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| Laython Landis is resisting calls for his resignation. |
ORO LOMA SANITARY DISTRICT | Oro Loma Sanitary District board member Laython Landis was censured by his colleagues for describing heavy rains in the area with an obscure racial slur.
During a radio interview with KGO’s Brian Copeland, the embattled official said he won’t use the n-word in public, but might use it in conversations with old friends.
Copeland asked Landis, 88, whether the 42-year veteran of the sanitary board and former San Leandro City Council member would use the phrase again, he said no. “You got that right,” said Landis. “One-on-one, I might privately, but no mas.” Landis, chuckled several times whenever Copeland repeated the offending statement.
“But it depends on who I’m talking about,” Landis said. Long-time friends are not offended by the phrase, he said. He also admitted to previously using the phrase in private, in particular, to describing heavy rain.
During a Dec. 10 sanitary board meeting, Landis referred to the heavy rains that hit the area last month as “raining cats and dogs and n-gger babies.” He then reignited the firestorm during a Dec. 24 interview with KPIX-TV in which he repated the phrase. The board, which now contains the first female board member in the district’s 100-year history, censured Landis for the comments.
“I’ve been reprimanded enough time to know better,” saidLandis, who claims he is the nephew of Major League Baseball Commissioner Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis,
In addition, Landis says he won’t resign in the wake of the controversy. “They’ve got to fire me,” he said.
A group of elected black officials and clergy say they will call for Landis’ ouster at the board’s next meeting Jan. 20 and beyond, if needed, said Marlon McWilliams, an elected member of the Alameda County Board of Education. Landis is up for re-election in 2016.
ebcitizen.com 
Glad Landis decided to resign/retire. He was losing it mentally.
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By MW:
Concerning the post of 12:49AM:
In the1980's and 1990's one of the judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had become so extremely senile, that therefore during his last years as a federal judge the Court's offices had basically become his nursing home and the US marshals assigned to the Court his babysitters.
While that particular character, and who was the most extreme case in recent decades of senility among Ninth Circuit judges, did eventually die, however the Ninth Circuit is still notorious for having a lot of very elderly judges who have gotten so extremely senile that the Court does not have enough very easy and non mentally challenging jobs to assign them to.
To make an analogy, let's assume a baseball team had a lot of young outfielders who were super at producing homeruns and RBI's, also fairly fast runners, and competent at fielding, and therefore were important components in causing that team to win the majority of its games.
However let's assume that as those outfielders got older they were still very superior hitters, but that the running speed of every single one of them declined to the point that they were all totally worthless at fielding.
If all of them had huge longterm contracts, then the team would quite likely be stuck, since if only one of those guys could no longer run then he could be moved to an easier position, in other words probably first base. However under the present rules of baseball the manager could not assign every single one of them to playing first base, and therfore might be forced to leave at least the majority of them as outfielders and causing the team to get worse every year .
That is the basic situation with the Ninth Circuit. In other words, it is loaded with a lot of aging “athletes” of declining skills and not nearly enough spots to put those numerous guys who can no longer competently perform at most of the jobs that are available.
And a lot of government agencies, and not just the Ninth Circuit, but perhaps also the Ora Loma board, are infested with characters who are way beyond their prime and should have retired ages ago.
The voters did finally wise up on the very much declining Pete Stark and therefore caused Stark to “retire,” however perhaps it is also time that the voters decided Laython Landis also “retired.”
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Along with other Board members, Mr. Landis received his 2014 W-2 earnings statement on 1/20/2015. Since Mr. Landis has been removed from all committees, the district taxpayers are now paying the salary of a non-performing Board Member. I am given to understand that Mr. Landis is transported to/from Board meetings by a driver. He is also accompanied by some sort of personal assistant who sees to any health matters that may arise when he is on District premises. While these support functions may, indeed, be performed by the same individual, I am curious to know if/how the Oro Loma Sanitary District and/or taxpayer might be paying for these expenses?
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I think that he is expressing the sentiments and actions of many people in positions that are responsible for the well-being for the people they are deriding.
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Why does Oro Loma let him use a photo that is clearly 20 plus years old?
Why do politicians take contributions from someone “clearly not all there”? Is that almost taking advantage of the elderly?
Why isn't his doctors helping him more.
When will he be removed?
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No fool like an old fool. In Landis' case, no fool like an old, racist fool. What a shame to be that old and have no understanding whatsoever of how toxic racist beliefs are.
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By MW:
In regard to Laython Landis.
It was only very recently, and in fact due to the recent controversy over remarks he has made that has caused some people to believe he is a racist – altho it is quite possible that he is primarily just a senile old drunk, and in which case he should probably be just humored and ignored (after all, he is about ninety years old and supposedly also drinks to extreme excess) – that I became aware of the existence of Laython Landis.
And then just a a few minutes ago I did an Internet search on the term “Laython Landis.” There were various comments in some of the old news items that came up that for a long time a lot of the Bay area's more prominent politicians have considered him to be a nut and a horrible person, but that still they tolerated him since supposedly he was an important source of large election campaign contributions.
However I myself refuse to believe that the wonderful and sleazy jokers, scumbags, phonies, and lying doubletalking parasites who make up the overwhelming majority of the Bay area's most prominent “liberal” politicians would sell out for money.
And in regard to the comment of 11:31PM.. While some years ago I read a comment by a former, AND RETIRED, US Senator in which he said that major public policy decisions should not be made by people such as himself, since he, and also his contemporaries, was not nearly as mentally sharp as he was when he was younger, however a high percentage of those who have lost it mentally will not admit it to others or even to themselves.
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Laython Landis should resign but he doesn't have the mental capacity to do the right thing.
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To describe heavy rain? what??
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By MW:
I believe that Laython Landis is about ninety years old. While most people eventually due to age start to deteriorate somewhat mentally, however there are some who are still very sharp in their nineties, and while on the other hand I have known some who had declined into extreme senility while only in their sixties.
Furthermore, there seem to be some reasons to believe that Landis may have considerable problems with alcoholism. (There are few creatures nuttier than a person who is extremely senile who is also extremely drunk.)
While I realize that a lot of people once they get into a particular position become extremely resistant to ever leaving and retiring, and even if they have become so extremely senile that they barely even know their own name (one of the most extreme examples of such was US Supreme Court Justice William Douglas), however I strongly suspect it is time that Landis retired and let some young whippersnapper take his place on the Board.
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