School Board Recall Election Halted
Great news today! The Kern County Superior Court has decided to halt the election on April 4th while the court determines whether or not to disqualify the election completely. This is one step closer to stopping the 9th street gang's effort to take control of the school board and fill it with a bunch of idiots and criminals.
Here is an article that was published in the Bakersfield Californian.
http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/032906_BakCalif.pdf
posted by Rafael Rodarte @ 11:48 PM
19 comments
19 Comments:
It was only a matter of time before the court decided to stop the election. That was a no-brainer! Mr. Rodarte, do you think that someone must have signed the recall petitions and then denied signing them and reported it to the D.A. How is it that all of them are getting charged. Did all of them have that same signature? Please explain in detail bacause i am a little confused. Could this have been a plot right from the beginning? Thanks for the reply.
From what I understand, these people that organized the collection of signatures did not follow the rules regarding petition recirculation. When someone volunteers to collect signatures on a petition, each petition has a section at the bottom that has to be signed by the person who actually witnessed the signatures of the people on each petition form. From what I understand, the recall organizers may have been lazy and decided to give out copies of their petitions to several other people to collect for them. Then at the end they signed the bottom of the petitions stating that they personally witnessed the signatures,which in many cases was not true. This is unfair of course because then they were able to easily collect the required number of signatures to initiate the recall election.
For the city council recall petition we specifically pointed out this rule to the volunteers that collected signatures. It is a very simple rule, one that is clearly mentioned on the recall forms. If they can't follow these simple rules, these people do not deserve to have any influence on our school board.
This is my first visit to your blog site and i have a question for you, Mr. Rodarte...
1. Why does your financial interest in a town you are not from only go back 5 years? Why not dig further back when other city council members were serving our city at the time and compare and contrast what the financial records show? Right now, your fight seems one sided and out of the blue. I, for one, can't understand why your so interested NOW instead of before? You stress your efforts are for the WHOLE city and yet your comments on some of your postings seem immature and come off offensive to some members of the very community you claim to be fighting for. Maybe you should think about how your comments will be taken before you post them... every one may not be with you BUT every one does DESERVE the same respect you want.
Thank you for letting me post my comment.
Anjee,
I decided to request the financial statements for the past five years because I was only interested in trying to determine how effective the mayor has been at overseeing our city's finances. He's been in office for 3 years now, so I felt 5 years would give me enough data to evaluate any changes in trends and it would still capture data from the past administration. I really didn't have an interest or the time to look at anything beyond that point. Plus, the city still has not been able to provide me with last year's financial statements (after multiple requests) so I wouldn't expect them to be able to give me anything beyond the past 5 years.
I have an interest in the city's progress because I own a home in this city, my children will someday in the near future attend our schools, and we own a business in town. Like any other citizen of McFarland I have a right to express my opinion and try to do what I think is best for the community.
I do consider how my comments will be interpreted and they are meant to express the little respect that I have for the mayor and his friends that initiated the school board recall. Who by the way are all currently under investigation by the Kern County DA's office, so if the DA is investigating and questioning their activities, I think I should be concerned. If you think I am being unfair I would invite you to write back and specifically point out all of the great things that the mayor and his friends are doing for our community. I have asked his supporters to do this before but they can never come up with specific examples.
This is an update for anyone who is interested in the next court hearing date for D. Arguello, M. Ortega, S. & B.
Woodruff, R. Sparks, and Murguia: April 21st at 1215 Truxtun Ave., Bakersfield at 8:30am, Third Floor. At this hearing, the defendants (innocent until proven guilty) will need to make an appearance. The six defendants were not present at the 3/21/06 hearing since it was just an arraingnment. That is the defendants had the option of having their lawyer speak to the judge on their behalf, an option they utilized. I guess they didn't trust themselves or had enough faith to explain themesleves to Judge John L. Fielder. The public may go. Be there at 8:30 to see them, about 45 minutes later, the general public will be let in. I have no information on the second hearing of 3/29 or 3/30/06. Please fill us in if anyone else has any information.
Lot's of positive things are happening. There is plans in the works for a "new" downtown area. Mcfarland needs something to happen to that downtown area. The mayor is providing that. Paramount donated land is also something the mayor is working on. Lot's of growth to the city by way of new developments. I'm happy with the direction these guys are taking us in. You know, McFarland never grew in all the years (combined) of previous administrations. That includes the millions of years that Ben Garza was in office as a councilman. Our downtown has looked the same since the 60's or even earlier times. Finally this Administration has vision and is doing SOMETHING about it. You want to penalize him and the other guys on this council just because WHY? That is what I don't get about your camp Ralph. You are unhappy because things don't go your way? Is that it? I'm not sure what you are crying about. I didn't see you there at the last meeting but they showed how over 200,000 acres is being developed under the mayors term. That is growth. I say this Administration has vision alright. Do they make mistakes? YUP! Who doesn't!!!! You make mistakes every day. I say...."Give somebody a chance".
Plans and vision. That's all I hear about from the Melendez supporters. Anyone can make plans, but few people can truly lead and execute to those plans. Anyone can have a vision, but visions are meaningless unless you can bring a group of people together to support it and it benefits the community. This guy has you fooled. I don't see any evidence of progress within the city. Give me some examples of actual commercial projects that have been completed under his tenure.
Another piece of evidence of how gullible and stupid you and your group are. You say that the mayor is responsible for the development of 200,000 acres in McFarland. You probably didn't realize this but 200,000 acres is over 300 square miles. Let me put it to you in a more simple form. 300 square miles would cover a square of approximately 17 miles on each side! That nearly expands our boundaries all the way to Bakersfield. But let me guess, the mayor told you that he is developing 200,000 acres and you took his word for it.
Stop and think about the growth that the other cities around us are experiencing. Not plans for growth, but true growth. In the City of Shafter, over the past few years they have been able to bring in several businesses such as the Target Distribution Center, Performance Food Group, Alpha Leisure, Elk Roofing, GAF Fiberglass, Global Manufacturing, an Intermodal Railroad Facility, and many more businesses. This has resulted in nearly 4,000 jobs created in that city over the last five years. But the difference between us and Shafter is that they have intelligent people on their council who cooperate and work with local businesses and officials to improve the city. And we have someone like the mayor who is only interested in gratifying himself with free trips and attacks the local businesses that bring in a good portion of our tax revenue. Similar true growth is taking place in Delano. What do we have to show for the mayor's last three years of so called leadership? How many businesses and jobs have been created in our city? None that I am aware of.
You're right. Things haven't gone my way and that is why I am unhappy. My way would be to work with local businesses and encourage them to invest in our community to create jobs. My way would be to work with experienced individuals that know how to run a city and consider their advice before making costly mistakes with tax payer money.
Three years is enough time for anyone to prove themselves. I say the mayor has had his chance and now it's time for him to move on to other things.
200,000 acres, I don't think so. How large is the sewer farm going to be may I ask 5000 acres?
From Last one Out
To the comment posted at 8:31pm by Rafael, very well explained.The proof is visable,the cities around us have shown growth.But how will Mcfarland be able to grow if city council focuses on the job past members have done.Let's leave the past in the past and focus on the present and the future.I must agree the mayor has been given enough time to do more than just put trash cans around town and come to think about it what else has he done that's visable? Something I've noticed that he could do,once it stops raining,is repair the streets.Oh! wait,is there still city money left for that? Well I think he and the other council members can take care of that or at least talk about doing that.I hope they read this comment.We all live in this city let's work together to better our little city.Rafael I'd like to thank you for this blog site it's great that we can voice our opinions.
The mayor should quit! I don't know what anonymous is talking about, nothing has happene since he has been mayor. All the new stores and jobs are in Delano.
What did Ben Garza ever do for McFarland? He was on the board for much more than 3 years. Did they fix streets? Did they fix downtown? Did they provide better lighting around town? Did our parks get better? Was there any growth? Oh yeah, just those apartments that they allowed coker to build. That's right! That Admin. was able to bring in more renters. Any developments happen under there term? I don't think so! So what is the fuss all about? Shafter is better? Of course! Why? Cuz their Admin. actually did things years ago that are now coming to blossom. Whatever the Mayor does now, a couple of years from now people will be thanking him. I think you guys are just jealous. You should move to Shafter! You already own a business there. Your cheap house here in Mcfarland is about as cheap as you are as a person. So what you got to say now?
Some thing is real wrong
in our city govt.Ask our
selves why does the current
city govt. keep public
records from the public to
see where our tax paying
$$$$$'s are being spent on.
In response to 4/4, 10:32pm comment.
I believe the prior administration had something to do with bringing in the prison, McDonalds, the Vineyard Estates development, improvements to the sewer trunk lines, purchase of grape vineyards that generate positive cash flow for the city, and a track record of steadily increasing net income for the city.
You're right about one thing though, in terms of cost, my house did turn out to be very cheap. :)
why do you complain about bringing new business to mcfarland when you took yours to Shafter?? you can't be that interested in bettering our community when you take your business to shafter!!
In response to post on 4/9 12:15am.
Our business is in Shafter for these reasons:
1. Shafter is in an enterprise zone that offers outstanding tax incentives.
2. Shafter is experiencing controlled and well planned growth.
3. Shafter has a cooperative city administration that supported us.
Don't worry. I plan to start another business in McFarland someday once we get rid of the hostile business environment on the council. Someone shared a story with me about a local business owner that met Melendez for the first time and Melendez left a very negative impression on him. Instead of projecting a postive and optimistic image, the business owner stated that all Melendez did was complain and blame specific members of the community for the lack of progress. The business owner was surprised and was left with a very poor impression.
so YOU run for city council then. but like it says in the good book my dear, whatsover ye would that man do to you, do you even so to them. they're going to go after your reputation, morals, so on. or Julie's!! or philip's or vanessa's or whoever you decide to run. God help you. You deserve everything you're going to get.
I'm not running for council. If I were running for council my reputation or morals would be the key reason why people would consider voting for me.
to the post of 4/04 5:54
many things have changed you just don't notice it because you with the so call gopod guys open your eyes and see what melendez has done for the community
Can you give us examples of what Melendez has done for us besides raise our fees and waste money on lawyers? This is probably the 4th time that I have asked this question to a Melendez supporter. I am still waiting for a good answer.
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