By Thomas Benigno / Former elected Republican Central Committee Member
A few weeks ago there was an article in the Tracy Press that the Clerk was going to be taken off the ballot. The reasons were that it cost too much money to put the Clerk’s name on the ballot.
I had to get involved with this process because of what has been happening down in Bell, California. There, some of the officials were making as much as $700,000 per year and bonuses of over a half a million for the rest of their lives.
Back to the Tracy issue, by being appointed rather than elected, the Clerk could make wages from $7,200 to $80,000 or more per year. The City states that it will save $40,000 per election by not having the Clerk’s name on the ballot. The San Joaquin County Registrar’s office in Stockton says that the City can do what they want on this issue. The County Board says it is just politics, so we don’t know who to believe.
My position was to write a letter opposing the plan. I wrote the letter, took it to the Clerk’s office, and brought it to the City Council meeting that night.
Of course it was the last item on the night’s agenda. I presented my position to the Council and the City Attorney said the document was worthless because it was titled wrong. I argued that it didn’t matter, the document was already filed. The attorney was under the belief that the Council was going to vote the way they wanted to on the issue.
The next day I changed the title and took it back to the Clerk’s office and then she said it had too many words. Again I argued that they already stamped the document. After some discussion they told me again that the letter was not going to be used. They mentioned again that the Council would vote the way they wanted on the issue.
Summing it up, the issue is that they’re going to go around the electoral system to appoint one of their own, to CONSOLIDATE THE POWER TO WRITE IT LIKE THEY WANT.
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