Y2K13

Published in slightly edited form in Tulare County's Foothills Sun-Gazette Jan. 1, 2014


     Reflecting on this past year, I'm ready to leave it.  It seems there was more work in my life than accomplishment.  I feel the need for a change in approach, but don't see the path.  I'm not sure what improvements the new year could bring, but in recognizing the need, there's hope.


     Remember the year we sat on this cusp, wondering if the world would end the next day?  That was 1999, fourteen years ago.  I didn't really expect much difference in that 24-hour period.  The End did not arrive, nor the Messiah, nor the Apocalypse.  The City of Lindsay was already on its new path of revamping the town's identity, but we, the public, didn't know it, and unfortunately only a handful of people still are privy to its plans.  That fact is what has me most discouraged about the year 2013.


     When it began I had hope for a change.  We installed two new council members and elected Ramona Padilla mayor.  At their first council meeting I asked for a small thing:  the restoration of the language about public participation in council meetings that former mayor Ed Murray had city manager Rich Wilkinson remove from the agenda materials without discussion by, much less a vote from, the city council.  So small.  Ramona asked me to give her a little time to get used to her new position, and that time allowed her to get into the position Ed had been in, cozied up with staff.  Sad but true.  Those sentences permitting citizen involvement in council meetings beyond the three-minute public comment period are still in the wastebasket.


     In this year they officially finished the park, still without swings.  "Don't have the money to install them properly," is the official word on that.  They had money to build the new skateboard park in the park.  They had money to rip out the hedge that bordered its east side, fence it, lay a gravel pathway the entire length and post No Parking signs every 20 feet, but not for the rubber chips that are supposed to make it safer when a child falls out of the swing.  We've got the swings, supposedly; we've got piles of sand left over from the pathway, but no rubber chips, so the kids can't have a place to swing in the newly renovated city park.  They still think they can make excuses like this at the end of 2013.  That's another thing that has me discouraged about the past year.


     What small good can be said about the past year is that the Council no longer votes 5-0 in favor of every resolution the staff brings before them.  We have many more 4-1 or even 3-2 votes than we ever had since John Stava left the council.  When one of the old members will be absent and a tie vote is possible on an issue important to the staff, they have to work to reschedule that item for a meeting when those key members will be present.  This improvement is hard to see, but it's there.


     One hope for improvement in 2014 is that we will have the opportunity to replace two of the old council members, Danny Salinas and Ramona Padilla.  Both were appointed to the Council under Ed Murray as mayor, and both have served to advance the staff's agendas.  Perhaps there are people who are willing to run for public office who would advance the public's interest in this city's future.  Perhaps by the end of Y2K14 we'll have a better report to make.
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Trudy Wischemann is a die-hard observer of public interest matters who writes.  You can send her your thoughts on the past and future years % P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.