Page 3 - Sanger Herald 4-18-19 E-edition

Random thoughts There's nothing left to be transparent about ...
spring break and holy week
are one and the same this year, according to a teacher friend of mine.
•••
The city council recently held a special meeting to pass an "urgency ordinance" giving the city an ability to keep wireless companies from running wild and creating unsightly clutter in public rights of way.
The federal communications commission opened the door for wireless companies to do just that with a recent ruling.
The city cited an "aesthetic concern."
It seems ironic for the city to be con- cerned about the clutter and aesthetic prob- lem in the photo on the left below while at the same time perpetuating the clutter and aesthetic problem on the city water tower in the photo on the right below.
Can't help wondering if maybe the sud- den "aesthetic concern" has something to do with the city getting lease money from wire- less companies for hanging equipment all over the water tower and the city not getting money if wireless companies migrate to util- ity poles.
An aesthetic concern, by the way, is "a con- cern with beauty or appreciation of beauty."
None of that concern or appreciation apparently applies to the water tower, down- town or entrances to the city.
Too bad.
•••
The results of a recent poll of Central
Valley businesses done by the Central Valley Business Federation pretty much fell in line
Not my tax dollars ...
In the April 11, 2019, Sanger Herald issue, an article regarding Sen. Melissa Hurtado was published. It’s my understanding that Ms. Hurtado wants $12 million to invest in the Dolores Huerta Foundation and Martin Luther King Jr Center.
I am adamantly opposed to have MY TAX DOLLARS being spent in this way.
The state of California already funds programs like the ones Hurtado is seeking more money for. I would oppose $1million, let alone $12 million.
Where does she think the money is coming from? Taxpayers would have to foot more money for the myriad programs much like the ones she is proposing.
The state already allocates funds through educational programs, city, state and special state-funded programs.
It doesn’t make sense to be funneling so much money into these foundations that
Established 1889 • Published every Thursday 740 N Sanger, CA 93657 • (559) 875-2511
Fred Hall, publisher Dick Sheppard, editor
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In my OPINION
Political correctness wastes our tax money
SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019 EDITORIAL & OPINION
By Dick Sheppard
The Sanger Herald fam- ily wishes you and your family an extraordinary and joyful Easter.
May it be a day chock full of Easter blessings!
•••
It's not a coincidence that
Dick Sheppard
with our experience at the Herald.
The good news is:
• staffs are a little larger than last year
and 2019 is expected to be a better business year than 2018.
The not so good news is that major busi- ness concerns are:
• government regulation and compliance and taxes and fees.
No surprise there.
•••
It's an interesting weather year. A couple
of times recently I've turned on the air con- ditioner in my car in the afternoon and the heater on my way home after an evening meeting. Then there's the 60-something day on Tuesday followed by today's predicted high of 90-something.
We've recently had spring, summer and winter weather all in the same week. A cou- ple of times, in the same day.
•••
It's obvious to anyone paying attention
that the city staff, obviously directed by the city manager with tacit approval of the city council, is systematically and incremen- tally cranking the Measure S calendar back to 2011. That was before the then council approved Resolution 4361 creating grant opportunities for nonprofits. Those oppor- tunities for nonprofits were not spelled out and probably not imagined by those who were involved in crafting and then putting Ordinance 1094 on the ballot.
The ordinance that declared, "It is the intent of the People that revenues collected hereunder shall supplement, rather than sup- plant, existing City expenditures for public safety," was approved in February of 2008, creating the Measure S public safety tax.
There was no mention of nonprofits in the ordinance. The stated intent in 2008 was for tax revenues to be split between police and fire departments.
Since Resolution 4361 was approved in July of 2012, nonprofits like SAM Academy, the Boys & Girls Club of Fresno County, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central California and several other nonprofits that provide programs designed to keep at risk youths
out of gangs and off drugs fell under a gang/ drug prevention umbrella and received grant money from Measure S public safety funds.
The nonprofits usually split up more than $100,000 in Measure S money every year. In 2018 it was $116,000.
In 2019 it will probably be $50,000 split among three nonprofits. That was the topic of a sometimes emotional discussion at the Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee
already have allocated funds.
Who is she seeking to employ to run these
programs, her family and friends? This demand has no basis.
I am a taxpayer and I will voice my
concerns, especially when there is misuse of my tax dollars.
Ms. Hurtado has many more pressing issues that can impact the state and our community.
Taxes are already so high that families are leaving California by the hundreds. That is a loss to our cities and schools and will impact the livelihood of the state of California.
Ralph Meza
Editor's note: It took awhile for me to decide whether to use an email I received on April 10 from Reedley city manager Nicole Zieba as a letter to the editor or to write a story about what Nicole talks about in the email. The subject of the email was "Hometown girl makes good." I liked Nicole's enthusiasm and decided that enthusiasm would come across better as a letter to the editor ... and it's a nice feel good story for Easter.
Hometown girl makes good ...
I thought you might be interested in hearing about what Senator Hurtado is up to for Reedley and the surrounding community. I wanted to share with the Sanger community
See LETTERS TO THE EDITOR on page 6A An award winning
2019 member of the California Newspaper Publishers Association
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General Circulation in Fresno County, Order No 85500, Dec 1951 Sanger Herald subscriptions are taken by mail in advance
meeting on Monday evening.
The previous city administration - the one
instrumental in creating the nonprofit grants - did an okay job of overseeing them. Not good. Just okay.
However, the administration directed by city manager Tim Chapa has never appeared comfortable dealing with nonprofits or grants and the process has been so neglected it has fallen apart.
Jerry Valadez of SAM Academy gets frustrated and complains about a lack of transparency with the grant process. But, in my opinion, there is no longer a process to be transparent about. Whatever is happening now, in the waning days of the grant pro- gram, is apparently made up on the spot with
no follow up or oversight.
It would be so much better, in my opinion,
if this administration would just be up front about its effort to rescind Resolution 4361. Its awkward and obvious effort to surrepti- tiously dismantle it is flat out embarrassing.
•••
Passing along an Easter message from the
Central California Blood Center ... "HELP!!" "O and B negative blood levels have
dropped to a dangerous low and O positive is not far behind."
You can see a list of donation sites at donateblood.org.
Please direct your questions or comments to sangerherald@gmail.com.
By Fred Hall
at the same rate as students between 1992 and 2009.”
Even with the spending of all that money, test scores and graduation rates show little evidence of improvement despite this explosive growth of non-teaching positions.
The largest segment of that increase in administrative and non-teaching positions was for teacher aides—employees who work in the classroom, giving students individual attention, often children with special needs.
It is my absolute conviction that we should eliminate Federal oversight and regulation of education and educational curriculum to wit.
The passage of laws like the Disabilities Education Act and the Bilingual Education acts contributed significantly to the greater need for teachers aides.
A study by Fordham University discovered that a higher number of teacher aides generally corresponded to a greater presence of children with individualized education plans. That study also concluded that special needs kids are not the only reason for increased personnel. It notes that “during roughly the same time period, schools were further burdened with obligations to provide special programs and services for youngsters with drug issues, health challenges, sex-and-sometimes- pregnancy, homelessness, and a host of family challenges.”
It just seems that so many of these so called “challenges” fall within the purview of a parent and not our school system.
We've produced a whole generation of the “everybody gets a trophy” youngsters who were dropped on the ground at the finish line by our educational system, untaught, insecure and unable to compete in any sort of global market. They have been told they are perfect in every way and see no reason to adapt to the reality of the world as it truly is. Somebody lied to them along the way to protect their precious feelings. Competition around the world may not have gotten the message about how special our kids are.
The only realistic fix for a problem such as this is to improve the entire system. Investment should be made in those who
are doing the actual teaching and not in people whose main function is administrative or oversight. Our schools should not be considered a social experiment. Curriculum should be structured to provide children with an education which will help them to compete in a world that is inherently competitive. Nothing is to be gained by all the politically correct crap being espoused by academics throughout high school and college.
Spend money on things that will pay dividends and teach true worldly survival skills!
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publisher Fred Hall oversees two other Mid Valley Publishing newspapers - Reedley Exponent, and Dinuba Sentinel. He can be contacted by phone at (559) 638-2244 or by email at fred@ midvalleypublishing.com.
To provide some
perspective for the rationale
for this column, I must
advise you that it is being
written on the morning of
April15-taxday! Thereis
nothing which focuses the
mind more than having to
sign the check and realize
just how much money one has invested in the operation of this hyper-bloated government ofours. Anysaneindividualwillquestion whether the bureaucrats are making better use of all this money than those of us in theprivatesector. I.R.S.Collectionsare staggering and the Democrats want more to give away in wasteful social programs and special interest support.
How did we ever get to the point that, in total, taxes take almost half of what we earn? Let's take a look at the scam and how it's perpetrated.
Next to a “sin tax” levied on alcohol or cigarettes, the easiest tax increase to get or bond issue to pass would be for our often dysfunctional educational system. Tell the voters that it's for the schools and will help back-fill a shortage of funds to adequately educate our children in modern facilities which will replace the run-down schools which are currently in service.
Truth is, if you're like most of us, you have children or grandchildren attending the impacted school or college and can't find yourself possibly being so cold hearted as to turndownsuchasimplerequest. Afterall, it's only a few more dollars a year and we've been taught, year after year, how important a proper education is to the future of our youngsters.
Factually, in view of the recent “pay
to play” scandals involving colleges, it
gives one a reason to be skeptical of the educational complex and deserves a helluva lot closer inspection of where our taxpayer dollarsaretrulygoing. Bytheway,inthis recent scandal it appears that the colleges themselves will not have to pay a price
for the quasi-sanctioned cheating that was taking place right before their eyes. Perhaps because so many of the programs currently in place for scholarship money or assistance are little more than a scam of our generosity.
Perhaps we should “follow the money” and see if it is being wisely and prudently spent. Every marker we have examined indicates thatisnotnecessarilythecase. Asonewould do with any business, let's examine how the ever increasing funding is being used.
During a recent poll charting school activity from 1970 to 2010, researchers discovered the growth of students amounted to 8.6 percent, while the growth of non- teaching staff (administrative) burgeoned by130percent. Thisispunctuatedby
little growth in actual teaching personnel. Fordham Foundation found that “states could have saved more than $24 billion annually if that increased/decreased the employment of administrators and other non-teaching staff
Fred Hall
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