By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Dispatchers ready to leave is just one sign of not-so-great leadership
Opinion

It’s been painful to hear Ceres Police dispatchers stand before the council at two consecutive meetings to explain their employment woes. The job has always been a thankless job of high pressure yet vital to public safety. But the shortage of dispatchers is “killing” the ones who have faithfully stuck it out,, hoping the council does something to remedy the situation.

When I covered the chief’s awards ceremony in late September the countenance of dispatcher Ashley Shaw was hard to ignore. She appeared depressed and didn’t crack a smile as she was being honored for exceptional service. I began to realize why when she appeared before the Oct. 9 Ceres City Council meeting, and told the council how frazzled she and other dispatchers are working all these long hours and barely getting by in the Biden economy of high inflation. She told the council that the mandatory overtime “greatly affects my mental health in all aspects of my life.”

In her second appeal to the council on Oct. 23 Ashley told the council: “We are expected to work large amounts of overtime but somehow are expected to not burn ourselves out. We are expected to monitor five cameras at the police department, 43 throughout the city parks and over 550 at the city schools.”

That’s a crazy workload.

As if that isn’t head-spinning enough, Shaw said that on Oct. 22 she was scheduled to work by herself “for seven of my 11-hour shift and I spent almost three hours of that seven sick and throwing up in a trash can because I can’t walk away from my desk.”

Shaw worked 632 overtime hours in 2022, which breaks down to 13 overtime hours a week!

Past actions of the council have added to dispatchers’ burdens, including picking up dispatch services for Newman, a city of 12,318 residents.

Shaw invited the council to sit in with dispatchers to see what life is like for them on the weekends “when the city approves El Rematito (flea market) having concerts and the citizens are calling from across the freeway because they can hear it in their living rooms.”

Folks, that’s from Crows Landing Road to beyond Highway 99. This is a critical problem that needs to be rectified!


* * * * *


It’s been tradition for the city to advertise for appointments to the non-elected committees and Ceres Planning Commission. But the new regime almost ignored that tradition last week when considering the upcoming vacancy.

Mayor Javier Lopez and Vice Mayor Bret Silveira motioned to bypass seeking applications from the public to reappoint R.J. Jammu to the Ceres Planning Commission since he has expressed interest in serving four years. A citizen, John Warren had to remind them that they should seek applicants before proceeding. So Lopez and Silveira were overruled by James Casey, Daniel Martinez and Rosalinda Vierra who want others to have the opportunity to apply to serve.


* * * * *


You may have missed it but I didn’t. When the council took up the matter of replacing the Whitmore Park gazebo to the possible tune of $700,000 – money that could have fixed the water tower – I heard repeated claims that the gazebo is 50-55 years old. Folks, the gazebo is not a half-century old; it’s 35 years old. It was built in 1988 and if anyone on the council wants to dispute the fact, come down to the Courier office and I’ll show you the front page of the Nov. 4, 1988 Courier where we ran a photo I took of it being framed and the roof going on.

To hear the mayor and vice mayor talk, the Whitmore Park gazebo is a veritable death trap ready to swallow the lives of performers and emcees in a park calamity.

So I went by there Thursday to check out the gazebo. I walked on it, and bounced on it. With the exception of a few slightly loose planks (which a few dollars in screws could remedy), it seems like a really solid structure. The roof looks brand new too.

If I was sitting on that council I would have voted no on spending a single dollar of ARPA money on it and instead would have dealt with something the community has been clamoring for since 2017 – painting the Ceres water tower.

Hughson’s water tower has looked beautiful for over 20 years – about as long as Ceres’ tower has looking appalling deplorable.

If the electrical system needs repair, fix it, but the whole gazebo structure is solid and will last many more years.


* * * * *


In justifying the gazebo expenditure, Mayor Javier Lopez pontificated about all the “instrumental changes” the new council has enacted in the past three years ago since he was seated.

The mayor boasted: “The City Council, over the last three years, has been making instrumental change in the way the city of Ceres does business. And we all know that the city of Ceres is growing and there’s things that need constant repairs, there’s multiple parks being built, there’s parks being renovated and there is just a part of what this council is doing, trying to improve the lives of our citizens…”

The ego needs to be held in check. All the commercial growth he references is the work of prior city councils. That goes for the Walmart Supercenter which was a 14-year ordeal, and the Ceres Gateway Center which was approved for a final map in 2008.

His “investing in the community” shtick is an easy feat when the city was gifted millions of dollars from the federal government after Congress fired up the printing presses to indebt future generations (read that as ARPA). The real test of leadership will be coming up with the funds for, let’s say, the beefed code enforcement staff which is partially funded by ARPA monies they won’t be there in another year.

There aren’t multiple parks being built, as the mayor said. Remember that the council robbed Lions Park of its funding in order to finish Ochoa Park. Is an example of the “instrumental change in the way the city of Ceres does business” holding a dedication of Ochoa Park years before it could be finished? When Lions Park ever gets built is an unknown, much to the chagrin of north Ceres residents.

The city of Ceres has a lot of problems.

Police dispatchers are frazzled and ready to quit they’re so overworked and underpaid.

The homeless are overrunning Hatch Road’s shopping area as well as Independence Park.

At least one workers’ rights were violated by the HR director.

Personnel changes have occurred frequently. The city canned the finance director, the city manager (which the council hired) and the economic development manager.

The negative reports coming out of the Community Development Department suggest there is a leadership problem. Tamra Spade, the economic development manager, was terminated and according to her it was because she was critical of her boss, Christopher Hoem. Ann Montgomery, who works in the same department, is just as critical as was Spade and the HR director wrote her up for it, in retaliation said the union rep.

There’s a lot to be said of experience and this council has no historical or institutional knowledge of city operations and rely solely on staff. The mayor may hope to paint a picture that leadership is strong but many see a leadership vacuum.


* * * * *


Oh the libs cannot stand it.

The new speaker of the House is Mike Johnson, a conservative who has long stood against abortion, the sexual indoctrination of kids and supports the real definition of marriage as being between a man and woman.

So what did the New York Times call him? One of Trump’s extremists. Trump doesn’t own the conservative brand so it’s rather disingenuous to suggest Johnson does Trump’s bidding. According to the Times, the Republicans are “an active threat to liberal values” (true) and American stability (not true).

There is a photo that has made its way on social media of Johnson praying with others on the floor of Congress. That alone would be cause for newspapers like the Times to attack him.

Let’s get back to the principals that make this country great: value the pursuit of life and quit killing babies, quit spending the country into oblivion, protect our national sovereignty by closing the border and clamp down on how many immigrants enter the country, and quit pretending that men can be women and vice versa.


* * * * *


Good for John Warren for speaking up about an issue that I brought up some time ago and that is how the Ceres City Council continues to configure the Council Chambers in a way that puts the audience far out into the room where the speakers and/or acoustics are horrible.

Before the pandemic hit hard in 2020, the public sat up close to the dais. The officials then socially distanced themselves from the public they serve and placed a “rope” between the two parties. I opined that this presents optics that suggests the public can’t even interact with their elected officials, smacking of elitism.

Warren complained that some council voices cannot be made out.


This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation.  How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com