Follow up: Does it Really Matter?

It seems as if I caused a little bit of a stir with my last blog post. I first want to thank everyone for their comments.  For the record, I love comments; they make me rethink and reanalyze what I wrote and think of others point of view.  Therefore, when I got a bit of a snippy comment from someone, I decided to reassess what I wrote and decide if the quote, “Does it even matter,” in context of who you vote into City Council, was too harsh.

One of the people who responded to my blog stated:

“Every election and every vote counts. 30 years ago, the question, "does it even matter?" was a systematic response from many residents of Watsonville had 30 years ago when we were an at-large electorate. That ugly phrase you just brought back from the grave is something many of your predecessors fought to eliminate. Your father is an elected official BECAUSE of the hard work of the citizens, community organizers, legal experts and elected officials did before him and others currently sitting on the council.

"If you wish to be fair and balanced, than you clearly need to spend more time with the issues and candidates of each district.

Want to make a difference? Pound the pavement and get out the vote. We don't need 'whistleblowers'. We need effective leaders who will listen to community concerns and work across partisan politics to make Watsonville a good place to work, live and prosper.”

If others felt this way, I would like to explain why I will stand by my statement, “Does it even matter?”  I do have a lot of political knowledge, and the reasoning and comments on my previous blog are far from uniformed.  I have read different city charters, and research indicates there are not many like the one Watsonville has. You see, our city charter gives a large amount of power to our city manager, Carlos Palacios. Therefore, when people got their feathers a little ruffled about the quote, "Does it even matter?" I stepped back and had to realize they may have taken it out of context.

Some thought I was stating that it doesn’t matter if you vote at all.  This is wrong; I am a firm believer that every vote counts. You are reading a blog by someone who not only is a consistent voter since the age of 18, but who also has made a career out of helping candidates run for office.  However, the past blog was not about votes in an election, yet about a city that is run by a city manager.

Unless we have a City Council that stands up to the wasteful spending that happens under Carlos Palacios’ watch, Watsonville will still be the city of no jobs and foreclosures. Sad but true.

If you are OK with the way Watsonville looks right now, then you can say that the City Council is doing a good job and turn away from the real problems. However, it seems blatantly clear that Watsonville is a failing city.

And I am not the only one who thinks that the grand jury has been rumored to be pulling people in, speaking to them about the city of Watsonville and how business it being conducted? Watsonville has major problems, and the main one is Carlos Palacios.

Yet, it is the council that keeps him there and gives him that power. So, in short, I will stand by my statement, “It does not matter who you elect,” for the fact is, unless the Watsonville City Council members are willing to stand up to their city manager, which the majority has proven they are not, then Watsonville will continue to be run into the ground.