Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 9-12-19 E-edition
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Thursday, September 12, 2019 | A4 | Mid Valley TiMes Editorial & Opinions Serving the Readers of the Reedley Exponent, Dimuba Sentinel and Sanger Herald. A Mid Valley Publishing Newspaper Founded March 26, 1891, in a two-story building on the corner of 11th and F streets, by A.S. Jones Fred Hall — Publisher In my OPINION State water bills the latest examples of sleight of hand The government of California, dur- ing the “golden” days, built an infra- structure for 20 million people that was the envy of the entire world — then sat by and twiddled their thumbs while watching the population double, doing nothing to address such a dra- matic change. Right about here is where you ask what was their plan for the future after having ridden the crest of such the success of capitalism at work? Sleight of hand and a West Coast version of socialism seemed to be their response. This was a brand new kind of politician of the late 20th century who was being elected to office in droves by young liberals who had been carefully groomed and educated by the universities populated by the “tune in, turn on, tune out” generation of the 1960s and 70s. Politi- cal decisions which pandered to the large cities where the greatest growth in voters were centered were rou- tinely made with no regard for the rest of the state. Politicians — not unlike cockroaches — do their best work and most damage when allowed to work in the dark. We mentioned sleight of hand early on because it seems to be their preferred method of dealing with “smelly” legislation which has been passed to benefit one of their special interest groups (contributors). Keep it low key and covert as possible until it's too late for anyone to do anything about it. We currently are look- ing directly down the barrel of one of their most oner- ous examples. Laying the groundwork for this bit of lunacy was an executive order signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown back in May 2016 to place strict limits on water usage which would be permissible in urban areas. A compliant Senate and Assembly followed with AB1668 and SB 606, which were eagerly signed by Brown in May 2018. Adding insult to injury was the fact that the arbiters chosen to set the onerous restrictions were two boards composed of unelected bureaucrats; The State Water Resources Control Board and the De- partment of Water Resources. None of these people owe their political livelihood to the people of California. They answer only to the political ruling class. As near as we can tell, eight water bonds have passed wince 2000 which authorized a little over $11 billion for the State to improve our water situation and little or nothing has been accomplished. As a general rule, nature still manages to provide enough precipita- tion to meet the public need, making increased storage of rainfall and snow melt the easiest, more direct an- swer and yet, nothing has been done by the multitude of water districts and boards to effectively use the money which taxpayers so generously provided. We can't help but notice that, for Democrats, every- thing has become existential including climate change which is out of our purview. Now, take away sufficient water to support life and suddenly one is faced with something that is, indeed, existential like the need for water and this is being dropped on an unsuspecting populace with little or no warning. The whole mess reminds me of a Ray Bradbury novel from back in 1962. "Something Wicked This Way Comes" documents what happens in a small Midwestern town when a car- nival arrives in the middle of the night on a dark train. Malevolence follows. Much like the government try- ing to slip one past its constituency while keeping us in the dark. Edward Hansen is a guest columnist who joins us this week to provide actual data and attempt to bring common sense to the real results of the implementation of AB 1668 and SB 606. His in-depth analysis appears on the facing page. Be warned. It's scary stuff. Random thoughts about what goes around coming around Rick Curiel — Dinuba Editor Jon Earnest — Reedley Editor Dick Sheppard — Sanger Editor QUOTE “The first ques- tion I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.” — John Cage (1912-1992) Fred Hall By Dick Sheppard Planting your flag in the middle of a vanquished oppo- nent's football field is an infa- mous bound-to-cause-trouble kind of trend started by Okla- homa quarterback Baker May- field in 2017. I first became aware of flag planting last year when the Clovis East Timberwolves did it in Tom Flores Stadium after beating the Apaches 14- 8. It was the Apaches' first loss and the only loss on their home field for the entire sea- son. Apache players, coaches and fans seemed to shrug it off at the time. Later, howev- er, players talked about being “dissed" by the T-Wolves. It was a new season when the Apaches rolled into La- monica Stadium last Thursday to meet the Timberwolves. The T-Wolves had already blown away a couple of opponents by a combined score of 84-0. The Apaches came in as underdogs after a win against Reedley and a tough loss to Hanford. But when the animated scoreboard in Lamonica Sta- dium ticked off the final sec- ond of the rematch after a well played and very physical game the Apaches were on top 21-14. What happened next has been all over the news – radio, TV, newspaper and social me- dia – and opinions have varied from each writer, reporter and blogger to the next. KMJ Ra- dio and TV channel 24 called it a “brawl.” Paul Meadors who writes for the CLOVIS- SPORTSREPORT.COM called it a “skirmish.” A stirring the pot talking head at TV chan- nel 30 blew it out of proportion and tried to make it seem like it was the start of WWIII. (Re- mind me not to watch channel 30 anymore.) I liked what Nick Papagni, who does a great job of covering high school sports with his online Pagmeter wrote, “We now have a big time rivalry! Last year the T-Wolves disrespected Chuck Shidan field \[in Tom Flores Stadium\] and the Apaches sure didn’t forget that. After the game Sanger brought the Apache flags out a little too close to Clovis East nation. Can’t wait for next year’s game!!” “What goes around comes around,” an Apache football player tweeted after the game. Even though they shouldn’t have, it was payback time and this year's victorious Apaches taunted the losing T-Wolves with Apache flags and the T-Wolves, even though they should have, did not shrug it off and walk away. I realize that’s a lot of time to spend in a column usually devoted to Sanger city hall id- iosyncrasies. But, doggone it, what happened at Lamonica Stadium was not the start of WWIII, it was an unfortunate incident in what is becoming a “big time ri- valry.” I’m not even sure how it stacks up with incidents when Sanger and Reedley were rivals. Remem- ber when bags of fertilizer were dumped in the Sanger swim- ming pool and when Reedley's artificial turf was spray painted with an Apache logo? Let's hope there's no more of that kind of foolishness. No matter who started it, it's flat out wrong and it should not be tolerated. ••• I got a few texts while I was at the game. One had a video of someone being es- corted out of the Sanger city council meeting. Another said the meeting was even more uncomfortable to watch than the previous one. (Difficult to believe.) A third, from Manuel Perez, almost sent me to my knees with shock. Manuel's dad, my friend — everyone’s friend — Johnny Perez had died of a heart attack. See the story in today’s Mid Valley Times. Johnny will be missed by all of Sanger. Dick Sheppard can be con- tacted by email at sangerher- ald@gmail.com Dick Sheppard But, as always, that's only one man's opinion. Missing facts The Sanger city council meeting on Aug. 15 was reveal- ing. For those who don’t recall, over 10 years ago there were investigations of actions and financial irresponsibility of the mayor and city council that led Sanger into financial troubles by depleting city reserves. That former irresponsible mayor was just appointed by city council members Daniel Martinez, Esmeralda Hurtado and Frank Gonzalez to serve on the Measure S Citizens Over- sight Committee (COC) against objections by many Sanger resi- dents. That former mayor had served interim on the COC this spring, applauding the severe funding cuts to gang inter- vention/prevention programs against promises made to vot- ers to maintain the programs in the 2016 Measure S Extension. Council members defended their decision to appoint the former mayor, saying residents were making “personal attacks” on a person who serves the com- munity and, after all, he voted to increase funds for youth by $35,000, up from the originally recommended $8,000. What council members did not say was that it was the for- mer mayor, on the 2019 grants review committee, who recom- mended only that $8,000 for youth services. His later mo- tion to approve at the commit- tee level was blocked by anoth- er COC member who refused to approve only $8,000 for youth. It was then he motioned to add the $35,000 in order to move the item forward because the real focus to slash funding for gang prevention/ intervention was on the revised Measure S 10 Year Plan. Comparing to last year, the COC maintained compliance to Resolution 4361 recommend- ing the city council fund youth services at $215,855. Those are the facts council members did not share which would have shown that former mayor is not suitable for the COC. It's just another case of fi- nancial irresponsibility, not too different from that over 10 years ago, especially to the vot- ers of Sanger. Mary Gonzalez Sanger Letters from readers Letters Policy MID VALLEY TIMES invites letters from the public on any topic of local relevance. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity or brevity, and we reserve the right to NOT publish them if they could be deemed libelous or profane. Letters should be 350 words or less, and bear the author's name, address, and phone number. Letters can be mailed, emailed, submitted via our website, or personally delivered to: Editor, Reedley Exponent, 1130 G St, Reedley CA 93654. Have an opinion? Want to share it? news@midvalleytimes.com