Well, I told you so.
Things are not looking all that great down at City Hall.
Not after the Kern County Grand Jury issued its "blazing condemnation" (The Bakersfield Californian) of the Taft City Council, City Manager Bob Gorson for ignoring the City Attorney's advice, and yes, Councilman Cliff Thompson who "violated public trust", and even ribbed Taft's residents urging them to look at what's going on at City Hall and hold the council accountable for their actions and inactions.
But the report is only a partial picture of the serious issues plaguing City Hall, and who can blame the Grand Jury for only seeing some of the issues that are causing all the problems.
The report really hits City Manager Bob Gorson hard, but leaves the city attorney virtually unscathed - why even the Not- the-Daily-Midway-Driller pointed out, gratuitously, that the city attorney was the only one not criticized in the report.
This is quite telling for those who are watching the bare knuckled fist fight that is going on behind the scenes at City Hall.
You see, a lot of what's going on here is directly related to a power struggle between the City Attorney and the City Manager, with various city council members arrayed on one side of the fight or the other.
On the City Attorney's side, you have Cliffy and the Driller which has ignored most negative stores about Cliffy in an effort to protect him from himself, and on the other side is the city manager and other city council members who so far, have supported Gorson against the Cliffmeister's obsession to get Gorson fired.
The City Attorney has differed with Gorson on pay raises and other stuff - taking the side of Mr. Thompson in the power struggle between the two camps.
Rumor is the City Attorney has a lot of juice with the Grand Jury and that may be why the Grand Jury saw the City Attorney's version of events at City Hall, disagreeing with Gorson and an attorney the council hired that disagreed with the City Attorney (and the Grand Jury later) on the pay raise issue.
Well, it ain't over yet.
Especially since the council will formally respond to the Grand Jury report within the next 60 days.
It will be interesting to see who and how the council responds to the Grand Jury report.
The WSW thinks it will be the law firm that the city retained to get a second opinion on the pay raise issue and sided with Gorson on the pay raise argument, and disagreed with the City Attorney, and whose legal opinions the Grand Jury disssed in its report.
It's gonna be a great 2010!