Local News |
February 5th, 2009 |
Diaz Will Not Vote on Most Matters Concerning Police
Escondido Councilwoman Olga Diaz confirms she will not likely vote on most police matters that come before the City Council. Diaz is married to an Escondido Police Department Lieutenant and even though City Attorney Jeff Epp has ruled there would be no conflict of interest, she has decided to participate in the debates but not vote on issues that affect the department. Should the council deadlock with a 2-2 vote, then she would most likely cast her vote. Diaz was quoted as saying she was concerned about even the appearance of impropriety so has chosen a more conservative position.
Councilman Sam Abed, however, said marriage to Lt. Neal Griffin is a clear conflict of interest when police issues are before the council. Other councilmembers disagreed. Councilwoman Marie Waldron said she fully supported Diaz and her decision, as did Dick Daniels. The Paper was unable to reach Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler for her comment on this issue.
The issue could become controversial as city officials attempt to negotiate emergency reductions in compensation to the city's labor contract with its police officers union.
According to Epp, Diaz would be disqualified from voting on police matters only if the issue was something that affected her husband specifically, such as a firing, hiring, promotion, demotion, suspension, or an individual lawsuit.
Escondido’s Dixon Lake Bass and its Captors on TV
Jed Dickerson, Mac Weakley and Mike Winn are three anglers who often visit Escondido’s Dixon Lake and have made quite a reputation for themselves as outstanding bass fishermen. Now they have been featured in a National Geographic Channel Documentary which aired on Tuesday of this week and will air again on February 9th at 3pm.
Weakley was with his two friends when he caught the giant bass in Dixon Lake in 2006. It weighed 25 pounds, 1 ounce, and was bulging with eggs.
The fish could have broken the world record of a 22-pound, 4-ounce bass caught in Georgia in 1932, but Weakley let it go because it had been foul-hooked. He didn't apply for the record. Dickerson had caught the same big bass earlier, but it had not reached the record weight.
“I’ve known Jed since he was about 7 or 8 years-old,” said Lyle Davis, editor and publisher of The Paper and concessionaire at “Lyle’s at Dixon Lake” for 27 years. “He was a cute little kid that just loved to fish. He was up there most every day. Now he’s all grown up, married, and has kids of his own. I think that’s a sign I’m getting old. I watched Jed mature as a young lad and as a fisherman. He knows bass fishing. He’s mighty good.”
Last year, with a camera crew, the three men returned to Dixon Lake to try to catch the fish again. While they were fishing, another angler found it – distinguished by a birthmark below its jawline – floating among lake grass. It had apparently died shortly after spawning.
The “Hooked on Bass” documentary will repeat at 3 p.m. Feb. 9.
Tri-City Denied Delay for Retrofits
More bad news for the Tri-City Hospital District. The state has denied its request for more time to make earthquake retrofits at its Oceanside hospital. Tri-City had sought a seven-year extension of the 2013 deadline, but the state rejected the request on the grounds that the district is too wealthy.
The application was rejected because the district has a low long-term debt ratio when weighed against overall assets. Had its debt been higher, it might have qualified for more time. The district runs Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside. The hospital's central and south towers, which house half the medical center's 397 acute-care beds, fail to meet seismic-safety specifications.
“In essence they think we're too rich,” said Larry Anderson, interim chief executive.
The district's application for the extension said 30 percent of its hospital inpatients are Medi-Cal recipients. Anderson said city-and county-owned hospitals qualify for an extension to 2020 without having to show the same need that district hospitals do, even though district hospitals serve the same public mission.
The rejection of Tri-City's application arrived as the district is attempting to refinance $58.4 million in auction-rate bonds that have hit an effective annualized interest rate of 17 percent. The bonds are costing the district $8.7 million more this year in interest and repayments than when the rate was 3.5 percent in 2007.
A potential of $6.6 million to $8.7 million in the red by the end of this fiscal year is possible, due to a potential exodus of patients after Sharp Mission Park Medical Group merged with Scripps Mercy Medical Group and will likely see all 64 doctors move from Tri-City, with their patients. Those doctors are now likely to refer patients to Scripps Memorial Hospital-Encinitas.
The Tri-City district, which encompasses most of Oceanside, Carlsbad and Vista, has failed three times to persuade a two-thirds majority of voters to approve bond measures to pay for construction that would have made the hospital meet seismic-safety standards.
Brother Benno’s is Hurting Financial. Asks Oceanside for Help
The nonprofit Brother Benno Foundation is seeking public funding to continue its emergency rental and utility payment assistance for families struggling to keep their homes. Foundation director Mary Robinson says she doesn't know if the foundation can hold out for another month.
The agency helped 223 families with rent and utility costs in 2008, nearly twice the 112 families aided in 2007. The cost to the foundation increased from $38,880 in 2007 to $74,300 in 2008, Robinson said. But donations were down 45 percent in the last quarter of 2008, she said.
The agency feeds 250 people daily from a kitchen in the Oceanside Airport Industrial Park and provides nearly 30,000 boxes of food a month, as well as showers, clothing, counseling and mail service.
It also runs a men's residential recovery center, a sober-living home for women and a shelter for homeless women and women with children. Brother Benno's Center started as a soup kitchen in 1983 in a home in downtown Oceanside. All 16 people fed at the time were homeless men.
Harold and Kay Kutler, the founders, named the agency for Brother Thomas “Benno” Garrity, a Benedictine monk from nearby Prince of Peace Abbey who had spent decades exchanging his freshly baked bread with farmers and merchants for produce and merchandise to help the poor. Brother Benno died in 1992. The center's clientele changed over the years. Now, Robinson said, close to 85 percent are the working poor, including families with children.
Fatal Motorcycle Accident Claims Vista Man
A motorcyclist lost control of his motorcycle last Saturday evening and crashed on West Lilac Road, just east of Interstate 15 near Bonsall. The county Medical Examiner's Office identified the man as Paul Townsend Ayers, 55, of Vista.
Man Armed With Rifle Robs Escondido Convenience Store
A heavy-set man with a beanie and bandana over his face, pointed a rifle at a clerk at the Circle K convenience store at 1161 E. Valley Parkway early Wednesday morning., and got away with an undetermined amount of money, say Escondido police.
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