TIM NESS: "Should Be a Tobacco Executive"

Well, well, well.  More skeletons are coming out of the closet about Santa Maria City Manager Tim Ness.

From person to person to person -- and finally handed to me -- comes an article published in 2000 in the news articles of the Legal Defense Fund of the Protecting the Rights of California Public Safety Employees (PORAC) --  regarding Tim Ness' actions in an appeal filed by Santa Maria Police Officer Tom Radzyminski. 

Superior Court Judge Zel Canter, in denying the city's motion for a new trial, and describing Ness' "disingenuous" behavior as he "went out of his way to find that the police officer lied," concluded that Ness "should be a tobacco executive."  (emphasis added)

It seems Judge Canter had  granted on January 5, 2000, Officer Radzyminski's writ of mandate to overturn his termination by the city.  Radzyminski, who previously served with great distinction in the U. S. Marine Corps and the LAPD, was discharged for backing his unit into a mailbox while on his way to an urgent call, and allegedly lying about it.

The article states that, "Judge Canter . . . stated that Ness 'went out of his way to find that the police officer lied.  I found that to be abhorrent and rejected it out of hand.'  Ness, he said, was 'a corporate man, ready to sacrifice the individual's rights . . . in my opinion the worst kind possible to be in any position of a judicial office of any sort.'  Ness' tortured reasoning was 'so faulty that it was an abuse of his powers."

"Abuse of power " . . . where have we heard that before about Tim Ness?  Oh, yes.  It was the report of the 2004 - 2005 Santa Barbara County Grand Jury.  Check out Tim Ness' Hit List on this blog for the full version of what the Grand Jury said about Ness' abuse of power.

The August 11 - 18, 2005, issue of the Santa Maria SUN newspaper summed up the Grand Jury's report by noting, after "20 interviews, 15 subpoenas for sworn testimony and three subpoenas for personnel documents," the Grand Jury found, among other things, that the "City Council is not exercising sufficient oversight of the city manager."  (emphasis added)

In granting Radzyminski's writ to overturn his termination, Judge Canter cited "the pathetic lack of justification given by Ness for the termination" and found no merit to the findings of Ness, "whose decision was rubber-stamped by the Santa Maria City Council."  (emphasis added)

Sounds like more reasons for George Dailey and Lynn Melville to point to when they say Santa Maria's residents should vote for Joan Leon and Hilda Zacarias in the upcoming Santa Maria City Council election.