MAYOR ART MADRID, THE SAGA CONTINUES

Last week's incident involving La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid has opened a can of worms that threatens to permeate not only the inside environment but also the outside and disturbe the Cty of la Mesa residents.
Yesterday's meeting to discuss whether a third-party investigation should enter the scene, set the mood for a new chapter of this soap-opera that began last week when the mayor was found in an inconvenient state a block from his home and LMPD officers decided to take him home, exercising a leeway that apparently police officers across the county are allow to use at their own discretion.
Didn't take long for the whole roles to be assembled for this story. Supporters and foes of the main character entered the city hall last night to outline a story that now might even distract La Mesa residents from other suspense stories out there, such as the primaries across the nation, or as Councilmember Dave Allan said, from bigger problems such as the nation's trillion deficit, or the state's 20 billion deficit.
Mayor Art Madrid characterized the events last night as a "The eruption of a volcano that just as Mountain Helen, where nothing in its path was unscathed, the damage was 360 degrees and everything was either scorched or destroyed."
The police department was one of the injured, along with city manager Cindy Kerl and city attorney Glenn Sabine, all of them critiziced in their integrity and commitment to fairness and justice.
The torch was pass to Vice-mayor Ernest Ewin to preside the event.
Councilmember Dave Allan called on all the bad things not the city, but the state and even the nation are facing, as to waste time with this event.
Finally the motion for the night came "to direct the city manager to bring in a third party to conduct an investigation."
City Manager Cindy Kerl proposed to bring a third party from a pool of investigators from the State Bar, and chose one that has had no previous relationships with the City of La Mesa, to which councilmember Ruth Sterling adamantly opposed, since "that would cost the city money." Instead, she proposed to bring in an attorney from the county or the state. A non-bias third-party investigation.
Before agreeing that was why they were there tonight Ruth Sterling insisted on an investigation by S.D. County District Attorney. However, the investigation she wants is not about the LMPD behavior that night, but to investigate the Mayor's actions. Such motion was denied since the meeting was set to decide whether the police department should be investigated.
For some the whole story is a personal vendetta stemmed from long time Mayor's opponent Craig Maxwell, who last night defended himself as not being the one leaking the story to the media. And insisted the Mayor should come forward and let people know what else he's hiding. He took the opportunity to shed light on an alleged hit-and-run incident where the mayor was involved too. He closed his statements by asking the mayor to open up and let people know what else might crawl from under the rock of his past, what other misadventures has he had.
Mayor Art Madrid also had plenty of supporters to advocate for him, but no one as passionate as Anna San Fillipo, San Fillipo's Pizza owner, who asked the audience how come the mayor has been re-elected so many times if the people of La Mesa don't want him? She agreed the mayor made a bad judgment but blamed the restaurant he was at the night of the incident for not providing him with a taxi-cab and allowed him to go home on his own. She asked the audience to look back at all the goodness he's done for the city. Her comments made the mayor shed some tears and the audience roar, screaming and clapping in approval.
TO BE CONTINUED...

RAINY DAYS IN LA MESA

Do you think that every time we get some rain in San Diego County everything goes crazy?
That drivers are just waiting for few drops to go hydroplaning?
Most statistics show that indeed way too many accidents happen in Southern California as a result of the sporadic rain Mother Earth grants us with. However, if you were in la Mesa last Sunday and were able to witness dogs and cats downpour, you'll be surprise to know that no more than three accidents happened there, and no one was actually attributed to the rain. According to Lieutenant David Bond of LMPD, very few accidents were reported over the weekend, and none was rain-related.
Nice.

ISN'T LADY JUSTICE BLIND?

Residents of la Mesa are not too enthused after Mayor Art Madrid got leeway when police found him lying on the sidewalk near his SUV and a city employee in the driver's seat – both apparently intoxicated – about a block from Madrid's home last Wednesday.

Perhaps that's why La Mesa City Council members called for a public discussion at tonight's City Council meeting.

La Mesa Police found the mayor near the passenger side of his white Ford Explorer. Finance department employee Trisha Turner was in the driver's seat, her feet pointed out the open door.

Madrid and Turner appeared intoxicated, the responding officers told Police Chief Alan Lanning. They had vomited around the SUV, which was legally parked.

Neither was given a sobriety test. Officers drove them to Madrid's home, unlocked his front door with his keys and left.

Madrid, who has already apologized publicly, declined today to further discuss the topic.

Not some residents of la Mesa that attended the meeting with the only purpose to demand the mayor's resignation. Such as bookstore owner Craig Maxwell and former city treasurer Jim Stieringer.
Council member Ruth Sterling, a longtime foe of Madrid, said she wonders whether the incident would have been handled the same if the mayor weren't involved. “Why should he be treated any differently than anybody else?” Sterling asked.

HAVE YOU SEEN ME: 5AKT466

La Mesa police's still looking for the driver of a white Ford Expedition or Ford Explorer that crashed into a fire hydrant, and caused flood damage to a business and a vehicle.
Lt. Dan Willis said it happened around 6:40 p.m. on Friday in the 8100 block of Fletcher Parkway. Reknowned market "The Vine Ripe" and a parked vehicle were flooded, while the driver fled the scene. The license plates are 5AKT466 and police are asking anyone with information about this incident to call LMPD at 619-667-1400

The City of la Mesa has a very organized Web site, easy to navigate.
The whole agency is broken down into departments, each one citing a contact person.
Both phone numbers and e-mail addresses are available, and there is a FAQ section.
The site also allows visitors to register to receive press releases from all areas through their "Notify Me" section.
Forms for different issues are available in PDF format, and some of the services provided go beyond the City itself with links to other governmental facilities.
The site is pleasant to the eye with a slide show of different but recognizable places of the city.
The Web site pretty much covers everything a "normal" resident, consumer could look for in a governmental office.

BLONDE AMBITION LEADS TO BEER RUN

Three white females entered a la Mesa gas station thursday night and got away with
several cans of beer.
Officer Purdy of LMPD said the women, described by the clerk as blonde, in their late
teens or early 20's, 5'3'' to 5'5'' and slender had a getaway car waiting for them and
were last seen on Mills street and Orchard.
A video of the robbery it's been examined, and there are leads pointing to a youth
group.

Here's The City of la Mesa friendly Web site address:
http://www.ci.la-mesa.ca.us