Happy Hedgehog Day!

“Mommy do you know what day it is?”
“Emma do you know what time it is? It’s still dark out.”
“ Mommy today is Hedgehog day!”
“The Hedgehog gets out of bed and looks for his shadow, then his mommy makes him breakfast.”

You know me, any excuse to talk about our fury friends. So what about our darling, Dave Kears, the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency Director? Well, he’s presiding over the Measure “A” Oversight Committee; mostly they’re supposed to fight about the 25% slush fund that Dave sucked off the top in exchange for not undermining the Measure. Apparently we got a greedy bunch of white guys. Over 20 members and only two women and one or two Latinos depending on how you choose to classify Charlie Ridgell from UHW. I don’t care what he says, he’s a Chilango-that’s a Mexico City, Mexican. So, basically Dave and some other white guys are in charge of Measure “A.”

The white guy factor explains how more than 3 million Measure “A” dollars went to Telecare for profit psychiatric services, they’re kind of the McDonalds of mental health. As an Oakland resident, I’m thrilled to be subsidizing them with my tax monies as well as putting up with their facilities and their under-medicated clients screaming on my corners and sleeping in my parks. Dave’s a real cash cow for Telecare and we foot the bill.

Apparently the committee members have their sights on the Medical Center monies as well. They have that sense of entitlement that privileged people have. So the oversight committee, like most committees under Dave will be a fight over cash, instead of a reasoned dialog about how to best serve the sick, but right now I don’t care. It’s been a long cold winter but I can finally smell the wet beginning of spring.