Funny Money Fallout

So far, there doesn’t appear to be much tying Shelley personally to these transactions – though the Chron also reported that Shelley handled most of the fundraising done by Julie Lee himself. According to sources, Shelley and Lee spoke often, and Shelley was the person who physically accepted the checks proffered by Lee at the office. Now, it’s actually quite plausible (really!) that Shelley just took the checks and didn’t ask Lee how she’d gotten the money – but reporters have been unable to find this out because Shelley has refused all interview requests, issuing only a prepared statement through his spokesperson that he has no idea what’s going on.

And hey, kick the guy while he’s down – unhappy staffers spoke with the Sacramento Bee to report that Shelley is a verbally abusive boss, reporting incidents like the time Shelley screamed at everyone on staff, stormed out of the office "looking like the Incredible Hulk," and came back, looking disheveled, and carrying a toothbrush, toothpaste, and mouthwash (what, no floss?). Another former staffer reports that when Shelley went to the abortion rights march in DC, he refused to walk to the parade, insisted on being driven, and then blew a gasket when he got there earlier than everyone else. "Why the [expletive deleted in original] am I here?" Shelley screamed. After the aides explained to him that it was because he had driven ahead of the crowds, he uttered "a string of expletives," and the staffer said, "I told him if I screw up or do something wrong, tell me. It’s not necessary to scream at me like that." The aide was fired a few weeks later.

And now, reaching the pure gossip level, Julie Lee's son Andrew, a once-aspiring rapper/city supervisor and a former Shelley staffer himelf, was scheduled to start law school last week at Howard University in DC, but as of last Tuesday, had not yet shown up. Hey, didn't you see the Paper Chase, Andrew? It’s very important to be there for the first day of class!