Memorial Day mailbag

OK, so less of a mailbag, but I love coming into work on a holiday and finding a full comments section from a recent column. Let's get the ball rolling:
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"I think Jon gets a kick out of writing stuff that gets people all fired up, little does he know, it doesn't make him good or smart ... just the opposite happens. Its pretty clear that he is someones puppet." — Ubbo Coty

I've never worked that well with strings attached — if I did, I could probably make a whole lot more money than I do now. In this case, I really think that the public interest is best served by a government that's as open to the people as possible. And I'll stand by that whether it appears I'm on the take or not.

"Then by the same 'moral standards,' won't you please be so kind as to tell us how much Mark (Connolly) is spending on front page advertising in the Tracy Press?" — Francis Hineman

I would love to, but I can't. I simply don't know. And that's by design. In a business where advertising pays the bills and you often have to cover issues involving your advertisers, it's better that the people producing the content don't know who's paying how much.

"After reading this and the first article again, now I think the City wants to have their cake and eat it too. I mean if they think that the councilwoman must be named in the appeal then why did they defend her with their lawyers. If the lawsuit is really against her and they can't make her turn over the records then why did they defend her in the first place. I hope she doesn't get away with this. Miscarriage of justice would be the term. The legal system never seems to get to the bottom of anything." — Drama Queen

When I left the Sacramento courtroom, I felt as though I was part of a wildlife transfer program. It's a disorienting experience.

"According to your opinion pice, the Press has some excellent legal arguments, but, unfortunately, their attorney screwed up some totally basic legal issue, forgot to list Tucker's name on some legal forms, and as a result, the court may simply ignore your legal arguments altogether because the Press' lawyer was too stupid to fill out the forms correctly? Is that right?

"If your description is correct, the irony would be quite enjoyable." — Friend of JM

It's only enjoyable if you don't demand accountability from public officials.
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Keep that feedback coming, alert readers, and I'll keep answering.

Friday random thoughts...

• Yet another benefit of living downtown: Walking the Tracy trifecta of Ralph's, The Great Plate, and The Shamrock. In one night.

• Why the Central Valley will never meet strict air pollution control standards: Windy days like Wednesday and Thursday.

• Quote of the week: "I think what this clearly shows is that they can even screw up spending the taxpayers' money unwisely," from White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, on a farm bill gaffe by the Democratic Congress.

• Straight Talk Express meets Quickest Developer in the West: Sen. John McCain, and his fundraiser stop with tycoon Alex Spanos.

• Hope we won't miss them while they're gone: Four wildland firefighters from Tracy are battling the Santa Cruz County blaze.

• Calvin and Hobbes quote of the week: "Why don't superheroes go after more subtle, realistic bad guys?" "Yeah, the superhero could attend council meetings and write letters to the editor and stuff."

Tracy's fault lines

I ran into Mayor Brent Ives at Girard's Deli today, and shared an interesting observation from his ongoing campaign for mayor.

He said that in knocking on doors to drum up support, there are plenty of people (a disturbing proportion, judging by the look on his face) who don't really know (or care, I'd guess) where the city's downtown is. It was disheartening to hear, but not surprising.

The underlying problem, of course, is that many people here are not connected to the city. Finding ways to bridge the gaps between the separate worlds of Tracy, as I suggested, is one of the prime challenges that will face the next mayor. That's something Ives truly understands.

But the next mayor should also consider that the continuing push to build far-flung subdivisions is one of the surest ways to worsen the city's fractured profile.

No ruling yet

SACRAMENTO — The 3rd District Court of Appeal issued no decision regarding the Tracy Press' Public Records Act Request against the city of Tracy today. But the court did try to shoot plenty of holes in the Press' argument.

The main focus was on a relatively minor procedural issue, but one that could lead to the outright dismissal of the case. It involves whether the Press' appeal improperly left off Councilwoman Suzanne Tucker's name (she was named as a party when the case appeared before the Superior Court in May 2007).

The court decided to hammer home this issue, asking questions of the Press' attorneys before the oral arguments even began, returning to the procedural question time and again. What many of us thought was the main issue — whether the e-mails sent from Tucker's personal computer concerning public business are public records — was largely MIA.

If the case is dismissed, the court will have missed an opportuntity to ensure that public records and open meeting laws cannot be legally skirted by using private means of communication. But guessing that the court will dismiss the case is, at this point, pure conjecture.

The decision is expected within 30 days. We'll keep you posted.

A day in court

Today the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento will hear the Tracy Press' e-mail case against Councilwoman Suzanne Tucker. (For a previous rant that's worth 8 minutes of your time, check here.)

The thrust of the Press' argument is that e-mails concerning public business sent from someone acting in an official capacity are subject to Public Records Act requests — even if they were sent via personal computer — because they concern public business and were sent by someone acting as a public official.

Check back often, alert readers. I'll be back with an update sometime in the early evening.

Correction

My Saturday column contained two pieces of inaccurate info that need amending:

First: Division Chief David Bramell's name was mispelled.

Second: Councilman Steve Abercrombie (not Suzanne Tucker) is the second city of Tracy representative on the South County Fire Authority board. Tucker, however, is an alternate and was present at a January meeting that had some concern regarding the report mentioned in my column.

Sorry for the mistakes, which have been corrected online but unfortunately remain in the print edition (I couldn't get my hands on enough white-out to complete the job).

No bull

The economy might have put the nail in the coffin for 2008 Portuguese festa bullfights, but animal-rights activists sure had a helping hand. And who can blame them? Torturing animals for sport is a pretty barbaric thing, even if that's not the intent of the event.

I mean, it's good fun for the humans, but what about the bleeding participant? Let's stage the event with a couple enterprising die-hards in a cow suit, and see how they fare.

The only part I will personally miss is the sound from the ring floating all the way to Press office at 10th and A streets. The noise of so many people gathered together in Tracy's downtown — and living it up with an ice-cold cerveca — is magic.

But for some, it's a nostalgic tragedy that there won't be a fight at the festa this year. Cheer up though, mates. The best part of last year's fight was when members of the Suicide Squad took on the fans. Maybe we can get them back for a bull-less encore.