Four and a half hours for the last Ceres City Council meeting!

After watching it, I’m convinced there is a lot of unnecessary dialogue to make members look more engaged, more important.

But I caught something at that meeting during the discussion about a survey the city commissioned for residents’ attitudes about the financial future of the city. That survey, conducted June 14-24 by FM3 Research, found that 62 percent of respondents indicated they’d support a one-cent sales tax measure when a simple majority vote is all that’s needed.

“Have we published that survey?” asked Mayor Javier Lopez.

 “It’s on the website,” answered City Manager Doug Dunford.

Now keep in mind, the Courier published an article on Oct. 7 and noted in the last paragraph: The complete survey results are available on the city’s website at https://www.ceres.gov/DocumentCenter/View/8001/CityofCeresSurveyPublicSummaryFinal_2025

“I’ve seen the survey,” the mayor tried to recover. “I wanted to make sure.”

So if Lopez actually saw the survey online why did he ask the city manager if it had been published? 

Eyeball roll please.

To further highlight the disconnect, Vice Mayor Daniel Martinez added: “I was gonna ask where the survey was but the manager answered it.”

Okay then. Cerina Otero for vice mayor in 2026?

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The Ceres City Council spent considerable time yacking about whether or not applicants for city commissions and committees should have to actually speak in public and answer questions. Frankly the fact that they even had this discussion tells you how our society has backslidden.

I’ve been covering this city for 38 years and was accustomed to prior councils calling in the folks who want to be on the Planning Commission – which is often a springboard to City Council – to appear at a council meeting, and publicly introduce themselves. Then the practice was changed to call them in privately and have two councilmembers (AKA a subcommittee) do all the “grilling” and then recommend to the other three who should be appointed. Meanwhile the other councilmembers who were not a part of interviews were clueless and went along with the recommendations. That’s far from an ideal method.

And why, according to Vice Mayor Daniel Martinez, it took three and a half hours to quiz five committee applicants in private to is beyond me.

Nobody hoping for a seat on the Planning Commission should expect to receive an appointment without having to explain why he or she wants to serve on a Planning Commission that makes decisions that affect all residents. It should be a foregone conclusion that wanting to step up to serve requires not being timid and afraid of public speaking.

Anyone afraid to face questions before an appointment probably doesn’t need to be considered for appointment.

Fortunately the council decided that the applicants for the open Ceres Planning Commission seat will be interviewed at an open council seat – as it should be.

Speaking of the Planning Commission, the last meeting set for Oct. 20 was cancelled and so is the one on Nov. 3. That makes 14 cancelled meetings this year thus far out of 22. The reason for the many cancellations is a lack of applications for projects. 

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I was somewhat baffled by the Ceres vice mayor’s attempt to override the professionals in the Public Works Department who want to make Mitchell Road safer between Whitmore Avenue and Garrison Street.

Medians are often installed on busy thoroughfares to prevent dangerous left-hand turns coming from side streets.

I recall the time that a woman was killed pulling out onto Hatch Road from the A&W/KFC restaurant (now closed) near Mitchell Road. She was attempting to make a left turn and was broadsided and killed. 

So last week, Daniel Martinez attempted to kill plans for a median on Mitchell Road. He didn’t seem too concerned about the five accidents that have occurred along that stretch in the past five years. When he suggested that a median was not warranted in that location, he was told by City Engineer Michael Beltran that the city should be proactive in promoting traffic safety.

Beltran also told the vice mayor that refusing and returning grant funds – which cannot be spent on other projects – would not sit well with state officials and that could jeopardize future funds designed to improve the road system in Ceres. Will a median inconvenience those who live on those side streets? Probably, but while an alternative route onto northbound Mitchell Road might take longer, it theoretically reduces the chances for serious collisions in that area.

It smacks of haughtiness when an elected official with no engineering experience meddles with a professional engineer. Just one of the reasons that the Oct. 27 council meeting was 4 1/2 hours long.

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Did you hear? The state Public Utilities Commission held hearings on the California Lifeline program to give illegal aliens free cell phone service courtesy of you and I who pay taxes. It creates an “enrollment path” for those who don’t have a Social Security number at taxpayer expense. How do you think this will be paid for? Oh I don’t know, maybe raising fees on your cell phone bill?

The nonsense never stops.

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State employees are covered by CalPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System. Most retirement programs invested funds so that they get the maximum return for the investment. Not CalPERS.

Assemblyman Carl DeMaio has brought to the public’s attention that CalPERS took members’ retirement funds and invested it into clean energy private equity fund and watched 71 percent of its $468 million investment vanish in the wind. CalPERS is being less than forthcoming. Nor do they care because the taxpayers are on the hook as a backstop. DeMaio believes the losses of state retirement funds is about a half trillion dollars.

This fund should have grown by 8 percent annually since 2007!

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A fan of Newsom named Darrell called last week to complain about political views in the Courier. Both myself and Dennis Wyatt have been calling out Newsom for years. Sorry, Darrell, you have your opinions and so do we. But we back up our opinions with facts.

Some of the worst bills that Newsom signed into law this year:

• SB 627 which makes it illegal for law enforcement and ICE to not cover their faces, which means the rabid left can find out who they are, dox them, harass them, etc. It’s a bill to bully cops. And get this: he exempted his own security detail. Federal law trumps his stupid law anyway.

• SB 518 which creates a new state reparations agency. Read this as a buy off the black folks bill, paying them for wrongs done to their dead ancestors and financed by folks who were never slave owners. Never mind that California was a free state during the Civil War.

• SB 155 which creates a fund whereby Newsom can bail out his favorite leftist news organizations. Media experts warned the California Civic Media Fund subsidy program would damage press independence by incentivizing more favorable coverage of the government just to win money.

• AB 1207 which extends the cap and trade  charges for 15 years, in other words, taxes on anything carbon related such as gasoline and electricity. It hauls in $10 billion per year and increases our per-gallon gas tax from 28 cents to 43 cents. So much for the Democrats being concerned about high costs of living.

• AB 1127 which outlaws any handgun which could possibly by modified to firing automatically with one trigger pull. This bill will be ruled unconstitutional.

• SB 79 allows a developer to buy single-family homes and build six-story high apartment towers! No local control!

• AB 361 which ends fair and open competitive bidding on state government projects. In effect, it will screw a small business as they are not part of a labor union.

• SB 42 would put the California Fair Elections Act on the November 2026 ballot to remove the current prohibition of public financing of campaigns while establishing basic requirements that public financing systems and candidates using public funding must follow to protect taxpayers and maximize the benefit to voters.

• AB 288 which directs the state to take over the role from the federal government in bullying employers to force their employees into unions. Unions are the bread and butter of the Democratic Party.

• AB 495 which allows strangers to take custody of children without parental permission. It puts the welfare of children in jeopardy. It was designed to place children of parents who’ve been deported by ICE in the “care” of adults who want custody without court process or parental consent. Think of bad actors that could wile their way. It opens the door to child abuse and trafficking. It also bans childcare facilities and state preschools from collecting immigration details from parents. 

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