BAD FAITH… Before Squid approaches treacherous waters, Squid makes sure to stockpile extra ink to ward off predators. Similarly, seeing a lawsuit looming, the City of Marina is storing up a wad of cash.

The MARINA CITY COUNCIL last week added $50,000 to its “University Village Litigation Budget.” Marina apparently needs a separate fund to defend this 1,200-home-plus-big-box-shopping-center development, which has already been sued once. More money is needed in this legal war chest because a group of local unions caught the city and University Village’s developer, MARINA COMMUNITY PARTNERS (MCP), trying to circumvent so-called “prevailing wage” requirements, rules meant to ensure that workers would be paid fairly in the windfall that resulted when Fort Ord was decommissioned and its property divvied up.

Some City Council members were surprised to find out a loophole might allow developers to sell land to companies like KOHL’s, who are then off the hook from paying fair wages. City Manager ANTHONY ALTFELD confirmed, in a story on the topic in the Herald last week, that the city’s agreement with MCP allows the prevailing wage rule to be dropped when land is sold to a third party.

So, shoot, bring on the lawsuits! Marina apparently will side with the developers against the unions. Squid will store ink for this battle.

BAD MONKEY… Squid’s sure that JOE LIVERNOIS, reporter-slash-columnist-turned-editor at the Herald, is smiling. As some of his readers and many of his friends know, Livernois is a monkey fanatic. He will find it hard to sleep the night before Thursday, DEC. 14. That’s the sixth annual celebration of the fledgling MONKEY DAY holiday. Yippee! Squid too has been looking forward to this day for a while.

Monkey Day, according to MonkeyDay.com, “is a celebration of all things simian, a festival of primates, a chance to scream like a monkey and throw feces at whomever you choose. Or just a reason to hang out with friends while picking fleas off each other.”

The blurb continues: “Note: for legal reasons, the publishers of the Monkey Day Web site in no way endorse throwing feces in any manner at any time.” The Weekly’s publisher shares that sentiment.

Squid endorses such behavior in metaphoric terms only. Now that he’s an editor, Livernois probably won’t even mention it.

To prepare Squidself for this joyous holiday, Squid signed the online petition at MonkeyDay.com (Squid’s was the 1,006th signature) intended to make Monkey Day a national holiday. Squid also looked for local monkey gatherings. Sadly, the closest simian soirée is in San Francisco.