Fire Chief Bill Herrera stepped down from his position during Tuesday’s regular council meeting. We owe him a debt of thanks for the good work he did during a particularly difficult transitional period for the department.
Bill has been replaced by Rigo Landeros. Rigo has been with the department since 1992, and is highly respected by his fellow firefighters. Congratulations to both of you for your distinguished work.
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Deputy City Manager Bill Bartels succeeded in getting the council to appropriate an additional $12,000 to pay for his assistant. Ky Spangler will assist Bill (at $100 per hour) while he learns his duties as Deputy and anticipates his elevation to the position of city manager. Ms. Spangler has justly received high praise for her work on the north Fillmore plan for SunCal. [I have deleted this sentence due to my error in stating that Mr. Bartels opposed north Fillmore development. Please refer to Roy Payne's blog comment, and my response.]
I guess the question now is: who will assist Bartels in his expected transition to Roy Payne’s old job as city manager.
Oh, brave new world.
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The Gazette has battened her hatches, awaiting a squall blowing from our newly elected city council. As I understand it, this expected action will demonstrate once again the new council’s true character – malicious, mendaciously political, and hypocritical. However, no tactic remains that could possibly surprise us – and no explanation can deceive. The mystery will reveal itself within two weeks.