LiMandri, Thalheimer, Kellogg Invited to Soledad Signing… Cheers to Duncan Hunter for his obvious involvement in arranging invites for Chuck LiMandri and Phil Thalheimer to tomorrow’s Presidential bill signing of the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial Protection Act. Several pleas, including my blog post on Chuck, were made to include one or both of these champions on the issue…and Duncan clearly knew they were deserving. Rick Terrazas, Hunter’s district chief, called me a couple of days after my post to let me know that the invites had been extended.
On a side note, the word is that William Kellogg of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association has also been invited. Interesting in that the MSMA a couple of years back agreed to a settlement that called for removal of the cross in exchange for the Association gaining clear ownership of the property, which would have then just been a War Memorial without a cross. Kellogg and the MSMA have at times defended the cross, until it looked like an uphill battle, then they would concede.
Well, here’s to uphill battles and fighters like Congressman Hunter, LiMandri, Thalheimer, and San Diegans for the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial.
Union-Trib Castigates Chula Vista Mayor, a Head Rolls… On Friday the SDUT editorialized on CV Mayor Steve Padilla, including the nugget "In the race for Chula Vista’s next mayor, the question is whether Steve Padilla has character – or simply is one."
Democrat Padilla is in the race of his life against Republican Cheryl Cox, wife of County Supervisor Greg Cox. Apparently, Padilla dispatched one of his aide’s to take secret photos of a Cox fundraising event, hoping to get pictures of her with former Port Commissioner David Malcolm. The aide, Jason Moore, was outed while surreptitiously (not enough, apparently) shooting the event guests. After the SDUT covered the incident, Padilla defended the actions. Come on, Steve, even Mel Gibson apologized.
Yet, then the fallout continues as another Padilla campaign staffer involved in the plot, Don Giaquinto, was canned from his regular job with SD Councilman Jim Madaffer. See yesterday’s must-read SDUT story here.
By the way, Steve Padilla is one of the most eloquent elected officials I have ever encountered. He’s also one of the most arrogant and conniving. Quote me, if you’d like.
Where IS La Mesa, Anyways?… I see after the fact (I was gone for a few days) that on the FlashReport’s Wednesday main page, Fearless Leader Jon asked that question while linking to a story on my city’s electoral contests. It’s not so much where it is…although Jon does know because he’s walked precincts there…it’s WHAT it is. Sitting at the foot of the Mt. Helix cross, it’s GOD’s COUNTRY. I’ll weigh in more on this, if it doesn’t suffice to say that Duncan Hunter, Dennis Hollingsworth, and Jay La Suer represent La Mesa. And, if Don Perata calls us crackers, we’ve gotta be doin’ somethin’ right.
April 5th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Cheryl Cox plays softball with her friends, and hardball with everyone else
Cheryl Cox has moved from school board to mayor in Chula Vista. She used to suborn perjury to protect her political career. The actual signed documents of one of the perjuries that she caused are at my website, mauralarkins.com.
Cheryl has moved up in the world, becoming even more powerful. Now she can cause even more trouble. A young man who took a couple hours off work to photograph her with her disgraced friend David Malcolm could end up in jail for years. Bonnie Dumanis claims that the young man lied about whether he filled out his leave slip before or after his two-hour leave to go to the twilight yacht party where Cheryl was raising money. Dumanis claims that she wants to restore trust in government, and for that reason she has charged Jason Moore with multiple perjury felonies.
But Bonnie refused to prosecute obstruction of justice committed on behalf of Cheryl Cox’s and Chula Vista Elementary School District. Bonnie, this looks like you are trying to curry favor with politicians, not restore trust in government. As long as you look the other way when Cheryl Cox and CVESD spend hundreds of thousands of public dollars covering-up crimes, you won’t restore trust in government. You just make it appear that your services are available in exchange for political favors.
Bonnie Dumanis was also friendly with former SDCOE Superintendent Rudy Castruita, who provided the unethical lawyers to Cheryl Cox and CVESD. Rudy put a big photo of Bonnie on the San Diego Office of Education web site–which is funded by tax dollars. Cheryl’s law firm, Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff & Holtz was also involved in the recent gift of public money to Laurie Madigan, the wife of developer Mike Madigan.
Apparently, Cheryl and Bonnie both like to intimidate people. Cheryl once called me up, and started by saying, “Maura….This is Dr. Cox.”
I knew I was supposed to feel intimidated because she gave herself a title and called me by my first name, but actually I had to struggle to stifle a laugh. Cheryl’s doctorate is in education, and I know what it takes to get a doctorate in education. It isn’t much. Have you ever heard of anybody flunking out of a graduate school education program? Only if he or she didn’t show up. They seldom have to compete against geniuses. In fact, candidates for advanced degrees in education have the lowest GRE scores of all advanced degree candidates. Could that fact be related to the fact that we have a failing school system?
Cheryl approved multiple felonies, the perjury of a law officer among them, in order to hide a few misdemeanors committed by Chula Vista Elementary School District. When I called Cheryl up to talk about them, she refused to discuss it. I did fax documents to her, so she was well informed of what was going on, even if she tried to pretend she was “out of the loop.” She just didn’t think her crimes mattered. She thinks she is above the law. So does Bonnie Dumanis.
David Bejarano has taken Cheryl’s place at CVESD. His wife is the secretary for Assistant Superintendent Susan Fahle, who ignored my public records requests for over a year. Finally, Dennis Doyle responded to my requests. I strongly suspect that Esperanza (Espie) Bejarano knows a lot about what happened at Castle Park Elementary and CVESD. But of course, her husband was handpicked to help the board keep their secrets, wasn’t he?
Would voters be SHOCKED to find out that Cheryl Cox spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to cover up crimes and protect her political career? Perhaps, since she campaigned on a platform of CHARACTER and FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY. She apparently fooled a lot of people into thinking she was better that Steve Padilla. Actually, Cheryl Cox is a lot worse. She finds it easy to talk the talk of clean government. She just finds it impossible to walk the walk. After all, what’s a girl to do when she wants to be mayor? Tell the truth?