By Guest Columnist, Michael Ceremello – former Vice Mayor/councilman from the City of Dixon.

Note by Editor, Donna Westfall. Highlighted is a portion below dealing with “sludge.”  Is our city missing out on an opportunity to create a revenue source by our super expensive, white elephant, the wastewater treatment plant? While the names are different, our problems are the same. 

My intention was to title this column “I’m Sorry”. Musing about this, I have nothing about which to be sorry and the term itself instead aptly describes not only the politicians currently in power in this town being made more miserable by the moment, but also describes their abilities or lack thereof.

Sorry that you didn’t think it was important enough to remove four of these knuckleheads for the rest of the year. I feel sorry for the city staff who now are under the dick-tatorial whims of not only the little porcupine who fakes doing the city manager’s job but his corrupt boss, Jack Batchelor.

Sorry that I didn’t take part in your “live” town hall meeting or whatever it was called on “fixing potholes and determining what to do about streets in our county”, all sponsored by those wonderful people over at the Solano Transportation Authority. Sorry but you are about to see another tax being proposed by these same reprobates that refuse to maintain the streets we have. Sorry, but I don’t see that hot tar machine or even an item on the agenda for consideration of it.

Sorry that I just received an email from John Williams, the CEO of In-Pipe and a consortium of companies providing a real solution to our waste water problems. John commented “Dixon should have paid attention” which is more like “sorry that your council is too blind to see.” Sorry if you don’t have a computer but for those who do here is the link to an article titled “Transforming Waste Into Profit” written by Robert Hoshowsky. http://www.businessinfocusmagazine.com/e_mag/BIFNAFeb2016/#?page=316.  Sorry, but I told you so is what I have been saying and now here is more proof.

What is really sorry is the majority of voters in this town actually understand that the current wastewater project, or at least the $20 million which is being spent on activated sludge out of the total $33 million price tag is going to be proven to be a gigantic waste of our rate money. Sorry that we are hauling away sludge which should be used to power a plant which will create energy, pure drinking water, and recovered desirable minerals which will be essentially pure.

I am sorry that Steve Bird actually believes the way the council does things in closed session is “the only way it can be done.” I am sorry that Steve can’t take the time to review State code governing closed session meetings and their requirements. I am sorry Steve takes the city liar’s (attorney’s) word on everything and can’t think

Sorry we have a city liar who has given up his principles, morality, and ethics to keep a job. Doug White stated that they followed “the code to a T” in dealing with Chief Cox and others involved in personnel issues. Please. I produced the code and it is crystal clear that an employee has to be given 24 hours notice before accusations or allegations are heard against him or her in closed session.

I am not sorry that members of the council including but not limited to the two who are fighting for the title “Dumber than a stone” vacated by former mayor Mary Ann Courville, publicly stated that Lindley kept them informed all during the process, four months worth, in closed session. Exactly when did the council notify Cox that he could have this item heard in public?

Lindley fired him first, via a text message if Tiffany Morlin has her facts straight and I have no reason to doubt her. So tell me, Jerry and Scat, exactly how did you and your lying attorney follow the law to a T during the four months this investigation was going on? Sorry, but you didn’t notify him, you broke the law, and you can do it all you like because no one will call you on it.

It is a sorry situation that those being proposed to be on a committee to determine the use of the Pardi Market site lot and the Ace Hardware store lot are the same sorry individuals in the Dixon Downtown Business Owners Association and the Chamber of Commerce who have fleeced the city before. I am sorry that all you have to be is a Rotary member, a crony of the mayor, or one of the beautiful people to be on this committee.

I am sorry the city never acted on the plan of those who suggested an interim use for both of these parcels. The State recovered these parcels when Jerry Brown had redevelopment agencies eliminated because of his tax and spend antics in order to balance the State’s books before he got the welfare recipients who make up his voter bloc to approve a further hike in State taxes. Sorry because these same people don’t feel the brunt of their action because most of them don’t hold jobs.

I attended the planning commission meeting on Tuesday and I have to feel sorry for Don Hendershot, Don Ritchey, and David Reese whose valid questions were ignored by those who continue to fail to do the job they were appointed to do. Someone needs to tell Jill Orr that smiling while rubber stamping projects is not a qualification.

Sorry that Kevin Johnson is the chair and is more interested in seeing projects approved than vetting them. While I expressed my appreciation for staff finding a way to let a business into town which shouldn’t have located in the building for which they signed a lease and I can appreciate Kevin’s appropriate exhortation to staff that the landlords should know what is allowed in their buildings and on their property, the glee of approving a new business overwhelmed this stupefied group from doing their due diligence as well as duty.

It is a sorry state of affairs when Johnson is giving us all a preliminary view of how he will behave if elected to the city council. I like Kevin personally but his judgement is clouded by his occupation and his need to please. If you can’t take the bull by the horns at this lower level, I hate to see how you behave as another in the long line of sorry candidates with Chamber of Commerce ties. I am sorry but Johnson’s actions are reminiscent of the decision style of Jack Batchelor. Sorry for that major insult, Kevin, but I believe you earned it.

What I wasn’t sorry about was the fact that Don Ritchey was actually questioning the “stack and pack” housing being proposed by Brookfield. Considering that Ritchey is a major apologist for Jack Batchelor, it was quite refreshing to see him thinking and questioning with two other responsible commissioners the redesign of housing next to the high school.

While Tiffany Morlin, another potential coming council candidate, was supportive of the new design, after reviewing both the old and new designs I can understand why she was duped. The original design had forty houses in a row with no street breaks in between them and parking was via a number of alleys behind them. The new design has several alleys with the houses reoriented to face the alleys.

I am a believer in caveat emptor, let the buyer beware, but I am sorry this development is demonstrative of what Dixon is to become. This isn’t small town character, it is a potential traffic nightmare. As Ginger Emerson stated, “some people thought this was an apartment complex” rather than single family homes. Four thousand square foot lots with two thousand square foot homes on them. Cram as much as you can into as small a space as possible.

Now on to the ape in the litter box. I am sorry that little Thommie can’t understand basic math. I am sorry that Thommy thought my comment about the water rates he doubled meant I wanted even higher rates. I simply stated that no one has accounted for the money taken in from these higher rates. We should have more than $400k in the accounts when our annual revenue was in the $800k range prior to the increase.

Doubling, for you sorry apes, means that instead of $400k we should have had an additional $800k until you take into account that people use less when prices increase and the ongoing drought. What is so difficult about admitting that the government you seem to be so in love with now, is the same irresponsible group who wanted us to stay attached at the hip to that sorry mismanaged Solano Irrigation District?

I am also sorry that Bogie can’t be a little more original in stealing my “even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while” line which he then mangled. I am sorry Thom is back to being delusional about who or what was behind the original proposed salary offered to city manager candidates when I was on the council. While Thom did some pretty impressive things immediately after being elected, it has pretty much been all down hill since. I guess he likes the slide in his litter box.

Sorry that I don’t have more of my precious time to waste on educating the dolts at the dais as well as the good people of Dixon. Sorry but it will be very difficult for me to run for any office in this town if you keep electing clowns. Unless Batchelor, Bird, and Castañon are all history at this next election and aren’t replaced by more of the same, I can’t see giving you four years of my time.

Sorry but the loss will truly be yours as it has been since you made the mistake in 2012 to re-elect Jack. Sorry but I don’t believe that if I had run for councilman instead of mayor that things would have been different. Although worst part is I might have been saddled with Scat and Hickman for two years.

And that brings this sorry column to a close …