John Allard accused of "Double-Dipping" his expenses

The Auburn Journal had an article about Assembly candidate John Allard "Double-dipping" expenses for a trip to D.C.
REVOLT --Responsible voters for lower taxes is out of San Diego
     What surprised me in this article is that Ted Gaines said he would not take "future" per diems.  He told me he wasn't taking per diems and didn't take the raises.  Both statements now appear to no longer be true.

Link to Full Auburn Article

D.C. trip expenses put Assembly candidate Allard on hot seat with tax watchdog

By Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer 

     Hotel room costs and claims for meals have a 4th District Assembly candidate at odds with a taxpayers group just as voters are receiving their sample ballots.
      At an average cost of $465 a night, the little-known taxpayers group REVOLT is challenging Assembly candidate John Allard on hotel expenditures paid for by Roseville that the city councilman charged to constituents during a 2007 trip to Washington, D.C.
     The San Diego-based Responsible Voters for Lower Taxes is also criticizing Allard for what it says appears to be a “double dip” on expenses. That allegation revolves around paperwork from a 2009 trip to Washington showing Allard requested the city’s $64 “per diem” allowance while later reporting on another form that he received free meals during the same time period from several corporate donors.
 

Who are these people with the raises?

I tried to do a search and see who these people are that got raises.... I only got the first four...

Annette Porini -- Chief of Staff for State Senator Joe Simitian of the 11^th District (Palo Alto and Santa Cruz) a Democrat

Kevin Bassett  -- Was Chief of Staff for State Senator Dave Cox (He's dead and Gaines is in his seat.  Gaines has not listed his staff's names.)  That was a Republican office.

Christopher Wysocki -- Was Chief of Staff for California Assembly Leader Bill Leonard but now a spokesman for the Small Business Survival Committee and worked with a Republican committee on the "Recall Gray Davis" campaign.

Ivan Altamura -- Chief of Staff for State Assembly Republican Caucus (GOP Consultants)

Dillon Gibbons – Chief of Staff for Assemblywoman Connie Conway (Republican) San Diego. (GOP Leader)

After Doolittle

Gaines won the State Senate seat while he was running for his old Assembly seat.  Since he took the Senate seat, now the state is on the hook to run a special election (remember the new law...the two top winners run again.) so I guess that will be another $900,000 for that part...

The "Sacramento News and Review" has a great article about how Republican politics in the Gold Country has run into some trouble...

The link to the article is here .

With former GOP Rep. John Doolittle (left) out of the picture, foothill Republicans are fighting each other. The Assembly contest between Beth Gaines (center) and John Allard (right) and five other Republicans is just one example.

Staffers getting a pay raise at this time?

I am totally shocked that 250 legislative staffers are getting a pay raise... One is getting a monthly $6792 raise to bring her salary up to almost $143,000..........and in the same breath these legislators are asking Californians to pay more taxes and loose benefits.  (Sorry it's not just Democrats asking for more money out of your pocket.  A Republican legislator wants to let Local governments have the authority to raise the Vehicle Licensing Fee VLF to finance their needs.  That doesn't sound like "lowering taxes" to me.)

The link to the article is here .

MORE PAY FOR SOME LEGISLATIVE AIDES

Here are highest wage earners among those receiving heftier paychecks this year in the Assembly and Senate. Most of the increases are due to promotions or for people promoted during a wage freeze:

ASSEMBLY

Name	2010 job title	2010 pay*	2011 job title	2011 pay*
Ivan Altamura	Chief of staff/GOP leader	$12,367	Director/GOP consultants	$13,338
Dillon Gibbons	Chief of staff/member	$6,555	Chief of staff/GOP leader	$10,417
Kimberly Rodriguez	Senior consultant	$9,276	Principal consultant	$10,203
Eric P. Swanson	Principal consultant	$8,833	Chief consultant	$9,893
Nicole Vazquez	Senior consultant	$8,331	Principal consultant	$9,164
Erika Contreras	Senior assistant	$7,419	Chief of staff	$8,333
Kevin Morley	Senior consultant	$6,672	Principal assistant	$8,006
Joe Stephenshaw	Senior consultant	$7,209	Principal consultant	$7,929
Nick Hardeman	Principal assistant	$6,078	Chief of staff	$7,500
Eric Astacaan	Senior consultant	$6,625	Principal consultant	$7,288

SENATE

Name	2010 job title	2010 pay*	2011 job title	2011 pay*
Annette Porini	Chief of staff	$11,330	Chief of staff	$11,896
Kevin Bassett	Chief of staff	$9,582	Exec. staff dir./GOP	$10,808
Christopher Wysocki	Exec. staff dir./GOP	$9,566	Exec. staff dir./GOP	$10,294
Scott Bain	Principal consultant/exec.	$9,636	Principal consultant/exec.	$10,118
Pamela Schneider	Exec. staff director	$9,338	Exec. staff director	$9,804
Kellie Smith	Principal consultant	$9,066	Exec. staff director	$9,804
Brian Annis	Principal consultant/exec.	$9,066	Principal consultant/exec.	$9,636
Randy Pestor	Principal consultant/exec.	$9,006	Principal consultant/exec.	$9,636
Jacqueline Kinney	Principal consultant	$9,066	Principal consultant/exec.	$9,636
Cori Ayala	Legislative director	$9,066	Chief of staff	$9,582

* Monthly pay. Source: California Assembly and Senate

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/02/09/3388009/browns-countdown-day-31-lawmakers.html#ixzz1Dgi7Ys88

A letter to the Editor about McClintock

Dear Blog Editor:
Congressman Tom McClintock left his Elk Grove home (he never moved in the district) to attend a couple of meetings with his constituents last week, none of which included El Dorado County people.  I guess he doesn't feel he needs our input. 

It's not like he has a tough work schedule.  He did the PEOPLE'S work six (6) days last month and is only scheduled for four (4) days this month.  He has two budget meetings this week, but nothing scheduled for his other committees for the rest of the month.  According to the House schedule, the House will be dismissed on the 17th of Feb. and not go back until 3 pm on Tuesday March 1st.

McClintock is paid a nice wage in this environment of "government mismanagement at its worst."  He got a $11,900 RAISE from last year's pay and is now being paid by the taxpayers $174,000 a year. 

But what is he doing for this pay?  The house is only in session from 10 am to 3 pm (Budget meeting has the same hours) Wednesday and Thursday.  At this rate, McClintock gets paid $172.80 an hour to do the people's business. On top of paying his salary, taxpayers pay his staff close to $100,000 a year, and EVERYONE in McClintock's office gets taxpayer-paid health insurance--minus a co-pay, something that he doesn't want for the rest of American citizens.  In addition to all this, McClintock does not pay for car or plane or gas...That's all covered by an expense account paid by the taxpayers.

Since Mr. McClintock does not feel the need to communicate with El Dorado County Residents (Letter, calls and emails continue to be unanswered) in his very tight schedule between Elk Grove and Washington DC, maybe the paper can ask this for me: Why are you talking about how my sisters and my mother have to take a cut in Social Security, something that they paid into with each and every pay check they earned?

When my paycheck went over the max, $109,000, it was like a raise -- my pay check for the rest of the year was LARGER.  After McClintock pays Social Security for the first $109,000, he pays nothing for the $65,000.   

Why Mr. McClintock are you asking that only the people who make less than $109,000 have to be FISCALLY responsible and take these cuts, but people like you who will be paid $864 a day for 6 days of work this month and pay nothing on the last $65,000 do not have to be fiscally responsible?

Dink Lane
Garden Valley

Pacifc Bell cared about their customers--AT&T (SBC) cares about their profits

After 15-days to get our phone service back... This story on Crooks & Liars pisses me off. (I condensed it to just AT&T)

 

Obama meets with U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Gave Karl Rove's non-profit PAC $75 Million)

 

Today, President Obama addressed the leaders of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a right-wing trade association representing large international corporations.

 

Obama asked these business executives to “get in the game" and spend some of the trillions of dollars of STRAIGHT profit on job creation.

 

In fact the leaders of the Chamber such as AT&T has spent the past few years rewarding themselves with millions in additional compensation while eliminating American jobs.

 

Telecommunications Giant AT&T Is On The US Chamber’s Board Of Directors:

– AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson was awarded a compensation package valued at $20.3 million in 2009, a jump of 35% from 2008. Last year, AT&T devoted an extra $8.99 million into Stephenson’s pension plan, ensuring that his retirement will include a pension “equal to 60 percent of his highest average salary and bonus in three of his last 10 years at the company. Although he’s not currently eligible for retirement, his pension is valued at an estimated $31 million today.”
– In recent years, AT&T has aggressively downsized its American workforce. In 2008, the company killed over 16,000 jobs as the recession hit. But in the last two years as AT&T enjoyed record profits, the company announced layoffs of “hundreds” in Kansas, 96 in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, 150 in Connecticut, 525 technicians in California, and 140 jobs in Oklahoma. These are LAYOFFS not retirements.

Here is the BEST part....a comment posted to this story.  I had heard about this back when it happened:
Comment by Lori: "I was one of those 16,000 laid off by ATT in 2009. ATT laid off 5K in 2008, right before Xmas. I remember at the time, right when the 2008 lay-offs were beginning, that our Director spoke to us on a conference call about Stephenson's big concerns were at the time. Apparently, he was concerned that no one would ride in the elevator with him. The story went that he got on the elevator and the first time the elevator stopped, everyone that had been on the elevator when Stephenson got on, got off - even though buttons had been pushed for floors that had not been reached yet. Stephenson's solution? He encouraged all of the people on his 'team,' VP's most of them, to impede on rank-and-file employee's breaks in the cafeteria by sitting down with them and starting conversations. Randall Stephenson - winning hearts and minds wherever he goes! These are the minds that run our largest corporations today. Morons."

Is the media pushing stories?

Remember when the Iraq War was building up?  Things didn't look right.  How did "the 9/11 attack" --> "Iraq"

It didn't connect.  But I trusted my government.  They loved this country as much as I do.  I was sure of it. So I trusted them.

Then I read this Jessica Yellin interview on CNN.  The interview talked about how the Corporate Bosses to the three (3) different networks actually pressured the press corps to present the stories on the war were supportive.

Is that what is happening today?