I miss the good old days of a well-functioning Ceres City Council, not the bumbling batch of amateurs of today.
The move to embarrass the two fiscally conservative members of the Ceres City Council backfired on Monday. Just who orchestrated the move is still in question.
On Monday’s council agenda was an item from City Attorney Nubia Goldstein to publicly “admonish” Councilman James Casey and Councilwoman Cerina Otero – who don’t have a nefarious bone in their bodies – for the “unauthorized use of the city name, seal, logo type” in violation of Ceres Municipal Code Section 1.03.010.
Here’s the background: In May Casey and Otero demonstrated real leadership – which the mayor lacks – when they spent their own money to print up a notice and paid for a front page ad in the May 28 Courier to get Ceres residents to show up for budget discussions. Casey has preached ad nauseam about the failings of the city to communicate with citizens to foster greater awareness and involvement. When Casey and Otero did just that, they get harassed over a relatively trivial matter.
One resident called it “petty” and I agree.
We were told that the council bloc of Mayor Javier Lopez, Vice Mayor Daniel Martinez and Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra decided in closed session on July 14, to direct her to bring forth the admonishment. Previously, Lopez, Martinez and Vierra all voted for the taxpayers to continue paying for their medical insurance premiums while Casey and Otero voted against them, saying the city cannot afford it. One has to wonder if Monday’s move to admonish Casey and Otero was less about the unauthorized use of the city logo and more of an act of retribution, of “putting them in their place.”
Casey and Otero merely used the city logo – because they didn’t know about the obscure section of code – as they attempted to illicit more citizen input on how the city should spend their money. They are elected representatives of the city and conducting budget business so what was the big deal? The logo wasn’t on campaign literature; it was on a notice which the two paid for to advertise a budget hearing.
Casey said that he emailed the city attorney beforehand for an opinion about an ad but he didn’t get an answer. What was he supposed to do at that point?
The big surprise on Monday came when Martinez and Vierra made it clear that they didn’t bring up the protest to the council. So that leaves two people who felt it was a big issue – either City Manager Doug Dunford or Mayor Javier Lopez.
The most explosive part of the meeting came when Otero stated to Dunford: “you told me that it was the mayor and the vice mayor so I was lied to – that’s not okay.”
Dunford denied telling Otero that Lopez and Martinez ordered the admonishment and she was adamant that he did.
The exchange underscored that there is a huge failure in communication, leadership – and an apparent lack of honesty.
It became apparent that nobody in the audience was in favor of the admonishment, saying any discipline should have been handled privately. So if Casey and Otero had already been lectured privately about the logo “misuse,” why the need to bring forth a public slap-down?
City Attorney Goldstein stated in her staff report: “At the meeting on July 14, 2025, the City Council, excluding Councilmembers Casey and Otero, directed City Attorney to prepare this item.”
Further, it needs to be explained why Casey and Otero were cut out of the closed session matter on July 14.
Goldstein said the admonishment request was not a “disciplinary action” but “an opportunity to formally remind all councilmembers … of the policy governing the use of the City’s name, logotype, and seal.”
Martinez continued to press for admonishment, backed up by the illustrious mayor. When it came to a vote, Vierra caved, Casey and Otero abstained and the motion failed since it needed three affirmative votes.
The ambush failed and the fallout could have implications.
As Ceres Chamber President Brandy Meyer put it, this was an embarrassment.
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Meanwhile, Mayor Lopez hasn’t explained to us or anyone why his business didn’t pay its 2022 taxes to the Franchise Tax Board and his gym was suspended from operating.
That’s the bigger issue to me given he is making decisions about city finances.
I miss the days when former mayors Chris Vierra and Anthony Cannella would return phone calls. But Lopez doesn’t believe he needs to communicate with the Courier on any inquiry!
The Republicans need to recruit a better candidate with qualifications and one who is transparent, to replace the empty suit running against Adam Gray for his congressional seat.
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Here we go with another store closure.
Ace Hardware is closing in the Richland Shopping Center. Add that to the vacant Kmart building on Hatch Road (that was supposed to be turned into a Public Storage), the now tagged and boarded up eyesore that was once Carl’s Jr. on Hatch and the boarded up KC/A&W building with a chain-link fence around it, also on Hatch.
Ace just couldn’t make profit in Ceres. Owner Rob Nelson said his other Ace Hardware stores in Jackson, Tracy and Elk Grove are doing just fine – just not Ceres. Customers in Ceres seem to be “super price sensitive,” he said. In other words, not willing to pay a little bit extra to support the local merchant. They’ll head over to the corporate warehouses where service is far from stellar.
Nelson is also blaming Amazon, which has destroyed a lot of businesses in the country and shut down shopping malls.
Fast food places like Carl’s Jr. have been destroyed by California’s onerous high minimum wage but the business model for In-N-Out seems to work well with lower prices, good tasting food, and plentiful and helpful and happy-to-serve employees.
The city is doing what it can to attract new businesses to Ceres but, of course, it’s all driven by the market. The city can plead and beg for a business to set up shop here but if the numbers don’t pencil out, they won’t come.
In at least one case, a business did want to come to Ceres but the mayor alone decided that Hatch Road had too many chicken restaurants. And he’s a Republican???
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Ya’ll who think the Bible is fiction created by men and not the Word of God itself might be surprised that much of what the Bible predicted is coming to pass.
Especially the part in Isaiah 5:20-21 that reads: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
Let me segue into a news story that I read last week about Vito J. Perrone who was set to become superintendent of Easthampton Public Schools in Springfield, Mass., in March 2023. He had his job offer rescinded when his new bosses took offense to his email greeting that started out: “‘Ladies, Good evening! I perused the contract and have three requests.”
Use of the word “ladies” received immediate backlash from the hyper-woke school committee, which claimed he was guilty of “microaggression” so they voted 5-1 to rescind the offer. Perrone sued the district, claiming his rights were violated and that the job offer was a binding agreement. A year later, a judge dismissed it, claiming no contract ever existed.
Perrone said: “I grew up in a time when ‘ladies’ and ‘gentlemen’ was a sign of respect. I didn’t intend to insult anyone.”
What a sad commentary that a term of respect has been used as a blunt object with which to club a man of values.
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Meetings of the Ceres City Council could be considerably shorter if it wasn’t for unnecessary gum flapping.
Case in point: The matter of the retiring police canine. Typically the dogs, which are companions to their assigned handlers, go to that officer upon retirmenet. Past practice is to “sell” the canine to the officer for a token dollar to avoid the “gift of public funds” legal loophole. Not knowing this, at the July 14 council meeting, Ceres resident Shirley Rogers told the council they “shouldn’t sell it – give it to him, please. That’s embarrassing to sell it to the officer.” City Manager Dunford explained that the $1 transaction makes things legal. But Vierra asks if it would be “okay for a member of the public to donate that dollar in lieu of having the officer having to pay for his own dog.”
Community eyeball roll, please.
We’re talking a freaking dollar, okay?
Dunford told her, “You’re kind of making it convoluted. It’s just a dollar.”
Vierra followed up with an unnecessary 67-word follow up.
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The amusingly pathetic diatribes lobbed by Gov. Newsom at President Trump continue. Newsom cares only about being his party’s bold interrupters of Trump’s agenda as he wants to secure his party’s nomination for president in 2028.
Under Newsom’s leadership, California households of four persons pay $28,037 more each year to live than the rest of the country. That includes extra costs for gasoline, electricity and housing. Our electrical costs are 140 percent of what average Americans pay in the other states. That’s on Newsom but he tries blaming Trump. He expressed “concern” for a Republican reconciliation bill that would end subsidies for green energy projects and thus we all might see a 30 percent hike in rates. But the state’s focus on renewable energy has caused the oversupply of solar and wind-generated electricity which has strained the grid and caused higher electrical costs. So how is that not Newsom’s party’s fault?
It wasn’t Trump who shut down nuclear power plants or natural gas production. Newsom is also causing oil refineries to close in California.
The guy is reprehensible and unable to take responsibility for his own failures.
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Most people who legally own guns don’t misuse them – that is a fact.
Those who use guns in the commission of a crime such as robbery or murder, ignore existing laws in place.
So it comes as a victory that a court has slapped down the liberals of California by ruling that background checks for people who want to buy bullets is unconstitutional and violates the Second Amendment of the Constitution.
The 9th District Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2024 lower court ruling which stated that it’s unconstitutional, which is what we were saying back in 2016 when voters passed Proposition 63 prohibiting the possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines (more than 10 rounds) and requiring certain individuals to pass a background check in order to purchase ammunition.
As usual, Newsom decried the ruling, saying, “Strong gun laws save lives — and today’s decision is a slap in the face to the progress California has made in recent years to keep its communities safer from gun violence. Californians voted to require background checks on ammunition and their voices should matter.”
Funny that Newsom suddenly feels the voters’ choices should matter when he has been fighting the voters who chose President Trump in his campaign to enact reducing government spending and waste, enacting tariffs, shutting down the U.S. Department of Education, deporting illegal aliens and tightening the border.
California has some of the nation’s toughest gun laws so why were guns used in the 73 percent of 3,484 homicides in California last year? Because evil doers exist and violate laws.
What we need in California – and the Democrats will fight this – is a return to the death penalty for those who commit heinous murders.
In 2024 U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez decided that the law was unconstitutional because if people can’t buy bullets, they can’t use their guns for self-defense. He was also critical of the state’s automated background check system, which rejected about 11% of applicants, or 58,087 requests, in the first half of 2023.
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
