March 2009 Archives

There's no question that one of the most popular columnists we carry in The Press Democrat is Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald

He's often mentioned in our surveys, and when we don't publish him for a while - even when he's on vacation - we're likely to receive a complaint or two.

On March 18, we published a provocative column by him titled "As newspapers die, expect no mourning from the crooks." (To read it, click here.)

Pitts was interviewed by CNN's Don Lemon this week about the state of newspapers. In that interview, he followed up some of the ideas he expressed in that earlier column.

To see that CNN interview, click here.

 - Paul Gullixson

It's a good day to discuss community service.

According to Associated Press, the House today passed a $5.7 billion bill expanding opportunities for people to perform community service.

Among other things, the bill, which heads to President Obama for his signature, would increase AmeriCorps from 75,000 positions to 250,000 over eight years. The bill spells out some broad areas for people to lend a helping hand. They include helping the poor, improving education, encouraging energy efficiency, strengthening access to health care and assisting
veterans.

As it happens, this describes the work already being done by dozens of Sonoma County students who were at the Fountaingrove Inn today, being interviewed as part of the Press Democrat Youth Service Awards judging process. I'm proud that this newspaper continues to sponsor this event, as it has for the past 20 years.

I'm not one of the judges, but I stopped by there this morning to see how the process was going. For all talk about the problems of education, this is event that showcases nothing but success stories. These kids are remarkable. They tutor young children, teach music, assist senior citizens, clean up parks, volunteer at Canine Companions or one of many other worthy organizations. In all, 132 students, from 20 Sonoma County high schools, were nominated and came for interviews. The nominees will be introduced, and the winners announced, at the Youth Service Awards ceremony on May 5 at 8 p.m. It's open to the public.

It's a place to pick up ideas for how to respond to the president's call to volunteer.

- Paul Gullixson  

Can California afford 13 state (paid) holidays a year?

I got a call from a Santa Rosa resident who went over to the Sonoma County courts this morning with her son, who took a day off from work, to pay a traffic ticket and found the courts closed. They said they encounted a half dozen others who were equally frustrated to find the doors locked.

Why? It's Cesar Chavez Day - one of 13 holidays that state workers enjoy.

"I mean, let's get real," said Vera Klinge, a newly credentialed teacher in Santa Rosa who's struggling to find her first full-time job. "I am not opposed (to efforts to honor Chavez), but we are in an economic crisis. This doesn't make sense."

What also doesn't make a lot of sense is that most other county employees, as well as city and federal workers, are on the job today. The reason is complicated and goes back several years to a decision to make make Sonoma County's court employees a part of the state government. Technically, they're not part of the county. The same is true of employees of the county library system, which was also closed today, along with workers at Sonoma State University and state offices.

Cesar Chavez Day has been around since it was signed into law by then-Gov. Gray Davis in 2000. Many cities, counties and school districts do not recognize the holiday although employees in Los Angeles County, for example, are given a half today off today to participate in community volunteer efforts.

But Klinge raises a good question. Can California afford to be giving employees 13 paid holidays a year, including this one, particularly when the state is making deep cuts, asking for tax increases and looking at furloughs?

- Paul Gullixson

As we noted in our editorial today, things do not look promising for a majority of the ballot measures in the upcoming special election.

To take our latest Editorial Department survey - this one about the six propositions in the May 19 special election - click here.

If you would like to be added to be invited to take future surveys, please send me an e-mail at paul.gullixson@pressdemocrat.com.

- Paul Gullixson

Santa Rosa firefighters warn that people's lives will be at risk if the city follows through on its budget-cutting proposals. The council already agreed to close one station beginning July 1, perhaps using a system of rolling brown-outs. A proposal headed to the council on Tuesday would extend the closure to a second station.

The proposals - and the subsequent warnings - left me wondering what's happened to Santa Rosa fire response times over the past several years. A Sonoma County grand jury report published in 2004 said response times were too slow and recommended that the department add at least two stations and relocate several others. A new station opened in the southwest area in 2006. A second new station is expected to open on Lewis Road in Santa Rosa in April or May.

So what's happened to response times? Well, they're getting slower.

And the volume of calls, as you probably know intuitively, is increasing.

The department posts some response-time data on its Web site. I asked Fire Chief Bruce Varner for some additional data. Here's a snapshot:

2008

Incidents: 19,137  (up 1.9 percent from 2007)

Average code 3 response time: 5 min (1 second slower than 2006)

2007

Incidents: 18,758 (up 1 percent from 2006)

Average code 3 response time: 4 minutes, 59 seconds (12 seconds slower than 2006)

2006

Incidents: 18,557 (up 5.2 percent)

Average code 3 response times: 4 minutes, 47 seconds (6 seconds faster than 2005)

2005

Incidents: 17,582

Average code 3 response time: 4 minutes, 53 seconds

The grand jury looked at data for 2002 and found that the Fire Department arrived within six minutes 86 percent of the time. The goal is to reach 100 percent of emergency calls in six minutes. The average response, according to Varner, was 4 minutes, 38 seconds for 16,301 calls.However, the department and the rest of Sonoma County firefighting agencies have since adopted a computerized dispatch system that provides more accurate data. Still, according to department figures, it is reaching emergencies within 6 minutes about 77 percent of the time, down considerably from 2002.

Looking at the changes between 2005 and 2006, you could wonder if there is a direct correlation between call volume and response time. But is anyone ready to take the risk that closing stations wouldn't result in yet slower responses?

If not, are people ready to foot the bill to maintain service at the current level?

Police and fire account for about two-thirds of the city's $132 million general fund. If you had to balance the budget - it's $23 million out of whack -- do you keep them whole at the expense of all other departments? Ask cops and firefighters for concessions on pay and benefits to keep the fire stations open? Raise taxes?

Let me know what you would do.

-- Jim Sweeney

Even as Santa Rosa and other local governments reconcile spending with declining sales and property tax revenue, another hit may be in the offing.

Calpers, the California Public Employees Retirement System, is taking big hits on its investment portfolio (just like private pension funds, 401(k)s and other investors). According to testimony in a legislative hearing reported by Ed Mendel of Calpensions.com, the value Calpers' portfolio is $111 billion, down from $174 billion.

Calpers, which administers pensions and health insurances, warned member agencies that employer contribution rates could be boosted as much as 5 percent if the fund drops 20 percent during the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Santa Rosa and other local governments (state government, too) have granted generous, retroactive pension benefits over the past decade based in part on promises that Calpers' investment returns would cover the cost.

Now, however, it sounds like a bigger share of those costs will be falling on California taxpayers, paid at the expense of public services.

-- Jim Sweeney

Employees at the Seattle Post-Intelligence learned today that boxes and bins are slated to be delivered to the newsroom later this week - as in to help staffers clean out their desks.

It's just the latest sign that the paper is doomed, following the footsteps of the Rocky Mountain News which shut down on Feb. 27. The PI reportedly will go to an all-online version, keeping just 20 of its 170 employees.

All of this is bringing back some bad memories. I was working for a Palo Alto-based newspaper, the Peninsula Times Tribune, on Nov. 2, 1992, when our owners, the Tribune Co., announced we were up for sale. Like the News and the PI, the owners said if a buyer was not found within a few months, the newspaper would be closed.

As with those papers, no buyer was found. (It's not clear whether TribCo was ever serious about a sale. The prime downtown-Palo Alto real estate was worth more than the newspaper itself.) And as with the News, the PTT suddenly was closed on March 14, 1993, several weeks before the sale deadline.

The signs of a pending closure were everywhere for those of us who were still working there. We had long since been asked to empty our own trash and warned to make copies of our clips. (Nothing was online in those days.) Some of us had gone downstairs (our press was on site) and we could see that we had stopped stocking up on ink and paper rolls. Not good.

The odd thing is the Peninsula Times Tribune (created by the merger of the Palo Alto Times and the Redwood City Tribune) had just celebrated the 100th anniversary of its publication.

The Rocky Mountain News closed just two months shy of its 150th. The PI has been publishing for 146 years. What is it about March and newspapers folding?

I just hope that when the time comes, the PI staff is given a chance to put a decent farewell edition. We never had that chance.

- Paul Gullixson 

What about the astroturf tax?

I've written before about astroturf letters, the campaigns backed by special interest groups that provide the content and even deliver letters to newspaper editorial pages in a phony (astroturf) display of grass-roots sentiment. They usually aren't hard to spot, as they come in bunches and often even share the same misspellings, and we try not to use them. There's a new one circulating - actually, there are several new ones circulating. But one of them is amusing enough to share:

To the IRS:

I am sorry to inform you that I will not be able to pay taxes owed April 15, but all is not lost.

I have paid these taxes: accounts receivable tax, building permit tax, CDL tax, corporate income tax, dog license tax, federal income tax, unemployment tax, gasoline tax, hunting license tax, fishing license tax, waterfowl stamp tax, inheritance tax, inventory tax, liquor tax, luxury tax, Medicare tax, city, school and county property tax (up from last year), real estate tax, social security tax, road usage tax, toll road tax, state and city sales tax, recreational vehicle tax, state franchise tax, state unemployment tax, telephone federal excise tax, telephone federal state and local surcharge tax, telephone minimum usage surcharge tax, telephone state and local tax, PUC utility tax, California vehicle license registration tax, lease severance tax, oil and gas assessment tax, California property tax. While on a trip I also paid Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois and Michigan state sales tax, and many more that I can't recall but I have run over my allowable word count and money.

When or if you do not receive my check, on or around April 15, just know that it is an honest mistake. Please treat me the same way you treated Congressmen Charles Rangel, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and ex-Congressman Tom Daschle and, of course, your boss Timothy Geithner. No penalties and no interest and I will pay it as soon as I can, or when I get caught or when I get appointed to a cabinet position. Of course I may get a job as a CEO of a multinational in which case my salary will be hidden so you won't know about it anyway.

P.S. I will make at least a partial payment as soon as I get my stimulus check, or my accountant says I have to.

-- Jim Sweeney

I met with a group of Sonoma County grape growers on Tuesday who, despite the heavy rains of late, remain concerned about their ability to get the water they need for frost protection. Many have been taking advantage of the runoff from recent storms to fill their reservoirs,which they use for frost protection and for summer irrigation.

They often get complaints when people see them watering this time of year. But the fact is more economic losses occur due to frost damage in the United States than to any other weather related hazard.

The risk of frost runs from now to early June. Last year, the worst freezes occurred on April 20 and April 21.

Although our rain totals are still behind those of last year - and those of an average year - the growers are pleased that the rains are continuing later into the year than in 2008.

Last year, the last substantial rain was on Feb. 15. In March, last year, we received only 0.75 inches of rain. As of Tuesday, we already had close to 4 inches for March alone.

Growers are keeping a close eye no Lake Mendocino which is the primary source of water for growers from Ukiah to Healdsburg. As of yesterday, the lake was at 53 percent capacity at 45,800 acre-feet. That's better than where it was a couple of months ago, but it still means major problems for the year if it doesn't improve significantly.

- Paul Gullixson 

On Monday, we will be reporting on the results of our latest PD Editorial Department online survey of letter writers and other readers. This one is about President Obama's speech before a joint session of Congress and his plans for pulling the nation out of its economic doldrums.

To take the survey and see the results, click here.

Here are some of the findings:

• 89 percent of the more than 300 people who responded said they watched or listened to Obama's speech and 87 percent said they were left with a favorable impression of it.
• About half said they supported Obama's plans for the economy including his stimulus plan, bank bailout proposal, housing program and health care overhaul plans. But 15 percent said it was not ambitious enough. Twenty-two percent said it was too ambitous, and they did not support it.
• More people were confident that the stimulus package would have a significant positive impact on their community than on their immediate family.
• Sixty-five percent of respondents said they did not expect the economy to rebound until 2010 or later.
• Forty-two percent said they were nervous about the status of their job or, if they were retired, the viability of their retirement accounts.

These results showed a general increase in pessimism when compared to the results of similar informal surveys last year. But it also shows broad support for the president and optimism for his plans. Public support is clearly Obama's greatest asset these days.

- Paul Gullixson