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Operation Desert Life
Tuesday, July 27 2010 - 06:56 PM
Does Charter City equal big salaries for local elected officials?
In light of recent events in the city of Bell, one has to wonder if other cities were (or still are) on track to follow its lead.
Both Lancaster and Palmdale are a Charter Cities; Lancaster directly addresses compensation of mayor/council members in the Charter, but Palmdale skirts around the issue with a vague and open ended descriptor.
Lancaster
Section 203. Compensation. Compensation for the Mayor and each City Council member may be set, and from time to time may be changed by ordinance, which ordinance shall be adopted by a four-fifth vote of the Mayor and City Council.
Palmdale
Section 600. Elections.
The City shall have the power to adopt ordinance establishing procedures, rules or regulations concerning City of Palmdale elections and public officials, including but not limited to, the qualifications and compensation of elected officials, the method, time and requirements to hold elections, fill vacant offices and for voting by mail. Unless in conflict with ordinances adopted by the City, state law regarding elections shall apply.
I haven’t looked through all of the Palmdale ordinances, but at face value the above section sounds a lot like a open door for the required ordinances leading to 6 figure compensation packages.
As for Lancaster with a little collusion and/or intimidation an ordinance could easily pass that would enable 6 figure pay for all.
Honesty and integrity of the individuals in office isn’t reason enough (in my opinion) to forgo having checks and balances in place to prevent someone(s) from taking advantage of the situation.
I’m just saying..
Scully says...
Rex made noises about it. He made snide comments about Council members that never do anything, suggesting that there was a way to “clock in” and “clock out” if you were going to be a Councilmember. In light of the City of Bell fiasco, I don’t think that Councilmember pay is going to be on the agenda any time soon.
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AV Town Crier says...
I doubt that King Rat would alter the salary of Mayor or council as he makes boatloads of cash as an ambulance chaser.
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lancaster says...
not to mention the cash he makes on “deals” the city gives out!
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No Spin says...
lamecaster
Can you identify these “Deals” for the class? Or is this just another lie and rumor? Hmm??
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No Spin says...
Crier..
yep, compared to the tremendous success of the AV Town Crier, I can easily see how you could marginalize Rex’s profession..
Makes sense to me..
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rpsenger says...
The salaries are only one way to rip off the citizens. Giving City contracts to your friends or powerful labor unions is another.
The salaries in Bell were the result of organized crime. Their jobs were to disband the police and keep the heat off the local mafia businesses. I’m sure the truth will be revealed over time.
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lancaster says...
check last nights city council meeting donno. were rex had to recluse himself as they voted on yet another real estate deal by his wife.
but u would figure this out if u pulled ur head out of ur ass and actually started to pay attention.
we won’t hold our breath.
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138hwy says...
NS…For anyone, not just lanslither, to make accusations of “deals” against a sitting mayor is against the law. Proof MUST be shown at the time of the allegation and needs to be heavily documented. Because if I read lanslither correctly, he/she is saying that the mayor accepts “kickbacks” and other “favors” in order for him to be rewarded. I don’t think that Mr. Parris needs any money quite frankly right after he recently won a 50 million dollar judgement against Farmers Insurance Exchange related to overtime work done bytheir employees.
Besides that though, if what lanslither is saying has any validity, why not go to the FBI and swear out a complaint? After all, this would be a federal crime, wouldn’t it?
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Mulder says...
It’s a good thing you aren’t a practicing attorney 138, or else you’d be losing money big time. If someone is a public figure, you can say pretty much anything about them that you want. Haven’t you ever heard of hit mailers? If someone is running for office, they are fair game to be attacked in any way whatsoever.
If someone, for instance, sent out a hit mailer saying that Rex Parris hated puppies, there’s absolutely nothing he could do about it.
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Mulder says...
Oh, and by the way, about the FBI complaint….don’t think that it hasn’t already been done….
The FBI doesn’t make announcements on investigations that they’re conducting.
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138hwy says...
Mulder I don’t agree. For anyone to say here or anywhere, that "he makes on “deals” the city gives out" is to imply that he practices in KICKBACKS which is clearly illegal.
Kickbacks from whom? Street pavers, tree trimmers, city water department? Unions perhaps?
Yes, the mayor is a public figure but there seems to me a limit to what is said on a blogsite.
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No Spin says...
lame
THAT IS YOUR PROOF? LMFAO!!!
Come on BMOC take Rex parris to Task! File a Complaint! Take him to court..
You slither around blog sites calling good people vile names, accusing others of criminal acts and you offer nothing as proof..
COME on hero.. PROVE it.. File a complaint, so something other than frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog..
IF you truly believe all of your own lies, then get off your ass and do something besides your incoherent, idiotic rants in here and on AvDeadBlog.org…
Show us all how tough you really are.
WE ARE ALL WAITING…
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No Spin says...
According to you lame, Rex lies, steals elections, stuffs ballot boxes, closes schools for no reason, takes over businesses illegally and more..
HOW Can he not be in jail??? Hmm lamecaster? Rex Capone should be in the Pokey!
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No Spin says...
138
You are 100% correct.. Lame comes in here bellowing about all the evils perpetrated by Rex Capone Parris and yet he takes no action other than to blog on two local sites.
Come on lamecaster.. need any help getting the phone numbers you need to call?
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American says...
OK, to me, a mayor that has to continuously excuse himself from decisions that are made for business done by his wife is very “thought provoking”, and even a little bit suspicious…I have seen him do this a couple of times before, and I don’t watch a lot of council meetings, but I have seen him do this more than once in the few meetings that I have seen. Maybe I just so happened to see “those” particular meetings, but nevertheless, it is peculiar. We all know he is a lawyer, so legally, they are ALL, more than likely, abiding by the law.
BUT IT DOES RAISE A QUESTION…
what are the motives for these lands? Why, if other council members suspect suspicious activity, are they voting YES on these particular issues. Is there a standard way of doing things, that if all required “papers” are filed, and so forth, is the council REQUIRED to approve any in particular arrangement if certain criteria is met?
JUST WONDERING
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American says...
So how much does a City Council member make a year? Maybe I might be interested in running….MUAHHAHHAAHHAA!!
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138hwy says...
NS It would make more sense if lanslither would take his/her proof to the FBI and file a complaint. At the very least he/she would make the local newspaper and perhaps be on AV3news.
Why do it only here, with only a few people seeing it?
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No Spin says...
American
AS a citizen you have very right to ask the question and demand an answer..
AS a citizen NO ONE has the right to pre-judge anyone based on NOTHING and in turn accuse them of illegal activity..
lamecaster, unlike you, has no honor and has no clue what integrity is..
Your question is legitimate, his accusation is vile and inappropriate.
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No Spin says...
138
lamecaster is not a man of courage or conviction. To take the real step of actually doing something about the accusations he rants about, is WAY ABOVE HIS PAY GRADE..
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138hwy says...
NS I am not going to go any further with this except to say that if ANY Rex Parris hater has the proof of wrong doing, then present it to the proper authorities.
It does little good “vent” about someone simply because one is not in favor of him. The time to show dis-pleasure and non-approval would have been this past April, but not enough people did and Mr. Parris won re-election handily.
Next topic please!!!!!!!
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CASimons says...
The request for proof has been on this site for a long time! There was one blogger who stated they were in the know and had handed over the ‘proof’ to the ‘proper authorities’.
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CASimons says...
138 states ‘The time to show dis-pleasure and non-approval would have been this past April, but not enough people did and Mr. Parris won re-election handily.’
I opined soon thereafter the emotion against Rex did not have enough energy to rally those who would vote him out. Hence, are the Rex haters filled with just empty words?
Just talked to a client who actually is pleased with the reforms our current and past CC has implemented.
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marino says...
American,
You run for council and I will support you.
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intheknow says...
OK MY QUESTION IS … WHAT DOES THE MAYOR MAKE IN LANSCATER VS. PALMDALE AND DOES THE MAYOR OF LANCASTER DONATE THAT MONEY … JUST A REAL QUESTION…
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scdyne says...
I’m not suggesting that we have a problem with this now; I’m just saying that everyone is responsible for keeping track of things to prevent something like this from happening.
One could also argue that like Bell having an election at an off election time is just as questionable as sending out ‘officers’ to garner support [but in actuality] signing people up for absentee ballot. Only to find out on Election Day that those people had already voted absentee.
With only a 3% of registered voter turnout it’s not surprising to see election results come in biased toward incumbent agendas.
That would be like sending out LBC members to Mayflower Gardens to help the elderly with the process of voting absentee ballot.
Knowing one has an advantage with mail in votes, seeing as how your minions we’re enlisted to do your bidding (weather intentional or not) makes it easy to predict the outcome.
This is one reason why I support 2 issues we see come up time and time again.
1. Merging Lancaster and Palmdale
2. Placing all local elections on schedule with national and state elections
I’d like to believe that with a larger number of voters and a larger turnout that individualistic agendas will be thwarted by the true majority vote. Yes, I know how fantasy altruistic that sounds, but faith has to start somewhere.
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American says...
Very Interesting…Are the salaries for Palmdale and Lancaster public officials/employees posted somewhere or available at the City Hall somewhere?
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