Misplaced anger and self-righteousness

In the last few weeks, much ado has been made over what amounts to minor expenditures by local governments. First we had the scathing opinion piece in the Manteca Bulletin about Lathrop politicians and city employees "stuffing their faces" on shrimp and cake paid for by taxpayers. Next, we had the "petition" to stop Lathrop's mayor from making a lobbying trip to Washington which received way more media coverage than it deserved. Now we have the Bulletin raking the city of Manteca over the coals for holding their annual employee recognition awards banquet last weekend.

Let's review a little bit. As Manteca Live pointed out, the shrimp-laden receptions Lathrop is fond of holding are open to the public. Anyone (even me who doesn't live in Lathrop) can go to one of those receptions and have some shrimp and cake and schmooze with local politicians. I wish Manteca would hold more receptions that are open to the public.

Then, there's the infamous petition circulated by the League of Extraordinary Gadflies that garnered all of 60 signatures demanding that the Lathrop mayor not take a planned trip to Washington DC, the purpose of which is to lobby for some of the federal tax dollars being tossed around due to the "stimulus" and "bailouts." Even though we've received threats over our stand on this, we still say $5,000 to send the mayor and the interim city manager on this trip is a small price to pay to try to get some of the money that's available from Washington right now. While the critics claim this is not the right time to be spending money on this trip, we argue that it's EXACTLY the right time. There are billions of dollars being given away and any local government that doesn't try to grab some of it is missing out on a chance to help their community.

Critics say Lathrop has spent $45,000 on the Washington trips over the past 8 years and only brought back $1.6 million. That's an excellent return on their investment. But let's not focus on the realities, it's more fun to pretend we're outraged. Though they deny it vigorously, it's obvious to anyone who follows local politics that the attempt to keep the mayor home is personal on the part of the League of Extraordinary Also-Rans. At least two of the League members have close ties to the developers rumored to have bank-rolled the vicious campaign last year to oust the mayor and this is just a continuation of the attacks.

The latest hit piece from the Bulletin criticizes Manteca city employees for partying on the taxpayer dime while people are losing their jobs and homes. This is another attempt to rile up the masses over something that "sounds like you should be outraged about" but is really another drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of the budget. The city employees are still "employees" whether we're paying them or someone else is and they deserve recognition just like anyone else who is doing a good job. And in another back-handed slap at Lathrop, at the end of the article about the Manteca party, Wyatt AGAIN brings up the damned shrimp cocktails saying $300 could pay the cost of a household's sewer and water for a year. I'm picturing Mayor Sayles dressed up like Marie Antoinette saying "let them eat cake (and shrimp)!"

All this complaining about minor expenditures is just pandering to people feeling the crunch of a recession and manufacturing false outrage and envy. Instead of focusing on the small things, why isn't the Bulletin or the League of Extraordinary Gadflies pointing out the big problems with government, like the bloated union-negotiated salaries and benefits packages that are bankrupting us. Or the Redevelopment Agency that puts us into debt and sucks tax money away from the general fund and schools and gives it to big retailers. Those are the real golden calves that no one wants to criticize. So instead we point out the little things and try to incite outrage while the elephant in the room is ignored.