Thursday, February 16, 2006

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.

13 Comments:

At 2/16/2006 10:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

JULIE/RALPH:
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At 2/16/2006 11:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mr. Rodarte,
I have been reading the contract between R&F disposal and the city of Mcfarland. Can you pin-point where it says that the county loand R&F the 300,000 dollars. Im sorry but i must have missed something!

"The City has provided two (2), Automated Side Loading 2002 Peterbuilt Trucks to the Franchise which were purchased with a three hundred thousand ($300,000), no-interest 5 year loan from the Kern County Waste Management Department. The Franchise (R&F) shall pay to the City five thousand ($5,000), each month ending on October 01, 2006. Upon completion of final payment, the City shall transfer tiltel to said trucks (See attached Certificates of Title) to Franchisee (R&F) for one $1.00 each."


Fom this I understood that the city provided R&F with those trucks. The city bought these trucks from the kern county waste management Department. R&F had to pay the city back 5,000 dollars a month until they paid back the 300,000 dollars at no interest for a period of 5 years. So that means that the city made 2.00 dollars for each truck if and only if R&F decided to purchase them for 1.00 each.

Mr. Rodarte, maybe i read it wrong or looked at the wrong paragraph, but that is what i understood from the contract.

I would really appreciate it if you would show me where in the contract it explains that Kern County loaned R&F the 300,000 dollars.
THANK YOU!

"Concerned Citizen"

 
At 2/16/2006 11:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mr. Rodarte,
Hello it's me again!
I have had 5 different people read the contract between the city and R&F and all 5 concurred that it was the city who approved the loan for 300,000 dollars to R&F. Why is the Mayor's signature on this contract? Shouldn't it have also been sighned by someone from the County?

Maybe there is some misunderstanding in the way i read it, or maybe you read it wrong.

Maybe the city got the loan from the county as a favor to R&F disposal, The city also chose to charge 0 interest to R&F disposal. WHY?

I also noticed that the contract was sighned by two R&F representatives, Doris L. Wood (city clerk), and the Mayor (Ruben G. Garza). I do not know how a loan of this magnitude works, but where are the council members signatures?

Again Thanks and please clarify this mess!

"Concerned Citizen"

 
At 2/18/2006 12:09 AM, Blogger Rafael Rodarte said...

If KCWM transfers $300k to the city and the city then loans out that money to R&F for the exact same amount and same payment terms it is clear what this money was intended for. I would suggest you obtain copies of the city's financial statements that clearly show that the $300k is not coming out of the city's general fund and reiterate that it is a loan from KCWM. You should even call R&F and a representative from KCWM and have them explain the circumstances behind the transaction, like I did. Refer to the blog post from January 6th for more details.

 
At 2/18/2006 12:28 AM, Blogger Rafael Rodarte said...

In response to the post on 2/16 at 11:16pm.

The county was providing a favor to R&F for the negative impact on R&F's business operations when the county decided to shutdown the Delano-McFarland landfill. Don't take my word for it though, call the county and investigate it.

The fact that the City of McFarland simply passed on the loan to R&F at 0% interest only demonstrates that the intent of that money was to assist R&F, not to make money for the City of McFarland.

I believe the garbage company that services the City of Delano also received some type of financial assistance during this time.

 
At 2/18/2006 1:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

mr. rodarte,
there are a lot of business in this town that can use "financial assistance" why are we only helping R & F?

 
At 2/18/2006 5:53 PM, Blogger Rafael Rodarte said...

R&F Disposal petitioned KCWM for this money and made the effort to work out a solution with them. So they should be entitled to this financial assistance.

I'm sure that there are plenty of businesses in town that could use some form of assistance. But that's what sets the successful business owners apart from the unsuccessful ones. The owners that are smart enough to go out and utilize all of the resources that are available to them are entitled to reap the rewards.

If you believe the city should use their own money to assist businesses in town you should suggest it at the next council meeting.

 
At 2/19/2006 6:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

they where smart and utilize all their resources????? what?? you are okay with the city being a lending institution? anybody that "utilizes all their resources" can get an interest-free loan from the city...... then why are you making an issue of the mayor purchasing the plane fare for his wife for a city business trip with city funds AND PAYING IT BACK. That's what R&F is doing. and that loan is benefitting the city; the mayor when on the trip to bring business to our city.

 
At 2/19/2006 6:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

mr. rodarte; the r&f contract also state that the agreement would make is compliant, it didn't. we had to pay $10k. why didn't the past administration see to that?? it's not just something that happened yesterday, it's from 5 years ago. not just ben, everyone of the council members and mayor back then should have been held responsible for that. yes, there has been neglect and abuse in the city council but it didn't start this year, it's been awhile.

 
At 2/20/2006 9:48 PM, Blogger Rafael Rodarte said...

In response to the post on 2/19 at 6:07 pm.

There is a big difference between a loan with terms that are agreed upon in a contract vs a mayor that steals money from a city for personal use. The mayor began using the city's money back in 2004 and only decided to pay it back about we confronted him about it two months ago. There is no comparison between the two acts.

What has the city gained from this business trip? A representative from the South Korean company was supposed to provide an update at the Dec. 8th council meeting and he didn't show up. These guys from South Korea aren't taking the mayor seriously. Public officials in Kern County don't even take this guy seriously or have respect for him.

 
At 2/20/2006 10:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

MR. Rodarte,
I don't really understand that trip to south korea by our mayor. What type of business was he trying to bring to our area?
He should concentrate on companies that are located in our area, not companies overseas who are familiar with the sweat shop environment. I am sorry, but i do not understand Melendez sometimes! and i will never understand garza!

 
At 3/27/2006 7:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

excuse me rafael are you sure he stole the money there are 4 more in the council if he was stealing why didn't they say anything they are there to help not to just look pretty you guys are the one's that started all this issue because you can't take it that he is doing better than our last mayor

response please

 
At 3/27/2006 9:53 PM, Blogger Rafael Rodarte said...

Well the district attorney's office is investigating this issue and I guess we'll wait and see what they have to say about the money that he used for personal travel.

What has Melendez done that makes him better than the previous mayor? Beside making dumb mistakes that have cost our city lots of money.

 

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