Scot Free......

Things had gotten kinda quiet in our town lately, peace interrupted only by the sounds of heavy equipment carving out the roadbed for the unpopular Sierra View Extension. But it’s back - the public outrage, the seething anger at Lindsay’s city government - after news that Scot Townsend is getting off scot-free.  
Thursday’s Porterville Recorder, which announced that no criminal charges will be filed against our former city manager in a front-page, top-headline article, even received some of the bile.  “I’m so mad at the paper,” said the friend who brought the news to my checkstand Thursday night, wanting to shoot the messenger.  
And maybe she’s right.  The article intertwined the news with the upcoming budget and (silently) city manager Rich Wilkinson’s contract renewal. Quoting Mayor Ed, the article ended conclusively positive: “When you think of all the things going on a year ago and now it’s all behind us....We’ve come a long ways under Rich’s leadership and how he got things done.  Everybody’s working harder, working smarter.”
Written by editor Rick Elkins after the recent departure of reporter Alex Schultz, who helped break the news on the home and microenterprise loan fiascos revealed by the 2009-2010 audit, the article was a red flag. The press is actually the fourth arm of government, keeping the public informed enough of the real issues to actually participate in civic affairs. It was daunting to think the press might go back to its old habit of publishing whatever the city wants us to hear. Those of us who know another side will have to keep the papers aware of their responsibilities for the facts.
And what are the facts?  
That this city council approved, ignorantly or knowingly, every item Scot Townsend brought before them, as it currently approves whatever Rich and his staff bring before them (with the possible exception of last meeting’s proposal to remove the four-way stop from Tulare Road and Homassel Ave. But keep your eye on that one: staff is not above squirreling around their clear directive to leave it alone.)  
That several members of this city council personally have benefited from the City’s projects, despite clear wording in both the city’s charter and municipal code that councilmembers are to avoid anything that even appears like it might be a conflict of interest. 
That this council did not want to find anything that might result in criminal charges being filed against anybody in the city, much less Scot Townsend, whose projects were designed to make members of a certain religious affiliation rich. At the expense of no one more important than the city’s quiet taxpayers and anyone who loved to have big family parties at the park or to swing under the shady canopy of an oak tree. At the expense of democracy itself.
Sorry, Ed  et. al.  It’s not all behind you. The teaparty’s just begun.