Invisible Man returns

GOLLY, it's great to see Greg Munks again. For quite a whilethere, he was doing a pretty good imitation of Claude Rains as theInvisible Man.

Munks, San Mateo County's elected sheriff, was all but MIA, atleast as a public presence, for so long, we half-expected to see hispensive mug on a milk carton.

Why was Munks so furtive? Simple. He and his undersheriff, CarlosBolanos, were out on the town in Las Vegas last spring when they gotcaught up in a sex sting.

They were found to be hanging out at what was believed to be ahouse of ill repute along with a number of other people.

Munks and Bolanos declared that they thought they were going to amassage facility. Oops. Bad move.

In the end, neither of our local worthies was charged withanything. They came back to the Peninsula and hoped that would bethe end of it. It wasn't.

The whole messy affair was uncovered by the Nevada media, andMunks and Bolanos had to answer some very uncomfortable questions.They chose to dodge them instead.

Munks, as the county's top law enforcement officer, issued abland statement about his and Bolanos' activities and refusedfurther comment.

In essence, he portrayed himself and his assistant as victims, anunthinking pair of lame rubes from out in the sticks visiting SinCity. He then ducked out and proceeded to hunker down, taking adecidedly low Peninsula profile.

When attempts to contact him were made in the aftermath of thetawdry incident, his office simply stated that Munks was notavailable.

Now he's back in full uniformed view. The storm over his behaviorand his reaction to it has subsided. Time has a way of doing that.It's as though it never happened in the first place.

Munks, as predicted, has returned to the public stage because --you guessed it -- his department could use an infusion of bigdollars.

That's because the county's jails are said to be inadequate andovercrowded. Munks is lobbying for money from any and all taxpayersources to remedy those purported problems.

He's been orchestrating media events, holding news conferencesand pressing the flesh. He has become Mr. Congeniality, a veritablePR dynamo months after his lamentable Nevada foray.

He's even out there endorsing local politicians, who seem to behappy to have him back on board, in the November election. Terrific.

But you won't hear him, or his many minions, dredging up thepast. That would most certainly damage his credibility. Again.

RETIREMENT? -- William Henderson may have had enough. He hasindicated that he is considering retiring when his latest term as atrustee in the San Bruno Park Elementary School District ends in2009.

Henderson, who made that statement via the Internet, is one ofthe longest-tenured public school board members