The Three Amigos on the Road Again

Here are some more documents that I came across for another trip that Melendez, Cantu, and Santillano took back in May 2005. I'm not sure what the city gained out of this trip, but I know it cost us at least $2,466.

http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/ICSC_Trip.pdf

McFarland Playgrounds

I visited a playground in Wasco this afternoon. These are pictures of Barker Park next to the Parks and Recreation office in Wasco. Looking at this nice playground, which is only one of two such playgrounds that Wasco has, I began to wonder to myself why McFarland doesn't have something like this available for our children.

My hope is that if we elect good, honest leaders that are able to spend our money wisely and make good financial decisions we could eventually help the Parks and Recreation district build facilities like these. We could have built a park like this with the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been wasted by Melendez on his personal trips and expensive lawsuits.

Audio Clip - California Waste Management Meeting

Another complaint that the mayor and his buddies Cantu and Santillano have is that R&F Disposal was at fault for a $10,000 fine that was charged to the city for not being in compliance with a recycling program. Here is an audio clip of the former city administrator, Anthony Lopez, speaking before the California Integrated Waste Management Board. Mr. Lopez specifically states that the sole responsibility for the city not being in compliance falls with the City of McFarland and not with R&F Disposal. Our own city administrator admitted that R&F was not at fault for this fine, so why do the mayor and council keep insisting that it was? Why did these guys use this as an excuse to reject R&F's proposal to pick up our recyclable garbage at half the cost that Sunset is charging us?

Interesting thing though, Cantu doesn't even own a home in McFarland yet he finds no problem voting on a measure that increases taxes for all other homeowners in our community.

http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/califwaste.mp3

Delano Record Article - February 16th

Cantu finally decides to speak to the press. Unfortunately, he used this opportunity to tell a bunch of lies.

http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/021606Record.pdf

Lie#1. Once again he complains that the City of McFarland loaned R&F $300,000 for the purchase of two trucks. I think it is amazing that we have elected a councilman that won't bother to do some simple research and read the agreement that the city has with R&F Disposal. The agreement clearly states that the loan is from the Kern County Waste Management department. The agreement must be too difficult for him to read and understand, after all it does have words with more than three syllables in it. Well maybe one of our citizens will be kind enough to read it to him.

http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/R$26F_agreement.pdf

Lie#2. Cantu supports the mayor and states that Melendez "has always paid the city back" for his wife's expenses. Yet, the mayor only bothered to pay the city for some of these expenses until the end of December 2005. Almost a year and a half after the mayor took his wife to Washington D.C and used city money for her expenses. I'm sure the fact that we exposed the mayor's behavior at the December 8th, 2005 meeting had nothing to do with him making a payment to the city.

Lie#3. Cantu states that one of Garza's children used city money on a Washington D.C. trip. None of Garza's kids have ever traveled with him to Washington D.C.

February 9th City Council Meeting

Hi,

This is Julie and I'm curious how the council meeting went? Any thoughts? I was busy collecting 25 more signatures and my husband had a late meeting at work, I'm hoping the Mayor didn't make more false claims and accusations like he did at the last meeting...

Article in Bakersfield Californian

Here is a copy of an article that was published today in the Bakersfield Californian. The mayor's quotes don't make any sense.

http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/020606_BakCalif.pdf

Korea Airfare for Mayor's Wife

We finally received a document that shows how much the city paid on airfare for the mayor's wife on the Korea trip, exactly $1,252. This plus the other documents with expenses that we have shown on this website easily add up to approximately $2,200 that the city has spent on the mayor's wife. Or should I say this is the amount that we, the citizens of McFarland have paid up to this point. And for those of you that attended the last council meeting, recall that the mayor defiantly said that he would continue taking his wife on these trips. We'll have the audio clip posted on this website next week.

http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/korea_airfare2.pdf

Also, another interesting thing. The mayor, his wife, and the city administrator each received a $600 check from the city to cover their hotel and meals on this Korea trip. Wouldn't the mayor and his wife share a hotel room, why was it necessary to give each one a check? Adding all of the expenses for city officials on this Korea trip, I estimate ~$6,800 was spent for the entire thing. What do we have to show for this expense?

http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/korea_hotel.pdf

Contract with R&F Disposal

I received a copy of the agreement with R&F disposal and I wanted to post a copy of it for everyone to view. Last month, a group that supports Melendez, Cantu, and Santillano's decision to sign a contract with Sunsent Waste circulated an anonymous flyer explaining to us why it was the correct thing to do. Well the flyer was full of misleading statements and I hope that people will read this contract and compare it against the anonymous flyer that was posted to this website on January 6th.

Key items that I would like to point out from the contract that dispute the claims that were made in the anonymous flyer.

1. Page 1 describes the 5% franchise fee that the city keeps from all of the revenue generated through R&F's services. The author of the flyer complains that we are paying too much for our regular garbage service compared to Delano, but they don't mention that the monthly fee that R&F charges includes this 5% franchise fee with an additional $0.75 billing fee that all goes back to the city. If these guys on the council are so concerned about our garbage costs why don't they vote to remove these fees.
2. Page 2 shows the terms of the permitted 5% increase in service fees. The author of the flyer complains that R&F can increase our fees at their own will by 5% per year. The author of the flyer is an idiot that doesn't understand that the 5% increase is only permitted if the consumer price index (CPI) increases by 5%. If the economy experiences an event that causes the CPI to increase by 10% in one year, R&F is still only limited to increasing their rates by 5%.
3. Page 3 clearly shows that Kern County loaned R&F the $300,000 interest free loan for the purchase of two trucks. The author of the flyer was claiming that the city loaned this money to R&F and that the past city administration was going out of their way to do special favors for R&F.

http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/R$26F_agreement.pdf

Now you have to ask yourself, why wasn't the author of the anonymous flyer willing to stand behind his words and print his name to it? I'm sure this person knew that they were misleading the public and that he would not be able to handle the critisicm.