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SJ Mercury News
| | Posted on Monday, October 02, 2006 - 07:15 am: | |
www.LetsConnect.TV is your Portal to Democracy!
Internal Affairs: Utility agency's 1994 foresight worth $54,000 today
Someone should figure out just how someone in the Palo Alto Utilities Department figured out way back in 1994 that in 2006, the city could do a sweet deal with something as dull as a conduit.
Lo those 12 years ago, the city upgraded the municipal electrical distribution system at the Town & Country Village shopping center on El Camino Real. It meant ripping up the parking lots. That's when a fabulous prognosticator had a bright idea: Lay an extra conduit for future telephone use at the same time the workers were undergrounding all the other electrical systems.
Nobody at the shopping center was planning to do undergrounding of its phone service. Neither was the phone company.
But as a recent Palo Alto city manager's newsletter put it, ``Fast forward to 2006.'' The new owners of the shopping center called the city to say it would like to . . . underground the telephone lines!
Imagine the flood of satisfaction in being able to tell a customer that you have anticipated this desire and that all those shoppers won't have to drive around another dug-up parking lot.
The city has sold the conduit to the shopping center for the not-chopped-liver price of $54,000, recouping its costs (perhaps even with interest, too).
Internal Affairs joins the city manager in his newsletter's praise: Good work, Utilities!
Votes go down the hatch
Most of the political hopefuls stayed off the juice at last week's ``Booze and Schmooze'' event organized by those notorious party gals, the League of Women Voters.
The list of those trolling for votes at the British Bankers Club in Menlo Park included candidates for the East Palo Alto and Menlo Park city councils, the Ravenswood and Menlo Elementary school districts and the San Mateo County Board of Education.
Five bucks got you in to meet the candidates -- and covered the cost of your first drink.
But for most of the two-hour shindig, the average Joe Voter was hard to find. ``It seems like there's more candidates than anybody else,'' said Menlo Park incumbent Lee DuBoc.
Menlo Park council candidate Vince Bressler made the most of the sparse turnout, saying he made a breakthrough with one voter who showed up.
``I spent most of the time talking to a resident,'' he said. ``She had a preconceived notion about me, and I made a lot of progress.''
Remember, on Election Day: Act globally, drink locally.
Unlikely allies' Web site
A self-described ``portal for democracy'' has emerged as the new campaign tool for Republican state Senate candidate Michael Skipakevich, an 18-year-old from South San Francisco with no political experience.
Oddly, the Web site's most prominent feature is a giant tooth named Dr. Smiles, who wears a phone headset and necktie. I.A. felt compelled to call the site's owner, Oscar Braun, to ask about the connection to Skipakevich's campaign.
Even more oddly, Braun, 63, lost to Skipakevich in the June Republican primary but is now Skipakevich's campaign spokesman. Skipakevich is pitted against Democrat and state Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Leland Yee for Jackie Speier's seat in the 8th state Senate District.
Braun hired Skipakevich after the primary as director of marketing for Braun's company, Oscar Knows Inc., which does on-demand content delivery and media services. The toothy Web site -- www.letsconnect.tv -- is a project of Oscar Knows, nearly four years in the making, Braun said.
It appears as though Braun is using Skipakevich's candidacy -- and his role as campaign spokesman -- to draw traffic to a product produced by his for-profit company.
``Will I make money out of it? I hope so,'' Braun said.
LetsConnect.TV is a home page of sorts for free desktop portals and other fee-based services which ostensibly allows people to better connect with their community.
So, what does that have to do with running for state Senate?
``There's a disconnect between the members of the community,'' Braun said. ``In our view and in Michael's view, this is a great way to get connected. The political theme for Michael's campaign is empowering oneself.''
Chavez's letter to friends
Even though the letter from San Jose Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez's campaign was a mass mailing, it was a bit more personal for one recipient.
Chavez's letter, which began ``Dear Friend,'' addressed the perception that Chavez is ``too close to Mayor Ron Gonzales'' to make changes at City Hall.
Not so, the letter said. It asserted some differences in approach between the two of them, none of which was flattering to the mayor.
The letter went to many registered Democrats. One of them holds a high office in the city -- the top office, actually.
Yes, Gonzales received the form letter at his home.
He was reliably reported not to have taken it personally.
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Internal Affairs is compiled by Mercury News staff. This week's items were contributed by S.L. Wykes and Phil Yost of the Mercury News and by Banks Albach and Rebekah Gordon of MediaNews. Send tips to internalaffairs@mercurynews.com, or call (650) 688-7556. |
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