The Modesto Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Realtors are powerful interest groups in Modesto. They fiercely represent a privileged group of members of their organizations. For the average citizen, quality of life in Modesto is adversely affected because of their requirement that all elected officials be “business friendly.” As they tried to steer Modesto towards a better quality of life for all citizens, former mayors Peggy Mensinger and Carmen […]
Modesto City Council
Does the Modesto City Council Really Listen?
The greatest honor of my life was the four years I served on the Modesto City Council, from 1999 to 2003. During my term on the council, I vowed I would do my best to put personal prejudices aside and represent the will of the citizens who elected me. As one of my colleagues liked to remind me, I was naïve and idealistic. While I agreed with his assertion, I hoped that […]
Logic Behind Votes to Add Wood Colony to Sphere Of Influence
News item: The Modesto Bee reported in its Thursday edition that the Modesto City Council voted 5-2 in favor of adding Wood Colony to its General Plan map. Councilmembers Zoslocki and Lopez voted against the addition. In politics, everything has a logical explanation. Oftentimes, the logic seems impossible to follow. Undoubtedly, to some, the Tuesday night decision looks crazy. Let’s look for some logic. At the end of a 7 hour meeting, Mayor Garrad Marsh stated […]
Why Certain City Council Members Want A New General Plan
At the January 28, 2014 Modesto City Council meeting, Councilmembers Dave Cogdill Jr., Bill Zoslocki, and Dave Lopez voted to begin a comprehensive rewrite of the Modesto General Plan. A majority of the City Council voted down the proposal due to the high cost, but what exactly were the three proponents after? Councilmember Cogdill stated that the Modesto General Plan was out of date because it had not been updated “since 1995” and because […]
Modesto Primed To Outsource Police Services To County Sheriff, by Bruce Frohman
Riverbank and Patterson: A number of years ago, prior to election to the Riverbank City Council of a family member of a locally owned grocery store chain, the city provided police services to its citizens. Riverbank had its own police department. In the grocery business, an expanding population is good for business. Coincident to the grocer’s election, the City of Riverbank experienced a residential housing boom. The housing boom was fed by infrastructure subsidies provided by Riverbank taxpayers. To enable greater subsidies […]
Lopez vs Monteith: Analysis by Bruce Frohman
The Modesto Bee reported last week that Modesto City Councilman Dave Lopez intends to unseat Stanislaus County Supervisor Dick Monteith next election. Monteith told the Bee that he has no plan to retire. However, the 80+ year old incumbent could decide at a later date to retire rather than seek reelection. If Monteith announces his retirement early enough, other candidates will probably join the competition. Historically, when an incumbent does not run for reelection, more candidates seek office. However, Supervisor Monteith […]
Modesto City Council: Economic Development or Disaster?
Last Wednesday’s meeting of the Modesto Economic Development Committee highlighted a twenty-five year schism among Modesto leaders that is as much an effect of separate realities as it is of anything else. On the one hand we have those who think we are losing prime farmland at far too great a rate. They believe we must establish firm urban boundaries now or too soon suffer the fates of Los Angeles […]
City Council: Joe Muratore’s Revealing Moment
Bruce Frohman’s insider’s view of the Modesto City Council (below) offers a sobering look at local politics. Last Tuesday’s Council meeting confirmed Frohman’s claims—developers rule—but there were at least two episodes that shed even more light on the City’s current and future political realities. The first revealing moment came just after Councilmember John Gunderson moved to put Denny Jackman’s Residential Urban Limit proposal on the November ballot. During the comment […]
Home Builders Control City Council, Harm Local Economy, by Bruce Frohman
Nobody at City Hall will ever admit it, but home builders control Modesto’s government. Campaign contributions help elect shills to the City Council. The shills take instruction from those who helped them get elected. Some have even gotten text messages during Council meetings. Former Modesto Mayor Carmen Sabatino has battled special interest groups for years, but the groups’ abundance of money and ambitious citizens willing to work for them is never ending. The reason is simple. There’s financial gain […]