Placid Placer Politics

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.