CaliforniaCityNews.org

City Manager Nabbed in Vice Sting

Yikes.  El Monte City Manager Jim Mussenden has been caught in a prostitution sting, and has resigned.  The city has named an interim replacement, and word is Mussenden called each councilmember personally to apologize.

Another oddity out of this story, as reported by the LA Times, several community members showed up to support  Mussenden at a hearing to name his replacement.  One informed the city council, "These things happen with men... None of you are fit to sit on an ethic committee."

Read more in the LA Times.

Update: Newark Mayor to Visit the Tonight Show to Settle Feud

Just a quick update for those of you following the amusing feud between Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien.  Mayor Booker will be making an appearance on Friday night's Tonight Show.  Will they bury the hatchet, or ratchet up the feud?  It's all in good fun, so we're hoping for the latter.

Sac Mayor Robbed on Visit to SF, But There's a Happy Ending for KJ

The news has traveled pretty fast, so we're admittedly a little late on this one, but former NBA standout and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson was robbed during a trip to San Francisco over the weekend, and in the midst of a good deed, no less.

The following is excerpted from KJ's blog:

"I didn’t expect to be a crime victim on the streets of San Francisco. Nobody does. But it happened, on a beautiful evening this past weekend near Union Square. As crimes go, it could have been much worse. I was helping an elderly man when somebody sneaked up behind me and stole my garment bag. I lost a nice suit, a nice pair of shoes and overnight toiletries. Not the end of the world, but frustrating.

The real crime was the vulnerability of it all, the idea that I could leave my bag on a crowded street, turn my back for 30 seconds and have my stuff stolen."

If KJ hadn't made his living making steals on the hardwood, we could have forgiven his naivete.  Ok, bad joke, but there is a happy ending to the whole thing.  When the thieves realized who they'd robbed, they actually returned the stolen goods. 

Update: The War on Conan

Last week, the feud between Newark Mayor Cory Brooker and Late Night Host Conan O'Brien reached a fever pitch.  First, Brooker banned Conan from the Newark Airport... then extended the ban to the entire city, all of its sister cities around the globe, and ultimately the entire state of New Jersey:

Mayor Puts Conan O'Brien on Airport's No Fly List After Late Night Slight

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, A Rhodes Scholar and former Stanford academic and football standout, is at war with Conan O'Brien.  This, after O'Brien took a few swipes at the New Jersey city on his Late Nite show.  Now, as Newark is home to a main travel hub on the East Coast, Booker has decided to play hardball, and is having fun doing it.  "Try JFK, buddy..."

Berkeley Becomes First City to Report Directly to the UN

Maybe for the "Only in Berkeley" files...

The City of Berkeley has become the first city to step up and report on its compliance with United Nations human rights laws.  This comes after decades of scrutiny over the city's flagrant abuses of human rights.  We jest, of course, and while Berkeley is among our favorite places, we have to wonder who they're kidding.  What possible human rights infringement has been perpetrated in that city since before the Summer of Love?  Maybe a student labor activist cut the falafel line in front of a Code Pink protester??

We kid, because we love.  You go, Berkeley.

Read more in the San Jose Merc.

Santa Ana Based Security Firm Acquires a Prison, Bizarre Sequence of Events Unfolding

This one is just weird.  A California-based security firm -- "American Police Force" -- has apparently won a contract with the city of Hardin, Montana to take over a small prison in their city.  Oddly, the prison is empty.  APF, which arrived in town last week in Mercedes SUVs emblazoned with "Hardin Police Force" on the doors, evidently plans to use the facility to attract house inmates from other jurisdictions.  Many questions have arisen. Notably:

• The company's spokeswoman was a local reporter covering this story, until about a week ago. 
• Said Spokeswoman refuses to disclose who is funding APF, which incorporated just a few months ago.
• Up to now, "APF" has mainly specialized in catching cheating spouses in the act.  It's only one facet of their totally hilarious website.

The plot thickens as conspiracy theorists on both sides of the political spectrum have gone into high gear.  If the "internets" are to be believed, the place seems to be destined as either a right wing milita training ground, or perhaps a secretive Super-Max facility to test experimental H1N1 vaccines on an unwitting populace. 

TalkingPointsMemo and WTOP have the best reports we've seen. 

Assessor, GIS Survey, Determines City Resident Ineligible to Vote -- City Continues to Collect Fees

From the great state of New York

You know you're hitting bottom when the City of Buffalo kicks you out.. espceically to a place called "Cheektowaga."  That's what happened to Alesia Young, a 17-year resident of Buffalo -- or was she??  Buffalo's Assessor got out the GIS and determined that at least the front of Young's house was in Cheektowaga, and thus she was mistakenly listed as a Buffaloer all these years.  Young is pretty steamed, not just because she continues to pay Buffalo city fees on trash hauling, water, etc, but because its disenfranchised her.  She discovered the city's decision when she attempted to vote in a recent mayoral primary.  She calls is "suspicious timing."

Read more in The Buffalo News.

PS.  Be sure and read some the user comments on this one.  Our favorite: "WAKE UP!!!! YOU LIVE IN CHEEKTOWAGA!!!" Snap.

The "Local Important Cities Association"?

The "local important cities association"?  Is this a typo, or a new association we should be aware of? 

At right is the headline of the Claremont Courier story on Claremont Councilmember Peter Yao taking over as President of the Independent Cities Association.  But the paper makes distinct reference to "important" cities.  So we're not sure if this is tongue-in-cheek or just a typo.  If it's the latter, we probably shouldn't make fun... as god knows we make them from time to time... but just the same, the headline grabbed our attention.  Or maybe we've missed the emergence of an *ahem* important new group advocating for cities???

Here's the story from the Courier.

Montebello Recall Drama Puts Developers, Enviros on Ice

A little somethin' for everyone in this one.  The City of Montebello is trying to determine what to do with 500 acres of undeveloped land, which has pitted developers against environmentalists who cite the area as the largest refuge for the endangered California Gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica for all you orinthologists).  There's precisous little common ground between the warring camps, except for broad agreement that the drama City Hall needs to stop.

It seems a couple Montebello councilmembers are locked up in tough recall campaigns.  The recalls stem from a legal dispute over trash hauling rights... dangerous ground for an industry with a "different corporate culture," as Tony Soprano once observed. 

Read more in the LA Times.