Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 10-10-19 E-edition

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 Predictable case of 'lipstick on a pig' for Democrats Virtually everyone is familiar with the idiom "putting lipstick on a pig." Its reference is to cosmetically or ver- bally attempting to alter a situation that is essentially a fait accompli fail- ure into appearing to be successful or otherwise appealing when it blatantly is not. Enter Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff with their “press conference” on Oct. 2 during which they — and a complicit, com- pliant press — attempted to put a happy face on the threatened impeachment, adding to the failure of the Democratic House to accomplish anything during the past two years except harass a duly-elected president. Speaker Pelosi brushed past her announcement that an “inquiry” into impeachment would begin and quickly moved on to a trade agreement and a House bill to ad- dress concerns of the public over the cost of insurance and prescriptions. We believe she grudgingly made this mention of impeachment to appease the far left faction currently being led by a 29-year old bartender and two anti-Semites from the Midwest. Her assurances that they were “working hard” for the public rang hollow in view of the fact that Democrats have worked inces- santly, using an unconstrained list of tactics, to over- turn the results of an election. Hillary Clinton, we notice, has begun a concentrated effort to return to relevancy by going on every low- rated television station that will book her so she can say — once again — that the 2016 election was illegitimate. As near as we can tell, the only thing that might have been problematic was the candidate the Democratic National Committee was able to nominate. If anyone has any serious complaints it would be Bernie Sanders, who watched the funding and rules twisted to support the former First Lady and senator from New York. We personally believe that given the current Clinton ir- relevance and the fact that their “foundation” is non- functional, Hillary would love to jump into a really weak group of Democrat candidates. Just a thought! We believe that their hatred for Donald Trump and the obsession with overturning an election and remov- ing him from office has become so blatant that Demo- crats face potential political losses in 2020 that promise to be devastating for the party. Nancy Pelosi's reign over this dysfunctional group may be tenuous at best. Speaking of government putting lipstick on a pig, does anyone remember the recent hike in gas taxes which was approved by California voters? Talk about sleight of hand! By the time this item made its way onto the printed ballot, it appeared that if it were not approved, all highway construction would essentially grind to a halt. One is left to wonder who in the hell are these voters who would vote to increase their tax load in the country's highest taxation state. Those would be the same electors who gave us Gavin Newsom, Xavier Becerra, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff and short-time presidential can- didate Eric Swalwell. With leadership like that we can only cite the old adage assigned to Confucius: “He who expects nothing isn't going to be disappointed.” Speaking of performing predictably, we see that Newsom quickly removed the lipstick from the pig with a single swipe of the pen entitled Executive Order N-19- 19. That action effectively authorizes billions of dol- lars to be removed from highway repairs and moved to rail construction and aiding in the state's battle against nature called “climate change.” For all of us who are suffering under the weight of $4 per gallon gasoline, that's about as in-your-face as a politician can be! Only in government can a lie like that be sold. But, as always, that's only one man's opinion. Random thoughts about retirement, parades and tamales George M. Villagrana — Dinuba Editor Jon Earnest — Reedley Editor Rick Curiel — Sanger Editor Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus Thursday, October 10, 2019 | A4 | Mid Valley TiMes Editorial & Opinions QUOTE “Never go out to meet trouble. If you will just sit still, nine cases out of ten someone will intercept it before it reaches you.” — Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) Fred Hall By Dick Sheppard Someone once told me that “cognitive dissonance” is that feeling of uneasiness you have when the reality inside your head doesn’t match up with the reality outside your head. I think that’s what I’m deal- ing with. I keep telling myself I’m retired. I even say it out loud once in awhile. But so far the reality inside my head hasn’t paid much attention. It’s ap- parently having a difficult time phasing out the image of a workaholic kind of guy and phasing in an image of a relaxed, walking the dog and taking a nap kind of guy. That’s probably the reason I feel guilty about missing the Oct. 1 Sanger Measure S Citizen’s Oversight Commit- tee meeting where the long awaited and frequently contro- versial “Compliance Examina- tion” was presented. I know the audit firm, se- lected by the current admin- istration at city hall, dinged the current administration for misapplying about $1.5 million of public safety dol- lars. I saw that in the agenda packet posted online before I officially started trying to be a relaxed, walking the dog and taking a nap kind of guy. I know the current administra- tion, as usual, argued with the expert. That was also in the agenda packet. No surprise there. I don’t know how the oversight committee or those in the audience reacted when the “Compliance Examina- tion” findings were presented. That’s bugging me, both be- cause I don’t know what hap- pened and because I’m having such a difficult time letting go of that part of my previ- ous workaholic life. I guess it takes time. ••• I didn’t miss going to the city council meeting last Thursday because friends organized a little retirement party for me at the Oasis and took turns buying me drinks and making up nice things to say about me. If I had known people were going to be so nice to me when I retired I probably would have retired a long time ago. ••• I envy Chuck Shidan who seemed to take to retirement like a chubby duck takes to water. Chuck, second only to Tom Flores in the hearts and minds of Apache football fans, is grand marshal of this year’s Oct. 18 homecoming parade. Before the game with Madera South, starting at 4:30 p.m., the Sanger High School Athletic Hall of Fame committee is hosting a mixer (think tailgate party) at the red brick building in the park by city hall, next to the Depot Museum. Chuck, enshrined in the hall of fame earlier this year, will be a fea- tured speaker before he heads to Tom Flores Stadium to hop in a convertible with his bride Patricia and lead the home- Dick Sheppard coming parade. By the way, Tuesday, Oct. 15, is the deadline to nominate someone for the next hall of fame enshrinement dinner on May 2, 2020. Pick up a nomi- nation form at the high school or contact me at sangercahof@ gmail.com and I’ll email one to you. ••• The Sanger Veterans Pa- rade on Saturday, Nov. 2, is still looking for a grand mar- shal, hopefully an active duty or retired U.S. Coast Guard person. If you know of some- one email a short bio and photo to sangervdp@gmail.com. There’s still time to enter the parade. For more infor- mation, contact JD Bennett at (559) 280-317. ••• Parades are a signal the holiday tamale season is just around the corner, and thanks to Bea Mendoza I’ve got a jump on the season. Bea should enlighten young mayor pro tem Daniel Martinez who has never heard of tamales with olives in them. So young. Dick can be contacted at dicksheppard86@gmail.com More arrogance? Sanger does it again. The city pretends compli- ance and then pretends ex- perts know nothing, including financial auditors, four grand juries, the Citizens Oversight Committee (COC)m and now a compliance auditor. I have never seen such an arrogant entity (city) question the integ- rity and competence of a hired professional as they are doing with their own hand-chosen compliance CPA. Such shame- ful behavior is consistent with someone committing shady ac- tivity under fraud examination standards. No accusation, just an observation. Winner, city. Loser, people of Sanger. The 2017 city-ordered Mea- sure S compliance audit was completed in the fall of 2017. But the city forced the CPA not to verify compliance with what people of Sanger voted for, only that the moneycount was correct on collections and receipts and that it was spent on public safety. That was not what the City Council ordered, yet the council stayed silent. The current compliance re- view was completed and pre- sented to the COC only after the city overrode the original 2010 Council Resolution 4211 and the COC to reduce the re- quired base salaries. The $1.5 million shortfall would have been worse had the city not reduced the guidelines. If the CPA had been given opinions that the City Attorney pre- sented to the COC in 2016, the shortfall would have been a lot worse. Winner, city. Loser, people of Sanger. Under the current city man- ager, every financial audit has questioned city accounting for non-general fund monies such as Measure S, utilities, a 2005 Special District Fund and even transportation funds. Grand ju- ries have investigated Sanger and delivered valid recommen- dations. The city’s standard claim is that it was not at fault and something was wrong with the analysis by the 19-member grand juries. Winner, city. Los- er, people of Sanger. Diversions from funds have increased under current city leadership. No misspent mon- ies have ever been repaid to Measure S, utilities or the 2005 Special District tax. Winner, city. Loser, people of Sanger. The City Council will now formally receive the Compli- ance Review. Will it stay arro- gant or do what is right? James Miser, CPA Sanger Letters from readers