Editorial

EDITORIAL – When Steve Montes was filing his papers to run for the Madera City Council I learned that the former Madera Redevelopment Agency staff member had a checkered criminal past. I also knew over a year ago that Madera City Councilman Will Oliver was arrested for driving under the influence a short time after his father passed away in 2015.

In the first case, the felony weapons conviction happened when Montes was very young, only eighteen years old. In the second, while it is no excuse, I could completely understand the mistakes of excess a relatively young man is likely to make when grieving for a parent. In both cases I did not feel writing about past indiscretions would lend anything to the issues of the campaign for the Madera City Council.

EDITORIAL – This year’s race for Madera County District Attorney is one of the most important races in the county. For the last ten years the DA’s office has been running on autopilot with no leadership. Between the current issues regarding employee harassment with the current incumbent to the flat out hostile work environment from former District Attorney Michael Keitz that cost taxpayers over $1.5 million is legal fees and employee settlements, this county DA’s office has been an embarrassment.

When Sally Moreno announced her run for Madera County DA nearly two years ago, on her right was her current boss Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp and on her left was her former boss former Madera County District Attorney Michael Keitz. Michael Keitz will go down as one of the worse district attorney’s in the entire state of California and Sally thought it was a good idea to have him standing there when she announced her run for DA?

EDITORIAL – In Madera County the ballots are in the hands of the voters and our month long “Election Day” has begun. For the next four weeks voters will select a new Governor and pick who will represent them in the United States Senate and Congress, State Senate and Assembly, School Boards and City Councils. We will also be selecting a new Madera County District Attorney.

In the following few paragraphs we will be sharing our recommendations for the local city council races. These are only our opinions based on past experience, candidate’s performances at public debates and public statements. We recommend that every voter take the time to research each candidate and the issues on their own; then form their own opinions.

EDITORIAL – This is going to be a strange endorsement. Most endorsements are for the best candidates for the job, this one is different. This endorsement is asking voters to again do what is in the best interest of the county and Supervisor Robert Poythress leaving the county board is not what is best for Madera County.

Rob Poythress is a good man. He is actually one of the only honest men sitting on the Madera County Board of Supervisors. He is the only man who will call out Brown Act violations and the only member of the board not sucking at the teat of the Fresno Developers lining their pockets with cash from their billion dollar projects along the Highway 41 corridor.

EDITORIAL - Well it is official Khalid Chaudhry and Mike Pistoresi’s efforts to recall Madera Mayor Andy Medellin were a total failure. After over nine months of questioning the integrity of our mayor and calling him corrupt and incompetent, these two men (one with a known criminal past) failed to gather more than a handful of members of the Friends of the Madera Animal Shelter and individual members of the Madera Votes group to sign the petition.

These two developers and the Madera Tribune would have had to gather 3000 plus signatures in order to hold a special election to ask the voters two questions, do they want to oust the mayor and who do they want to replace him. Despite working every weekend for the last two months gathering signatures at Citizen’s Business Bank on Howard Road, the group turned in only 67 signatures last Friday to the Madera County Elections Department. They were just a little short of the 3000 plus goal.

EDITORIAL -  In March of 2017 the Madera County Board of Supervisors violated the California Ralph M. Brown Act which insures that public business will be conducted in the public view. During that March meeting the Madera County Board of Supervisors instructed Madera County Department of Corrections Chief Manuel Perez to “fully comply with all U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests” before releasing felons lacking legal permission to live in the U.S. It also said they directed the county counsel’s office to “expedite their actions.”  All this was decided during ‘closed session’ but was not on the meetings agenda.

While the Madera County Counsel Regina Garza claimed a lawsuit filed against the county in July of 2017 by the American Civil Liberties Union had no merit, the ACLU asked a Madera County Superior Court judge to declare the county board violated the Brown Act and order the supervisors to comply with the open meeting and notice requirements of the Brown Act. This lawsuit ended up costing the County of Madera over $36K in legal fees the board was forced to pay the ACLU following the settlement of the case.