The Need for Change: Complicity

Last week I wrote about one of the needs for change on Lindsay’s City Council:  the “plain ignorance” of current members about the economic facts of life for most of our residents, as well as ignorance of the City’s actual financial condition during Scot Townsend’s administration.
If it was just ignorance, however, one would expect a stronger reaction when the facts were discovered than we received from this Council.  In fact, one would even want to see them take some action to recover lost money and restore funds to their proper uses. That didn’t happen.
I was reminded of this by a question asked at Thursday night’s candidates forum held by the Dolores Huerta Foundation.  “Many believe City employees misused funds.  Would you take steps to investigate this further?” the candidates were asked.  The incumbents essentially said “No,” taking the position they’ve held since the 2009-2010 audit confirmed massively bad bookkeeping, unlawful use of funds and wasteful spending that citizens had raised questions about for months: “Nobody did anything wrong.”
After reviewing the HomePages from the past two years and seeing this same kind of response to one issue after another, I am willing to lay the charge of complicity against this Council. The dictionary’s primary definition of “complicity” is “the fact or state of being an accomplice; partnership in wrongdoing.” The current members of this Council are complicitous with the staff and are either blinded or made mute by their interests in seeing the staff’s programs continue no matter the costs to the community.
Those costs are both economic and social. The staff’s response to the City’s possible bankruptcy headlining last week’s edition was a perfect case in point. “(T)he City of Lindsay would still NOT entertain the idea of declaring bankruptcy because there are no lenders that can take anything from us,” said the finance director. Bankruptcy is the legal form creditors use to defend their assets from lenders while restructuring their finances. TCAG can’t repossess the Downtown Improvement Project; the USDA can’t take back Tulare Road, the Aquatic or Wellness Center - and who would want an economic albatross like McDermont?
But bankruptcy wasn’t the issue raised by the 2009-2010 audit, or even the 2010-2011 one. “Solvency” is. To be solvent is “to be able to pay all one’s debts or meet all financial responsibilities.” The city finance director says we have and we will, but that is totally dependent on how forgiving the lenders and grantmakers will be about the requirements attached to the various monies the City received and spent like wastrels.
According to the new audit, Lindsay continues to be a going concern, noting this Council’s complete agreement with Townsend’s “overambitious City transformation schedule,” which the staff still plan to accomplish.  “(T)he bottom line,” concluded the finance director in last week’s article “is that the vision has been accomplished - Lindsay has been improved... and Lindsay residents do have access to better facilities, i.e., the City Library, McDermont Field House, Sweet Briar Plaza Park, the Aquatic Center, the Wellness Center, and very soon the renovated City Park, than any other community in this Valley.”
If only they had transformed the city into something we, who have trouble keeping the lights and water on, could pay for, I might feel a little more gratitude. But all I see is that the upper 25% of this community (which includes the current city council members) now have better places to play while the rest of us work overtime.
- Trudy Wischemann is a community development researcher who writes. You can send her your economic disparity observations - P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA  93247.