Page 3 - Sanger Herald 5-2-19 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2019 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Random thoughts Is the council even aware of the hidden agenda?
By Dick Sheppard
I feel bad that I forgot all about Earth Day until it was too late to do whatever it is we are supposed to do on Earth Day.
I'm not sure what
Earth Day is all about
and I keep forgetting to
ask someone to explain it
to me. I did remember that last week was National Karaoke Week and I celebrated appropriately.
•••
I'm beginning to feel the same way about
city council meetings that I feel about Earth Day. I'm just not sure what they're all about any more and, just like Earth Day, I feel like the published agenda is sometimes trumped by a hidden agenda.
I'm fairly sure that at least part of
today's hidden city council agenda will be about putting an end to Measure S grants
to nonprofits that offer gang and drug prevention/intervention programs without acknowledging that's what's really happening.
It could also be about violating a section of Resolution 4361, approved by the city council in 2012, establishing Measure S grants to nonprofits. Resolution 4361, which I believe is still in effect, says a "majority" of the funds set aside for gang/drug prevention services "will be allocated to nonprofits with the remainder to city sponsored programs."
Yet, the Measure S 10 year expenditure plan that will be presented this evening will call for either $50,000 or $75,000 per year to go to nonprofits, beginning with the fiscal year 2019-2020 budget, while almost $110,000 of the gang/drug prevention services money will go to a city sponsored program, the police department's G.R.E.A.T. officer.
I'm saying $50,000 or $75,000 to nonprofits because a memo from Administrative Services Director Gary Watahira to the
city council in advance of today's 6 p.m.
Planned procrastination presents problems
I appreciated Efren Rubio’s clear, well stated March 28 letter.
Procrastination is a tool used effectively by city manager Tim Chapa to control outcomes, eliminate/reducepublicinput and to create artificial pressure so council members vote without adequate information or research/review time.
That is called bullying.
EliOntiveros istheonlycouncilmember who doesn’t play that game and calls out Mr. Chapa.
It’s clear Mr. Chapa is NOT doing a good job but the council rewarded him with a
nice pay increase anyway. Why? Seems to beamisuseoflimitedcityresources. Mr. Chapa’s local ties got him hired in Sanger but people familiar with his past note prior job performances weren’t exactly stellar.
The latest fiasco is the” urgent” response required by the State regarding zoning
for high density housing. Identified more than two years ago, nearby communities responded then and without any angst – theyplannedforit! WherewasSanger's city administrator and planning staff then? Whydidn’t thecouncilconsider thislack of administrative direction during Chapa’s evaluation?
Weneedplanned, creativegrowth.The planning commission seems well-meaning but unimaginative. At the March special planning commission meeting, Mr. Brletic [senior planner] didn’t explain why some seemingly well-suited properties (e.g., south of Gong’s Market) aren’t being considered for high-density housing nor was there
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Dick Sheppard
meeting says, "Subsequent to the approval
of the proposed budget, the COC (Citizens Oversight Committee) approved the 10 Year Plan but increased the funding for Gang Prevention to $75,000. This change will create a deficit of $58,400 in the 10th year of the plan."
The city staff - in my opinion prompted by the city manager Tim Chapa - had recommended cutting the annual nonprofit grant funding from $125,000 per year to $50,000 per year.
So, that increase of $25,000 recommended by the COC would break a bank that is funded by $2 million or more each year from a sales and use tax. (The memo makes it sound like the grant program is the only thing being funded by Measure S.)
Measure S just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.
I was taken to task by a couple of councilmembers for earlier suggesting that behind all the smoke and mirrors is an effort to dismantle the nonprofit grant program.
"We're not ending the program, we're just creating new rules for 2019," they said.
I’ve never been good at arithmetic or
as it’s called these days “mathematics.” But luckily it doesn’t take much of an arithmetician to figure out the way the new rules for nonprofit grant applicants are written it means the end of the nonprofit grant program.
If no nonprofit that has ever been funded can be funded again - that's a new rule - the pool of potential applicants is limited to
the remaining nonprofits that have never been funded AND that offer gang/drug intervention/prevention programs. That’s
a mighty small pool that will become even smaller with each funding cycle until very soon there are none left.
Since we can assume the person who wrote that rule - with no input from the oversight committee - is reasonably intelligent we can also assume he understands the significance of the rule – the
discussion as to what the city administrator and staff are doing to stimulate low to medium density in-fill housing in established neighborhoods where property owners vehemently reject high density housing. Low to medium density done in a systematic, well-planned way might be and could help the situation. Clovis encouraged tiny house placement on appropriately zoned lots.
Is Sanger reaching out to those property owners? Wouldremovingorloweringpermit fees stimulate in-fill growth?
There’s an Academy Avenue warehouse for lease for offices, two downtown 7th Street buildings with vacant second stories, and
the continuation school portable classrooms across from the library-are any of those possible high density housing sites? What
are planner’s doing to address traffic issues raised by folks around the high school? Let’s get input from the Assemi family with
their imagination of what’s possible and experience in revitalization.
Mr. Chapa’s limited, uncreative approach to this problem is creating a crisis in our community which is destructive. It shows poor planning, poor management and a cavalier attitude towards the community.
The north end is your newer, larger properties; several property owners made it clear that they bought homes here but they will leave Sanger if those “enticements” are destroyed. Property owners are concerned about loss of value; many bought high before the recession and are only now gaining some equity. High density low income apartments will destroy what equity they have.
We need better representation from our elected officials before there is a mass exodus and then you can kiss the tax base goodbye.
City council members need to represent US. Why aren’t they having meetings in their districts? We need a city manager and a council that think creatively and care about the quality of life of the citizens of this city.
Rosa Huerta
An award winning 2019 member of the California Newspaper Publishers Association
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de facto end of the nonprofit grant program because there soon will be no remaining eligible applicants.
Dismantling - running out of applicants – toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe – whatever we choose to call it, the result is the same – a clever, obvious and calculated, incremental ending of the nonprofit grant program.
•••
By the way, in case you're curious, here's
how a dictionary defines "Dismantle":
1. the act of causing an organization or system to stop functioning by gradually
reducing its power or purpose;
2. the process of ending an organization or
system gradually in an organized way; also: to destroy the integrity or functioning: "The program was dismantled due to a lack of funding."
Sound familiar?
•••
It's going to be a busy, busy weekend. 'Hope to see you at one of the many events.
Please direct your questions or comments to sangerherald@gmail.com.
In my OPINION
Are our representatives off their meds?
By Fred Hall
Perhaps the best place
to start here, before taking
a deep dive into the politi-
cal madness that seems to
be sweeping our country,
would be the recent threat
by several states to keep
the President off the 2020
ballot. Thereasontheycite ascausefortheiraction? PresidentTrump has not released his tax and financial records. This one will probably have to play out in
the courts with the only winners being the lawyers. Thereisnolegalrequirementany- where in Federal law for him to do so—the decisionisstrictlyhis. Theonlythingthat this man did was win an election. Not liking a man does not disqualify him.
I believe it's called Trump Derangement Syndrome—T.D.S.
Never before has the idiom about the inmates running the asylum been more appropriatelyappliedthanitistoday. We have a group running The United States House of Representatives that is completely incapable of running any group or organi- zation much less occupying their current capacities as representatives of the American people. Haveyouevertakenacomprehen- sive look at some of what they are proposing?
One of them, a 29-year old former bar- tender from New York City, has offered her 'Green New Deal' to save the planet which
is questionably in danger in the first place. According to this young women we have only 12 years to spend about $93 trillion and save us all.
Her suggestion would essentially eliminate all air travel and gasoline engines, require the re-fitting of all buildings in America, eliminate all petroleum based products, crush an economy, destroy jobs—and, would only costtaxpayers$600,000perhousehold. Not to be outdone by this young upstart from New York City, Bill De Blasio, the mayor
of that city, has proposed the elimination of skyscrapers, steel and glass in building, and demands the retrofitting of buildings and the elimination of hotdogs and processed meats.
Another member is a young female refu- gee from Somalia who, from her statements and positions, seems to hate the United States andeverythingaboutthiscountry. Onehas to ask “how the hell can something like this happen” until one examines the demographic profile of her home state of Minnesota.
Remember the discussions we've had about the tribalization of America?
Frankly, Ilhan Omar is so anti-Semitic that she should have been forced to resign from Congress over her positions and uninformed brand of hate speech. Rashida Talib, another Muslim who hales from Michigan, is known for spouting opinions that are filled with pro- fane speech and inane in their content.
One can always count on California when there is such “a gathering of eagles?” such as our representatives in the U.S. House. Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Adam Schiff, Kamala Harris, Eric Swalwell and Diane Feinstein supply plenty of material for those who iden- tify California as the land of nuts, fruits and flakes. Oneofthegreatthingsaboutit,we here in California can almost always count
FredHall
of left-wing politicos ranging from here in the state to federal levels to do and say really dumb things.
Two of these judgement-impaired politi- cians have offered to share their expertise with the entire country by running for President.
I've examined their records for accom- plishments and while finding nothing that Swalwell has done beyond threatening the Second Amendment or Donald Trump every time he opens his mouth; Kamala Harris has distinguished herself by having an affair with Willie Brown who was another font of cor- rupt politics; and Adam Schiff features his own brand of idiocy.
A true representation of their thoughts involves the “For The People act of 2019,” which is nothing more than a goodie basket of newly discovered rights and privileges being extended to illegals. This bit of chicanery with it's traditionally soft title is anything but what that title implies. It's framed to provide voting rights to illegals and, as if the vot-
ing process hasn't already become corrupt, moves parts of the American election to the internet. Now, we're all aware of just how secure that would make the entire scheme.
Even after being demonstrably shown that the Russians changed no votes and had little to do with the outcome of American elec- tions in 2016 beyond running a few ads on Facebook, denial of results continues.
It's already been passed by the House but should have no hope in the Senate. The effort in reading this piece of garbage is well worth one's time. It should provide conclusive evi- dence of where this new group would like to take this country.
The election is still somewhat distant but now is the time to become actively involved. One political party has roughly a score of candidates who are all trying to outdo each other with the leftward lurch lunacy. Some in the other party are doing everything they can to assure this strong economy and low unem- ployment continues beyond the 2020 election.
However, there are a few in that second party—Mitt Romney comes to mind—who, for whatever reason, refuse to support the President and his precedent setting admin- istration. We can only assume it's because they want the media to like them, want to be invited to all the parties in Washington, have no spine or principals or are just downright jealous. We suspect it just might be a combi- nation.
But, as always, that's only one man's opin- ion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publisher Fred Hall oversees two other Mid Valley Publishing newspapers - Reedley Exponent, and Dinuba Sentinel. He can be contacted by phone at (559) 638-2244 or by email at fred@ midvalleypublishing.com.
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