Times: Pair of challengers will replace Hercules council incumbents
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 3 November 2010 — 8 comments below »
The challengers have a mandate…
With all 13 precincts reporting, Delgado had 2,158 votes; and de Vera, 2,111, both topping 30 percent of the vote. McDonald had 1,432 votes (20 percent) and Valstad, the current mayor, had 1,314 (18 percent).
The incumbents had touted city government as open, honest, efficient and on course to deliver on its promises, urging voters to stick with leadership that they said was steady and had produced good results.
The challengers, on the other hand, criticized city government as opaque, ethically challenged and unable or unwilling to deliver on its promises, especially the long-anticipated transformation of the Hercules waterfront into a New Urbanist community of homes, offices and shops clustered around an intermodal transit center with buses, trains and ferries.
Will effective change follow?
Let’s hope that they can turn this train around and head it in the right direction. Perhaps the rest of council will take heed of what 60% of the voters in Hercules are demanding.
So glad that in spite of the Democratic party endorsement for McDonald and Valstad, that people were keeping up with the issues, and realized that we do have a budget deficit, and do need to make needed changes to move this City forward. Now I only hope the City will soon stop paying two City Manager’s salaries at an extremely high monthly rate, and then formally hire one good City Manager (without the outrageous salary requirements) to lead us into the future. Love the election results. And we are staunch Democrats, so, it was a little hard to go against the party endorsement. Susan Tarvin and William Wilkins
Eliminating the dual city manager’s as well as replacing a defective attorney should be the next items on the reform list.
Thank you to everyone who supported me during this campaign. It is an honor and a privilege to serve the community. It’s been a fun campaign, and I enjoyed meeting so many passionate and concerned citizens. Please stay actively involved and communicate with me your concerns. I am here to serve you.
I’d like to share a Thank you video prepared by my sister:
Sincerely,
Myrna
We should all be happy with the local election results. It is the best outcome for Hercules, given all the turmoil resulting from the failed leadership of the current bunch of elected officials. Appointing a new city manager was a positive step, but this was done reluctantly, and in any event too late to save the incumbents, who remained in denial for way too long.
My personal thanks to all the herculeans who took the time to make a difference by getting the word out that things were not right at city hall. Thanks especially to Jeff Wisniewski, for creating this site and posting relentlessly about matters that should concern all of us. And thanks to the CC Times for doing their jobs as journalists in exposing the troubling conflicts at city hall.
My concern is that the 5 councilmembers responsible for the poor management of the city are STILL in power until the two new council members are sworn in. I wonder how much mischief these 5 can cause between now and January?
And a continuing concern will be the reality that there remains for the next two years a quorum of the old guard who have stubbornly refused to embrace change when the citizens have made clear that the old way of doing business is NOT acceptable. Hopefully they realize that we are here to stay, that we will not accept being patronized, we will not accept public business being conducted in closed session, and we will not accept insider dealings that benefit their friends and family. Those days are OVER.
The new council members get it, the incumbents did not.
There is still an incumbent or two that needs to go and there is no time like the present to start the process. Two years and another election will be here before you know it.
To all of the readers of the Watch; your energy and concern helped bring to light many of the issues at Hercules City Hall.
Now is not the time to relax. The Rodeo Hercules Fire District should be in your mind. Two firefighters, from other departments, were elected to the Board. The West County Times opined that they would have a conflict of interest when it is time to review the firefighter’s retirement and other benefits. The District’s attorney gave very bad advice concerning the handling of Board Member Bill Prather, who was the subject of a witch-hunt by the union.
Remember, when you have a medical emergency or fire, these guys are the first resonders. Let’s keep everything trnasparent and open in all of the Board business.
@SMokey: While Manly Moulton might be “from [another] department,” he grew up in Rodeo and likely understands the needs of the Rodeo-Hercules residents better than others you might have endorsed. He also has the requisite experience, was a Rodeo-Hercules reserve firefighter, and serves on the Rodeo Municipal Advisory Council. Additionally, an individual (not me) who may have inside knowledge of the Rodeo-Hercules fire dept. sent a letter to Jeff? (I believe) stating Moulton is “an individual with much experience with the fire district and very good skills with working on a team and problem solving.”
As I said before, Manly and his family lived 2 houses down from me growing up and I can tell you first hand that he was a great kid, smart, kind, and honest, same with his family. He deserves the benefit of the doubt in his new role, until proven otherwise.