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Remember this?
“I was always dreaming about very powerful people. Dictators and things like that. I was always impressed by people who could be remembered for hundreds of years.”
Or this other, more recent, Schwarzenegger quote:
“I admire Hitler because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education to great power. And I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for his way of getting to the people and so on.”
We probably should have taken all of that more seriously. The Governator in his final days of power is behaving for all the world like a tin pot despot answerable to no other branch of California’s government. Can he really get away with this? I tend to think not, but who is going to fight to defend the Constitution from domestic enemies like the Terminator?
Remember, last month Judge Horn put a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on Arnold’s Department of General Services (DGS), ordering it not to proceed with the sale of the Fairgrounds until all the issues in question were resolved by the court. Immediately afterward the Governor fired all the Fairgrounds workers – and immediately after that, Facilities Management West (FMW), Arnold’s chosen buyer, called in the fired employees and offered them their jobs back “once FMW took over.”
We plaintiffs and our counsel considered THAT action to be sufficient for the court to hold the state in contempt, but Judge Brenner, the state-friendly justice we got last week for our second hearing, disagreed. Still he kept the TRO in effect until yesterday, when we were to make our case to the Court of Appeals. Well, we were successful yesterday, that Court agreed to hear our case next January 10, and upheld the TRO until then.
But once again, Arnold and his DGS are proceeding even more aggressively with the sale. One issue that’s been up in the air is who actually holds the deed to the property; many of us have contended that it is actually held by the “32nd DAA” which is the legal name for the Fair Board; beginning in September that Board began claiming the same thing, complicating Arnold’s plans a bit; now it seems we were right.
Because what Arnold did today, quite dramatically, was replace three members of the Board (who maybe were beginning to look undependable to him) with three brand new pliable people; re-appoint Swindle backers Dave Ellis and Dale Dykema and name Ellis – the most aggressive sale champion – chairman of the Board; and instruct them to meet on Saturday January 1 (two days before Jerry Brown’s inauguration) to sign the deed over to the state.
How is all THAT not naked contempt of the Court’s order?
Obviously this sale is important enough to Arnold and his friends that he doesn’t mind risking a minor Constitutional crisis over it. Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see how this can work for him. Our courts haven’t become that impotent, have they?
Aren’t Arnold’s people and FMW maybe shooting themselves in the foot with this behavior? I can’t imagine ANY judge in the future looking kindly on this brazen defiance of the judicial branch, and ruling in the culprits’ favor.
And some of us have also been thinking: Now that it evidently turns out that the property never WAS the state’s to sell, how are all the state’s actions up to now not illegitimate – beginning with the legislation AB 4×22?
Norberto and the Pot Stirrer seem to think that it’s possible these swindlers could get away with what they want through sheer force of will – of course they both spend some of their time talking to FMW spokesmen. Am I absurdly naive to think we still have a divided government with a balance of powers?
Dastardly move…..Government run amok.
Republicans stealing the light fixtures before they leave office.
LOL! The terminator is no more a Republican by calling himself one than I am a car by sitting in the garage and calling myself a camaro. He’s just a turd plain and simple. I, as a Republican, was against the recall and have NEVER voted for this wannabe…
That’s interesting. You’re right about Arnold being unpopular among Republicans, but I didn’t know any Republicans that voted against the recall. Why were you against recalling Gray Davis? And didn’t favor replacing him with maybe McClintock?
It’s completely clear that the state doesn’t own the fairgrounds!!! Wouldn’t that mean abx22 was illegal? I mean, isn’t illegal to sell a car you don’t own without disclosing that fact? Or… have a brokerage
agreement with the real owner?
This stinks… if Riggy wasn’t such a traitor, he’d be calling Dave Ellis saying don’t transfer the title…
Ah, Chez Vern, don’t paint me with a “pro-sale” brush just because I choose to try to hear all sides of the issue. I don’t pretend to be a newsman, but do try to hear and understand all sides of an issue before writing about it. Sometimes it’s hard to do when there is so much emotion swirling around – particularly on the opposition side. I do understand that emotion and actually do understand the reasons for most of it.
My personal preference is two-pronged…. don’t sell the Fairgrounds to anyone and replace the Fair Board enmasse, including the three new guys. The public is not well-served by practically giving away this precious asset – the sale price will supply toilet paper to state workers for a week – and is a pitiful political ploy on the part of Arnold and his supporters.
I’ve only met Dave Ellis once, but knew of his reputation before that. At a candidate forum he approached me from the right side, stuck out his right hand and, with his left hand, grabbed me by the right elbow and guided my hand to his. He said he was glad to finally meet me. I acknowledged him, then turned to my wife and, joking, asked if she had any hand sanitizer. As it turns out, that probably shouldn’t have been a joke – I doubt if he and I will clasp hands again soon.
Far from that, Pot Stirrer, I didn’t mean to imply you or Norberto are pro-sale at all. I’ve just seen that you both have the impression that maybe these people can get away with defying the court, and maybe that’s a picture you get from listening to guys like Guy Lemmon; myself never having done that, I just can’t see how it’s possible in a state allegedly governed by a Constitution.
what is the 32nd “a” district agricultural association? there seem to be two of them mentioned in this notice for board meeting. What does the “a” signify?
Vern, much as it irritates me, it’s clear that somebody defied the court when, on one day, both State reps and FMW folks addressed the state employees of the Fairgrounds. And, today, we have what certainly appears to be a blatant violation of the temporary restraining order…. I really do hate politics because of what it does to people.. maybe that first quotation from Arnold is right after all….
When were all the emplyees fired? This never happened. Check your facts. How could FMW hire them back if they do not even own the joint? Last I checked, all staff is gainfully employed. You should know these facts, you live and breathe this drama.
Given pink slips. Given notice. Split hairs why don’t you?
Can’t Brown do anything to stop it as AG?
Befuddlement, the state is required to give 120 day notice to employees that are going to lose their job. That’s what it did, on the assumption that the sale was going through. Everyone except the President, Steve Beazley, was told by FMW they had a job if they wanted it at a 5% pay increase, restoring the 5% cut they took.
That’s “Devil’s Right Hand” aka “MacTonight666” being a smart aleck. I’m not re-writing what I wrote, the workers were given notice they were gonna lose their jobs, and immediately called in to be told that they can re-apply with FMW once they get the property. I’m guessing that was (possibly among other things) a way to get the employees to back the sale to FMW. If “befuddlement” is trying to make some point, he should make it.
BTW I met Dave Ellis the other day too, he was at the Judge Brenner hearing and I introduced myself. I asked him why he was there and he said he thought it might be a “good show.” He got there at the last minute, but afterward he was hanging out with the FMW crowd, no surprise.
Why you calling me a smart aleck? I just got here. Been enjoying a bit of Christmas cheer with the rest of the retirees.
What three directors were replaced? Don’t you mean Gov filled three vacancies? And wasn’t Ellis appointed Chair in September? And doesn’t the board elect their own officers?
Bunch of “retirees,” late Xmas Eve, wisely cynical toward both sides of the Fairground question, blasted on some sort of Yuletide juice, all using the same computer and quibbling over the way I phrase things? Sounds like a hoot!
What did California expect when they elected this guy?
Matt Leslie might have a good point. Since it’s obviously not owned by the state of California, the state AG wouldn’t have as much of a conflict of interest. The AG needs to protect taxpayer assets and shut this sale down which is nothing more than a gift of land the state never owned (at any time) to some well connected people.
Vern,
Arnold is doing exactly what Obama is (thumbing their noses at the respective Constitutions) but I don’t hear a lot of screaming from you on the federal power grab. Curious.
I’m not sure what you’re referring to with Obama thumbing his nose at the Constitution. Are you referring to his ambitious and mixed attempt at health care reform? Or just the fact that he’s holding office despite not being born in the US?
If you read me regularly (plus the writers that I like to link to) you’ll hear plenty of complaints of Obama and his justice department thumbing their nose at the Constitution by keeping folks in prison indefinitely despite not being charged or convicted of crimes; his following in Bush’s footsteps trampling on our privacy with unlimited surveillance and eavesdropping; and more.
Still, if you can think of big Obama complaints that I can’t … that’s why it’s good you’re here!