Page 3 - Sanger Herald 2-8-18 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2018 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Random thoughts There are interesting contrasts between the city and the school district ...
By Dick Sheppard
I can't help having a few
random thoughts about the
contrast between the way
the school board and the
city council select their top administrative officers, a superintendent and a city
manager, and what happens
after the new administrators take over.
The school district grows its own admin- istrators, Marc Johnson, Matt Navo and now Adela Jones, who was named Monday as the new superintendent when Navo steps down at the end of the school year. They grew up with the district, honed their skills at the district, helped create the successful - putting kids first - culture of the district.
The selection of Jones to replace Navo assures a smooth transition and a continuity of effort and culture.
When Jones takes over, she and the board will praise the job Navo did as superinten- dent during a time of many great changes.
Wherever he goes, Navo will say nice things about Jones and the school board.
The district, without taking a single back- ward step will continue to move forward.
The most recent change in city manager was nothing like that.
Talented and capable people at city hall were ignored as candidates for the job and the council reached out to a former city employee, Tim Chapa, in Rio Vista.
When Chapa took over, he and the then city council demonized the previous city manager, Brian Haddix, and his team and promised to clean up the mess Haddix left behind.
They ignored the accomplishments of Haddix and his team during a time of great changes in a city that was on the verge of bankruptcy when Haddix arrived and had a balanced budget by the time he and his team were forced out by a hostile council.
How did the new city manager clean up the financial "mess" left behind by the previ- ous administration? By replacing an award winning finance director with someone who
made so many accounting errors the books couldn't be properly audited.
The city took several awkward and very public steps backward before beginning to stumble forward again, after attracting the fourth grand jury investigation of municipal governance in less than 10 years.
What interesting contrasts in style - and results.
•••
Speaking of school district successes -
the ed center, Kings River High School and Taft Independent Study, home of the Mighty Monarchs, held its annual academic awards dinner on Feb. 1 to honor students with 3.0-4.0 GPAs. Ten students had 4.0s and 50 more had 3.0s and better. That's a really big deal when you consider these are students who didn't thrive in a traditional school environment and have blossomed at Kings River or Taft.
Rick Church, the principal, was named the Administrator of the Year by the Fresno County Office of Education.
You can read about the academic awards on today's front page. But, there were addi- tional awards presented this year and I didn't get the information in time to include it with the story. So, because these kids don't get enough credit or publicity, here from vol- leyball coach Nichele Winer, is the rest of the story ...
Kings River High School participated in
a co-ed volleyball league that included 11 other continuation schools from Visalia to Madera. This is the first year that we had
to have two leagues (American League and National League) because the number of teams playing has doubled. Our record was 5 and 0 for the league play (Kings River was intheNationalLeague). WebeatSoulfrom Selma in the semi-final game and then went on to beat Woodson, for the second time that seasoninthechampionshipgame. After the championship game, coach Wimer and coach Levi were invited to coach an all-star team representing the National League. The American League versus National League All-StargamewasplayedinFresno. Bryant Pena and Antoinette Garcia represented Kings River in that game and we (National
League) won that match also.
Along the way we met some great players
but everyone said that Bryant Pena was an outstanding offensive player and Antoinette Garciawasfantasticondefense. Atone point in the championship game Garcia served at least 10 service points in a row for 10points. Duringtheall-stargamewegot
to have Donnie, from Woodson, play with our side and both Donnie and Bryant made some greatplaystoleadustoawin. Wehadpizza afterwards and had some time to get to know players and coaches.
The awards, presented at the academic awards dinner for Kings River players went to:
Sayra Martinez – Most Improved Crystal Martinez – Most Inspirational Coaches Award – Bridgette Zavala Best Defensive – Antoinett Garcia Best Offensive – Juan Prieto
Most Valuable Player – Bryant Pena
•••
I'm having trouble understanding how the 180 degree philosophical about face in Measure S spending came about.
Seems like it was only one city administra- tion ago when the oversight committee was wrestling with the concept of tying, what
at the time were thought to be key words "supplement" and "supplant," to the city bud- get that existed when the measure went into
effect in 2008. But a long lost resolution, recently presented to the oversight commit- tee, apparentlysaysthepublicsafetymoney can be spent on anything the city manager and city council define as public safety as long as the general fund budget for public safety doesn't fall below a certain point.
Doesn't that mean a quick glance at the general fund budget will take the place of "oversight" and there is no longer a need for that annoying Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee?
Clever.
•••
Waytogo to chamber boss Tammy Wolfe and her right hand woman Karen Pearson for
organizing a great ceremony for the opening of the Blossom Trail.
Tammy and Karen have almost talked me into checking out the Blossom Bus which will tour the trail featuring area distilleries on Feb. 24 and Feb. 25.
Blossoms, wine, beer and a designated driver. That's my kind of tour. Check with the chamber at 875-4575 if you're interested.
•••
Best wishes for a happy, chocolate filled Valentine's Day!
Comments, complaints and suggestions may be emailed to sangerherald@gmail.com or maybe made by calling 875-2511
Dick Sheppard
In my OPINION
Were Democrats sulking because the
president didn't praise their bad behavior?
By Fred Hall
economy, receiving pay raises and bonuses This has led Nancy Pelosi, of California,
to declarethat$1,000bonusesarecrumbs. P e r h a p s the rarified air of living such a sheltered, privileged life in San Francisco has affected her thinking.
Repatriated money, again because of
tax reform, will be returned to The United States and invested in job and infrastructure growth. Somefirmshaveannouncedthey willbereturningtheirplantstothiscountry. Remember that president Obama famously declared that was impossible—even with a magicwand. Perhapsifhehadusedeconom- ic common sense instead of a liberal tax and spend magic wand he would have discovered thatitispossible.
Ask yourself, just what do Mr. Trump's opposition from Democrats, media and “neverTrumpers”actuallystandfor. Surely it must run deeper than the well being of mil- lions of illegal aliens compared to hundreds of millions of American citizens. Personally it seems Mr. Trump has it just about right— AmericaandAmericans first! The Democrats have what seems to be a good solid offer on the table to take care of over a million of the so called dreamers.
Mr. Trump must be careful in dealing with Democrat leadership on this issue. Previously we've seen Republican presidents make concessions based on promises of a balancing, offsetting agreement which would beimplementedlater. Justgiveuswhatwe wantnowandwe'lltakecareofyoulater. Guesswhat? Withthesepeoplethatwill never happen—whether it deals with tax cuts or promises of citizenship for illegals we've been there, done that and got burned!
I don't know about you but I was person- ally relieved that our president did not use the personal pronoun “I” 150 times as his predecessorhaddone. Mr.Trump'spersonal choice was we and our—he used I only 29 times. Somuchfortheliberalproclamation that he is narcissistic.
But, as always, that's only one man's opin- ion.
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Newspaper deadlines
being what they are, we
fully realize that by now
the president's State of the
Union speech will have
been analyzed to death by
the pompous pundits from
media and politicians as
well. Therehasbeenmuch
wailing about the perception of these learned people that there was not enough effort on thepartofthepresident to“reachacross the aisle” when it was blatantly obvious that those on the other side already had their neg- ativelychargedmindsset. The“resistance.”
Let's begin with the fact that Donald Trump delivered precisely what the speech wasentitledtorepresent. Itisatimeset aside when the chief executive is scheduled to deliver a report on THE STATE OF THE UNION. An area, in our opinion, where he did exceedingly well. It was never intended asanhour,setaside,fortheleaderofthe country to pander to the opposition party. Accent this year is on opposition because they seem to oppose every thing which Mr. Trump says or does.
Tom Brokaw, from his perch at the NBC news desk, pontificated that perhaps the time had come to put an end to this annual ritual. He was so disappointed that Mr. Trump had notdeliveredonwhatthistelevisiontalking head andDemocratoperativedeemedas appropriate.
How else can one explain the lack of applause or any type of recognition when glowing reports are delivered on the almost euphoric state of the economy or the growing employment statistics in terms of ethnicity? Both black and hispanic job figures should makeallAmericans—aswellasthemedia and politicians—smile.
What'snottolike? Cankeepingthe borders wide open be that important to Democrats?
Let'sfaceit. Thestockmarketwas setting records, almost on a daily basis until the recent profit taking, meaning that 401 (K)'s for average people are experiencing ahealthygrowth. Taxreformwillsoonbe placing more money in almost everyone's paycheck. That very same tax reform has resulted in many workers, throughout the
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