Diana Souza

Diana Souza is a San Leandro Councilwoman currently running for San Leandro Mayor. Her tenure in the Council was uneventful. She got elected with the single goal of getting a competition swimming pool built in the Manor, and when that couldn’t happen, she basically became a second vote for Joyce Starosciak first and, after Starosciak left, the City Manager/Police Chief. Souza voted in favor of raising the Chinese flag over San Leandro City Hall. She’s probably best known for throwing a fit because she was never voted to be Vice-Mayor by her peers.

2014, Weep or Run? Candidate Field for San Leandro offices looks dismal.

2014, Weep or Run? Candidate Field for San Leandro offices looks dismal. Politics No Responses »

Jun 302013

The 2014 elections are just around the corner, and I can’t believe how dismal the candidate field is in San Leandro. Actually, “dismal” is putting it lightly.

Mayor
Mayor Stephen Cassidy will be seeking re-election. His pitch of “I’m not as incompetent as Tony Santos” narrowly won him the seat in 2010, but he now will have to run on a record that is only marginally better than his predecessor’s. He did balance the budget – but only because voters passed Measure Z -, and he ended up getting the police union to agree to pay into their pensions, but only in exchange for raises. His biggest accomplishment so far was giving the green light to the Lit San Leandro project, but he handicapped it by making zoning code changes incompatible with the “live-work-play” concept he now realizes the city needs to spouse. Even then, there is nothing scarier to anyone seeking to invest in a town than a capricious regulatory system. Still, Lit San Leandro has potential and if it can hook in a couple of big companies into town, his chances at re-election look good.

Councilmember Diana Souza, who is being termed out in 2014, and former councilmember Surlene Grant are giddily waiting on the sidelines preparing to jump in if something handicaps Cassidy – or, more likely, if he decides he doesn’t want to go through the rigors of a second campaign in which he will have to defend himself and his record. While neither Souza nor Grant is particularly well positioned for defeating him by herself, rank choice voting opens up the possibility that they will both run, team up, and attack Cassidy from two different angles.

Neither Souza nor Grant, however, seem likely to be much of an improvement over Cassidy. Neither can point to many accomplishments while in office, and neither has a history of leadership while in the Council. I was not very active in politics while Grant was in office, so I cannot totally dismiss her yet – but Souza has proven herself unable to do anything but follow directions in the 7 years she’s been in office.

I am hoping that someone else will jump into the race, but I don’t know who it could be. Councilmember Jim Prola seems unlikely to do it at this point and nobody else in the City Council has much to offer. The School Board is mostly made up by new members without the experience to take on the reigns of the City. The only exception is my husband, Mike Katz-Lacabe, but he has pulled papers to run for City Council District 1. Former School Board President Morgan Mack-Rose was just narrowly defeated on her bid for the District 2 City Council seat, so she is likely to be out of the political picture for a while. It’s possible, however, that someone will rise up from the community – though I haven’t seen much noise from anyone who might become a serious candidate. Dan Dillman, of course, may decide to run again and this time do it seriously. Depending on how badly Cassidy falters in the upcoming year, he might actually have a shot.

If no one else pans out, however, I might actually consider running myself. I’ve never had political ambitions of my own, and this would really be a last-ditch solution; I hope it does not come to that. But I do believe that this city needs to have someone at its helm that takes the responsibilities of the Mayor and its duties towards the community seriously. Our Police Department needs to be audited and brought under civilian control – it is unconscionable that we have narcotic officers selling drugs of dubious origins, officers with a record of brutality killing unarmed civilians without any repercussions, false child porn charges filed against established members of our community, persecution of gay men and a Chief that lies to the community and the Council and tries to manipulate the political process, without any consequences whatsoever and, of course, turning San Leandro into a surveillance state. This needs to be a campaign issue. There are, unfortunately, many others.

Districts 1 , 3 & 5

San Leandro has a hybrid type of district elections. Council members must live in a particular area of town, but they are voted on by residents of the whole city.

Michael Gregory is terming out from District 1 . So far the only person I have heard that might be running for that seat is my own husband, Mike Katz-Lacabe. He pulled papers last November.

Diana Souza is terming out from District 3 herself, so that will also be an open seat. Board of Zoning Adjustments member Lee Thomas has already indicated that he will run for that seat. I tried to meet with Thomas to get an idea of his political philosophy, only to find out that he doesn’t have any. I give him credit for his honesty in refusing to engage on policy discussions before he has spent the time to learn about the issues and figure out what he thinks (though he might have considered putting off running, until he becomes acquainted with these little matters). But if someone is unwilling to answer the question: “on a scale from one to ten, how progressive are you? “, then I can only conclude that he either has no political views at all or that he is unwilling to stand up for them. In either case, that’s not what I want in a City Council member. I much rather have someone who is conservative, but who is clear and honest about his political philosophy, than someone who will decide on issues as the wind blows or his pockets are filled.

This means that I am actively looking for someone to run for that seat. In my view, the requirements for office are intelligence, integrity and a real commitment to the public good and the democratic process. A tall order, any day.

Finally, Pauline Cutter seems likely to seek re-election for District 5, and I haven’t heard of anyone poised to challenge her.

School Board

Just like with the City Council, School Board members run for a district but are elected at large. The School Board has 7 members, only 2 of whom faced a contested election – the other 5 just walked into the office. Katz-Lacabe has been trying to reduce the number of members from 7 to 5, to make it more likely that those serving are actually elected, but he has gotten little traction.

Three seats will be up for election in 2014. Lance James, who represents the north-eastern area of town will be running for re-election. Ron Carey, who represents the area south of Davis St., east of 880 up to the first railroad tracks, has said he’s not running. He had been appointed to that seat. If Mike Katz-Lacabe runs for City Council, then his School Board seat (adjacent on the east side to Carey’s, extending up to East 14th.) will be open. So far I haven’t heard of anyone interested in running for either.

If you know more political gossip, if you’re interested in running for office and want to announce here or seek my help, or if you just want to gossip, please comment here or in Facebook.

Is Head Librarian SLPD’s Chief Next Target?

Is Head Librarian SLPD’s Chief Next Target? Police No Responses »

Jun 102013

A scene from the movie “Flowers in the Attic.” The SLPD considers the book to be “child pornography”.

An Open Letter to Chief Sandra Spagnoli

Dear Chief Spagnoli:

You have requested that the public alert you about “similar incidents” to those concerning the charges for child pornography filed against SLHS teacher Rick Styner.

According to court documents, as reported by the media, these charges arise from “more than 200 pornographic stories” found on his computer, including one about a 14-year-old girl having sex with her brother, reportedly accompanied by the naked picture of a girl that looked to be underage.

The story mentioned in court records sounds very much like “Flowers In The Attic

“, the best seller by V. C. Andrews. The novel – which was made into a very bad movie

– concerns four siblings that are raised hidden in an attic and repeatedly abused. As the children enter puberty, the older siblings start to develop sexual feelings for one another, and they consummate that relationship when the girl is 14 years old.

I have checked the San Leandro library catalog, and it would seem that the library does have multiple copies of this “pornographic story”. It would thus seem prudent that the SLPD get warrants to search the homes and computers of all library personnel responsible for distributing such “child pornography”.

“Flowers in the Attic” has sold over 40 million copies worldwide, and it’s a favorite among teenage readers. It would therefore seems likely that the book is also present in San Leandro school libraries and English classrooms. The SLPD should not take any chances and start investigations into all SLUSD librarians and English-language teachers. Perhaps the SLPD should get a court order to have Amazon.com and other booksellers disclose the identity of everyone in the city that has bought a copy of this “pornographic” novel, so the investigation can become even more inclusive. Who knows what other untold crimes people who read this story may be committing?

Of course, I understand that the problem is not only this “pornographic story” in Mr. Styner’s computer, but the fact that it was illustrated with a picture of someone who appeared to be underage. While there may be a question about the age of the model in that photograph, there is no question that actress Thora Birch was only 16 when she appeared nude in the Oscar winning film American Beauty. The main library, and undoubtedly hundreds of San Leandrans, have a copy of this movie and thus, according to SLPD standards, seem to be in possession of “child pornography.”

As you probably also know, when I wrote my article on the Styner investigation, I linked to pictures of Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby
– a movie in which she appeared nude when she was barely 12 years old. Not only should the SLPD thus be able to arrest me, but everyone who read my story and clicked on the link. I should be able to provide for the Chief the IP addresses of everyone in that situation. Will arrest warrants follow?

Thank you, once again, for your commitment to keep San Leandro free of any real crime. I support your crusade to clean the bookshelves of San Leandro’s citizens. It’s definitely a much more important endeavor than paying attention to pesky little things like robberies, actual burglaries, domestic violence and, the peskier of them all, corruption and misconduct within your own department.

Sincerely,

Margarita Lacabe

—

This letter was e-mailed to Chief Sandra Spagnoli and copied to Mayor Stephen Cassidy, the other members of the City Council, City Manager Chris Zapata, Assistant City Manager Lianne Marshall and City Attorney Richard Pio Roda.

Jim Prola appointed Vice Mayor; Diana Souza, Chief Whiner

Jim Prola appointed Vice Mayor; Diana Souza, Chief Whiner City Hall, Politics No Responses »

May 232013

Jim Prola

Council Split in Two Camps

The last item on last Monday’s agenda of the San Leandro City Council was the selection of the Vice-Mayor. It had been put off from a previous meeting as the then current Vice Mayor, Michael Gregory, had been absent. Gregory made a motion to nominate Jim Prola for the position. Pauline Cutter quickly seconded him and then Mayor Cassidy immediately called for a vote. He left no room for discussion, counter-motions or public comment. Of course, other council members could have interrupted to offer their own motions nominating someone else – but they didn’t do so. The vote went 4-3, with Gregory, Cutter, Cassidy and Prola voting to make Prola Vice-Mayor, and Ursula Reed, Benny Lee and Diana Souza voting against him.

Diana Souza

The reasons for this pretty unusual vote came clear at the end of the meeting when Diana Souza paid homage to her mentor Joyce Starosciak (who, you will remember, left town because she couldn’t deal with the pain of not having been elected Mayor), to sing her own “why don’t you love me” swan song. She said she didn’t vote against Prola because he was unqualified – all of them, said Souza, are equally qualified -, but because she wanted to be Vice-Mayor and she’s never gotten the chance. She blames this on her willingness to stand up for her principles rather than compromise (principles such as “we should spend all our money building an Olympic swimming pool in the Manor”, “people shouldn’t be allowed to raise chickens or bees”, “no marijuana dispensaries in town”, “porn theaters yes, Shakespeare no in the industrial district”, “let the police do as they will”). I don’t know if I’ve ever seens as clear an example of the Dunning–Kruger effect.

Almost as interesting as Souza’s public whining session, was the fact that it was done without an actual vote against her. Either Lee or Reed could have a motion to nominate Souza as Vice-Mayor – Reed, indeed, made it clear on her comments that she voted against Prola because she wanted Souza to have the position -, but they didn’t. This begs the question as to why. The obvious answer is that they knew Souza didn’t have the votes to win – which is the sort of thing that can only happen if you’ve been breaking the Brown Act right and left to find out how your colleagues are voting.

I’m not sure what to make of the fact that Souza and her cohorts voted against Prola knowing that he had the votes to win. It solidifies the theory that Souza is not going to run for Mayor against Cassidy, but rather that her appearances around town were part of her campaign for Vice-Mayor. Ursula Reed, on the other hand, is ostensibly running for Alameda County Superintendent of Schools and you would think she would know better than publicly spiting Prola. Prola, after all, has a lot of influence in Democratic and labor circles, and while he’s not personally petty, Reed’s vote shows a lack of common sense that is unlikely to make her many friends.
The vote, moreover, solidifies the division of the City Council into two camps. Interestingly, the Reed-Souza-Lee camp is the more solid of the three. They are driven together as much by conservative social views and loyalty to the police (the police union were huge contributors to the Lee and Reed campaigns, and Souza has other reasons to be grateful to them), as by their unwillingness to move to city forward. The other four Council members form an uneasy alliance, as their political views run the gamut and they don’t necessarily share the same vision for the City. On the other hand, they do seem to take their job more seriously. It will be interesting to see if this split stays in future votes such as that on the marijuana dispensary.

2014 Campaigns Start to Shape Up

2014 Campaigns Start to Shape Up Short Notes No Responses »

Apr 042013

They say that the early bird gets the worm, and this year politicians are taking that to heart. Candidates started announcing they would run for the 2014 elections even before the 2012 votes were counted, and every day more candidates join the fray. So far this is how the field looks.

In San Leandro:

– Councilmember Diana Souza, who is getting termed out, is rumored to be ready to challenge Mayor Stephen Cassidy for Mayor. This one is hard to believe, but I’ve heard the rumor from the same person who correctly predicted that Hermy Almonte would challenge Jim Prola, another unlikely and predictably unsuccessful race.

– Pauline Cutter is likely to run for re-election for City Council District 5. Board of Zoning Adjustments member Lee Thomas will run for the District 3 Souza is vacating while my husband, Mike Katz-Lacabe, has pulled papers to run in District 1 (Michael Gregory terms out). Mike has not yet announced.

Tony Guzman, who runs the Ford Leadership in San Leandro and has been getting progressively into politics, is flirting with the idea of moving to San Leandro and running for City Council (he currently lives in Hayward). He definitely should move, but he may be better off joining a commission first to learn a bit about how this city works.

Meanwhile, Planning Commissioner Ed Hernandez seems ready to apply to be appointed to the District 2 seat if Ursula Reed vacates it.

– Lance James seems likely to run for re-election for the School Board (representing the north area). Ron Carey, who represents the Manor, will not be seeking a second term. Carey was appointed to his seat after nobody run in the 2010 election. Currently, five of the seven school board members were appointed or ran unopposed.

In Alameda County:

– San Leandro Councilmember Ursula Reed is running for County Superintendent of Schools.
– Ellen Corbett is challenging incumbent Eric Swallwell for Congressional District 15 (read more about this race).
– Ro Khanna is challenging incumbent Mike Honda for Congressional District 17 (read more about this race).
– Dublin Mayor Tim Sbranti is running for Assembly District 16 (Joan Buchanan terms out).
– Fremont Assemblymember Bob Wieckowski is running for Senate District 10.

Statewide:

– State Treasurer Bill Lockyer and State Controller John Chiang were looking at exchanging jobs, as each gets termed out of their current ones. Chiang is set to run for Treasurer but, still recovering from the Nadia scandal, Lockyer is being coy as to whether he’s running for Controller (but he’s preparing to). Meanwhile, Board of Equalization member and rising Democratic party star Betty Yee is giving it her all in the race for Controller. This one will be fun to watch.

Do you know of other candidates or other races?Comment below or e-mail me!

Legalize Marijuana Dispensaries Once and For All!

Legalize Marijuana Dispensaries Once and For All! Short Notes No Responses »

Feb 272013

It’s time that our Mayor and City Council do what’s right. Californians approved medical marijuana collectives fifteen years ago, and they are now ready to legalize marijuana altogether. Legalization at this point is inevitable and every person of sound body can easily get marijuana at school yards, parks and at street corners. As the case of SLPD officer Jason Fredriksson showed, even cops are in the marijuana selling game.

The only people who have trouble getting marijuana are the old and sick patients who actually need it. The attitude of City Council members like Diana Souza and Benny Lee, who want to deny pain relief to those suffering, is unconscionable. And I don’t want to hear any excuses about how the “community doesn’t want it” (when surveys like this show that they clearly do) or that “patients can go elsewhere” (when that’s impractical for exactly the people who most need it).

Have some courage, put the needs of others beyond your own personal prejudices and pettiness. Approve the dispensary once and for all.

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