Here was the thing with Dennis Donohue as Mayor of Salinas. He was a terrible Mayor. Even Joe Gunter, the current Mayor of #Salinas, was running around investigating Donohue for some crime or walking on crime scenes without permission.
He played fast and loose with the rules
He sent Kelly McMillin a “police officer” over to the #Salinas #Californian (it was a daily paper at the time) to threaten them with zero #transparency if they didn’t stop writing mean articles about Dennis, but more importantly, his buddy Bruce”Troll” Taylor.
Donohue made space for Bankers Casino, a future card room owned by a guy he was on the planning commish with - in a bizarre property transaction - with some deal made over dirt lots on Division St (probation was all abuzz about this, because ...)
He brought #Salinas
#GreenVehicles which was a scam on the taxpayers.
He was sued by the Leidigs over Salinas Renaissance Partners - they claimed he was trying to help a friend of his get a a deal - interring with their contract. Leidigs lost the case but Bruce Taylor ended up with the goods.
He wants to reward Kelly McMillin’s undying loyalty by making him the #SalinasPD chief right away - the rank and file generally opposed.
Later Donohue was able to make McMillin chief (he later quit to work for the #marijuana boys)
The most bizarre - he
And then he decided to run against a well liked, but liners Supervisor @JaneParkerMC , and got real nasty with her.
* good old boys spent close to $750,000 and Dennis lost.
He then left his wife’s radicchio plant to work for - some friendly group - as an “innovator”
And the Weekly enthusiastically endorsed him - in 2010.
Now Donald Trump is President - the world is on fire, many hundreds of thousands of people are projected to die
And The Coast #Weekly laid off 1/3 of its staff, including their education reporter - blaming it all on #COVID19
Are we tired of #winning yet?
#politics #lovingsalinas #Journalism #Covid_19