Lathrop politics out of control (again)

Last Friday during a meeting of the Mayor's Art Show Committee, a verbal and physical altercation broke out between Planning Commissioner Dan MacNeilage (a frequent commenter on this website), the mayor's husband Thomas Sayles (a member of the committee) and Ron Rhodes, husband of former mayor Gloryanna Rhodes. The Manteca Bulletin did an article about the fracas yesterday after talking to MacNeilage and Rhodes but, as usual, was "unable" to reach the Sayles for any comment.

What could prompt a planning commissioner and a former mayor's husband to show up at a committee meeting (a committee on which neither sits) for the sole purpose of starting a fight with the current mayor's husband? I don't have the answer to that, but there's some small hint that there's a lot of resentment and anger over the annual Mayor's Art Show in the video from the last Lathrop city council meeting where J. "Chaka" Santos accuses the mayor of disrespecting Bennie Gatto (former mayor) and tells her it's not her committee.

Santos and MacNeilage are bullies and I guess we can add Ron Rhodes to that list now too. Santos smacks his fists during his "citizen's forum" rants at Mayor Kristy Sayles, like he wants to punch her. MacNeilage makes frequent threatening statements on this website, saying things like someone's going to "get hurt real bad" if we don't stop what we're doing. I would suggest to MacNeilage and others who have made threats to us over publishing their pictures and statements here, that if you don't want to be talked about, then stop showing up at public meetings and stop speaking at those meetings.

Commissioner MacNeilage seems to have appointed himself spokesman and enforcer for Lathrop politics and he says that he went to the Arts Committee meeting to "talk to Sayles" because he reportedly had "upset" some of the committee members and "made Joyce Gatto cry." (Joyce Gatto declined to comment to the Bulletin.) He admitted telling Sayles "you're not wanted here, you're not needed here" even though Sayles is a member of the committee and MacNeilage is not. Apparently, the bullies in Lathrop think they can get their way through brute force, and the ugly threats that have been flying around the past year have now escalated to physical violence.

Four years ago Kristy Sayles was the darling of Lathrop politics, backed by then mayor Gloryanna Rhodes and other prominent Lathropians. I think they thought that Sayles, being young and a newcomer to politics, would continue the "good old boys club" way of doing things that has been standard in the town for many years. When Sayles showed that she had a mind of her own and bucked the old establishment in Lathrop politics, the fangs and daggers came out. First came the vicious website that tried to destroy her and her family through ugly rumors and lies, false complaints to government agencies and the grand jury. Now we can add assault and battery to the frightening list of disgraceful actions taken in the name of politics.