San Jacinto, CA may be having more than its fair share of problems with the recent indictments of 4 of the 5 City Council Members - to include our Mayor and five others. I am not here to condemn. Convict or even pardon the actions of the accused.
Let's remember, they are only accused. Have you never been wrongfully accused at some time in your life? I know I had. At one point in my life I took the attitude that if the accusation is made then there must be some thread of truth to the charges. All I'm going to say it is downright scary what vindictive people can cook up and how lies can turn to truths before you know it.
So yes, this is AMERICA where innocence is GUARANTEED to be PRESUMED until PROVEN GUILTY and I as a Proud American and Citizen of San Jacinto, CA will do my part to ensure that the accused benefit from this core belief of who we are, as a free and democratic nation.
Regardless of what anyone says, myself included, it is all an exercise in futility if the current Council members do not either step down or are convicted of a felony...remember they are presumed to be innocent until they are proven guilty.
It seems that as a sleepy little farm town in the midst of a transition to the suburbs that we should be able to figure out how we want our city to progress. The scary news is that there are some very aggressive individuals pushing self serving agendas in the public forums.
Most of what I have heard has been from outside the city...almost as vultures circling overhead getting ready to swoop in for the kill.
The fist disturbing suggestion published in the local newspaper was for the city and Riverside County to defer to the governor to appoint any board seats, as they open up. I think this is so wrong because it takes us right back to the problem of political influence. I doubt if the Governor has ever actually been in San Jacinto let alone have any real understanding of our local issues...nor does he really care as a lame duck Governor.
The argument for this thinking was presented as a purely economical one, considering the cost of a special election. The election process could be compounded if each of the four Council Members decided to step down independently with weeks or even months between the announcements.
Even more frightening is the talk of combining Hemet with San Jacinto as a single city and eliminates the duplicate costs of running dual municipalities. The talk of a merger is seen as a good thing for those in Hemet who, in my opinion, have done a pretty good job of running their city into near bankruptcy and squandering their land use opportunities.
So in essence, the City of Hemet is near broke and has very little land left to develop once the market turns and opens up again. Meanwhile, the City of San Jacinto, who has been very progressive and well planned thanks mostly due to our current and previous City Council Members, stands on the threshold of major development and improvements. The City has the money to do what it both wants and needs to do...and the best part there is an abundance of undeveloped land that does not need to be annexed.
So I would like the local press to do their job and report what it is suppose to report and not use its resources to stir the hornets' nest and make more trouble than we already have. Let us, the people who live and work in San Jacinto take care of our own house...we are more than capable and don't need the old school Hemet political machine stepping in looking for a meal to devour.
I wrote an earlier article on this topic you may find interesting.
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