The
recent report from the Tulare County Grand Jury, “Nightmare in Lindsay,” was
disappointing to almost everyone.
Unfortunately, the reporting about the report by our two major
newspapers (the Porterville Recorder and the Foothills Sun-Gazette) was even
more disappointing.
True to policy, the Grand Jury
report did not reveal the complaint that triggered the investigation or the
events that led up to the complaint being filed, much less the identities of
those making the complaint. A reader
unfamiliar with Lindsay’s recent history would have no way to unravel the Grand
Jury’s findings, whose roots stem back into the Townsend administration. Good journalists would have provided that
background.
During several Lindsay City Council
meetings last year, some citizens who claimed to have signed the complaint spoke
openly about it, including Brian Watkins, Ellen Blumer, and Kirk Ingoldsby
(Councilwoman Kimball’s brother.) The
general tone of their testimony was threatening, and the goal appeared to be to
get the three council members who had been named in the complaint (Mayor
Padilla, Rosaena Sanchez and Steven Mecum) to either step down from their
elected positions or tow the party line these citizens wanted. These citizens are largely insiders in this
community, as well as supporters of the previous administrations of Townsend
and Wilkinson, support which extends to the current one under Bill Zigler’s
management, i.e., the old guard of Lindsay.
Findings #3 and #4 related to this
complaint: an allegation by these citizens that the Brown Act had been violated
when 2 or 3 of the named councilmembers met privately with city employees over
personnel matters. Finding #3 was that
no evidence was found of Brown Act violations; Finding #4 stated that some
council members were involved in discussion of union issues “outside the
parameters of established procedures,” without citing which procedures were
stepped on.
The other three findings, however, which
are a much bigger part of Lindsay’s nightmare, were caused by the Council prior
to Sanchez and Mecum’s election and Padilla’s appointment as mayor: #1, the
detrimental effects of combining the position of city manager with the director
of public safety; #2, the costly employee settlements we suffered as a result
of this decision; and #5, the cost of these settlements to the city’s already
difficult financial situation.
Current councilmembers Danny Salinas
and Pam Kimball, who were not named in the complaint but who sat on the
previous council, bear a great deal of responsibility for these facts of our
city life, as do former council members Steve Velasquez and Mayor Ed
Murray. Ramona Padilla was a newly
appointed council member at that time, and also shoulders a portion of that
responsibility.
Padilla was not on the Council,
however, the last time it was investigated for violations of the Brown Act in
2010. That time the Grand Jury found
that violations HAD occurred when they met in San Jose and approved the merger
of the police and fire departments into the department of public safety without
proper public notice. That was the
beginning of Rich Wilkinson’s eventual rise to the joint position of City
Manager/Director of Public Safety. Pam
Kimball negotiated that contract, which contained the extraordinary provisions
requiring 4/5 majority approval for Wilkinson’s termination and 18 months’
severance pay, a factor that led to the extraordinary employee severance settlements
that caused Lindsay’s budget to somersault.
The real news about Lindsay’s
“nightmare” is that it is longstanding and ongoing, not likely to end until
those insiders in power are curbed and made accountable. Journalists have an important role to play in
helping to keep public officials accountable. Unfortunately the journalists covering Lindsay
either do not understand that role or are ignorant of our history. I hope both lackings can be corrected in the
future.
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Trudy
Wischemann is a Populist who writes. You
can send her your observations of insider “trading” c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay
CA 93247 or visit www.trudysnotesfromhome.blogspot.com and leave a
comment there.
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