Reality TV comes to Lathrop

I love TV reality shows. I can't help it...I've been hooked since I first saw Survivor eight years ago. Something about the interaction of human beings in stressful situations provides more drama and entertainment than almost anything else on TV. I don't watch every reality show that's on, but I usually check them all out at least once and only the best (in my opinion) get on my "must watch" list. My favorites are Survivor, Top Chef, and Project Runway.

Recently I've added the Lathrop City Council meetings to my viewing schedule. The drama and theatrics are stuff great TV is made of. Tuesday night's meeting was a classic. This first meeting after the widely publicized nasty and vindictive election campaign is a "must see" for those of you who like reality TV. In a show of solidarity, the losers in the Lathrop election stood up and castigated Mayor Kristy Sayles for everything they could possibly think of, most of which the mayor and council have no control over and the rest had no business at a government meeting and was just sour grapes.

Loser J. "Chaka" Santos made a loud and disrespectful 5-minute rant at the mayor and others on the council and city staff. He is a bully and, frankly, scares the pants off of me. Menacing in tone and demeanor, he challenged the mayor to go "one on one" with him, "just you and me." He was talking about another election where it would be just him and Sayles, but it sounded like he was calling her out for a street fight. He should be ashamed of himself for showing such disrespect to city officials at a public meeting and he's no role model for the students he brought with him. I don't care what your feelings are about the person holding the office, but show some respect to the office itself. While his cohorts might have found his antics amusing (loser Rosalinda Valencia hooted and guffawed throughout the meeting from the front row), most people found his behavior disgraceful. He reminded the mayor several times that 62% of voters didn't vote for her. Can I remind "Chaka" that 74% didn't vote for him? and even more didn't vote for Robert Oliver.

Councilman Oliver, who lost his bid for the mayor's seat, joined in the theatrics by bringing a bucket filled with water bottles and labeled "waterboy" to the meeting and displaying it on the dais next to his microphone. Oliver is still whining about the campaign flyer Sayles sent out calling him that and told a reporter at the meeting that Sayles "needs to be held accountable." Can we say "hypocrite?" No wonder he lost.

Thanks to Joe for the video clip.