No balls at Sparks City Hall
Former Washoe D.A. and District Judge Mills Lane once told me that he read my column because I call it like I see it every week, putting my name on it and sticking my chin out.
That lesson has been lost on Sparks City Hall moles who continue to take anonymous potshots over L’Affaire Daly. I seem to have touched a nerve last week by noting that Sparks labor leader Richard “Skip” Daly saved the city about half a million dollars by pointing out that the winning bidder on the $7 million Spanish Springs sewer construction job should have been disqualified because the company was not licensed to do business in Nevada.
The latest pea-brained potshots assert that Mr. Daly did not save the city any money, as he wanted the original bidding process maintained. Daly wanted the city to follow the law, which it had failed to do. Rather than awarding the job to the lowest legal applicant, the city went into spin control and restarted the bidding process. City Hall would not admit to having been caught asleep at the switch. With all 10 of the original bids now public record, the new round came in much lower, undercutting the city’s claim that substantial changes had just come to light on a project years in the planning.
Had Daly not pointed out the illegality of the original low bid, the city would be out half a million greenbacks.
This led to a very acrimonious city council meeting on July 13, with Council members Ron Smith and Ron Schmidt firing off character assassination against Daly.
He told KRNV TV-4 news afterward, “When they start making personal attacks, you know they’ve got nothing else.”
The Tribune failed to report on the volatile exchanges, despite having a reporter present. Which brings me to Jake Highton’s column of last week.
Too legit to quit
Writing about his true love, newspapers, professor Highton wondered how long the hard copy form can survive. I found hope in an AP story a few weeks ago.
“The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is a rarity among large U.S. newspapers — it’s selling more weekday copies than a decade ago. In Idaho, the Post Register’s circulation has remained stable, while many other print publications have lost readers to the Internet. How can this be? The executives behind the Arkansas and Idaho newspapers believe it’s because they’ve been giving free access to their Web sites only to people who subscribe to the printed edition. Everyone else has to pay to read the Democrat-Gazette and the Post Register online. Meanwhile, most publishers have been giving away their stories and photos to all comers on the Internet.
The prestigious Harper’s Magazine has long done the same thing. Subscribers like me get access to the Web edition and extra content. Those who don’t subscribe to the best magazine in the country have to wait several months before reading online.
The bottom line is that to help the bottom line, the publication has to provide information the public wants. It calls for experienced people who know their markets and their readers. It also demands firing consultants who tell insecure editors and publishers what they should already know.
The short-lived 10 p.m. local news on KREN TV-27 provided a perfect example. It looked like a high school newscast, not that the young journalists didn’t try hard. It quickly became painfully obvious that management had not hired a news director who knew the territory. Indeed, I don’t believe they had one.
The Tribune and Big Nickel are positioned to take advantage of the above.
Should we do so, Professor Highton will have an interesting laboratory to observe as we try to cure what ails a very viable but plodding industry.
Shortshots
University of Nevada, Reno tenured faculty have been asked to donate 4.6 percent of their salaries to the university foundation. Bad idea. That secret society has long been a slush fund of questionable transparency. I’ll attach links to my 1996-1997 series with the Web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com. ...
Like President Eisenhower on segregation and Edward R. Murrow on Sen. Joe McCarthy, Walter Cronkite came too late to the game on Vietnam. Murrow and Cronkite both worked for CBS News, which was probably the problem. Murrow was ousted when he began to produce social commentary, ending with 1960’s “Harvest of Shame” about the plight of America’s farm workers. Perhaps Cronkite remembered the ousting of his old boss, a reason but not an excuse for reading government press releases about the Vietnam War for many years before his 1968 post-Tet Offensive epiphany. ...
My spies in Gomorrah South report that neither Reno Mayor Bob Cashell nor Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman will contend for the governorship next year. Neither has made it official, but you read it on the Barbwire first. ...
The Laub & Laub law firm, ubiquitous in TV advertising, has been hit with an embarrassing decision for attempting to rip off an injured client. “Instead of doing anything to benefit Mrs. (Raquel) Mora, Laub and Laub simply sought to increase its fees in direct conflict with the law and its clients’ interests while purporting to represent her,” Judge Robert Perry ruled. “In reaching this decision, the Court is mindful that Laub and Laub has a reported history of conduct wherein it disregarded clients’ rights in preference to its own,” Perry wrote in zeroing the firm’s legal fees in the case and awarding them to Mrs. Mora. The full decision is available at DoctorLawyerWatch.com. ...
Why did freshly-minted Republican state senate candidate Ben Kieckhefer leave the employ of Gov. Jim the Dim? My Carson City spies report that the ex-reporter got tired of lying to his former press colleagues to cover the guv’s ass.
Goodbye, Wolffman
Long-time union leader and retired Nevada Highway Patrol Sgt. Gary Wolff will be laid to rest at a memorial service this Thursday. It begins at 11 a.m. at the Sparks Christian Fellowship Church, 510 Greenbrae Drive in the Greenbrae Shopping Center.
A potluck reception will follow. “Guests from the area are requested to bring a little extra, as we anticipate guests from around the state that would have a logistical hardship bringing a dish. Beverages will be supplied by the Nevada State Law Enforcement Officers’ Association,” according to an official statement released by the union.
Donations to the family may be made at Nevada State Bank, account number 0558034575. For more info, contact Trooper Lori McGrath at 846-4685.
I worked side-by-side with Gary for more than a decade. He was a credit to law enforcement and organized labor. He passed away at his home in Reno on July 21. He was 65. As soon as I receive biographical information from his family, I will post it with the Web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com.
Rest in peace, Wolffman. You did real good.
Be well. Raise hell.
Andrew Barbano is a 40-year Nevadan, union member, labor and civil rights advocate and editor of NevadaLabor.com. His TV program is cablecast Monday through Friday, 2 to 4 p.m. on Reno-Sparks-Washoe Charter digital channels 16 and 216 and high-definition channel 80-295, available on demand at Barbwire.TV. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.
Post a Comment