Delusional liberal blames Walters for poverty and obesity

Carolina Sarmiento, of El Centro Cultural de Mexico, penned a ridiculous op-ed over at the union-funded Voice of OC, ripping our Santa Ana City Manager, Paul Walters, and demanding a national search for a new City Manager.   Obviously she timed this to coincide with tonight’s scheduled City Council meeting as the “Gang of Five” may be terminating Walters – with no cause to be sure.

Here are a few excerpts from Sarmiento’s delusional missive.  Note that she is essentially trying to pin the problems in our city, which stem from poverty, on Walters – this dear readers is class warfare, right from the writings of Karl Marx:

• A recent report on Orange County cities titled “Healthy Places, Healthy People” (2012) places Santa Ana as the city with the second highest unemployment rate (14.1%); the highest in poverty among adults (15%); the highest in poverty among children (25%); and the highest in crowded living conditions (34.1%).
• At the same time, in education Santa Ana scored last in children attending preschool (32%) and last in percent of students graduating high school in four years. Only 85% of our students graduate in four years. We have the lowest percentage (51%) of residents with a high school diploma.
• In regards to health, we have the lowest percentage of children and adults with health insurance and the lowest percentage of teens with proper body weight.
• These are only some of the priorities our city leadership should be measured by.

Seriously?  How is any of that the fault of Walters?  Sarmiento is even blaming him for education issues that don’t even pertain to our city administration!  And she blames Walters because some of our residents are overweight.  Did he put food in their mouths?  Or tell them what to cook?  Unbelievable.

One of our city’s business owners, who also resides in our city, Mike Tardif, responded to Sarmiento’s diatribe on the Santa Ana Citizen’s Yahoogroup.  Here is what Tardif had to say (and I agree with him totally):

The most recent national search for a City Manager failed due to the dire financial circumstances of the City at that time. Former City Manager and coward Dave Ream fled the scene of an impending financial disaster for which he and the entire council at the time share blame.

Paul Walters helped pull the City from the brink of that financial disaster – he deserves the gratitude of the entire City for those efforts. He has helped pull the people of Santa Ana together in many ways. As a faithful servant of the people Paul Walters deserves to be treated with dignity and respect – not as the council’s political football.

Mike Tardif

Santa Ana, CA

Even more hilariously, Sarmiento trumpets the lame Sunshine Ordinance – even though the Council’s “Gang of Five” have not been responding to phone calls, have been ignoring the media and have been trying to scurry in the shadows.  These guys are not into transparency at all – only when it benefits them.

The working families of this city don’t share Sarmiento’s East L.A. views, I can assure you.  And you will see quite a turnout at tonight’s Council meeting – by folks who do not want to see Walters fired.  This Council and their few supporters are out of control!

And make no mistake about it.  This is all about getting Walters out of the way so the “Gang of Five” can install a patsy City Manager who will roll over and give the cops’ union a huge pay raise our city and our taxpayers can ill afford.

Art Pedroza Editor

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

See Full Bio