Pest Control E.O. Bill Douglas accused by prosecutor of targeting CSAC office
By Zach Arnold | July 30, 2012
Originally posted on July 25th. Updated on July 30th with the court filing document. Scroll down to the bottom of the article for the court complaint.
When Armando Garcia departed from the California State Athletic Commission, he did so under terms in which the Department of Consumer Affairs had to pay out $75,000 to settle a sexual harassment case. Bill Douglas & Dave Thornton ended up taking over as Executive Officers. After DCA personally & professionally destroyed Chief Athletic Inspector Dean Lohuis, Douglas got a lateral transfer from CSAC to the Pest Control board. Frank Munoz, who was also at CSAC’s office, got a transfer to the Pest Control Board as well. When Dave Thornton took over CSAC, he had retired from the Medical Board. Thornton left the Medical Board under incredible circumstances, as highlighted by this Sacramento Bee article.
You read that correctly — Armando Garcia, who was jettisoned out of CSAC after the $75,000 sexual harassment settlement, was replaced by someone (Dave Thornton) who DCA had to settle a sexual & racial harassment case to the tune of… $750,000.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: CSAC, Media, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Governor Jerry Brown’s office very interested in CSAC affairs
By Zach Arnold | July 27, 2012
Today, the Department of Consumer Affairs posted an agenda item on standard 10-days notice for an August 8th hearing to determine the next Executive Officer of the California State Athletic Commission. Right now, the safe money is that Kathi Burns, who DCA appointed from their staff ranks, will continue as Interim Executive Officer until a new name is found.
As we previously reported, the happenings at CSAC have curiously attracted the attention of the political heavyweights in Sacramento, both in the state Senate’s Rules Committee (Darrell Steinberg) & Governor Jerry Brown’s office. We reported that Governor Brown’s office allegedly relayed a message from the state Senate to the commissioners on the CSAC board that if they did not terminate George Dodd as Executive Officer of CSAC at the infamous June 26th meeting in El Monte, California that their terms at CSAC would end up expiring in retaliation. When George Dodd kept his job after the June 26th meeting, an exodus at CSAC happened. Linda Forster resigned, Brian Edwards resigned (before the El Monte hearing), and Mike Munoz saw his appointment from the Governor expire after a year.
Now comes word, on background from multiple sources, that Governor Jerry Brown’s senior adviser on policy & appointments is getting involved in CSAC affairs.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Peter Dabbene (guest columnist): Lost in translation (why worldwide growth could backfire on the UFC domestically)
By Zach Arnold | July 26, 2012
Peter Dabbene is a writer of short stories, novels, graphic novels, and plays; he is a reviewer and a columnist, and yes, a poet (but a tough one). His website is www.peterdabbene.com.
I’ve been a dedicated UFC fan for a long time—my wife and I watched UFC 44 in a hospital room a few hours after she gave birth. In the years following, I’ve seen the UFC exhaust the supply of adjectives for their events—no more “UFC 46: Supernatural” or “UFC 112: Invincible“, or my choice for most misleading title, “UFC 73: Stacked”, which, disappointingly, did not feature the fighting debuts of Arianny and the other octagon girls. I’ve witnessed the UFC grow worldwide and sign more fighters than ever, sponsoring more events per month than the local PTA. But even as the UFC expands, there’s a factor that could put the brakes on that growth, at least in the U.S.A.—the language barrier.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Tax records reveal DCA corruption & who cashed in big at the California State Athletic Commission
By Zach Arnold | July 23, 2012
DOWNLOADABLE/PRINTABLE PDF VERSION (27 pages)
As we laid out in our June 16th budget analysis of exploding inspector & in-state travel costs at the California State Athletic Commission, we didn’t have any names initially to connect to the murky data on the spreadsheets. All we knew is that somebody was getting paid a lot of money on the taxpayer’s dime to work shows.
Then, we discovered that a significant reason for costs being so high was due to the fact that those who benefited the most were also full-time state employees during the day. The reason this was important to note is because full-time state employees get paid time-and-a-half when working as inspectors at CSAC. The time-and-a-half is based on what salary is higher: your day job salary x 1.5 or regular CSAC salary (around $30/hour) x 1.5. If your day job pays $40 an hour, suddenly working as a CSAC inspector meant you were getting paid $60/hour for salary. On top of that, the state employees got all sorts of travel benefits including airplane tickets, Cadillac Escalade car rentals, meal money, and other goodies. The end result is that you had figures such as $729,000 and $668,000 a year for inspector salary costs, while in-state travel was well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC 149 (Calgary): Hector Lombard, Court McGee discover Canadian judging to be brutal
By Zach Arnold | July 21, 2012
Event: UFC 149 (7/21 Calgary, Alberta, Canada – Saddledome)
TV: FX/PPV
Dark matches/FX
- Lightweights: Anton Kuivanen (-160, 8 to 5 favorite) defeated Mitch Clarke after 3R by split decision.
- Featherweights: Antonio Carvalho (+180) defeated Daniel Pineda in R1 in 1’11 by KO.
- Featherweights: Bryan Caraway (-200, 2 to 1 favorite) defeated Mitch Gagnon in R3 in 1’39 by submission (choke sleeper hold).
- Light Heavyweights: Ryan Jimmo (-160, 8 to 5 favorite) defeated Anthony Perosh in R1 in 7 seconds by KO.
- Bantamweights: Francisco Rivera (-130) defeated Roland Delorme in R1 in 4’19 by KO.
- Middleweights: Nick Ring (-120) defeated Court McGee (-110) after 3R by a controversial unanimous decision.
Main card
- Welterweights: Chris Clements (+140) defeated Matt Riddle in R3 in 2’02 by submission (arm-triangle).
- Welterweights: James Head (+300) defeated Brian Ebersole after 3R by split decision.
- Heavyweights: Cheick Kongo defeated Shawn Jordan after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Middleweights: Tim Boetsch (+300) defeated Hector Lombard after 3R by split decision.
- Bantamweights: Renan Barao (-200, 2 to 1 favorite) defeated Urijah Faber after 5R by unanimous decision.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 123 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Why it’s possible UFC will get involved in CSAC chaos
By Zach Arnold | July 18, 2012
When I read the full-throated spin from the Department of Consumer Affairs about the chaos at the California State Athletic Commission, I wanted to vomit. It’s sickening to see DCA pushing spin that is so laughable and so egregious that it can be easily challenged by anyone with a brain. However, DCA has not been challenged very often over the years in the press, especially by anyone the fight media. Sure, DCA had their meltdown a few years ago with The Los Angeles Times over a nursing board scandal and then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had to clean house. However, DCA in large part never gets challenged in the political press. They never get challenged by the sports media, either. After all, why would anyone in the press care about a bunch of bureaucrats that are largely faceless to the public?
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: CSAC, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Road map of CSAC chaos reveals fingerprints from California’s biggest politicians (Darrell Steinberg, Jerry Brown, Denise Brown)
By Zach Arnold | July 18, 2012
In our Monday night article discussing the impending departure of George Dodd as Executive Director of the California State Athletic Commission, we dropped a number of items containing various insider baseball-ish situations. There have been various political & sports writers in publications like The Sacramento Bee and The LA Times that have purposely taken a pass on the implosion at CSAC because they don’t see the news value in reporting on the story. No matter how much you connect the dots and no matter how much they get what is going on, the press in California has largely been disinterested.
However, our Monday night article contained several major political names in California politics. As the story progresses about the role of the Department of Consumer Affairs decimating CSAC, it’s going to become more difficult for the writers who are on the sidelines to intentionally ignore and not report on what is happening.
In order for any sort of political scandal to have legs, you need some of the following elements:
- Illegal/criminal activity
- Fraud of taxpayer cash
- Politicians backstabbing each other
- High-profile politicians with star power that have future political aspirations
- Political decisions being made against the best interests of the state’s residents
- Complete & total incompetence that puts the health & safety of individuals at risk
In the case of DCA’s decimation of CSAC, all of these angles are covered.
Let’s focus on the political star power involved in this on-going scandal.
- Darrell Steinberg (California state Senate)
- Governor Jerry Brown (his office in Sacramento)
- Denise Brown (head honcho at Department of Consumer Affairs, appointed in January 2012 by Jerry Brown) & adviser Spencer Walker
- Awet Kidane, Brian Skewis, & Reichel Everhart (DCA’s #2, DCA ‘assistant budget analyst’, and DCA’s political bureau fixer)
- Anita Scuri & Doreathea Johnson (two primary names at DCA’s legal department)
- Karen Chappelle (long-time California deputy Attorney General)
We are going to limit our focus on these individuals. Plenty of more individuals could be named here, but we’re going to focus on these political players right now because each person named here has a direct role on what has happened with the chaos at the state Athletic Commission.
It is important to note that many officials at the Department of Consumer Affairs have deep political ties to politicians in the state Assembly and Senate. Look at the track records of officials and their previous work experience. You will see what I am talking about.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
George Dodd resigns at CSAC; DCA goes for full purge at CSAC
By Zach Arnold | July 16, 2012
First, the internal memo:
Officials and Inspectors,
This is one of the harder emails that I have had to write since being the Executive Officer. But I wanted to inform you all that I notified Chairman and Vice Chairman that on July 31, 2012 will be my last day as the Executive Officer. I want to thank everyone here for your friendship and your knowledge of combative sports that you shared with me. I appreciate you dedication to keeping the fighters safe and all the extra work that everyone has put in.
I feel that the commission has come a long way since I was appointed as the Executive Officer but I know that it has a long way to go.
It is hard to give something up you really enjoy doing, but at this point in my career it is for the best for me and my family. As with any career there are high points and low points and when those low points start affecting the ones that you love its time to find something better.
I am not sure of who the commission will appoint as the interim executive officer, but until they appoint someone Kathi will be running the day to day operations starting on August 1, 2012. She is willing to listen and learn, so please give her all the knowledge that you have given me.
Although the commission is going through some difficult times, I truly believe in the future the commission will be productive and have many great years to come.
George Dodd
Executive Officer
California State Athletic Commission
Now, the official resignation letter:
July 16, 2012
California State Athletic Commission
John Frierson, Chairman
2005 Evergreen Street
Suite 2010
Sacramento, CA 95815
Department of Consumer Affairs
Denise Brown, Director
1645 N. Market Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95834
Dear Chairman Frierson,
This is my formal notification that I am resigning as the Executive Officer of the California State Athletic Commission. July 31, 2012 will be my last day of employment.
At this stay of my career I feel that its time to move onto new opportunities and challenges that are not available to me here. I appreciate the opportunities I have been given here, and wish the commission much success in the future.
Sincerely,
George Dodd
Cc: Eugene Hernandez, Vice Chairman
Van Lemon, Commissioners
Christopher Giza, Commissioners
Dean Grafilo, Commissioners
Kathi Burns, Assistant Executive Officer
Che Guevara, Chief Athletic Inspector
There is plenty of details behind what happened here on Monday. And now, for the rest of the story…
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: CSAC, Media, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy: UFC can learn some things from boxing
By Zach Arnold | July 16, 2012
From the crew at Fight Hub TV:
Looking at UFC deal with Fox, do you study what they do and incorporate it into your current business?
“I think UFC has certainly been able to connect with the fans in a very short period of time and sort of like captured that younger audience, be it through their… they were one of the first to embrace social media and so they’ve done a good job there. But it’s interesting if you actually look at the PPV numbers, the boxing PPV numbers are still substantially and when I say substantially it’s not, you know, one or two times, I mean multiples and multiples the size of a UFC PPV. So, yes, we can learn certain things from UFC but I think UFC can learn certain things from boxing. I do believe that the way to market an event in boxing, particularly a Mayweather fight at that level, is much better than what UFC does because we embrace our sponsors in a way where we not only… where we really ask them to activate and bring their platforms into play to promote the fighters and the fights and I think the results speak for themselves. I mean, Floyd Mayweather’s average PPV numbers are 1.5 million homes and I think UFC’s biggest PPV ever, they say it was a million but, you know, whether it’s true or not is a different story. But just to show you, you know, everybody can learn from everyone and that’s the beauty of that and I respect and admire UFC and Dana White and I have a good relationship with (them) as a matter of fact.”
Is the reason their PPV numbers are lower is because they are giving away big fights for free on Fox?
“No, I don’t think so, you know, one really has nothing to do with the other and I mean the PPV numbers were like before that, before they were when they were on Spike they were the same so it’s not like suddenly the PPV numbers dropped on the UFC. I mean, that’s just not… You know, they have a certain fan base which is willing to spend money and maybe it’s too much. I personally think a PPV a month is too much. It’s maybe OK when you are in the booming economy and everybody is flush with cash but when you are in a recessionary environment and people are looking for jobs, you have record unemployment and people losing their homes and so on and then a sports property whether it’s UFC or anyone else is doing every month a PPV, I think that’s probably you know a bit too much and so… but I think the fact that UFC is on Fox is terrific, it’s terrific for their sport, terrific for the UFC fans, and as I said you know I am working every day on getting boxing back on free over-the-air network television.”
MMA Fighting: Showtime Sports boss denies existence of list of Strikeforce fighters blocked from UFC
Topics: Boxing, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Is it fair to label MMA ‘a drug sport’ – yes/no?
By Zach Arnold | July 16, 2012
Since we last touched on the topic on June 1st when we talked about the Testosterone Hall of Fame, we’ve had Rich Franklin go wishy-washy in public about consideration of TRT usage. Larry Pepe also broke news last Friday that Forrest Griffin is just the latest UFC name to get a hall pass for testosterone usage, thanks to Keith Kizer and the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Even if you consider TRT to be an acceptable practice for MMA fighters, you have to admit that fighters wouldn’t be inquiring about TRT if it didn’t work in enhancing their performance & increased strength. Keith Kizer can tell you that approving hall passes for testosterone usage should not constitute the scarlet letter treatment, but it’s hard to to make an argument to the public that so many healthy-looking 20, 30, and 40 year olds in the sport need testosterone in order to function as human beings.
Jonathan Snowden: Forrest Griffin joins TRT club and that’s okay
Boxing Insider: Crash course on testosterone, hypogonadism, and doping
Today, UFC issued a press release claiming that they will be developing their own PED policy using the same law firm as the NFL. Of course, the NFL & NFLPA are bickering back & forth about blood/HGH testing right now. WWE’s drug testing policy was backed by Dr. David Black, who was also involved in the NFL’s drug testing policy. Suffice to say, I don’t think anyone would put WWE’s policy on a pedestal. However, given that they even think hall passes for testosterone are bad, they’re a step up from various state athletic commissions.
And then there’s BJ Penn, who has decided that if he and Rory MacDonald are going to volunteer for drug testing from the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association that VADA must delay releasing drug testing results until the fighters get paid. You don’t say. The point of VADA testing is to prevent a fighter, who is doping, from actually getting in the cage while on a performance enhancer. Of course, this also means that when a fighter tests positive (Lamont Peterson for micro-dosing of testosterone pellets, Andre Berto for nandrolone) it costs the state athletic commissions & promoters money for canceling fights. Given Keith Kizer’s dislike of Dr. Margaret Goodman, don’t expect Nevada to warmly embrace VADA with 100% conviction given that all it takes is one fighter getting busted and you can lose 6 figures in AC revenue from the gate & TV/PPV taxes.
Here’s a Twitter stink bomb from Victor Conte:
Let’s be real. It seems that people were handing out info on how to get a TUE for TRT at the recent MMA summit for fighters in Vegas.
So, is it fair to label MMA as a drug sport right now and, if so, what sport is it comparable to as far as the pecking order of other drug sports?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Notes from 9 AM CSAC stakeholders call
By Zach Arnold | July 15, 2012
It’s a miracle that anyone showed up for the 9 AM stakeholders meeting this morning that was booked by the California State Athletic Commission. They gave promoters less than 72 hours notice. Craig Zimmerman, Roy Englebrecht, and Tom Brown (Goossen-Tutor) made the call. No notable pure MMA promoters participated. Kathi Burns (who introduced herself now as Assistant Executive Officer), George Dodd (Executive Director), and Che Guevara (CSAC top inspector) were on the call.
At the beginning of the call, Roy suggested that since only a couple of people showed up that maybe it shouldn’t continue. Kathi Burns called George Dodd up and George got on the line. He admitted that he thought the call started at 10 AM. Roy talked about how the calls used to happen at 1:30 PM. George asked if the stakeholder calls should be held on weekdays and the promoters agreed on Mondays or Tuesdays.
“Not a lot of people are here,” Roy exclaimed.
“That shouldn’t surprise you, Roy.”
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Horrible atmosphere at CSAC. strained promoter relations
By Zach Arnold | July 12, 2012
The big story behind the scenes at the UFC on Fuel 4 event in San Jose, California on Wednesday had less to do with what happened in the cage and more about what is going on with the California State Athletic Commission.
The UFC show, which drew 4,250 (paid/comps) for a $163,000 gate, was not what the Department of Consumer Affairs & CSAC wanted to see given their revenue shortfalls & exploding costs.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
DCA preparing CSAC loan to help cover debt, some of which DCA admits was caused by fraud
By Zach Arnold | July 9, 2012
DOWNLOADABLE & PRINTABLE PDF (10 pages)
Too late. DCA’s CSAC loan can’t put the genie back in the bottle.
When a private business is facing red ink, owners are faced with tough decisions. Do I raise prices on the products I’m selling? Do I fire some of my employees? How much spending do I have to cut? The decisions can impact the lives of hard-working employees who have given everything they could to help keep a company alive and thriving. Loans are tough to get when there’s a credit freeze and they’re even tougher to acquire when the economy stinks and your credit rating isn’t so hot.
When a state government is broke, they also face painful choices. They can fire employees. They can raise taxes. They can cut spending. Somebody’s going to feel pain on some level. Even if a request is made for a Federal loan or grant to pay for a project like high-speed rail, someone has to pick up the tab. It’s the taxpayers, stupid.
So, leave it to the Department of Consumer Affairs to come up with a scenario for one of their agencies (the California State Athletic Commission) when it’s broke. How about a taxpayer-financed, interest-free, collateral-free transfer of funds from the state of California’s General Fund to DCA? How about such a loan being processed through different DCA bureaus so that it’s harder for the general public to keep track of where the money is coming from? Welcome to the financial mess that CSAC has found itself in for July of 2012.
As a private citizen, you go try getting a loan from a bank with the kind of credit rating that the state of California has… and not only that, try to get an interest-free loan where you don’t have to put up any collateral whatsoever. Good luck on that proposition.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |