Page 3 - Sanger Herald 12-14-17 e-edition

Random thoughts It's a Sanger Christmas tradition I would like to see go away.
By Dick Sheppard
"A foolish consistency is
the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little states-
men and philosophers and
divines. With consistency a
great soul has simply noth-
ing to do. He may as well
concern himself with his
shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day."
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
We found out at the Dec. 7 city council meeting that city manager Tim Chapa will get a 3.64 percent bump in his salary based on his performance evaluation.
That means on a scale of 1-5, 5 being best, in spite of mayor pro tem Eli Ontiveros say- ing he has no confidence in Chapa, there must have been at least a couple of pretty high marks in that evaluation.
Not five minutes after the salary increase was announced Chapa stepped in it again. During the public forum portion of the
meeting Tony Gonzalez, a member of the Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee, asked politely for answers he was promised he would get at the Dec. 7 meeting to ques- tions he had asked at the previous meeting.
The "Oh, shucks" - or something like that - look on Chapa's face was revealing.
It seemed like everybody on the dais and in the audience remembered that Chapa had indeed promised to answer Gonzalez's ques- tions. Anditalsoseemedprettyobvious that Chapa didn't even remember what those questions were.
If the "high mark" council members had anycojonestheywouldhaveaskedthereand then for a do over on that performance evalu- ation.
I've been under the impression that Chapa's lack of follow through with the oversightcommitteeandhismanymisun- derstandingwithsomanypeopleandgroups was part of an evil, calculated plan to wrest control from the oversight committee.
However, I'm now leaning toward the
Fabulous event
At the invitation of our dear friends, Earl and Liz Hudson, we attended The Sanger Woman'sClub"ADickensofaChristmas"
fundraiser to benefit Sanger Unified scholar-
belief that Chapa is just not a follow through kind of guy, even when he's been caught sev- eral times not following through.
I've met a lot of people in the media biz who thought they were so smart and so glib they could talk their way out of problems they created by not following through on commitments.
Chapa's glibness takes the Alan Greenspan form of doublespeak, "I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
"Doublespeak is not lying, nor is it merely sloppy language; it is the intentional use of euphemisms, synonyms, jargon and vague- ness which pretends to communicate but really does not, or which implies the opposite of what it would appear to be communicat- ing," said William D. Lutz, chairman of the Committee on Public Doublespeak of the National Council of Teachers of English.
I believe it's becoming increasingly obvi- ous to everyone except a majority of the
city council that Chapa lacks one of the most important traits of a good city manager, reli- ability. Reliability, in this sense, simply means "consistently doing what you said you were going to do when you said you were going to do it."
•••
Another interesting and sort of related
event at the Dec. 7 council meeting was coun- cil member Daniel Martinez, probably a high mark council member, questioning a staff report saying the fee for using the commu- nity pool should be raised a dollar to keep up with rising costs.
Martinezwantedthestafftodoublecheck their calculations and show him their work.
That's interesting only because Martinez is the guy who is always on Ontiveros' case for "secondguessing"or"micromanaging" the city staff.
I guess it's that old "do as I say, not as I do" thing.
••• Ginormouswaytogostoanimalcontrol
officerMarioIrazoqui andsheltervolunteer Kim Reed.
The Sanger animal shelter is an old unheated metal building on the city yard.
ships.
What an fabulous event!
Congratulations to the Woman's Club and
the Sanger community for a first class event. Wewereimpressedwiththelocationof
Kings River Winery, the dinner by Pardini's and the fabulous decorations and attention to detail.
The holidays are always a busy time, but we plan to make this a priority in future years.
Kudos to the Sanger community on the caliber of this event.
Jon and Angie Tarr
The cold nights have been pretty rough on dogs waiting in theshelter, hop- ing to be adopt- ed.
•••
I am puzzled every year about the wisdom
of parking a Christmas tree in the middle of an intersection in a town that is notorious for being home to some of the world's worst driv- ers.
No, that doesn't mean I hate Christmas or Christmas trees. I hate having a Christmas tree in the middle of the 7th and N streets intersection.
Maybe only one in 20 Sanger drivers know or care about the proper, legal way to make
a left turn around the inconvenient conifer. That poses a significant threat from the other 19. Bah, humbug! It's a Sanger Christmas tra- dition I would like to see go away.
•••
Hanukkah Sameakh to my Jewish friends
celebrating Hanukkah, which began at sun- down on Tuesday.
•••
It's obviously a cruel joke that the most
cracked, uneven and wavy sidewalk in Sanger is on 8th Street in front of the Oasis Saloon.
Comments or suggestions may be emailed to sangerherald@gmail.com or may be made by calling 875-2511 during business hours.
SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2017 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Dick Sheppard
Kim has been collecting
wearing ingsomeofthem oneknowit'stimetoeat.
Jojo
blankets and hav- sweater and letting every-
made into sweat-
ers for the chilly
canine inmates. She cuts the bigger blankets in half so every dog can have a blanket on the bed to crawl under when the temperature dips into the 30s.
If you have a spare blanket you'd like to donate, please see our Pets of the Week fea- ture on page 8A for directions to the shelter.
•••
Chamber of commerce boss Tammy
Wolfe deserves multiple waytogos and a few days rest for all the work she's done putting together the series of wonderful chamber Christmas events like the parade, the tree lighting and the Trek to the Tree.
It's not her fault there was no snow at the General Grant tree this year.
his
new
In my OPINION
There are too many rules, regulations
and restrictions attached to every job
By Fred Hall
All business, when structuringanoperational
plan, realizes that there is
an old axiom dealing with
the threshold of business
which can be vested in
anysingleaccount. Any interruptionwhichimpacts
the cash flow from overly
vesting in the outcome of a single source can be catastrophic!
When one realizes that the relatively
small numbers in the upper brackets are paying most of the tax while roughly half
of California residents pay nothing or get money back through EITC, it appears that we are placing the state in the very position that businessschoolswarnagainst. Colloquially that would be “putting all of one's eggs in one basket.”
What happens when the growing exodus of high earners accelerates and the high tax payments over which politicians literally slobber begin to move into Nevada or a number of states that are more tax friendly?
We are all keenly aware that governments, in and of themselves, produce absolutely nothing. Theladiesandgentlemenwho comprise the bandits of Sacramento have broadened their sights when it comes to “picking the pocket” of the hard working Californian in their pursuit of money to spendonfailedsocialprograms. We'vejust gottofacefacts. Californiahasthisnation's largest percentage of poverty and the highest taxes. Thatshouldbecounterintuitivebut thetwoseemtogohand-in-hand. Themore money your government takes, there is less for the hard working taxpayer.
Taxes, fees, regulations and environmental problems have placed us squarely atop the listofexpensiveplacesinwhichtolive. The state geography is beautiful and diversified but with the cost of utilities, fuel, rent, food and clothing we're faced with making the decision of feeding our families or being able to see the mountains or the ocean.
California, at the present time and projected well into the future, is experiencing a real crush in its need for affordable housing. Whenonefindsthattheperunit price of such a unit is approaching $500,000 there can be no doubt that something is wrong!
There are too many rules, regulations and restrictions attached to every job and the
FredHall
state seems to have an endless stream of fees to fund the bureaucracy which oversees the inane regulation.
Our population has roughly doubled in the last 25 years which adds to poverty and low school scores and yet our politicians seem
to actually be recruiting low achievers by fighting the federal government at every turn over tightening access via our borders.
The intentions to take care of the poor people of the world are indeed commendable, but we have to exercise some judgment
and care that while we're doing so, we're
not dragging others - as well as the entire country - into poverty.
Our roads and highways are in shambles and yet the governor is so dug in on his legacy project of building a high speed rail which it appears too few will ever avail themselves of this amenity to make it “pencil out” as existing without subsidies far into the future. Moneyfromeverywhereisbeing gathered to throw at the HSR project where there appears to be no real need or demand.
California, there was a time when the world was humbled by your beauty and the opportunitywhichyouoffered. Anyone called the Golden State can be proud of such a definition but when we seem to devolved into pockets of unbelievable wealth and others of excruciating, grinding poverty something has gone terribly wrong.
The powers which put us here are in Sacramento and it will take lengthy periods of sanity from those same people to turn thingsaround. Forgetaboutpersonalanimus toward people who think differently than you do and stop using our money to build a useless project which you see as a legacy.
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publish- er 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.
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