We’ve been saying it for months, but what we really need now is
a leader who will bring an end to the turmoil that has enveloped
San Benito County.
We’ve been saying it for months, but what we really need now is a leader who will bring an end to the turmoil that has enveloped San Benito County.
The county is in upheaval over the District 5 election debacle. People are picketing in front of the District Attorney’s office. A $5 million lawsuit has been lodged against the Board of Supervisors. Accusations of corruption and racism are being leveled at supervisors. And supervisor-elect Jaime De La Cruz will be sworn in on Jan. 4 only to appear in court nine days later on dubious charges.
Last week – nine months after the election – District Attorney John Sarsfield charged De La Cruz with perjury and fraud for signing off on signatures he didn’t gather to get on the March ballot. De La Cruz could go to jail for four years for saying he gathered three signatures that he did not.
For months, we’ve been asking for the district attorney to begin straightening out the District 5 mess, but with the hope it would happen earlier to avoid exactly this situation. This is a terrible way to start a new term for the Board of Supervisors and this matter should have been settled months ago.
Many people have been hoping the seating of a new board would mean a fresh start for the county. Instead, the ongoing ugly fight threatens to distract yet another group of supervisors from doing the work of the people. The whole mess is mind boggling. It’s a civic embarrassment. Government insiders keep acting like kindergarten boys in a playground fight.
And no one is going to clean it up for us. Who from the outside would want to get in the middle of this? So, we have to do it ourselves.
We need a leader to emerge, preferably from the new board of supervisors. Supervisor-elect Don Marcus, who has a reputation for fairness and common sense, and Supervisor Reb Monaco, who has managed to steer clear of the current controversies, are good candidates to bring this fiasco to an end.
Gentlemen, please use your seats on the board of supervisor as a bully pulpit to ensure there are no more delays or shenanigans in sorting out this mess. If it must go to trial, please speak up at every opportunity and use your power over the purse strings to ensure it is a speedy one.
Or perhaps you can negotiate some sort of peaceful resolution between the warring factions.
Whatever the method, let’s be done with this so the county can get on with the business of working for the people.
