Voters in San Juan Bautista will likely find themselves in a
serious dilemma unless the reasons behind the firing of former City
Manager Larry Cain are made clear.
Voters in San Juan Bautista will likely find themselves in a serious dilemma unless the reasons behind the firing of former City Manager Larry Cain are made clear.
How else will they be able to decide whether the movement to recall Mayor Arturo Medina and Vice-Mayor Charles Geiger, prompted by their role in the firing, is legitimate?
San Juan political activist Rebecca McGovern has gathered enough signatures to put a recall of Medina and Geiger before voters in the coming months – assuming the Elections Office says the signatures are valid. But the reasons why Medina and Geiger teamed up with Councilmember George Dias to fire the city manager in February are still murky.
They have said it was because of communication problems with the city manger, sloppy contracts and poor performance evaluations. But they have not provided a detailed accounting of the problems that troubled them enough to fire a man many people say is honorable and hard-working. We’re not saying there weren’t valid reasons, we just don’t know what they are.
On the other hand, Cain has said the firing was personal – that Geiger and Medina don’t like him.
So, the voters find themselves having to weigh two competing stories to make their decision. Unless they are to decide such an important matter based on rumor and speculation, they need more information. A recall is a serious matter that deserves serious contemplation of all the facts.
Even if McGovern’s current attempt fails because of technical problems – there are questions whether she gathered the proper address information and if the recall petitions should be available in Spanish – she has proven dogged in her pursuit of this recall. We have no doubt she will try again, in which case voters still need to know the whole story about Cain.
We feel the need to again point out that it’s time for Geiger to make good on a promise he made shortly after the council fired Cain.
“People who get upset are upset because they don’t know the truth,” he said. “People are talking about a recall. If it gets to that point, we’ll put out the information. Then people in San Juan will know we’re doing what’s best for San Juan.”
It’s at that point, and San Juan residents have an important decision ahead. Give them all the facts.
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