May 19, 2004

This week’s Bulletin was written by Ken Juen

 

This Week’s Meeting

Our beloved and much maligned soon to be ex, President Frank De Francesco opened the meeting promptly at 0734.

Brad Benter led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and Jerri Malana gave a terrific invocation in honor of her brother in law, Lt. Col. Mark Clester USMC, who is making us all proud, by serving in Fallujah, Iraq. God bless him and all the other brave men and women there.

Announcements

Ø      There is still room for Stand Down volunteers, see Duane Horning

Ø      On June 8 the last District Council meeting under Frank’s reign of terror will be held at the La Jolla Marriott in UTC. Our club will receive a Presidents Citation at this meeting, a rare and coveted honor for any Club. See the District Website (www.rotary5340.org) for details.

Ø      On June 29 at the San Diego Yacht Club, Frank will be officially relieved of his overwhelming duties by Ron Erbetta, our incoming President and all around good guy. You can expect a good roasting of Frank (easy target) and a good time in general.

Ø      We are dark on the 30th and Ron’s first meeting will be on July 7th. Bring your complaints.

Ø      Sexy Carlos a Rotarian from Brazil, needs a place to stay from June 10 to June 16. No farmer’s daughter jokes please.

Ø      July 18 is the District 5340 annual gala. See the District Website (www.rotary5340.org).  Everyone speaks faster than I can write, but I did catch that there are only 700 tickets being sold to 3500 members, so get yours early.

Ø      June 20, Coronado Club ride and stride, not sure what you can ride on the 8.2 mile course on the island, so if you have a Harley you may want to call ahead.

Ø      DOCTOR Waterman introduced the Mascari brothers who are doing a lot of relief work in Tijuana and recently received a $450,000 grant to do more.  They are holding their first kick off event where you can see their work first hand. Transportation will be provided for the trip down to Tecate and their facility in TJ.  See or call  DOCTOR Waterman for info.

Ø      Rick Logan announced he has room for 3 more volunteers to help with his semi annual home building this Saturday in Tijuana. I would go but I am having a birthday party that no one is coming to.

Ø      Gary Green brought us up to date on our contributions to the Rotary International Foundation fund drive. So far we have given $7,500 and Gary is matching up to $10,000 from his own generous pocket.

Ø      Our Maitre D', Jose, is the proud father of a new bouncing baby boy.

Ø      Joe Ciokon spoke briefly of his 2 friends in harm’s way in Iraq. Best to them.  He also spoke of the Distinguished Flying Cross Association’s last meeting, possibly, because time marches on.  I would have liked to have been there when the former pilot of a B-24 met the guy who shot him down in WWII.  The Japanese 0 pilots also attended.  What a great place for a tape recorder!

Ø      June 7, Midway sailors meeting. See Joe for details.

Ø      Frank spoke of the Mighty 1090’s  program for Tributes to local members in the military.  These tributes will be a 40 second message followed by a 20 second message from the sponsoring company.  This money will help sponsor these family members at pre game parties at Petco Park.

SPEAKER

Our speaker was Dan McAllister, our elected County Treasurer.  He spoke of his goals for the coming year, including making the twice yearly property tax bill more palatable by drawing puppies on them.

He is stressing oversight and accountability of the employees to avoid any chance of what happened in Orange County.  The 4.7 BILLION dollar County fund includes transportation, water and schools.  The money is invested conservatively.  San Diego is one of 20 counties in California that has its own retirement system and Dan also oversees this $5.1 BILLION fund.  He has cut out a lot of pork and turf building in the bureaucracy and streamlined the systems in general.

Where do the taxes go?  62% - education, 7.8% - Redevelopment, 3.6% special districts, 13% goes back to the city and 13.5% is discretionary (Helicopters, my birthday present, etc.).

Unfortunately a lot of decisions that affect our tax money are made in Sacramento.

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