1. An Associated Press story about U.S. manufacturers legally releasing at least 272 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water. I cannot find any reference to Palm Springs or even to California in this story.
2. A staff-written story that says auto dealers in nearby Cathedral City "will get Redevelopment Agency funds for advertising after all, the City Council decided." Here are the next dozen paragraphs, word for word:
The council voted 4-0 on April 8 to support the Cathedral City Local Economic Stimulus Program, allocating $700,000 for dealership advertising. Mayor Kathy DeRosa, whose husband works with Palm Springs Motors, recused herself from the vote.The decision comes eight months after the auto dealership association first requested Redevelopment Agency funds for its advertising.
Andrew Jessup Jr., president of the Cathedral City New Auto Dealers Association, asked the agency in August for $53,500 a month to cover the then-Cathedral City Auto Center Dealers Association's advertising expenses from August through December.
The community raised such an outcry that Jessup retracted his request.
"The idea of using redevelopment money to give to auto dealers is beyond belief," CoveDweller1, a mydesert.com reader, wrote online. "And to listen to the mayor try to justify it is just plain crazy."
This time, as part of the local stimulus program, the dealerships will receive $700,000 designed to pay for their advertising and help boost the sales of other local businesses.
"The program is a win-win for everyone in the city and really is a must," Redevelopment Agency Director Jan Davison said.
The timing of last year's request was wrong, Jessup said.
"Then, the desperation of it wasn't as severe," he said. "While the dealers saw the slide, no one else was aware where this terrible economic situation (was) going."
Auto sales continue to decrease. They're down by 40%, while sales tax is down by 37%, according to Davison.
She said the loss of auto sales hurts the city because auto sales make up about 45% of the city's budget.
"The auto industry is the engine that runs the city," Davison told the City Council last week.
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis is a mini-bailout in the face of flawed logic. No amount of advertising pressure in this economy will move people to purchase new cars or trucks no matter what the incentive or pseudo-incentive. That $700K will be split among three television stations, the local cable company, about 15 radio stations, a bunch of weekly papers, and the Gannett operation, so it's not necessarily some kind of implied windfall for the local GCI property.
ReplyDeleteI would accept this story IF Palm Springs was making a tie to either A. So what if the mayor abstains, she still benefits (outrage), or B. WTF, people are taxed crapless in California and this is what these characters are doing with tax money (outrage part 2).
ReplyDeleteSadly, this seems like some sort of half-assed cheerleading without real purpose.
Does anyone have any real sympathy for auto dealers, enough so to hand them money to blow on advertising? Don't they build marketing into their budgets (every radio station on the planet is filled with those obnoxious bastards)? Answer, yes they do.
Chalk it up to another Cincinnati exile with poor judgment.
Since when is it acceptable to include anonymous online comments in a news story? What ever happened to reporters going out and talking to real people who are willing to give their names?
ReplyDelete(And yes, I am posting this anonymously, but this is a blog. Newspapers should have higher standards)
Dick Green just can't figure it out, but don't question him, he likes "yes" people.
ReplyDeleteI currently work for Rick Green. I like and respect him. As far as EEs go, a newsroom can do much MUCH worse.
ReplyDelete