- - for Ruby and Serafin
The people of Lindsay scored a large win at last week’s City Council meeting. It was a playoff between Rich Wilkinson’s pocket and the Council’s growing sense of fiscal responsibility to the residents. After a hard-fought ninth inning, the Council voted 3:2 to reject Wilkinson’s bid, and the people moved into first place for the first time in decades.
The next morning, before the sun turned the clouds crimson and the sky aquamarine, I dreamed I was telling Ruby about the meeting. You remember Ruby. For decades she served this community behind Checkstand 2 at RN Market, always warm and gracious with a gentle laugh. A redhead, she also had a decent fire in her, a sense of right and wrong that really wasn’t negotiable. When she was revealing that fire, her eyes would glisten.
In my dream, her eyes were glistening. Before she moved to live with her daughter, she read this paper. Even after she retired she’d tell me how she appreciated what we were doing, trying to get this city back on its democratic feet. I always felt blessed by her appreciation. In many ways, Ruby kept me going.
I saw Serafin twice during the day of the meeting. You remember Serafin – Mr. Rivera. He’s the one who stood before the City Council in that crowded high school gymnasium on a mid-October evening in 2010, when the people rallied for the first time in decades to cry out in rage at the salaries that were being paid to our small town officials. He’s the one who said, first in impeccable Spanish, then in impeccable English, “I don’t think you know what it’s like to lie awake nights not knowing how you’re going to pay your water bill.”
Unfortunately
the Council missed his point completely, and went on to explain how the water
bill has to be that high because it’s what it costs the city to provide those
services. Only later, after the first
decent audit in decades, was it discovered that some of the high salaries had
been paid for out of the water fund. Mr.
Rivera also reads this paper, and his appreciation for what we are doing,
trying to get this city back on its democratic feet, has also kept me
going. Seraphim marched with Cesar. I feel blessed just seeing him. Pray he gets over the last remnants of this
winter’s flu.
Some
on the Council are not missing his point any more. At the meeting, when Wilkinson’s contract
came up on the agenda, Councilman Mecum led off, staking a claim to our
turf. “The people elected me to represent
their interests, and there is nothing in this contract that serves the
residents. It’s off the table as far as
I’m concerned.” Shortly thereafter,
Councilwoman Kimball moved to approve the contract.
Mayor
Padilla then said she had more questions, and opened a discussion about many of
the contract’s provisions. Councilwoman
Sanchez also had questions, which were interrupted by Councilman Salinas seconding
Kimball’s motion to approve, essentially calling the motion to a vote. He was surprised when it was defeated
3:2. After further discussion, Mayor
Padilla kindly explained her position to Rich and the rest of the room: “No disrespect intended, but you’re just too
expensive for us.”
There
also was much discussion about Wilkinson’s “succession plan,” which was
conceived to explain the need for his new contract. “I’m not your man,” he said strongly,
referring to his unwillingness to serve as finance director in the event one is
not in place when Tamara Laken retires sometime this year.
We
know, Rich. That’s why you don’t get
the big bucks.
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Trudy Wischemann is a writer who is grateful to be
able to serve the people of Lindsay. You
can send her your democracy-restoring ideas c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247
or leave a comment below.
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