The Cosco Busan’s malfunctioning radars should have kept the ship tied up, a San Francisco bar pilot — not the one at the helm when the container ship crashed into a Bay Bridge tower Nov. 7 — told members of Congress on Monday.

Capt. Thomas Hand — a bar pilot with 45 years of professional experience, 17 of which came as a bar pilot in San Francisco — testified during the three-hour congressional field hearing that, hypothetically speaking, radar trouble similar to what is said to have stricken the Cosco Busan would have kept him in port.

Speaking to The Examiner after the hearing, Capt. John Cota, the bar pilot involved in the accident, refused to comment on his colleague’s testimony, only calling Hand his “partner.”

“As this eventually unfolds, people will be surprised at the things that took place,” said Cota, a 26-year veteran of the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association.

Cota, with his attorney, John Meadows, would not comment further on the incident due to the ongoing investigations into the disaster.

In interviews with the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board, Cota has alleged that trouble with the radars before the ship embarked and as it headed toward the Bay Bridge led operators to switch over to an electronic charting system to help guide the vessel through heavy fog.

Questions have been raised about the symbology on the electronic system and whether operators in fact steered toward the bridge’s base when they thought they were bound for safe passage between the two towers.

During the hearing Monday by the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Torrance, asked Hand if he would have sailed with similar radar troubles.

While Hand did say that it could depend on where the ship is in its route and that he was “obviously” not on the Cosco Busan at the time, he “would not go.”

The 900-foot ship loaded with cargo and an estimated 1 million gallons of bunker fuel ultimately clipped the base of the Bay Bridge, ripping a gash in the portside and spilling 58,000 gallons of oil into the Bay.

Held at the Presidio, the hearing involved nearly a dozen lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who demanded answers from a number of players regarding the recent disaster.

Pelosi said the “missing piece” was the reason why local officials were kept in the dark by the Coast Guard, state Department of Fish and Game and the private cleanup companies and not included in the initial response.

“What is just mystifying is they knew something, that they suspected something ... that they did not share with others,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi said she would push for an investigation done by the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Homeland Security into the incident.

Mayor Gavin Newsom said notification about the extent of the accident the day it occurred was frustratingly “lax,” noting that The City was not informed that 58,000 gallons of fuel had spilled into the Bay for more than 12 hours after the collision.

dsmith@examiner.com 

Comments from Examiner Readers

9:24 PM MST on Thu., May. 8, 2008 re: "Fare dodging and Muni inspectors"

Examiner Reader said:
The case of Muni fare inspectors is a perfect example of local leaders� inability to think in a businesslike manner.
"in a businesslike manner" is a bit redundant here...

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5:56 PM MST on Thu., May. 8, 2008 re: "Wildlife rescue center needed"

Carl said:
Re: Wildlife in Agony at Fisherman's Wharf Pier-- "The sea lion�s neck was sliced, and he was in agony through the night because we do not have a wildlife rescue center here within San Francisco city limits." What about Animal Care and Control? San Francisco has ER VETS all around us not to mention all the animal hospitals all up and down the penninsula. San Francisco has way to much buracracy and not enough compasion. Has San Francisco got an answer to care for dying animlas now? Call 311? OMG... my gut hurts!What a sorry city. To bad the sea lion was not in agony elsewhere where he would have gotten the right care. He will know better next time.

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7:14 AM MST on Wed., May. 7, 2008 re: "Smoking and tobacco-sales bans"

Examiner Reader said:
Thank god San Francisco still has complete wacko's like George Davis.

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1:47 PM MST on Tue., May. 6, 2008 re: "Fare dodging and Muni inspectors"

Examiner Reader said:
Friday night at Civic Center, I boarded the second car of an outbound J-CHURCH with other passengers seated. At Van Ness the driver announced there was "no service" on the second car and we needed to move to the first car. Most passengers looked at each other like what is the driver talking about and onward the train went. After emerging from the tunnel, the driver stopped the train, came back and announced there is "no service" on this train and we must all move to the first car. Can someone tell me when the second car is lit, the doors are working, passengers have been on the train since embaracdeo, what "no service" status is?

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12:28 PM MST on Tue., May. 6, 2008 re: "Fare dodging and Muni inspectors"

Examiner Reader said:
One must remember that the presence of law enforcement (police, Muni inspectors) affects behavior too. I'm sure that if there were no fare inspectors, there would be much more than $36,000 of fare evasion. While it's anyone's guess how many people paid their fare to avoid a ticket from the inspectors, I'm sure their work amounts to more than the $36,000 quoted.

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12:19 PM MST on Tue., May. 6, 2008 re: "Vouchers aren�t education solution"

Examiner Reader said:
Aother "let's blame the teachers" editorial. Blame the parents who don't care, who don't parent, or are absent. Blame the school boards, who are providing the executive direction. My wife is a public High school teacher(15 years). She received a $375 increase from 2006 to 2007. Most teachers pay is nearly frozen from the periods between 10-15 years of service. In 2008 she gets a ONE TIME 3% bonus, but no permanent increase. There is no heat in her class room during the winter. Without fail, every class has 35 students for one teacher. Yet at her school they are building a brand new football stadium, new baseball field and press box. The rule is - where things are wrong, follow the money. If the teachers are screwing up public education, where's their cut of the money?

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4:54 PM MST on Mon., May. 5, 2008 re: "Fare dodging and Muni inspectors"

Examiner Reader said:
on Sunday I was getting on the F train at 5 and Market. The driver ordered passengers to go in the back door. He could not have cared less if people paid or not. I got on for free. Until the idiots at MUNI do something about discipline amongst the drivers nothing is gonna get better. Get rid of the UNION once and for all or privatize. Get some compentent management instead of Newsom political hacks

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1:45 PM MST on Mon., May. 5, 2008 re: "Fare dodging and Muni inspectors"

Examiner Reader said:
MUNI'S service remains a comedy act, unfortunately, its neither efficient or funny.

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1:37 PM MST on Mon., May. 5, 2008 re: "Silence is betrayal � impeach Bush"

Examiner Reader said:
As a Democrat, I'm sorry to say this. Unlike the Republicans, it appears the Democrats are loathe to alienate *ANY* possible voters in the upcoming election, so impeachment of Bush/Cheney remains unlikely. Considering everthing that has happened in the last 4 years, the Democrats should be walking away with the presidency and we are not. In Barack and Hillary we have candidates which are while capable, arguably unelectable, and the default vote for many Americans, I'm afraid, is likely McCain.

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2:24 AM MST on Fri., May. 2, 2008 re: "Mental illness and murder"

Examiner Reader said:
Yes on 98, No on 99.

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8:17 AM MST on Tue., Apr. 29, 2008 re: "A historic neighborhood theater"

examiner reader said:
ef sullivan hit the nail on the head. voters, pay attention!

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9:32 PM MST on Fri., Apr. 25, 2008 re: "Working women are just catching up"

Examiner Reader said:
Women don't "catch up" on 4/22 unless men have not worked since the beginning of the year. Actually, that may be a good idea. Men don't work for a few months every year to allow women to catch up.

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12:42 PM MST on Fri., Apr. 25, 2008 re: "Working women are just catching up"

Examiner Reader said:
If women earn approximately 77 cents for every dollar a man is paid and "catch up day" is on 4/22, then it takes about 15.7 months for women to earn what men earn in 12 months, not 14 months as stated in the the letter to today's Examiner. The letter does not state that women do the same work as men.

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6:11 AM MST on Wed., Apr. 23, 2008 re: "Garcia wrong on Daly City insults"

Examiner Reader said:
Garcia is gone. Good riddance. But he was right about that neighborhood, though.

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2:55 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 21, 2008 re: "Airline mergers pose grim future"

Examiner Reader said:
Joshua Kyle thinks his right to protest was taken away? What irony. An organized attempt to disrupt another organized activity was thwarted by an organized attempt to disrupt the organized disruption.

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11:31 AM MST on Thu., Apr. 17, 2008 re: "Landlords leaving the business"

Examiner Reader said:
Ok, let's be realistic, I pay $2776.00 for my 2 bdrm., Noe Valley flat with an additional 120.00 for an uncovered, parking space. My move-in check to my landlord was $5500.00. The large studio next door is currently on rental market for 1650.00. My closest friend pays $1460.00 for an average studio 2 blocks away. Unless you live in NYC or SF, these can be argued as outrageous sums for rent. Who are these tenants who only want cheap rents?

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6:06 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 14, 2008 re: "City torches run for protesters"

Examiner Reader said:
FYI Examiner orange and yellow are horrible colors for a website.

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7:26 AM MST on Mon., Apr. 14, 2008 re: "City torches run for protesters"

Examiner Reader said:
I love the irony. The "civil disobediants" are quite upset that their best laid plans went awry at the hands of (Newsom), when what they wanted to do was upset what they thought were(Newsoms') best laid plans. When all else fails, they whine about loss of rights. No rights were violated - you're just embarrassed.

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7:39 PM MST on Sun., Apr. 13, 2008 re: "Torch sparked more than protests"

Examiner Reader said:
Imagine that, as Dr. Martin Luther King marched on Selma in non-violent civil dis-obedience, the authorities were able to move Selma two miles away and, hours later, put Selma onto a plane bound for Argentina. The Civil Rights Act might never have been passed. The News-ticker that day would have read: Selma march route changed: Mayor sites public safety concerns. On April 9th 2008 at the Olympic Torch relay in San Francesco, Selma was moved for me and my wife, who is a Tibetan-American and that threatens all our civil rights. The right to protest includes the right to protest in reasonable proximity to the target of the protest, normally within sight and sound. So, for example if I wanted to protest city hall, a permit to protest two miles away would violate my rights. By moving the route of the Olympic torch and the closing ceremonies miles from the publicly published route, the right to protest was denied to my wife and I and all those others who attended.

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7:15 PM MST on Fri., Apr. 11, 2008 re: "Torch sparked more than protests"

Examiner Reader said:
Remember: It was British who killed thousands tibetans back in 1904. Independent of Tibet? If China blocks the pathway of Tibet, that equal to a death to Tibet. Just take a look at the map, Dalai lama knows well about this.

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4:28 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 9, 2008 re: "Let the Olympic torch proceed in S.F."

The Olypic Torch Relay said:
I feel that since the running of the torch was started by Hitler in an attempt to glorify the Third Reich, the relay of the torch should be abolished. I'm always surprised every time that tradition takes place. I have nothing against the torch, or the Olympics. But I think the tradition of the flame being moved should be stopped. I don't quite understand why the world has let Hitler's legacy continue. It started as propaganda, and it seems like the whole world is too lost in tradition to let it go.

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2:24 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 9, 2008 re: "Theater loss due to public policy"

Examiner Reader said:
Resubmit it and be gerneral on all illegals and not single out a ethnic group might help. "Hmmm wonder why my comment about illegals was removed. Truth hurt SF?"

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1:32 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 9, 2008 re: "Giants should bring back Bonds"

Conscientious Observer said:
Why bring back BONDS ? The Giants should donate the money they would use to a local charity or use it to buy asphalt to fill some of the thousands of potholes around town ... the biggest being the hole SF City Hall & Gavin Newsom et al are in.

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2:24 PM MST on Tue., Apr. 8, 2008 re: "Giants should bring back Bonds"

Examiner Reader said:
People who own rentals should be able to charge whatever they want! It is thier business. Renters create their own means to generate money or they don't, but they cannot expect to to ride roughshod over owners and government has no right to curb owners investments!

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3:38 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 7, 2008 re: "Luring businesses to S.F. doomed"

Examiner Reader said:
I hope the City gets what they want. Ten Million illegal aliens all arriving at SF General, all at once, to line up for their free health care. Sweet.

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3:34 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 7, 2008 re: "Use lights to protect pedestrians"

Richmond Resident said:
I cross 30th and Lincoln every week. Most of the drivers are going at least 50MPH as they cruise through talking on their cell phones. PLEASE put a light there - NOW!!!

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2:47 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 7, 2008 re: "Let the Olympic torch proceed in S.F."

Conscientious Observer said:
Note: 90% of the TIBET "protestors" who are California K-12 educated can NOT find TIBET on the world map. The 10% who can, probably should spend their time more wisely and protest the human rights violations in Oakland, Pinole (Highway 80), Richmond, San Francisco and East Palo Alto with a higher daily body count then Basra, Iraq or Tibet.

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7:56 PM MST on Sat., Apr. 5, 2008 re: "Use lights to protect pedestrians"

Examiner Reader said:
Re "Use lights to protect pedestrians": I agree. Lights were installed on Fulton at 18th and 22nd Aves, and they have made a huge difference. Fulton traffic (crazy driving) seems barely impeded -- it is still dangerous to try to cross Fulton in the short stretch between the two light-controlled intersections -- but it's great to be able to walk to one of the lights, push the button, wait a bit, and cross safely. Plus, there seems to be far, far fewer car crashes in this whole stretch, now that the lights have created brief cross-traffic lulls for drivers who are trying to turn onto Fulton.

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2:40 PM MST on Fri., Apr. 4, 2008 re: "Multitasking for litter cleanup needed"

Examiner Reader said:
That was what he was saying, her peas (books) were not in the pod (book bag) in 1967 - her purse was maybe thrown, but reviewing my yearbooks and pictures of the 1950s and 1960s don't show book bags, but students carrying books and binders. After all, he did say it was petty; it was his observation. I googled into this phenomena and discovered that back packs; abet book bags were presenting a problem in the 1980's and currently creating medical conditions in students. Military and civilians bags were more common in the 1780 though.... This is not an Obama stunt; he is probably a die hard Repubican in an enriched Democtatic community that invites illegal immigrants to to move to SF and partake on their freebie entitlements! The mayor has an "overworked noggin" about that phenomena.

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11:51 AM MST on Fri., Apr. 4, 2008 re: "Multitasking for litter cleanup needed"

Jack Kirkpatrick said:
BOOK BAG? Hillary says that see "threw her book bag" across the room after Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination in 1967. WAIT: book bags were rare if ever commonly used on college campuses. Book bags didn't become popular until the 1980s...! Is she embellishing the truth again? Maybe she did hurl her books across the room, but not a book bag; maybe a pillow? Petty, yes, but again it doesn't have the ring of truth. I was a college student while she was a junior. Lets look at some of the historical pictures of Wellesley College students during the period. What do other students of the time think?

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1:40 PM MST on Thu., Apr. 3, 2008 re: "Find high-tech workers in U.S."

Examiner Reader said:
Ed Young - you got it right! OK in San Francisco: Free Health Care and Sanctuary for persons who have broken the law by entering our country illegally. Deny rights to property owners who are citizens, prevent freedom of speech to those who we disagree with (JROTC, Boy Scouts). Deny economic development to minorities by preventing investment (Home Depot). Deny adequate Police Protection by assigning them to desks instead of assigning them to the streets, yet tie the hands of Police by preventing them from assisting other criminal justice agencies in law-enforcement actions. Bottom line: anything is OK in San Francisco, UNLESS it is not Progressively Correct.

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7:28 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 2, 2008 re: "Supes nix opportunity for Bayview"

Examiner Reader said:
Actually its another opportunity for the Bayview Community "shot down" by the progressives on the Board of Supervisors. They rather see liquor stores in the Bayview District instead of Home Depot.

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3:51 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 2, 2008 re: "Supes nix opportunity for Bayview"

Examiner Reader said:
To the writer who wrote: "Another opportunity for the black community shot down by Tom Ammiano. . . ." In all fairness it was his political soul mates on the School Board who shot down JROTC at the expense of all San Francisco Children. I agree with you, JROTC would be an excellent alternative for at-risk-youth. While do not share the same political view as Mssrs. Ammiano and Daly et al, I believe they have the right to express their viewpoints just so long as their actions as legislators do not harm the citizenry.

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2:11 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 2, 2008 re: "SFPD uses taxpayers as ATMs"

Examiner Reader said:
Mr Singh is incorrect. Mr Obama threw Rev Wright under the bus for telling the nasty truth that FOX news and its "conservative, white" auditence doesn't have the stomach to hear. America's early economic success was built literally on the backs of slaves. Slaves were denied repirations wen slavery ended (actually it was replaced by endentured servitude in the form of share-cropping). Blacks were systematically discriminated against in voting, lending, jobs, schools; they were murdered if they spoke out - and this is all in my lifetime. I wouold vote for Rev Wright over Mr Obama. At least he speaks the truth.

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2:02 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 2, 2008 re: "Supes nix opportunity for Bayview"

Examiner Reader said:
Another opportunity for the black community shot down by Tom Ammiano. Tom supports free health care for illegal aliens, opposes jobs for blacks. Tom ran the scouts out of city properties, leaving no alternative opportunities for young kids to experience the outdoors. I suppose THOUSANDS gays were denied jobs by the scounts. I don't necessarily agree with scouting's position on Gay leaders, but to deny countless children the opportunity for an alternative to killing shows the blatent disregard for children, particularly minority children, rampant in the gay community. A similar situation exists with ROTC. Deny mostly minority children the opportunity to even hear another viewpoint. Throw the kids under the bus to placate the gays.

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1:54 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 2, 2008 re: "Supes nix opportunity for Bayview"

Examiner Reader said:
EF Sullivan for Mayor! 100% pragmatic!

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12:57 PM MST on Tue., Apr. 1, 2008 re: "Let the Olympic torch proceed in S.F."

ms jackson said:
Gary Eplet would not know "honorable" if he owned a dictionary; he seems to think it a source of pride that the world ignored Adolph Hilter's (of all idiotic people to conjure!) atrocities during the Berlin Olympics at the height of the era of 20th Century ignorance. He apparently believes that no lesson should be learned from despots like Hilter who was able to ascend to power due to censorship of the kind poor little Mr. Eplet should apply in S.F.(of all places, the mans a maroon!).

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12:49 PM MST on Tue., Apr. 1, 2008 re: "Passenger to Muni: Stick to basics"

ms jackson said:
Jail for littering and a free pass for exhaling your selected poison into the air that I am forced to breathe; the neo-psuedo-intellectual pretensions of yammerers like Mr. Thierrault are nothing more than exhalations of noxious gas. Much like those of the cigarette smokers (aka semi-morons) he pretends not to be...

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10:42 AM MST on Tue., Apr. 1, 2008 re: "Passenger to Muni: Stick to basics"

Examiner Reader said:
Here, here to the concept of keeping MUNI to bare-bones basics. Just keep the system running and running on time, as much as possible, and let the bells and whistles fall by the wayside.

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11:22 AM MST on Mon., Mar. 31, 2008 re: "SFPD uses taxpayers as ATMs"

Conscientious Observer said:
RE: Nurses strike in bay area hospitals California Pacific Medical Center spokesman Kevin McCormack called the strike "pointless." "Under our contract, at the end of the next four years the average full-time nurse at C.P.M.C. will be earning $140,000 a year. They also get free health care for themselves and their family, and increased retirement benefits," said McCormack. Geez, Sutter Health nurses looks like you are under paid and over worked. Too bad ... you are part of the health care crisis and the uncontrollable health care costs all of us with ot without insurance have to apy for. No wonder it costs so much to go into a bay area hospital. You are not the only high paid, over rated part of the puzzle but a large portion. I can barely afford to pay the co-pays, deductibles and parts that insurance companies don't pay for. The scary part is that Muni bus drivers earn more than nurses. Muni bus drivers on disability have been caught fishing, kayaking, snow boarding, LO

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11:06 AM MST on Mon., Mar. 31, 2008 re: "SFPD uses taxpayers as ATMs"

Examiner Reader said:
Unfit To Serve (letters) Singh left out another villain. Obama looked at the camera and said he didn't know about Rev. Wright's racist rhetoric. Then in the speech he was impelled to give, he said he'd known about what Wright had been saying. Sounds like a lie to me. But then I'm not a Democrat. Just like you can tell a lot about Obama (the most leftist member of the Senate) by his chosen pastor that he believes in so fervently he inflicts the poison on his children, so can you tell a lot about his supporters who are the most vituperative and venal crowd on the scene.

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9:39 PM MST on Sun., Mar. 30, 2008 re: "Another S.F. institution under fire"

Richmond District Resident said:
Jeff Adachi and the Justice Policy Institute would have us believe there are no criminals; only victims. Jeff is the poster child for revolving-door justice. I am sorry that life is unfair to black youth who are unlucky enough to be born black in America, who were brought up in the hell-hole of public housing that the City of San Francisco offers its black underclass. However, Government needs protect its citizens, and that includes the need to lock up violent criminals.

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11:56 PM MST on Fri., Mar. 28, 2008 re: "Proposed S.F. paving fines unfair"

Jack Kirkpatrick said:
Take the time to look at (in SFGate) the base salary review and look at the overtime costs attached to base salary that give some employees becomes over $100,000+. A juvenile hall counselor making a base salary of $57,057 is collecting overtime pay at $45,800. With the number of other in the same classification, you could hire another counselor and give the unemployed or underemployed a job. This problem cuts across departments. Even and assistant counselor make 45,000! However, this costly overtime cannot be chalked up to background checks and other excuses in many departments. I suggest no overtime, or more employees if you are going to pay this much money. By the way, there are plenty of college grads that that have the qualifications for these counseling jobs.... Many jobs don't require college graduates... It is time to raise hell with SF. Oh, you can see the same problem by comparing Vellajo, San Jose and Oakland...! San Francisco lawmakers are doped up on overtime.

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10:32 AM MST on Thu., Mar. 27, 2008 re: "The City's bottomless money pit"

Conscientious Observer said:
Re: Ken Garcia�s article on the Pacific Rod and Gun Club at Lake Merced (�Lake Merced organization under the gun,� March 25) and Felicia Zeiger's comments. If you don't like to hear the gunfire why don't you and the neighbors move to Oakland. I hear the shooting range there is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and unfortunately has a high body count. Get the lead out Felicia !!!

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9:06 AM MST on Thu., Mar. 27, 2008 re: "The City's bottomless money pit"

On the Q.T. said:
Knight's Assistant is right about the cops whining. Next they will want reimbursements for haircuts. What are the the first words from spoiled children, "I want more!"

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6:40 PM MST on Wed., Mar. 26, 2008 re: "Another S.F. institution under fire"

A Knight's Assistant said:
So the police need paid time to get dress and undressed for work. Gee, I was taught to dress to go to work on my own time and after work to get naked, take a shower and sometimes have some "after work delight." I might even go home.... What a bunch of pansy asses -- they get safety retirement up to 90% of their highest salary after 30 yrs. Now the public has to pay to dress and undress safety officers. Soon, they will want a Medieval squire to dress them. Haven't our safety employees and unions have no shame?

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5:42 PM MST on Wed., Mar. 26, 2008 re: "Another S.F. institution under fire"

On the Q.T. said:
Sup. Sandoval knows where to apply the law. Utilize the police against normally, law abiding citizens, who are merely trying to make use of what little they ha