I have been thanking God for this month’s overcast days, for blowing March’s winds our way, even if two months late. You know what they say about His winds. The clouds give us a ray of hope, even when they produce scant rainfall. Hope may be how we get through this drought.
It looks like He’s chosen this month to blow some socio-political storm clouds over Lindsay as well. Last week’s top headline story in this paper, “Lindsay lawsuit alleges Council conspiracy,” showed photos of the 3 Councilmembers accused of conspiring against our poor beleaguered 3-hatted City Manager, Rich Wilkinson. Although the story contained important information for those who have been following this city’s progress closely, the headline was misleading and a disservice to the community. In fact, the lawsuit is not alleging conspiracy, the City Manager is. But after seeing the paper, a neighbor wailed “Nothing’s changed,” in total despair.
Actually things have changed, and that’s what’s produced the thunder and lightning. Those three members have been questioning budget commitments from the past, looking for a way to operate this city in the black and also to direct the community toward a more sustainable future. That can’t be done without threatening the staff’s previously unchallenged authority. The truth is, it’s a new day for the Lindsay City Council, and the staff, particularly the city manager, doesn’t like it.
Until the election of Council members Mecum and Sanchez in 2012, the City Council, including Pam Kimball, Danny Salinas and Ramona Padilla, served simply as a rubber stamp for the staff’s projects and programs. The City of Lindsay was “staff-driven,” in community development lingo, and that’s how we got into the deep-debt-do-do that still plagues our budget. Over the past year, Ramona Padilla has become more aware of the costs of being staff-driven, and has taken steps to return some of the decision-making power to the Council, our elected representatives. We all should applaud her for that, as well as Rosaena Sanchez and Steven Mecum for stepping up to the plate in the first place.
It would be understandable that Rich Wilkinson wouldn’t like the new situation. But he claims he “can no longer effectively and efficiently carry out my duties without interference or interruption from these council members.” Now, of course, the sting that supposedly has “damaged” this employer-employee relationship is the statement by former Lindsay Police Lieutenant Bryan Clower in the deposition taken by City Attorney Mario Zamora in the lawsuit Clower has filed against the City and Rich Wilkinson for wrongful termination and breach of contract that he (Clower) was encouraged by these three members to file the suit. Wilkinson does not address the damaged employer-employee relationship that caused Clower to find himself suddenly unemployed by the City of Lindsay. Nor does he seem to realize that the “close friends” relationship he thinks he once had with Clower, including vacationing together as he said he and Bryan did, might have been problematic if not inappropriate.
I sense that what’s blocking the sun in Lindsay is not cloud cover but smokescreen, a way for Wilkinson to extract his exhorbitant 18-month severance pay from the City of Lindsay. Councilwoman Pam Kimball worked hard to arrange that when he was hired permanently in 2011. Here in Lindsay, we need to learn to read between the lines, and not be afraid of a little rain. We’ll get this community back yet.
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Trudy
Wischemann is a native from the Pacific Northwest who always has a rain jacket
handy. You can send her your wailings
and wonderings c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.
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