Last week Mayor Javier Lopez and Councilman James Casey engaged in a bit of verbal sparring over the issue of the city providing health insurance for councilmembers. Casey wants the city to do away with offering it and Lopez does not.

Lopez has a flimsy argument – suggesting that medical insurance is critical for public servants. I disagree. He even suggested that he devotes full time as mayor and anyone who doesn’t give full-time effort is “by choice.”

I wonder when he has time to run his fitness business seeing how he is a full-time 40-hour-per-week mayor.

I would question why any candidate running for office wouldn’t already have health insurance since we all are required to have it. I’ve personally not seen anyone running for council who has managed to get by in life without a decent job that provides insurance. Serving in elected office should not be a pathway to obtain insurance courtesy of taxpayers, especially in a financially strapped city.

Out of the blue last week, Lopez asked Casey if he knew which councilmembers take health insurance from the city.

“I have no idea,” replied Casey. “All I know if it’s budgeted for $46,000. I have no idea who has the insurance and who doesn’t have insurance.”

Why is it a secret who does? Is somebody being protected? By process of elimination we know Lopez, Otero and Casey don’t take it. That leaves only two – Daniel Martinez and Rosalinda Vierra and they were among the councilmembers who refused to have the council look into the possibility of ending the practice.

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There has been some scuttlebutt in the community about the social media habits of Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra. One longtime woman commented to me that Vierra’s posts appear that she is trying to be the reporter for Ceres. While she is probably only trying to promote events and businesses here and there, it has smack of someone trying to grab the limelight all the time.

At the special council meeting of June 6 an email was read from a man named Elijah who lives adjacent to Strawberry Fields Park where some police activity took place recently. The man complained that Vierra was videoing and posting photos and updates about the incident on social media, “even after being personally asked by our residents to stop.”

Elijah – he did not provide a last name – said “many residents felt their privacy and sense of safety were compromised when images of our streets, homes, and parked vehicles were publicly shared during an active law enforcement operation.”

He asked for elected officials to “exercise greater discretion and respect residents’ wishes, especially during sensitive situations involving public safety.”

Even though I think Vierra goes overboard trying to be the first one to break news to folks, she has a right to video anything from the street. Photographing houses and cars from the street is perfectly within the rights of any citizen.

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I was informed by our office staff that a lady called up the other day to cancel her subscription after asking why our paper had to be “so red.” I have to assume she’s only talking about my column, the editorial cartoons that we run and the guest opinion that runs on page A5 because Dennis Wyatt is more middle of the road than I am.

The lady has a right to cancel but she could skip over those two pages and read the community news which is reported in a balanced manner. Having said that, we get a lot of calls threatening cancellation if I happen to miss a column on account of vacation or something else.

I had a thirty something male employee of Ceres Unified School District tell me that my column is the first thing he turns to because I make him think. The same words came out of the mouth of a recently retired Ceres Planning Commissioner who told me, “I may not always agree with what you write but you give me pause to think maybe I’m wrong.”

But I have questions for the lady who cancelled because she thinks that we are “too red.” I’ll assume that she is a member of the blue camp. So let me ask her – if that’s the case – why her party hates the Jewish people so much and hates Israel. Why does her camp insist on sanctioning women killing their babies? Why does her party insists on escalating environmental restrictions to the point that it’s impossible to build homes in California so the average California can’t afford rents or mortgages? Let me ask her why the blue solution to deficit spending is always raise taxes instead of cut spending. Why does her party constantly endorse a segment of the population who are, in my opinion, confused men who identify as women and want to play in women’s sports? Why do members of either party feel it’s acceptable to mortgage the future of our children with massive government overspending at the federal level? Why do the blue voters think it’s okay to flood the country with millions of unskilled impoverished people who will depend on the U.S. treasury for their own sustenance? Why does her party feel it’s necessary to be a Nanny State and provide the basic supplies like diapers when that’s always been something families have had to pay for? Why not tax less (and spend less) and let people keep more of their income so they can afford diapers and food? If Democrats could have their way, they would have taxpayers buy feminine hygiene products too, to buy more blue voters.

My question for her is why are you so blue?

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Toward the end of Mayor Javier Lopez’s “State of the City” address in March he made this announcement: “I want to share some great news. Many of you heard the unexpected concern that our swim program could be in danger due to budget talks and constraints. I’m happy to tell you that after I personally reached out to the Salvation Army and facilitated a meeting with our Parks & Recreation team, it now looks like we are moving forward with an arrangement that safeguards that program and protects its longevity for our families and our kids.”

It was a rather unwise to announce such optimism and raise community hopes that the aquatics program would go on. It’s now June 17 and not a word about an aquatics program being resurrected. Oy vey.

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