ballot to ratify the Rocklin City Council’s approval of a
558-residential unit development in pristine Clover Valley. Supporters
of the project call themselves the Rocklin Coalition for Open Space and
stress that more than 360 acres will be earmarked as open space and
Indian heritage sites. In addition to the Rocklin heavyweights, Measure
H has County Supervisor Robert Weygandt and others aboard as
supporters. The Sierra Club has joined Measure H’s vigorous “No on
Measure H” opposition, claiming in its Placer Group newsletter The
Sierra Conservationist that “we need every single no vote to save
Clover Valley from intolerable, unmitigated destruction via an
unnecessary proposed development.” Stay tuned for upcoming financial
disclosure reports from both sides. * * * COUNTY CONUNDRUMS — District 3’s Jim Holmes will be succeeding District
5’s Bruce Kranz as chairman on January 9 when the Placer County Board
of Supervisors holds its first meeting of 2008, and I imagine that
District 1’s Rocky Rockholm will have the honor of being tagged vice
chairman. (Another sodden thought: as constituted since January of
2005, this particular board of supervisors has no female
representation. District 3’s Harriet White retired undefeated at the
end of 2004 after two terms. District 4’s Susan Hogg served one term
before losing to Kirk Uhler in 1992. And Terry Cook was District 3’s
supervisor from 1977 through 1988 before retiring undefeated.) One of
the first momentous actions (oh yes!) of the 2008 board will be to say
yes or no to the charter review committee’s recommendation that a
supervisorial salary hike measure be placed on the June election
ballot. The committee, which was appointed by the board last year,
believes that at $30,000-a-year the supervisors are grossly underpaid
and should be making something in the neighborhood of $98,000, a
conclusion reached after comparing the Placer rate with the dough paid
supervisors in “comparable” counties like Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo,
Santa Clara, Sonoma and Solano. Heck, even El Dorado County, which
economically can’t shine Placer’s shoes, pays its board members
$76,876! Placer supervisors had their compensation capped at $30,000 by
the voters in 1992 after going to the money well once too often. I have
a hunch there’ll be no major opposition to at least putting the measure
on the ballot. * * * FUN & GAMES — It’s almost a sure bet that Rep. John T. Doolittle
will be on the June ballot for renomination by the Grand Old Party for
a 10th term in the House of Representatives. Word out of Washington,
D.C. is that the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation of John and
Julie Doolittle’s cozy relationship with crooked lobbyist Jack Abramoff
has been shelved while the Supreme Court considers the DOJ’s request to
overturn an appeals court decision limiting law enforcement searches of
congressional offices. Remember when FBI agents, armed with search
warrants, tore through John and Julie’s Virginia house and home office
last April? JTD’s pals are saying the he’s raring to go and make
mincemeat out of any primary opponents, whoever they might be. It’s
also a pretty sure bet that Democrat Charlie Brown is drooling at the
thought of a return match with JTD in the November final-final. Keep in
mind that Brown lost to JTD by only three percentage points in
2006...County Development Chief John “Marvelous” Marin forwards some
stuff on “what a difference a century makes” — statistics from the year
1907 when the average U.S. life expectancy was 47, only 14 percent of
U.S. homes had bathtubs, and states like Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa and
Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. In 1907 the
average wage was 22 cents an hour, 95 percent of all births took place
at home, and — get this! — 90 percent of all U.S. doctors had little or
no college education. In 1907 sugar cost four cents a pound, eggs 14
cents a dozen and coffee 15 cents a pound. Most women washed their hair
once a month and shampooed with Borax or egg yolks. Two out of every 10
U.S. adults couldn’t read or write, only six percent of Americans were
high school graduates, and marijuana, heroin and morphine were
available for sale over the counter. I still miss the days of a
half-century ago when I could get a frosty glass of beer at Lena and
Bud Procissi’s Happy Hour in Old Town for a quarter and a nifty
highball for four-bits. Which reminds me: Be careful with the booze
over the holidays. If you drink, don’t drive. One drink on your breath
smells as bad as a hundred. And the cops are just thirsting to jack up
their DUI arrest stats.
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