Page 3 - Sanger Herald 12-28-17 E-edition

Random thoughts If they pretend they don't see the problem they can pretend they have no responsibility to x it ...
The fuss has gone on practically since Chapa took his seat on the dais in late January of 2016.
It took up space in practically every edition of the Sanger Herald in 2017.
It attracted a grand jury investigation.
Yet the city council has remained above the fray.
Maybe the council is afraid if it examines the situation too closely it will be forced to take action that would cause it to lose the benefit of the Measure S piggy bank that helps balance the general fund budget.
Better not to look and not have to take responsibility.
Here's one of the Random Thoughts columns from 2017 on the subject. It's from the Feb. 2 edition and it refers to a guest column by James Miser, a member of the oversight committee. The column is too long to include in today's paper. But you can read it online on the Herald's website, www. thesangerherald.com.
I think you can get a general idea about its contents from my comments.
I chose this column because it's pretty typical of my random thoughts going on two years now about a situation that should have been resolved many months ago - before the grand jury came to town.
•••
The old saying, "Sticks and stones may
break my bones, but words will never harm me," may be true on the playground.
But when creative accounting is no longer able to cover up the city's apparent misuse of public safety funds, creative use of words can do a lot of harm.
That's what seems to be going on behind the drawn blinds of the most opaque city hall in my memory.
When a certified public accountant like James Miser, see today's local guest column,
In my OPINION
A tip of the hat to you Mr. President
SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2017 EDITORIAL & OPINION
By Dick Sheppard
Among several things that bother me about the very public squabble between city manager Tim Chapa and the Measure
S Citizens Oversight Committee is how little the city council has done to put an end to it.
Dick Sheppard
apparently exposes accounting sleight of hand, it's time to change tactics by changing the city's official interpretation of ordinance 1094, which spells out how Measure S public safety tax money is supposed to be spent and how the process is supposed to be overseen.
The language of ordinance 1094 seems pretty clear on its face. It says, "There is hereby established in the City of Sanger a Citizen's Oversight Committee to monitor the expenditures of the special revenue collected pursuant to this Chapter only and to report to the City Council."
In his book "1984" George Orwell intro- duced us to the words doublethink and new- speak. A word he didn't use - but which com- bines the two - is doublespeak. Doublespeak is saying one thing and meaning another, usu- ally its opposite.
That's what seems to be going on with the city manager, perhaps acting on the orders of members of the previous city council, per- haps acting on his own to impress members of the new council.
He seems to be saying the words of ordi- nance 1094 are not clear and need his special interpretation. He seems to be saying they really mean the city council can do whatever it wants to with the public safety tax money and it "... don't need no stinkin' oversight
com- mittee." (That last part was borrowed from the 1948 film "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," just a little paraphrased.)
There were a couple of council members on the previous council who probably would have appreciated a lot more access to the Measure S money.
There are probably five council members on the new council who might be impressed if the city manager can somehow find a way to balance a general fund budget that seems to be spinning out of control.
There's about $2 million a year coming in from the public safety tax and just a little doublespeak massaging of the language in ordinance 1094 will justify marginalizing or eliminating that darn pesky oversight com- mittee.
The city manager is certainly acting like he don't need no stinkin' oversight committee and he's making the members of the over- sight committee feel about as useful as a trap door on a lifeboat.
What's happening now in the most opaque
city hall in my memory (Did I already say that?) is the reason I voted "NO" on the Measure S renewal in November.
While I understood the need for the public safety tax, I distrusted the people who have the power to misuse the money.
They certainly waved enough red flags to signal their intent to anyone who was paying even a smidgen of attention.
Miser's guest column is a bit of a tough read because it's so analytical and there are so many numbers. But even if you're not a CPA you can grasp the concept if you wade through it a couple of times - general fund spending on public safety should not be going down in any category from what was spent back in 2008 when the measure kicked in.
Maybe what's apparently happening with Measure S money should serve as a warning for us to look at what's happening with money from other designated funds.
Is it being spent for its intended purpose - beware doublespeak - or is it being used to help balance the general fund?
"No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up."
Lily Tomlin
•••
I doubt anything will change in 2018 until
maybe when the grand jury weighs in. That might force the council to stop
pretending it has better things to do than get involved in one of the most important of the many "misunderstandings" the city manager has created since he arrived.
Maybe.
Maybe they'll just continue to look away and act like their lack of attention creates no responsibility to do anything about the situation.
•••
Sanger is a wonderful community with
wonderful people who, outside of city hall, do not look away in order to avoid responsibility.
They take care of each other. (See the "Sanger Christmas story" on page 7A)
There's no way of anticipating what's going to happen in 2018 in the City of Sanger or in the school district where there will be a new superintendent of schools to start the next school year.
But we can have confidence in our community and our school district coming up roses, no matter what games are being played at city hall, because we are one town, one tribe and one team.
Best wishes for a great 2018 for you and yours.
Comments, complaints and suggestions may be emailed to sangerherald@gmail.com or may be made by calling 875-2511
2017
We welcome guest columns at the Herald
By Fred Hall
Every December, as we approach the beginning of
the new year, there is some-
thing that is very much a
part of human nature which
causes us to reflect back on
the events of the previous
365 days. It seems to me, Fred Hall that if everyone were com-
pletely honest, there would be no one who could say they knew 2017 would turn out as it did. Those who expected politics as usual had to be confused as they saw the concept stood on end. Realistically, there must be some- thing which we learned during this year's trip around the sun!
Right about here would be the ideal spot to innumerate the successes which our surpris- inglyelectedPresidenthasenjoyed. Heprom- ised a bold agenda and began in late January to deliveronhiscampaignpromises. Leadership in the House far exceeded the “foot draggers” intheSenateintermsofcooperation. Oneyear later, with his wins being much akin to creating momentum from a dead stop with a full load of dead weight, the economy is steadily gaining speed and strength. What we were once told as a “new norm” for the sluggish American economy has become provably incorrect.
The most recent enhancement for Ameri- cans and business was the signature of the first serioustaxcutindecades. Althoughthecries of “tax cuts for the rich” and “corporate wel- fare” have arisen from Democrats, there are already indicators that much of that savings will be returned to the hard working people who earned it in the first place. Several ma- jor corporations immediately announced there would be bonuses paid to workers and salaries raised from money that no longer had to be sent to the Internal Revenue Service.
Last December, we all realized that the ordinary, everyday, rank-and-file people who vote had spoken and Donald J. Trump had been selected as their choice for President number 45 of The United States of America. Even at that early date, we all sensed that the Democrat Party, the media and The Republi- can establishment was going to have no posi- tive participation during the next four years of The Trump Administration. It's almost as they had formed an unholy alliance to hinder and obstruct everything the President wanted to accomplish—no matter how intuitive his pro- posal might have been! The personal agendas of these outliers would not allow them to have
anything to do with “making America great again.”
Atipofthehattoyou,Mr.President. Media types can create all the “profiles of courage” awards they wish while you toil away each day in the best interest of The American people and are denigrated for your successes—which thankfully, continue to pile up.
It appears that all of us who complained about a country which was being managed in- to mediocrity by professional politicians were right with our call for a real business person who would be willing to move into Washington and begin draining the swamp.
We stand at a remarkable crossroads when it comes to the opportunity to regain the great- ness which has always been the epitome of being an American. We're not sure that one side of this divide is inherently worse than the other when discussing Democrats versus Re- publicans. Both tend to talk right past each other with no concern whatsoever for recon- ciliation, agreement or a middle ground. One of the more troubling aspects of the modern politician, be they Democrat or Republican, is the ease with which they can lie and mislead to prop up their agenda. I realize it's naïve, to assume such a thing, but their only inter- est should be in how legislation will impact thepeopletheyrepresent. Ireallydon'twant Chuck or Nancy dictating to my representative what is best for that constituency.
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publisher Fred Hall oversees three other Mid Valley Publishing newspapers - Reedley Exponent, Dinuba Sentinel and Parlier Post. He can be contacted by phone at (559) 638-2244 or by email at fred@midvalleypublishing.com.
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