Just another City Council meeting in Orange Cove ...
UPDATE: See Glenda Hill's response in this post.
Orange Cove City Council meetings are almost always entertaining -- especially these days when three council members elected in recent years are often at odds with Mayor Victor Lopez and his longtime ally, Councilwoman Bertha Del Bosque.
The July 8 meeting was no exception. This time a former councilwoman, Diana Guerra Silva, joined in on the fun. The last 30 seconds of a video on The Orange Cove & Mountain Times Web site records Silva suddenly veering off-track from a discussion about a proposed police department in Orange Cove and yelling at Councilwoman Glenda Hill for allegedly not paying her business license fees.
"If you were so serious about bringing in money, why didn't you pay your business license 20 years ago?" Silva shouted. "You've been stealing from the coffers of the city of Orange Cove!"
That caused a ruckus. Some people started shouting back, others booed. Shouting over it all, Silva kept yelling: "I'm sorry, that is a fact. It's a fact. It's a fact."
Someone yelled, "Get her out of here!"
Then the video ends.
Welcome to Orange Cove.
I sent an email to Hill today to get her response on the accusations. I will keep you posted if I hear back.
Comments:
I am suggesting to the City Administrator that we start selling tickets to these Orange Cove City Council performances.
"Performance Art" will help make up for some of the fund$ the State is "borrowing" from Cities and Counties.
Guerra-Silva was appointed by VICTOR LOPEZ to the Orange Cove City Council in 1994! She has never been "elected" by the citizens of Orange Cove, as she was never an actual candidate in numerous subsequent elections.
As I recall in the 2000 election, the OC Council voted to cancel the election, as only two members of the Council were to be contested. They did this to save taxpayers a couple thousand dollars.
This was in the same time-frame that mayor VICTOR LOPEZ was being paid a $300 appearance fee for each meeting/event he attended. On some occasions he drove from Orange Cove to Reedley (6 miles) made an "appearance" and billed the City for $300 Buck$. And was also paid mileage reimbursement.
This newspaper reported on this fee scam in May, 2006.
Only in Orange Cove!!
Posted by: Eldon Thompson at July 25, 2009 12:43 PM
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