Page 3 - Sanger Herald 12-7-17 E-edition

Random thoughts Maybe we'll soon find out who is on Santa's naughty and nice lists ...
By Printus LeBlanc
The U.S. is broke. The debt is $20 trillion and growing. Debt servicing is eating up a more significant piece of the budget pie ev- ery year. Despite Republicans winning elec- tions because of out of control government spending, and despite Republicans having controlofthebudget,Republicanshavenot made the necessary cuts. Taxpayers should notpaytensofthousandsofdollarsfor Doggie Hamlet. Yes, that actually happened. Congress is getting ready to vote on the budget or continuing resolution this week and many will complain about the deficit, as they
should, but will still vote to fund frivolous projects.
What is most egregious, Congress knows where the government waste is. In fact, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) puts out an annual 100-page report detailing 100 examples of government waste called Federal Fumbles, essentially outlining what Republicans have failedtocutsinceassumingcontrolofthe House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014.
Let your congressional representative know how you feel about government's frivo- lous spending.
reprisals. Unliketheinternet,youwon'tbe attacked here.
Addressing those who pen opinions on a regular basis, I would note that, though there appear to be fewer and fewer of us, every day some very ordinary men or women sit down in front of our typewriter or word processortoshare opinionswiththegeneral public. Wedon'tclaimtobesmarterthan anyone.
The only thing extraordinary about
these writers is a willingness to share their thoughts with a critical reading audience and openthemselvestopubliccritique. Their mandateistoberational, honestreasonable and factual in the information they share. We never claim to be smarter than anyone else, we are just willing to share an opinion with readers and allow them an opportunity to tell us what they think.
Being in the position which provides one the luxury of being allowed to address a large audience through op-ed is both a blessing and acurse. We'reallowedtosharewitheachof you our personal beliefs and experiences but have to be thick-skinned and open minded enough to deal with repercussions from those withadifferentview. Knowwhat? Welove yourresponses. That,afterall,isthereason we do what we do and are allowed space in the newspaper to share our thought process.
We're prejudiced to the point that we believe newspaper readers are more sophisticated consumers of the news but don't want anyone to forget there is a difference between the op-ed page and hard news. We,inturn,oweyouafirmadherence to journalistic standards.
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion!
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publish- er Fred Hall oversees three other Mid Valley Publishing newspapers - Reedley Exponent, Dinuba Sentinel and Parlier Post. His column, In my OPINION, appears weekly in the Reed- ley Exponent. He can be contacted by phone at (559) 638-2244 or by email at fred@reedleymid- valleypublishing.com.
SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017 EDITORIAL & OPINION
By Dick Sheppard
If Santa and his reindeer
don't get tangled up in the
propellers of one of the
wind machines that will
undoubtedly be keeping
the chill away from Sanger
area citrus orchards on
Christmas Eve maybe we'll
at least get a glimpse of his naughty and nice lists.
After another exhausting Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee meeting last Tuesday I'm probably even more confused than committee members about what the heck is going on with its relationship - or lack of it - with city manager Tim Chapa.
Why does the committee seem to be out of the loop on practically everything it needs from the city to take care of Measure S busi- ness? Is it because of a communications breakdown or intentional stonewalling?
Why do minutes of committee meetings conspicuously omit comments by the city manager that might make him look bad?
Is the city manager Tim Chapa naughty or nice?
If Santa doesn't answer that question, maybe the Fresno County grand jury will offer an opinion on the subject.
Members of the grand jury who huddled in the back of the council chamber on Tuesday looked as confused and frustrated as
members of the committee when the subject of the compliance audit that wasn't really a compliance audit was discussed and again when finance director Gary Watahira pre- sented a proposal to the committee to let the same audit firm that didn't do the compliance audit do a follow-up that would add one more year to an audit the committee has branded as "useless."
Committee member Tony Gonzalez wants nothing to do with the audit firm recom- mended by the city. He wants an audit firm selected by the committee. Tony and commit- tee member James Miser were not even sure the last group of audit firms suggested by the committee even received requests to make a proposal on that compliance audit that wasn't.
The committee wound up rejecting or tabling almost every proposal that came from the city, including one from the city manager to accept the minutes of several meetings. The committee sent the minutes back again for corrections and additions that would include comments on key issues by the city manager.
Stories in the Herald reveal more about what was said in those meetings than the apparently sanitized minutes.
With each new issue it becomes easier
to believe the city manager is either not a very smart guy and is just not able to com- municate or follow through or he is indeed a pretty smart guy who is unwilling to commu- nicate or follow through with the committee
and he is working an agenda that includes marginalizing the committee to the point of irrelivance. That would give him unsuper- vised access to all that Measure S money. Unsupervised because he has three council members, a majority, apparently willing to back him, no matter what he does.
That's one of the advantages of being a home town boy.
•••
We were informed last week that the
Herald is one of only three weekly news- papers in the entire U.S. to receive a sum- mer journalism intern, courtesy of The International Society of Newspaper Editors (ISWNE).
An affiliate of ISWNE told us one of the factors in the decision was the Herald's record as the only weekly newspaper to have a story win the top investigative journal-
ism award at the regional, state and national levels and maybe the only newspaper, daily or weekly, that could claim its stories were instrumental in sparking four grand jury investigations in less than 12 years.
That was pretty flattering until we real- ized it's maybe not so much the Herald great
journalism as much as it is where the Herald is located. Unfortunately, our community has provided a target rich environment for sto- ries about really messed up municipal gover- nance.
•••
You'll have another way to keep track of
Sanger Herald stories, from city hall to Tom Flores Stadium, starting next week.
We'll roll out from our virtual press in the cloud the first e-Edition of the Sanger Herald.
You'll be able, with a subscription, to flip through the pages of the Herald on your computer, tablet or phone. It won't be like our website or Facebook page where you can only look at one story at a time. It will be the whole newspaper, all the pages and all the stories.
Don't worry, we'll continue to publish our print edition.
But we don't want the grand jury to have to wait for the afternoon mail to find out what's going on at city hall.
Comments or suggestions may be emailed to sangerherald@gmail.com or may be made by calling 875-2511 during business hours.
Dick Sheppard
Congress created the storm and now it's complaining about the rain
In my OPINION
Speculation is being passed
off as news instead of opinion
By Fred Hall
Having complained about
the “mainstream media”
for the past several months,
it seems only fair that I
commend ABC News for
their recent recognition of
incorrect reporting on part
of one of their staff—Brian
Ross. Ross'penaltyfor
reporting damning—and false—information on the Trump administration was a month's leavewithpay. Therewasatimewhenthe rule of thumb used to require three sources toverifyinformation. Wedon'tknowwhat happenedtothatbitofreportingwisdom. No wonder these guys often go off half-cocked!
Yes, it is essentially a vacation for Mr. Ross butIgivecredittothetelevision network for openly confirming their reporter waswrong. Thissmallmovementgives
me hope that the “get Trump at any cost” movement may have subsided and there can be a moderated return to an old fashioned, professional approach to journalistic reportage. Althoughtherearestillmany others in the media who ruefully display their contempt for those who voted for President Trump we thank ABC for the first step.
Much of the slide toward slanted and mediocre reporting during the past decade has been precipitated by a loosening of standards, allowing—even driving--the polarization of the country and allowing speculation to make its way into print. Certainlythereis blameattributableto social media since it has become the news sourceformillionsofAmericans. The individuals who ply their trade on the internethavea completelackofjournalistic standards. Moreandmoreyounger reporters are convinced there is no problem with their personal bias becoming part of a story. In their view, a little slant won't hurt anything. Ifoneisareaderinsearchof facts, believe me, there is no interest in what some reporter believes. They should have strong, knowledgable editors but they aren't always that fortunate and wind up learning thebusinessfromeachother!
To make it perfectly clear, straight news should only deal with provable facts with no opinionsorpersonalclarification. Opinions are the purview of the opinion-editorial page where community journalism should be practiced, allowing readers to respond
to a writer's personal view without fear of
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