Page 3 - Sanger Herald 5-30-19 E-edition

By Dick Sheppard
Waytogo Sanger's VFW Post 7168 for organizing
a great Memorial Day ceremony.
I got to Sanger Cemetery where the event was held on Monday a little early and met Carmen and Joe Reyna of Sanger.
Dick Sheppard
oversight committee.
Making that road even muddier will be
recommendations to the council from city staff members who many view as responsible for the apparent chaos that resulted in a lack of clear direction from the committee and the commission.
This evening at a 6 p.m. special meeting in city hall, the council will try to come to an agreement on approving a Measure S 2019- 2020 and 2020-2021 proposed budget and
10 year spending plan and Measure S grant disbursements to nonprofits.
The oversight committee, while trying to decide what recommendation to send to the council about the budget, 10 year plan and grants, traveled down maybe an even muddier road. It was so confusing, chaotic, contentious and muddy, in fact, that two members of the committee resigned and one, on her Facebook page, volunteered
to be chairperson of a "No on Measure S" committee when the measure comes up for voter renewal again.
Brave councilmembers, at a special meeting on June 6 at the community center will head down another muddy road when they attempt to make a final decision on
a controversial state ordered affordable housing rezoning issue.
Whatever the council decides, it may not upset any more people than the date of the meeting itself. It conflicts with the WAMS and Fairmont promotion ceremonies.
There is only a kind of mud covered non-recommendation from the planning commission to guide the council's decision.
A voting snafu at a May 15 meeting of the commission negated a 3-1 vote in favor of recommending a plan to rezone 54 acres to comply with an affordable housing mandate from the state.
Commissioners who probably heaved a collective sigh of relief for finally putting the issue to bed were surprised when a couple
of days after the meeting the city attorney explained that four votes, a majority of the seven person commission, were necessary for approval. Two commission members had recused themselves, one was absent and the
remaining four didn't agree - so, no official planning commission recommendation.
Deja vu all over again.
But never fear!
City staff will be at both council meetings
to let councilmembers know what the staff's boss, city manager Tim Chapa, wants the councilmembers to do.
And, they'll do it because that's what this council does without apparently realizing that many, if not all, of those muddy roads flow right out of the city manager's office.
•••
Special waytogos to the volunteers who
placed the small flags on graves of men and
women who had served in the military for the Memorial Day service at Sanger Cemetery.
Unfortunately I don't have a list of all the volunteers. But I do know that members of Scout Troop 322, the high school Interact club, Sanger Rotary club, American Legion and Hope Sanger were involved.
•••
Hope you can make it to the city council
meeting this evening.
It's likely to be a lot more interesting than
anything on TV.
Please direct your questions or comments to sangerherald@gmail.com.
Random thoughts The city council is about to travel down muddy roads ...
They underlined for me what Memorial Day is all about.
They were at the cemetery to decorate the grave of Carmen's brother USMC LCpl Joseph Escobar who gave his life for his country on June 2, 1967 in Vietnam.
They led me a short distance away to show me a marker to commemorate Carmen's cousin, Army Sgt. Frank S. Hernandez, who went missing in action in Vietnam in 1970.
His body was never found.
Memorial Day is not a time to thank the military veterans who came home.
It's a time to remember military personnel like LCpl Escobar who was killed in action and Sgt. Hernandez who went missing in action.
It's a time to remember and to thank those men and women who gave their all for our great nation - for our freedom.
•••
Got to thinking recently about what's
ahead for the city council during its next few meetings and an old country song I remember Hank Thompson or maybe Willie Nelson singing popped into my head.
It went something like this:
"Detour, there's a muddy road ahead Detour, paid no mind to what it said Detour, oh, these bitter things I find Should have read that detour sign ..." As Hank might have said, "Yep, there's
gonna be a mighty muddy road ahead ..."
for councilmembers no matter how well intentioned they are or how fair they try to be while working to figure out what went into putting together - or not putting together - recommendations to guide them from the planning commission and the Measure S
In my OPINION
How does the state continue to excel in
SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2019 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Ediitor's note: Our thanks to Dr. Alfredo Ponce for allowing us to use his powerful graphic about the many 2019 graduates who are children of farm workers. Ponce, currently an as- sistant principal at Sanger High School, will become principal of Sanger Unified's Community Day School at the beginning of the next schoolyear. In his spare time Ponce creates colorful graphics like the one above about important events in the school district. To see the graphic in color subscribe to the Herald's e-Edition or visit the Sanger Herald website at "thesangerher- ald.com or the Sanger Herald Facebook page.
in-depth dumbness?
By Fred Hall
Try to imagine, if you will, what it would feel like to run a business where you had a virtually unlimited access to capital and restrictions and regulations had been carefully scripted so they did not apply to you.
Speed Rail boondoggle, understand that the Democrats in Sacramento are not through with us. They want to provide free health care to everyone. Illegals from anywhere in the world are welcome to treatment of your choice by the rest of us who will pay the
bill. Add to that mess the fact that there are illegals being housed in our public housing units while American citizens are on an abstract waiting list. The state of California is currently spending roughly $26 billion annually on illegal aliens, arguably showing a preference for illegals over citizens.
Given the propensity for voter fraud throughout California perhaps we already have our answer why the scale is being tipped.
How does the state continue to excel in in-depth dumbness?
How about the recent decision by lawmakers to begin the establishment of special banks to provide services to marijuana growers?
Just forget that regular federally chartered banks are forbidden by the law. California officials apparently believe they can pick and choose which laws they are willing to obey.
Surely their current position on illegal immigration vis-a-vis Federal law indicates that such would be their preferred position.
If Sacramento's actions are, if nothing else predictable, one can expect that preference will be given for those charters for banks to previously convicted felons. At least that was the directive in awarding licenses to operate pot shops. I suppose those are the people most skilled at supplying our young people with a drug that leaves them in a stupor and devoid of any ambition.
That is a somewhat truncated view of how our legislators and officials operate a multi-billion dollar business without those constraints with which all the rest of us
face on a daily business. Need money? No problem—just raise taxes on something
or someone. Restrictions and regulations? No problem—they exempted themselves. Doesn't make sense? No problem—what are they going to do with when the grand idea
is an abject failure. Maybe it's the fact that being governed by this kind of stupidity that is causing taxpayers to flee the state by the tens of thousands.
My point is writing this was that government should subscribe to basic business principals. Spend wisely and spend less. They should spend less than they take in. The result would be better government and a contingency fund for emergencies instead of a monstrous debt. That board of which I spoke is us, the taxpayers, and we should demand better.
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.
Fred Hall
What we have essentially identified above aremanyofthevariouspolitical bureaucracies—as well as their attitudes- -who seem to oversee every aspect of our daily activities throughout this country. That bribed board to which I refer would be those voters who have been endowed— by our educational system with socialistic tendencies—and have become so enamored with the “free” stuff you provide they continue to return politicians to office.
Ballot harvesting and other forms of election scamming provide a solid basis for maintaining the “hands-out” crowd to whom the politicians provide all sorts of manna. Ballot harvesting is problematic at its best andisbannedinmoststates. Thechainof control for that ballot should not be allowed to pass through a third party.
A reasonable place to start would be
right here in California where the state has sued the Trump administration almost 50 timesoverinaneissues. Thelatestepisode involves about $1 billion California needs to“finish”theHighSpeedRail. Wewere told recently that there is no way to finish thatproject. OurGovernorsaysthat,when finished, the HSR will go from Merced to Bakersfield but will be a tremendous boost totheValley'seconomy. Sure! Wewould suggest a feasibility study to see if that really does “pencil out.”
What we need is full and complete audit and accounting of where and exactly
how all this taxpayer money has been spent.
Consultants, cost overruns and absolute waste would surely be identified as the same old government incompetence we've all come toexpect. WhatmakestheGovernorandhis Attorney General think any investor should beexpectedtodo? Pourmoneyintoany project which has been so poorly run from the get-go?
At least this Trump administration is attempting to place some safeguards on whether our money continues to be wasted or properly overseen! Why on earth does Gavin Newsom feel that he is divinely entitled to continuetopourmoneydownarathole. This is one of the best examples of government incompetence and lack of accountability in our recollection.
When one takes into consideration the huge fraud being perpetrated on the taxpayers of California with the High
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