Good candidates desperately needed for three seats

A democratic city has an informed and engaged electorate. It has informed and engaged city commissioners who strive to inform and engage city residents, who are above them and at the top of the city-government organization chart.

What we have instead, in Truth or Consequences, is a shadowy government that operates behind closed doors that serves favored city employees and constituents. In short, what we have is a good-old-boy government, rife with nepotism and cronyism. Equality for all and the rule of law have gone by the board. The populace, for the most part, seems fearful of or purposely unengaged and indifferent to their local government. It’s very difficult to get people to go on the record for fear of reprisal.

The T or C government has not and is not working for the people, evidenced by the crises at hand—the near collapse of our water, sewer and electric utilities.

The water system is so broken that there are 40 leaks a week and 43 percent of the water pumped into its pipes is lost, which City Manager Bruce Swingle revealed to state legislators when he requested $20 million for emergency repairs last January.

The electric system was losing about 20 percent of the electricity it purchased due to aged transmission lines according to a 2015 engineering report, which is undoubtedly worse eight years later. The grid almost went down about two years ago, averted by the emergency replacement of one of the two 60-year-old transformers, but the other one also needs to be replaced. Swingle and the city commission have kept secret their sale negotiations with Sierra Electric Cooperative—a sale initiated by Swingle with no reference to the people, who own the utility and no contemplation of a competitive bid process. The negotiations have gone on for two years behind closed doors, but Mayor Pro Tem Rolf Hechler mentioned, during a city meeting, as an aside and never fleshed out, that the city needs $15 million to consider the sale, which seems a paltry sum for a utility that makes half that in revenue a year. Evidently the repair costs are so great that this sales figure is being contemplated.

Information about the sewer is the most difficult to ferret out—the smell, the potential diseases resulting from aged sewer pipes leaking into cracked water pipes that run alongside, the gargantuan EPA fines for effluent not meeting the National Pollutant Discharge permit standards—are never discussed at city meetings. It was revealed, in as muted a way as possible, by an inarticulate Wilson & Co. engineer, Alfonse Holguin and succinct Swingle at the same time they asked state legislators for $20 million emergency funds for the water system. The sewer needed $1.5 million for emergency repairs to the sewer system to keep effluent within required standards.

Swingle let slip during one of his first city meetings that the water system needed about $150 million in repairs “and the sewer is just as bad,” implying that $300 million in repairs are needed. I bet the electric utility needs to be nearly completely replaced as well for a similar amount.

None of this massive neglect and repair is discussed by city commissioners. They do not plan, they do not ask questions, they do not make engineers or city department heads give cogent written reports on these ongoing crises.

For that reason alone, the three commissioners whose seats are up need to be replaced if they dare to run for reelection.

Seats 2, 4 and 5 are currently held by Mayor Amanda Forrister, Mayor Pro Tem Rolf Hechler and Commissioner Shelly Harrelson.

Candidates must file with the Sierra County Clerk’s office (since it runs all local elections) by August 29. It would be wise to also inform the T or C city clerk. Candidates missing that deadline may declare themselves write-in candidates on September 5.

The city commission has been dominated by good old boys largely because of the city’s unfair voting system. City commission seats imply, falsely, that there are candidate districts. That is not the case. Anyone living within the city’s boundaries may run for any of the seats. Fair elections have voters choose candidates from their district. Or, if everyone gets to vote for all the candidates, then the top vote getters are put in office. T or C falsely divides up the vote into arbitrary blocks. All voters may vote for each seat. Therefore it only takes a little over 200 votes to put a candidate in a seat, especially if the seat is being contested by three candidates who break up the vote. The same faction has put in clone-like candidates for generations. Homogeneity of view is seen at every meeting, with nearly all motions passed unanimously.

Do not run for office if you think the city commissioners are supposed to work as a team. You are not buddies. You are not supposed to confer with each other, except in public meetings. You are representing the people, not city staff and not your fellow commissioners. No commissioner has power to act singly, only as a body and only when that body sits in a public meeting. That is why all business should be done in open meetings, constituents with issues coming to the mic to petition the commission as a body.

Do not run for office if you think the job is to cheer city staff, to “trust” them, to rubber stamp what they put in front of you, having “faith” they are acting correctly. You are supposed to be a check and balance on city staff. You are the people’s fiduciary overseer and guardian. Your staff oversight should be conducted via the city manager, never communicating directly with other staff, which could be construed as intimidating staff to do your bidding. You should insist on regular operations, financial, asset management and capital projects reports from department heads, to be given during public meetings, submitted in writing for clarity and public access.

Do not run for office if you do not want to be held accountable or to hold the city manager and city staff accountable via the city manager. This includes making your communications with the city manager and constituents transparent. City commissioners are not provided with an administrator or phones, only an email address, therefore all communication should be via that email address. Text messages from constituents to your personal phone should immediately be screen shot and sent to your city email, informing the constituent to use your email in the future. Phone calls should get the same reception—an immediate request they use your official email, not your private phone to communicate. You should answer all constituent’s emails.

Do not run for office if you are unwilling to read city packets—some are 600 pages long. It is your job to understand each item on the agenda and to explain or have staff explain them to the public, speaking clearly and concisely into the mic. If the city has hired experts at public expense, they should thoroughly explain the engineering report, the bond issue, the bridge loan, etc. in layman’s terms. Make sure written documentation is complete. Often contracts, grants, requests for bids and other documents are missing or woefully incomplete. Often documents are given only to city commissioners at the last minute.

Do not run for office unless you are willing to face the infrastructure crises, to oversee and adopt a 20-, 10- and five-year master plan for the water, wastewater and electric utility repairs. As it is, it appears Assistant City Manager Traci Alvarez is making all capital projects decisions behind closed doors, the city commission having abdicated their authority to her or others. Alvarez recently said there are $27 million in capital projects currently and $45 million in the pipeline. Alvarez was given the position of assistant city manager by the city commission. The position was not advertised and Alvarez’ qualifications have never been presented to the public. Good-old-boy favoritism is blatant and common in city hiring practices, not hiring by merit with human resources oversight.

Before you run for office, read chapter 3 of the state code on municipalities, chapter 10 on public officers and employees (which includes the Open Meetings Act) and chapter 14 on records, rules and oaths (which includes the Inspection of Public Records Act). You should also read the city code. We are supposed to be governed by the rule of law, not ruled over by demagogues or officials using their power to favor and punish friends and foes.