If your kid ever asks you, “Mom/Dad, what does it mean when someone says you have ’sour grapes’?” you may want to show them a picture of Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson.
In fact, in light of his statements in a recent radio interview, Dickinson may have enough sour grapes to start his own winery–or is that “whinery”?
Shortly after the Sacramento City Council joined other cities in REJECTING a permutation of Dickinson’s anti-gang tax shenanigan, he appeared on Ben Adler’s Capital Public Radio program [love you, NPR!], and ominously prophesied, “.. We will have kids and families and neighborhoods pay the price for the minority of the council being unwilling to proceed [with approving the anti-gang tax].”
How you like them sour grapes? Mm mm BITTER!
So we’re going to “pay the price” for not checking out through the Dickinson/Fargo express lane, huh? Nice consensus-oriented approach to leadership there, Roger. “Pay the price.” Interesting choice of words. UNLIKE the proposed sales tax increase in the midst of the worst housing collapse in recent memory, right?
In all of his unilateral wisdom, Mr. Dickinson is essentially saying: Citizens will be PUNISHED because of the DILIGENCE demonstrated by Sacramento City Council members Steve Cohn, Sandy Sheedy, Robbie Waters, and Lauren Hammond who voted AGAINST the anti-gang tax–in favor of a more comprehensive initiative that should be crafted through a genuine CONSENSUS-BUILDING process OUTSIDE the city council’s honorable chambers (and hopefully one managed by a more trustworthy organization than the City of Sacramento, who can’t even track it’s own water meters).
It seems Mr. Dickinson is essentially saying: Because those city council members voted against my anti-gang tax, more citizens are going to die. More citizens are going to get robbed. More citizens are going to get assaulted. You’re all going to PAY.
Is it just me, or is Dickinson’s bitter-beer-face attitude in defeat strikingly similar to Marcos “Blanket-of-winter-fog” Breton’s, who famously derided the council’s rejection of the tax with the hard-to-ever-forget cheeky declaration : “cowardice” killed the anti-gang tax” ?! Breton also supported his baseless position with fear-inducing hyperbole when he asked, “How many more people are going to have to be killed..?”
Interestingly Roger Lemon and Marcos Matthau (arguably the grumpiest old farts in the county), are about the same age, and apparently suffer from the same ANTI-CONSENSUS-BUILDING disease called: MYOPIA. Or: MY way or NO way. Lucky us to have them blasting their hot air in our faces every time we pick up the paper.
When are we going to get some genuine leaders? Is THIS all Sacramento has to offer? Grumpy old men who use their positions to condemn people who don’t agree with their ideas?
The county needs a supervisor who can elevate his mind another 29,000 feet to see the BIG picture. The newspaper needs columnists who don’t act like 5 year olds and throw temper tantrums and call people names when people oppose their ideas.
Come to the table with a REAL initiative that is orchestrated through multi agency, multi city/county, multi citizen CONSENSUS (and not one you drafted in a silo–of wine), and maybe we’ll talk. Until then, put down the bottle and get back to work, boys.
Keep it up, young Joe, and I might have to promote you to dirtbag.
The Bee has the wrong writer on its staff. Breton should be blogging and you Joe should be writing for the paper.But, then again, that would mean you’d have to start filtering, and we get deprived of *your* hot air, so that would not be good.
Keep it up Joe. Love the site and love the articles. Once again spot on
I have never met a tax I did not like, nor has my good friend Roger. You sir should move to France.
BWABAHAAHA. Now you goin and gettin it like a dog after a bone. Woof!
I am really tired of these politicians forcing their ideas down our throats in the 11th hour. NO NEW TAXES! Now Arnold the governator wants a tax increase????? At what point do we say “no we are not going to give you more money for being incompetent!” Only in the gov. sector is incompetence rewarded. Unbelievable. Thanks for this article. It is very thought-provoking. Supe. Dickinson’s post tax failure attitude is very telling about his management style. He should be staying positive and working with agencies on something more people can get behind. Instead he is whining. Waaaaah. Waaaaah. Poor Roger. Yes and poor Marcos. He is cut from the same cloth.
Mmm, dirtbag. Finally. Thought I was gong to have to cover my own Kaiser plan the rest of my life. Thank you for the promotion o great one.
Roger the confrontation dodger makes deals in the back room and then gets pissed off when the people in the front room don’t like the deal. Keep dealing Roger. Hopefully the next deal you slip under the table to taxpayers has more hope than the last one
How did RD ever get elected?
I have come to believe Roger Dickinson is not a person, it is a neurological disorder.
Remember tricky dick and the arena tax increase failure, 70% of Sac. Co. defeated the rail yard plan. He was deplorable too when the grand jury found fault in the way the county conducted itself during this whole process, and and the big dick was harshly critical of the grand jury’s report. It gets worse, today’s Bee has an article about the corrupt and shity library system we have and how the library admin. will rebuke another grand jury report detailing its failure. The lady there should be fired on the spot, I feel like we live in some banana republic from Central America, why arn’t these jackasses being callanged more forcefully??
The good news I think is that Sacramento residents–especially those in D1– recognize we have not been paying close enough attention to our public servants. They have proven if they are left to their own devices they can not be trusted. I think we are going to be seeing some changes. I think Tretheway should be recalled if we can find someone willing to step up and run against him. I have a good candidate in mind
I once met Dickster the Trickster at a chamber mixer. He had the typical arrogance of an overrated Sacramento politician (Joe if you have never been to these events, you should go just for the entertainment value of watching them all work the room in the fakest way you could ever fathom). You would think he was an all star athlete the way natomas residents flocked to him and shook his hand and grinned and hammed it up. I don’t see a single austere discussion. His aide was a bit more down to earth. Some of you know who I am talking about. I think Dickster has done a few good things, but I agree his arrogance and bitterness are major flaws in his game.
josephine– hate to break it to you but roger is your father dude.yes i realize this is prob not the most appropriate place to have this discussion dude but it is what it is. i know you are a straight talker so i am just giving you straight talk. you and roger should get together soon and hug it out brother. hug it out
I love it. Freight you just gave me a new quote for the main page. Thanks! Brother!
Joe, regarding your candidate to take Tretheway down, say the word and I’m ready.
You are ready to support them, or ready to run?
PS Mr Dickinson, Sac Bee reporting youth violence markedly down this year, with FAR LESS youth homicides. The urgency of your anti-gang tax was grossly exaggerated, as was the good Mr Breton’s. The alarmist way of doing business has, well, never been good for business.
I’m ready to do whatever is necessary.