The term "finest" is not meant to be univerally applied, here.

Apparently, even the clueless can be the beneficiaries of a boot in the ass every once in a while. Amid sweeping proposed budget cuts made by Mayor Jerry Sanders,
the San Diego City Council voted themselves a 24% raise (to $93,485) earlier this week.

They also voted to eliminate an annual $9,600 auto allowance whose legality had been called into question. So they avoided the nasty little legality/ethicalness question by simply rolling up that $9,600 as part of their raise. Problem solved. Nice work, gang. (It was suggested during the council meeting that the auto allowance be added to the base salary plus a 3% raise. Councilman Ben Hueso thought that was pretty good but had an even better idea: How about the base plus the auto allowance and a 10% raise? Rock on, Ben!)

And though the 5-3 vote was veto-proof it may not have been riot-proof as yesterday 2 of the "for" votes (including Hueso) reacting to getting pummeled by emails and talk radio, consulted their inner-political survival instinct and withdrew their support for the raise. Story here.

The more we live and learn, the more we are convinced that the greatest amount and degree of incompetence, ineptitude and corruptness in any level of government, exists at the city/municipal level.