Page 3 - Sanger Herald 1-18-18 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2018 EDITORIAL & OPINION
By Dick Sheppard
Words have power.
2008 SUPPLEMENT SUPPLANT
Dick Sheppard
hibited by city ordinance 1094 which defines the terms and conditions of the measure.
For some reason that never seems to be mentioned these days.
It wasn't even pointed out to an auditing firm hired to do a "compliance" audit of mea- sure S spending since 2008.
The audit was requested by the Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee and an audit- ing firm was selected, hired and instructed by the city.
Can't help wondering why that very, very important detail, the supplement versus sup- plant rule, was not shared by the city with the auditor.
The auditing firm, $23,000 later, came back with a useless, "Yep, it was all spent on public safety" report, accompanied by a notice that the document given to the oversight commit- tee wasn't really a compliance audit.
I also wonder if the three newest members of the city council, mayor Frank Gonzalez and councilmembers Melissa Hurtado and Daniel Martinez, have ever read ordinance 1094.
I wonder if the three newbies know the importance of "2008," "supplement" and "sup- plant" in regard to Measure S spending.
They certainly don't act like it.
They certainly have not gone out of their way to give the words the respect and the power they deserve to control Measure S spending, to make sure the money is only used to supplement public safety services that existed in 2008 and is not being used to supplant, or replace, the amount of general
fund money that was being spent on pub- lic safety services in 2008 with Measure S money.
Intentionally supplanting would be unethi- cal and a violation of city ordinance 1094. But it would help balance the general fund budget and it's been done on a regular basis since Mr. Chapa came aboard in late January of 2016, according to allegations by members of the oversight committee.
Committee members have also been vocal about the raise given to all public safety personnel out of Measure S money. They say that was in violation of the supplement ver- sus supplant rule. They say the only ones who should have been given a wage bump from measure money were the ones hired since 2008 to supplement public safety services that existed back then. The others should have been given their wage increase out
of the general fund money, the committee members contend. But, golly, that might have made it difficult, maybe impossible, to bal- ance the general fund budget.
A real compliance audit might have settled the dispute between the oversight commit- tee and Chapa. That's why the committee requested it. Was that the reason why the city appears to have sabotaged it?
We probably will never know for sure.
However, it seems like it would appear to even a casual observer that the city manager and his council minions have slipped into an end justifies the means mode when it comes to dipping into the Measure S pot of gold.
It's deja vu all over again.
We've seen the end justifies the means phi- losophy govern decisions and actions at city hall more than a few times in the past decade. You can read about some of the occasions in grand jury reports from 2008, 2012 and 2015 and more than likely in a 2018 report that will probably be released in June.
If newbies on the council are not doing their homework and believe everything the city manager says and he never uses words like "2008," "supplement" or "supplant" maybe they just don't know any better.
Maybe they haven't made a conscious decision to agree to the end justifies the means concept. Maybe they are just blindly following their pied piper.
They appear to believe, or maybe hope, that if it appears they don't know any better
they couldn't possibly be held responsible for something involving such apparently nebu- lous terms to them as ethics, integrity and transparency when they have such straight- forward things to worry about as the price of using the community swimming pool, vacant downtown buildings and more basketball hoops at the community center.
Are voters really going to accept that kind of abdication of responsibility, that kind of cop out?
Maybe.
Unfortunately, probably.
It wouldn't be the first time in a city that
seems to care more about potholes than poli- tics. That's probably why Sanger has been visited four times in fewer than 10 years by the county grand jury.
That's probably a record in California, maybe even in the entire United States.
It's an unenviable record that says at least a couple of things about Sanger: the only thing the city learns from its mistakes is that the city doesn't learn from its mistakes; and, voters don't pay much attention to the details of municipal governance.
Voters control who gets to be on the city council. The city council controls who gets to be city manager. So, voters are the ones ulti- mately responsible for the grand jury being back in town to air out Sanger's dirty political laundry for all the county to see.
•••
Thanks to everyone who expressed their
condolences after reading last week's col- umn.
To those who wondered why I would write about something so deeply personal, it was all that was on my mind at the time. I couldn't force any other thoughts to the front of the line when it came time to write the column, not even another rant about the sometimes baffling goings on at city hall.
You canprobablytellbytoday'scolumn, I'm back to whatever normal is for me.
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incor- rectly, and applying the wrong remedies."
—Groucho Marx Comments, complaints and suggestions
may be emailed to sangerherald@gmail.com or maybe made by calling 875-2511
Random thoughts Voters are ultimately responsible for what goes on at city hall ...
Maybe that's why some words appear to be banned these days at city hall when it comes to talking about spending the approxi- mately $2 million of Measure S money that comes in each year from a three-quarter cent sales and use tax approved by voters in 2008 and renewed by voters in 2016.
Seems like almost everybody is aware that money in the Measure S fund is only sup- posed to be spent on "public safety." They've certainly heard that often enough from city manager Tim Chapa.
What they haven't heard lately from the city manager is that the money is only sup- posed to be spent to upgrade, add to, supple- ment, the public safety services that were in place in Sanger in 2008 when the measure went into effect.
Public safety services paid for out of the general fund in 2008 are still supposed to be paid for out of the general fund. Paying for those services out of Measure S money would be supplanting, or replacing, general fund money with Measure S money. That is pro-
In my OPINION
There's a reason why the American
press no longer enjoys or deserves the trust of the American people
By Fred Hall
One of the things which bedevils those of us who write newspaper columns for community newspapers is the fact early deadlines force topic decision on items which may be resolved by the time you read our com- ments.
Fred Hall
destruction of a once great vocation. No lon- ger does the American press enjoy the trust of the American people.
Certainly they are free to state their opin- ions as long as they are identified such as what I'm doing right this minute. You would never find this writer twisting a story to fit his opinion and passing it off as straight news reporting.
Surely I'm not the last remaining human who once enjoyed reading a well written political piece that was a thoughtful interview with a newsmaker who was probingly ques- tionedandnotargument-based. Noticethe use of past tense in the description because, sadly, those days appear long gone and journalism seems on the critical list via self- inflicted wounds.
High paid talking heads, writers and assorted others with monumental egos have seized the bait and became personal, literally arelosingtheirminds. Whilewritersand pundits spout off about our President's men- tal stability they, themselves, are committing suicide in terms of their credibility!
People in my profession can and must begintodoabetterjobof simplyreport- ing and not declare the sky is falling every time anyone says or does anything which mightbepoliticallyincorrect. Intheheat of the moment anyone who is human is certainly capable of proclaiming there are s***hole countries which mistreat, abuse and starve their people. The final decision should whether it is advantageous or even reasonable for us to accept those who wish to migrate from such circumstances. This seems especially true when so many of the immigrants are unwilling to change.
But, as always, that's only one man's opin- ion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publisher Fred Hall oversees three other Mid Valley Pub- lishing 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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We don't believe this is one of those.
Our president last week, in a closed door meeting with six senators, responded to a piece of legislation, which they had delivered for his perusal, with an answer that contained a very common American verbal pejorative which I hear almost daily.
Those “learned” people brought him a pro- posal on immigration which he found unpalat- able and he reacted in a less than politically correctway. WebelievesenateDemocrat, Dick Durbin from Illinois, may have soiled his trousers in his hurry to get out the door to tell the press.
Given the nature of the proposal by the DemocratandRepublicansenators,wehave little doubt that once the press has vented and called for his impeachment, there will be hugesupportfromthegeneralvotingpublic for not only his language but the fact he stood up to this spineless six as well.
We'll concede there must be a middle ground on immigration, but it must be real andcontrolled. Thisopenbordergroup which has become the face of the Democrat party will have to accept standards which include being self supportive, learning the language and assimilating into our cul-
ture so as to not present a burden on other Americans for their support.
The cultural ways of their former coun- try must be left behind in favor of their new country. Wecannot,norshouldwe,make accommodations for them to continue to live as they did in a country which became such an abomination as to force them to relocate.
The press' participation in the attempt to destroy a sitting president has resulted in the
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