10:00 PM PST on Thursday, February 28, 2008

Our calendar is jammed with holidays for presidents, civil rights leaders, wayward explorers and a rodent. But living local electeds?

Sure, we pay their salaries, give them staffs, cars, travel, lodging, meals and a vote. So what? We're ingrates! We don't realize how hard they work, how much they've done for us.

It's time to load up our calendars with Local Elected Appreciation Days. And we'd better start with the most unappreciated elected of them all: RivCo Supe John Tavaglione.

I hadn't realized what a bunch of sniveling ingrates we were until this week. That's when those whiners from the Jurupa parks district asked the Board O' Supes to greenlight the condemnation/purchase of 4 acres that parks peeps coveted well before it was illegally sold to Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Storage Units, and his pals.

But when the parks folks came a-crawlin' to the supes for help, Tavaglione, who represents the area (and who has done some fine things in that district), just couldn't hold it in any longer. There comes a time when the unappreciated local elected must unburden himself.

So it was that, as parks district GM Dan Rodriguez stood at the podium in the supes' Hallowed Hearing Haven, The Unappreciated One spoke: "My office, with the support of my colleagues over 14 years now, has given the district $22 million to deal with parks."

That figure, Tavaglione took particular pains to point out, includes money for Fourth of July fireworks. Year after year. Fireworks money.

"And now," The Unappreciated One told Rodriguez, "you're telling me you don't need this money because you have the money to go out and buy that piece of land. . . . I'm very glad to hear that. I'm glad to hear that you have the money and won't be coming to my office any further to request additional funding."

And with that -- as seen on the official video -- The Unappreciated One leaned away from his mike, swiveled in his mighty chair and sipped from a glass of water as if to cleanse his palate of the sour aftertaste of the common ingrate. It was as if he'd told Dan Rodriguez, "Now, go to your room and think about what I just said."

After watching Tavaglione smolder, I half-believed he'd selflessly withdrawn $22 million from his personal fortune and doled it out, like an allowance, to the thankless wretches who run the parks district.

But I suspect we're actually talking about $22 million in taxpayers' money that, over the years, Tavaglione has lavished on the very people (sometimes known as voters) who keep him in office. In short, he was doing his job. And when it comes to setting aside parkland in the Fiefdom of Subdivisions & Warehouses, some might argue that a supervisor can't possibly do enough.

But that doesn't change the fact that a supervisor can feel unappreciated. And a supe who threatens to cut off an allowance and dredges up how much he has doled out for fireworks, is a supe who is not-so-quietly seething, "After all I've done for you!"

So, yes, a holiday is in order. Tavaglione Appreciation Day (sooner the better) would acknowledge his grudging vote to allow the condemnation of illegally sold property; thank him, with profusion, for the $22 million; and invite him to light an honorary sparkler on Independence Day. (Assuming he springs for the sparkler.)

Reach Dan Bernstein at 951-368-9439 or dbernstein@PE.com