The flyover county

And there you go.

I have no doubt that all the transit agencies that signed up for this measure, including Caltrain and SamTrans, need the money.

The inescapable sense of this measure is that it is just one more instance of the region’s power anchors — San Francisco and San Jose — happily treating the Peninsula as a colony: Hey rubes. Send us your money. In exchange, we will ignore you because we are more important than you.

It is a compelling reason to revisit last week’s report here about the hapless bickering between members of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.

This is a time when regional influence is more critical than ever, when the entire county’s political and governmental structure and representatives need to act with one voice and assertively.

Instead, what the rest of the region’s power players see is the county’s most prominent elected officials squabbling over a lack of mutual respect.

It is enough to make you laugh. The supervisors are sniping at one another over respect while the rest of the Bay Area has no respect for the county.

Consider the decision by the state to zero out $119 million in funds from the vehicle license fee. This is the county’s money that, unfortunately, has to pass through the state. The state — more precisely, Gov. Gavin Newsom — simply has taken it.

“The governor is showing that he doesn’t care about San Mateo County, that he doesn’t care about the people of San Mateo County,” Supervisor Lisa Gauthier said.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but no (bleep).

Of course Newsom does not care about San Mateo County. He is from San Francisco; he was raised not to care. And he pays no price for his disdain.

Between the transit measure and the VLF, the county needs to pull every lever to assert its own interests and to fend off the seizing of the regional agenda by other places.

Maybe I missed the news conference with representatives from all 20 cities and the county, including the state and federal legislators, where they said this is unacceptable. And the bus caravan to Sacramento. And the high-profile campaign of lobbying.

Instead, nothing, which seems all-too fitting.

PENSION PLAN: Succinct Steve Duncan said in an email to me last week, that former San Mateo County Community College District Chancellor Ron Galatolo should forfeit his pension because he was convicted of eight felonies in his recent criminal trial.

But, as has been noted here, none of the felonies related to the performance of his official duties. The jury that convicted him was unable to do so on any of the charges alleging corruption or misuse of public funds. So, the question is, I suppose, whether that is justification for Galatolo retaining his pension, as agreed to by the district trustees.

The Galatolo affair is not over, by the way, despite the decision by District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe not to retry the former chancellor.

Still pending is the lawsuit filed by the district against several construction contractors, whom, it has been clearly established, were pals with Galatolo. The suit alleges “fraud, bribery, and kickbacks.” Representing the district is the formidable law firm of Cotchett, Pitre and McCarthy.

The Burlingame-based Cotchett firm currently is awaiting a verdict in the trial of Elon Musk, who is accused of making public statements that drove down the value of Twitter just before he bought it.

DOCTOR, DOCTOR: The good doctor, Victor Aenlle, former number two to then-Sheriff Christina Corpus, resigned from the board of directors of the Sheriff’s Activities League last Wednesday, the day before an item here that said he was still on the board.

“After careful reflection,” he wrote in a resignation letter, “I have concluded that I can no longer continue serving on the SAL Board under the current circumstances surrounding the leadership structure connected to the Sheriff’s Office.”

That oddly structured sentence apparently means he does not recognize the events that resulted in the departure of he and Corpus, and that he regards Corpus’ firing and the hiring of Sheriff Ken Binder as illegitimate.

After careful reflection, of course.