Dehesa Valley Gazette (January 31, 2009)

kogojimmyv@gmail.com - e-mail him if you want to be a part of his new mailing list since Roger repossessed the original Flashfax mailing list.

http://www.dehesavalleygazette.com

Published periodically from San Diego, CA

(The Official BUT UNAUTHORIZED Organ Of Mayor Jimmy Valentine)

FRIDAY JANUARY 30TH 2009

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Team Hedgecock is history.

My old butt got kicked out the door in December and this past Monday Macarena got the boot as well. Steve Cosio bailed years ago. Was a time when we made quite a Team. The Mac, Steve, myself and Roger. Together we stayed in deep poop with upper management, hence the name Team Hedgecock. Management proclaimed that our foursome was (were?) not "team players," and so, of course I coined the name Team Hedgecock. It stuck and was eventually even adopted by management. Go figure!!

Mac got the can cause she and I continued to communicate after my firing. Hey, she's like my daughter, hello!! Folks at KOGO (Roger denies any involvement but CSI San Diego is checking the prints on the knife) scrubbed her Clear Channel computer in the dark of night (or perhaps shortly before sunrise) and discovered emails from Mac and I. Nobody fires folks on Roger's staff without his approval.

We (half the San Diego community) are hard at work helping Mac find new work. A ton of folks have signed up to be job references for Mac. Quick job success will really piss off you know who …HELP!!! Watch this space. (maybe I'll start charging for the Gazette and hire Mac as a correspondent)

So that is mostly that.

Keeping to the matter of dismissals….things have changed. Letting folks go is never fun. The fun part is hiring people and then watching them grow. But as our economy ebbs and flows (and yea, it's been doing that forever) there are times when the sad task of termination falls to you. I always felt a kinship with folks I worked with and who occasionally worked under my supervision. It was never pleasant to tell someone their job had to end.

I don't know much about the dismissals at KOGO except what I read in the media press but it appears that Clear Channel's adventure on January 20th (50 some employees let go) was badly and possibly cruelly handled. Suddenly your work environment is a hostile place, you are singled out, escorted (read perp walk) by unarmed guard, dismissed and then dispatched with full escort to the parking lot.

I have not been involved in a lot of mass terminations. Mostly you are ordered to cut staff by a handful of positions in a TV newsroom. That calls for gentle notice, a one on one private chat, full HR resources and then a promise to be helpful in the employees new job search.

I tried to make that latter commitment a reality. As soon as the unpleasant deed was done I'd call friends in the business and recommend my college ague. I made finding a new job for that person a personal mission. Sometimes it worked but I was always a receptive reference.

I never had an employee escorted from the building. The building had been their professional home for years. Departing with some dignity ain't a bad thing?

The one mass termination I was involved in happened when Satellite News Channel (Stamford, Ct) was shut down after being purchased by Ted Turner back in the early 80's. About 400 of us exited stage left. SNC devoted major outplacement resources to us. They hired a firm to do full day presentations. Benefits meetings, unemployment guidelines and assistance and as I recall SNC actually took out ads in media publications lauding displaced employees and suggesting our value as new hires.

During the first week of January '09 Clear Channel called it's major suits to a mass meeting in San Antonio. There they laid out the ugly news. I did not attend (gosh, no invite?) but I know they discussed the woeful economic times, the need to cut budget and staff and the import of doing so promptly. They must also have discussed termination security procedures, shutting down access to all station web sites, not allowing the to-be-dismissed employee free (read unescorted) access to the building. The dismissal and removal from the property. The process whereby personal office belongings would be "delivered," to the fired employees home.

It would not have cost much to treat the terminated like valued employees. There could have been an outplacement company presentation. A seminar on the job market, alternative employment opportunities and a promise of continued job search support. It would have been nice to let folks clean out their desks, hug fellow workers and exchange home numbers and email addresses.

Instead the radio media reports that Clear Channel mostly treated folks as if they had just discovered they were indicted felons and so dispatched them in that fashion.

I'm glad I was already fired….cause I'd have run down to the pizza shop and the local beer store and set up card tables in the parking lot so fired folks could chat a bit before embarking on the next phase of their lives.

And if I'd been at that San Antonio meeting I'd have told all the super suits…HUGS WORK!! The likely response: "What's a Hug?"

MUTTERINGS

**I am finally "on the map." Well not quite yet. My check is among the last to be counted and an updated accounting is due to be filed shortly. You may already know the story.

All of us who contributed money to pass Prop 8 last November had to fill out a donor form required by law before our check could be deposited to support Traditional Marriage. The campaign had to bug me a couple of times by mail to fill out the form and send it back before they would cash my check.

Long story short…the gay folks, livid over the success of Prop 8 have taken the public access donor information and put it on a MAP on the internet. The map denotes your geographic location (road, city etc) and the amount you contributed to Traditional Marriage. It's way extensive.

http://www.eightmaps.com/

Why in the heck would somebody do that…to what end? So that gay folks can harass donors to Traditional Marriage of course. I may not get much attention but a 200k donor or even a 20k donor might attract some strange phone calls, find unpleasant stuff pushed into their newspaper bin at the roadside and kinda like that. ( or maybe a gaggle of gays outside your business _

I'm not on the map, as I've noted, yet, but I check and a few of my Dehesa Valley Neighbors are. Bless you my friends.

These strange folks will not give up until it is required by law that I marry a man. Burp and Gag.

**The cost of groceries are (is) up seriously. I'd eat dog food but that's even more expensive than human food. I did get break this week tho. Albertson's up in Alpine had a major sale on peanut butter. 4 jars of Skippy (I like the creamy kind) for two dollars with your Preferred Card. I stocked up big time. You have to catch these deals when they happen.

**SOME RECENT EMAILS:

hey Jimmy, for some unknown I stopped getting the gazette emails this month. Could you please re subscribe me. Did the flashfax email list get disbanded or something?

Jimmy,

You know you are sitting on a gold mine...right? Seriously, you should write a book! (a real one, not a pamphlet. LOL) This last DVG had me in stitches. I remember the days of hearing Roger scream at sales people. Aaaah, you took me back.

Anyway... you should seriously think of writing that book, or at least charging an online fee for the DVG. I have my checkbook at the ready!!

P.S. Could you imagine what it would be like to promote a book critical of talk radio... ON TALK RADIO! And you know the TV stations would eat it up, nationally and locally. How much fun that would be !?! I'd book you in a second, and I bet a lot others would also. I'm telling you...you're sitting on a gold mine.

Hope you and your wife are doing well.

Jimmy, you are certainly airing the dirty laundry my friend!

Roger's feelings toward Cliff are positively warm and fuzzy.

Roger better make sure his bar ticket is current. When (not if) his show crashes and burns, he might have to start chasing ambulances to earn a living... you know, an honest trade.

**Love Ya Bye!!

HOMEFRONT SAN DIEGO - 866-424-9467

http://www.homefrontsandiego.org/

GOD BLESS AMERICA

WE REMEMBER SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

STAND TALL FOR TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE - FIGHT ON!!

STILL WORK TO DO TO SAVE OUR CROSS…KEEP POWDER DRY

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