Page 3 - Sanger Herald 1-4-18 E-edition

Random thoughts Several new year resolutions and a few new year observations ...
I'm not sure I did any of those things.
This year I decided to be more specific, at least specific enough so that by the end of 2018 I might be able to figure out whether
I actually followed through, assuming I can still find my list by that time.
I resolve to:
• read the manual for that Blu-ray/DVD player thing I got for Christmas, just as soon as can I find it;
• ask one of my grandkids what the heck a Blu-ray is;
• have only one bloody Mary and eat only one, instead of three biscuits covered in pork sausage gravy for my Sunday breakfast;
• only have chicken fried steak and eggs for breakfast once a week;
• buy lottery tickets at a luckier store;
• finally get around to cleaning and re-seasoning my old cast iron skillet;
• try to remember why I need five e-mail addresses and try to find the passwords to two of those addresses – and, to my LinkedIn, Twitter and Amazon accounts;
• finally reply to all those people who have been sending me messages on LinkedIn, if I can find my password;
• eat donuts only on Wednesdays;
• not eat so much candy, unless it's a Snickers bar;
• stop trying to help people who make it clear they really don’t want my help;
• not drink so much coffee. I think I’ve been too wide awake lately;
• stop putting off things - as soon as I can get around to it;
• get started on that book I intend to write about the bizarre political stuff that's gone on in Sanger since I've been with the Herald;
• actually take a vacation instead of just talk about taking one;
• not leave my driveway until I know the garage door has closed, instead of wondering
Just follow the rules ...
By law the Sanger Unified School District has an annual audit of its school bond expen- ditures. Thisisdonebyanoutsideauditor who determines if the funds were expended in compliance with the bond language and/or intent.
In my OPINION
'One of the great mistakes is to judge
policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.'
SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 2018 EDITORIAL & OPINION
By Dick Sheppard
I've never been good at making new year's resolutions.
Last year's were too vague: be more spontaneous, more imaginative and more adventurous.
Dick Sheppard
about it when I’m halfway to the office;
• make a list before I go grocery shopping
so I won't have to make a second and maybe a third trip;
• remember to turn the page each day on my "You Might Be a Redneck If ..." calendar;
• not eat a bowl of "Stagg Classic Chili with Beans" before going to a city council or school board meeting;
• finish what I start, which means I won’t have as much time to start as many things;
• remember to always wear clean under- wear just in case;
• figure out how to turn off that annoying autocorrect on my snark phoney;
• remember to wear a hat and lots of sunscreen when I'm outdoors during the summer;
• remember that a cold beer may not always be the best way to stay hydrated on a hot summer day;
• keep trying to find ways of explaining to readers that the views expressed on this page, the Herald's Editorial & Opinion Page, are opinions;
• be nicer to the big guys at city hall when they stop hiding behind a verbose and veritable smoke screen of double-speak obfuscation and actually make an effort to become transparent;
• let the Fresno County Superior Court presiding judge know we have space at the Herald we can rent to the grand jury so its members assigned to Sanger won't have to keep driving back and forth to Fresno all the time;
• try to be as good a guy as my dogs seem to think I am; and,
• keep doing everything I can to help make Sanger an even better place to live, work, play, eat, drink and shop.
•••
I usually don't respond to "Letters to the
Editor." However, I'd like to underline and add an "amen" to everything retired SUSD chief operations officer Richard Sepulveda had to say in his letter today.
I have repeatedly used school districts as examples the City of Sanger, should emulate when it comes to dealing with designated funds like the City's Measure S public safety fund.
When the city manager decided to use
The district has a bond oversight commit- teetoreviewexpendituresandprojects. The committee is also presented with the annual compliance audit. The committee is kept informed by district staff and works to keep the district honest about how the bond money is spent.
The City of Sanger doesn't have to re- inventthewheel. Itjustneedstorespectand use the tools already in place and to maintain its integrity by having an independent audi- tor determine if the Measure S money is being spent appropriately.
If that's not already being done, it should be.
Richard Sepulveda
Retired SUSD chief operations officer
Measure S funds to give raises to all public safety employees, not just the ones paid
out of Measure S funds, supplementing the staff that existed in 2008 when the measure took effect, I pointed out a legal opinion in
a Fresno County school district where state attorneys, in a very similar situation, said that giving raises to everyone would be sup- planting, not supplementing and therefore would not be in compliance with a designated fund's language or intent.
The Sanger city manager/council have repeatedly intentionally bypassed the over- sight committee, unlike what has happened in the school district with its bond oversight committee.
The "compliance audit" requested by the City of Sanger's Measure S oversight com- mittee was a truly tasteless joke because the auditor was selected by the city manager over the objections of the oversight commit- tee. The auditor was not given a copy of the ordinance that spelled out the supplement versus supplant rules, was not allowed to meet with the oversight committee before the audit and was told only to determine if
the money had been spent on public safety, which based on the city manager's command of double-speak could be almost anything.
No wonder the city's money machinations attracted the grand jury. What's going on is not all that surprising. What is surprising is how in your face it has been and how in your face it has continued to be, even with the grand jury looking on.
Seems like there are very few similarities between the Sanger Unified School District and the City of Sanger when it comes to integrity of governance.
Looks like the new year has begun where the old year left off, just as 2017 began where 2016 left off. And still city council members choose not put on their big boy and big girl pants and put an end to the cause of what will likely be a very public embarrassement in the form of the next grand jury report.
Those are not so random or so happy new year's thoughts.
Comments, complaints and suggestions may be emailed to sangerherald@gmail.com or may be made by calling 875-2511
By Fred Hall
Early January in Califor- nia often means—as the an- nouncer used to warn us in introducing each episode of The Twilight Zone—there's a signpost up ahead indicat- ing that we have entered the threshold of unintended con- sequences.
Fred Hall
Milton Friedman
Added to the fuel taxes which were added for “cap and trade” and recently renewed as well, this new fuel tax guarantees everything that moves within California's borders is going to cost the consumer more.
Want even more? Small businesses in this state will continue to disappear under the arti- ficial upward pressures on the minimum wage which was designed to be an entry level num- ber, not a career! This is a decision far too important to be placed in the hands of folks in Sacramento who have never really run a busi- ness or worked for a living in their entire lives.
Making matters worse is that a one figure meets all needs is the fact that $15 has a whole different meaning when one considers existing in San Francisco compared to the Central Val- ley.
Last but not least would be the City of Coal- inga which recently annexed a state hospital totreatsexualdeviants. CityfathersinCoal- ing thought it would be a great idea because itwouldenhancetheirtaxbase. Thatseemed like a good idea until Governor Jerry Brown decided we needed to expand our voter roles by allow those same “patients” the right to vote.
During a recent vote on a safety initiative the city came face to face with unintended con- sequences. Avotingblock,formedwithinthe facility, cast 137 votes against the tax increase because it “would have increased the cost of their cheeseburgers and the city had failed to sit down with them and negotiate in good faith.”
Unintended consequences of actions by poli- ticians and the system surround us on a daily basis - one does not need to look very far!
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publisher Fred Hall oversees three other Mid Valley Publishing 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.
Over the coming months, we will indeed be coming face to face with many of the vaga- ries of poorly researched or miserably writ- ten legislation being pronounced upon us by so called “leaders” of the sixth largest economy intheworld. Whyshouldwebeupsetbecause they stripped a few more of our rights away to make those less driven more comfortable? Why should they be saddled with rational thought when if anything goes wrong, they simply turn to the belabored taxpayer for reso- lutionoftheirproblems. Moretaxmoneywill solve everything, right?
Anyway, one might keep in mind the fact that this group of people which we sent to Sac- ramento are imbued with the ability to under- cut and downsize our economy until it is small enough—evenforthemtomanage! Theirlim- its on the skill set required to absolutely waste seems, however, to have no bounds.
For those of us who make a living in the pri- vate sector, it's absolutely imperative that we look at the downside of every decision in the context of its overall impact. We are forced then to do a risk analysis to determine if the potential damaging offset is worth the risk or is at least controllable.
An example would be our legislature caving into the demands of California's environmental community and requiring that our utility com- panies use more and more renewable (more expensive) power sources in the cocktail to generate our electricity. The result has been the most expensive utility rates in the country. Not the kind of statistic that leads to livability or maintaining a competitive edge.
Unintended consequences would be in- volved in raising the tax on each gallon of gas- oline or diesel consumed in the State of Cali- fornia. The intended outcome for that gambit was to provide money for the repairs to our crumbling infrastructure. The problem with that is that we were already paying some of the highest taxes in the country just for that purpose. Bunglingandmismanagementmeant there was never enough after ancillary proj- ects stolen from the road fund.
Established 1889 • Published every Thursday 740 N Sanger, CA 93657 • (559) 875-2511
Fred Hall, publisher Dick Sheppard, editor
Lifestyles editor: Mike Nemeth
Sports editor: Mike Nemeth
Front office: Sharon Mendoza, classified ads
Display Advertising: Paulette Garcia
Composition: Susie House
Press Room manager: Michael Huerta
Press Room: Tom Flores, Phillip Marquez, Ricardo Fernan- dez and Geno Bravo
Mail Room: Sally Ramirez, Matt Garcia and Lorena Neri
An award winning 2018 member of the California Newspaper Publishers Association
The Sanger Herald is owned and published by Mid Valley Publishing, Inc, 740 N, Sanger, CA 93657 It is an Adjudicated Legal Newspaper
General Circulation in Fresno County, Order No 85500, Dec 1951 Sanger Herald subscriptions are taken by mail in advance
SANGER HERALD(USPS 418- 340) is published weekly every Thursday for $25 per year for Fresno County residents and $29.50 per year for residents outside the county and $3150 per year for residents outside the state, non cancelable Periodicals postage paid at Sanger, CA and at additional mailing of ces
Postmaster: Send address changes to the Sanger Herald, 740 N, Sanger, CA 93657
Letters to the editor policy
The Sanger Herald appreciates letters
to the editor and encourages readers to participate in this public forum E-mail to sanger- herald@gmailcom Provide your name and tele- phone number The telephone number will not be published
No handwritten letters, please
Letters under 300 words and letters from writ- ers who have not been recently published will be given preference
Letters may be edited for length, grammar and clarity
Letters that are libelous will not be printed