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Vector
Control Board
Eight Page Letter To City Of Desert Hot Springs
View
the Eight-Page Document - Click Here
Smoke and
Mirrors is being used to divert attention from the question of
whether the Vector Control Board is top heavy with bloated management.
That smoke and mirrors arrived in the form of an eight-page
letter that the Vector Control Board saw the need to send to
Desert Hot Springs via
overnight express courier.
The absurdity
of the situation is this: The Vector Control Board sent two
representatives to a public meeting in Desert Hot Springs in
which the appointment of Karl Baker was discussed. Like
everyone else stepping up to the podium, Vector Control Board
representatives had three minutes to express themselves adn
their objections.
Following their comments, an appointment was made.
Now the Vector
Control Board says they need more time to raise their
objections. They want 15 minutes at the podium. We are
reminded of the movie with Tom Cruise, A Few Good Men, in
which a young lawyer has raised an objection, the judge denied
the objection
and then the young lawyers says, "But I really, really
object. I strenuously object." The lawyer looked like an
idiot.
Only the Vector
Control Board has not just limited itself to objecting. It is
wasting the time of legal council in search of any legal
loophole to tell Desert Hot Springs how to conduct its
business. In effect, the Vector Control Board is telling
Desert Hot Springs who it can or can not appoint to the
Vector Control Board.
To show the
absurdity, we have posted the eight-page letter (see link
below) in its
entirety and offer some additional comments on a few legal
points we find of particular interest.
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Point
1. Why
is the
Vector Control Board requesting that the City of Desert Hot
Springs conduct a second public hearing on the
appointment of Karl Baker when a public
hearing has already occurred? By the Vector Board's own own admission
it had an opportunity to express its objections when two
of its representatives publicly addressed the council with their concerns
at that public meeting.
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Point
2. The Vector Control
letter to the City says City Council and not the Mayor must
make the appointment to the Vector Control Board. If the
other council members did not object to the
Mayor making the appointment, then through
"implied consent" the other council members legally agreed to allow the
Mayor to make the appointment on their behalf. No
council members objected at the time and none have objected
since. And our information is that none will object.
In FODHS opinion, this
fact alone meets CA. Government Code 4605 that states
"The Mayor with the approval of the council, shall
make all appointments to the Boards, etc."
Exemptions to Mayoral
appointment of Baker under health and safety code 2022
as presented in the Vector Board letter do not prohibit
the Mayor from making an appointment to the Vector
Control Board. Also, any "error in procedure"
is allowed as long as the Council and the City Public do
not object at the time the procedure occurs.
The Vector Control Board has
no jurisdictional authority to object to Desert Hot
Springs governing procedures after the fact.
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Point
3. Why is the
Vector Control Board wasting taxpayer money to provide
Desert Hot Springs with legal opinions regarding the
city's legislative procedures?
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Point
4. The
appointment of Baker to the Vector Control Board was
done in open session - contrary to assertions raised in
the letter. The public did have an opportunity to raise
objections, including the Vector Control Board manager
and Trustee as admitted in the letter. The letter
contradicts the Vector Control Board attorney's own
legal positions.
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Point 5: The
Vector Control Board references another recent harassment
charge against Baker. What is
the harassment charge? Baker is alleged to have said that "his first
goal was to see the director fired." The director
may not like someone challenging his position but this
does not rise to the level of harassment. The attempt by
the vector control board is to trump up a case against
Baker using using a highly
charged, sensational word: harassment.
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