Turning Points

Published in slightly edited form June 18, 2014 in Tulare County's Foothills Sun-Gazette


     Last week, graduation.  This week, the year’s longest days approach and then begin to shorten as we roll up to and over the summer solstice.  June, like December, has many turning points in our lifecycles.

     June contains another, more artificial turn: the end-beginning of each fiscal year.  At the next Lindsay City Council meeting the city’s staff will present a finalized budget for the Council’s approval.  The budget is the place where the rubber meets the road of our immediate future.  Although the columns of figures and oblique categories are daunting to those of us not schooled in the dismal science, the staff’s past actions and future intentions are there, even if hidden.

     But after the last two Lindsay City Council meetings, I sense we might be at a turning point here as well:  the point where our elected officials, the city council, take back the control and oversight responsibility they’re supposed to exert over the city staff.

     One of my reasons for quiet optimism occurred at the last meeting (June 10.)  Councilmembers Rosaena Sanchez and Steven Mecum questioned items in the budget, particularly one large salary increase and 1.5% COLAs for all staff except City Manager/Chief of Police Rich Wilkinson, who already makes $149,032 per year.  “You can quote me on this,” Councilman Mecum said, “I’ll accept zero percent salary increases.  Zero.” 

     Councilmember Pam Kimball and Mayor Ramona Padilla also questioned staff throughout the meeting, drawing particular attention to the State housing loan grant proposals and staff’s suggestion for “blending” loans from different programs to prospective home buyers.  After the problems created by “stacking” loans from different programs that were discovered two years ago, the hairs on the heads of every person in that room should have been standing straight up.  Pam and Ramona's questions made it clear that we've learned something from our history.

     Another reason for optimism was delivered at the prior meeting on May 27.  A reconsideration of the request by Central Valley Asphalt to hook up to the City of Lindsay water supply had been placed on that agenda, purportedly by Mayor Padilla.  That request was defeated by a tie vote back at the January 28 meeting, and the process of having it reconsidered was discussed immediately afterward.  A reconsideration would have required one of the two councilmembers voting against the measure to bring it back to the council.  By placing it on the May 27 agenda, someone on the city's staff was pretending that conversation never happened.  Luckily, Councilman Mecum remembered and questioned the city attorney, who reluctantly agreed that yes, indeed, this was not proper procedure, and the issue was once again laid to rest.

     I won’t say the staff lies: it’s just hard to figure out which side of their mouths they’re talking out of at any given time.  When they say, as reported in the June 4 edition of this paper, that “Lindsay may begin search for next city manager” (news that made some hearts jump up and dance,) they may just be blowing smoke.  These positions they’re amplifying in the budget to “groom” replacements may be nothing more than staff rewards for good behavior and departmental empire building.  Rather than grooming replacements (because someone not familiar with Lindsay’s “challenges” might not do so well, according to them,) we might wonder what someone from the outside would see - let's say, someone with a graduate education in business administration.  We might find ourselves with fewer challenges.

     The biggest reason for optimism, however, is that the public may yet have a place at the table if the Council reclaims their proper role.  We might get those sentences back about participating in these public meetings.  Come see our awakening Council at work and give them your support.  It helps.
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Trudy Wischemann is a reluctant optimist who writes.  You can send her your turning point stories c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.