Posted: 01/02/2011 05:10:13 PM PST
http://www.sbsun.com/letters/ci_16994817
This letter was also published in the Grand Terrace City News
An open letter to Gil Navarro:
What is it that causes you to be so angry and full of spite? What is it that you are so opposed to? Are you opposed to Grand Terrace and the Colton school board developing a healthy working relationship based on mutual trust and honest discussions of the issues? Would you prefer an adversarial relationship based on threats and intimidation, which is what we used to have?
What exactly do you stand for as a county school board elected official?
What concrete proactive steps have you taken to improve the working relationship between GT and CJUSD?
When I look at your record I only see a trail of hate and half-truths you take to the press, because it appears you enjoy seeing your name in the press regardless of who you have to step on to make it happen.
What motivates you more, being an advocate for Latinos or seeing your name in the press? In your false claims of Brown Act violations by the Colton school board for attending the swearing-in ceremony for the members of the GT City Council and offering well wishes, you directly attacked Latino elected officials Patt Haro, Randall Ceniceros, Pilar Tabera and Bernardo Sandoval. So again I have to ask, what do you stand for?
Grand Terrace and the Colton school board are working very hard to heal a relationship in spite of your brand of politics, which thrives on hatred and mistrust.
I also have to ask why you selected the Grand Terrace City Council meeting. You didn't report Brown Act violations for the swearing-in ceremonies of the Colton City Council or even recent events that were held to honor a man I deeply respected and loved.
This Christmas season, I invite you, Gil Navarro, to join me at the table of solutions. It is a table where all who partake do so in an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust, where with a shared passion individuals come together to make our local world a better place for all.
BERNARDO SANDOVAL
Grand Terrace City Councilman
Gramps Review:
While Grand Terrace City Council Member Bernardo Sandoval puts forth some interesting questions to Gil Navarro a Trustee of the San Bernardino County Board of Education, I have to support any and all attempts to protect the Brown Act in every application. It is fine to file a complaint and get an issue or situation clarified and defined for future activity. This is how a civil society functions.
If there was a violation, let the public and the Council Member and Board Members know so there is no future violation. The resolution should be a protocol by which information and meetings can be conducted properly and in accordance with the Brown Act. I am not saying the Brown Act was violated. I am saying it is appropriate for any citizen to call their government and its officials in question to make sure every i is dotted and t crossed. This is a protection for the citizen and the elected officials.
Filing a question or complaint or inquiry is the appropriate action, when there is even the slightest suspicion that something may be wrong. This should not be offensive to the Boards, Councils or any organization being held in question. We should want to know what is right and go forward in accordance to the rules, or laws regulating us. IF the LAWS don't fit, change them don't operate in ignorance, or defiance of the law or regulation. We have had too much of that in the past.
Gramps
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More From The Email InBox:
Open Letter to Grand Terrace City Council Member Bernardo Sandoval:
As a Christian I must reply to City of Grand Terrace Council Member Bernardo Sandoval's, Open Letter to San Bernardino County Board of Education, Trustee Gil Navarro. Why did Sandoval feel it necessary to dress Navarro down with a public letter if he is then evoking a Christmas Plea for Civility? Why not just call Navarro up on the phone and make an invite, or perhaps an official letter from the desk of the City Council Member's desk. No Sandoval's letter was a public dressing down of another elected official. It included not referencing Navarro's official title and went beyond the scope of the secular and transgressed into the area of Faith.
Your Christmas Plea for civility in the political realm is offensive. Christ said render unto Cesar what is Cesar's. The issues you have between you are not on the Faith you invoked as a counter point or mitigatory aid. No what it looks like is your trying to suggest you are a better Christian than he is. That is offencive and inappropriate in political discourse. It debases the religion you invoke, and it suggests a level of arrogance upon your part. To question the action of authority is not to be done in some practices of religion. However, in politics of the USA it is the responsible thing to question those who govern us.
Council Member Sandoval, you are new to politics, it may be a good idea to write the letters and ideas down, and then let them sit for a few days and while they age, look at them from every angle prior to their release.
My next question to you is will you use other Christian Holidays as part of your intimidation of other critics? Perhaps you'll be politically correct and include the religions and holidays of other religions as your basis for ridiculing some one who dares to question the actions of those who have been elected not anointed to govern their secular affairs. Here is a news flash. Some very firm believers in Christ resent Christianity being used to suggest a higher moral character and omnipotence by politicians on a National and Local level.
Even Christ questioned authority, even when it was The Authority. So friend, it is fine if Navarro asked for a clarification on the actions of the CJUSD Board Members. Let's be civil and wait for the answer from the proper authority. By the way You are not the proper authority on all things Brown Act, so coming to a table for a discussion would be useless on this concern.
Perhaps you Council Member Sandoval should reflect upon this point both as a politician and as a Christian.
Christian in Grand Terrace
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Dear Gramps:
The San Bernardino County Board of Education Trustee for Grand Terrace is Alen Ritchie
Trustee Area E Vice President of the Board. If there is any Trustee to be brought into the relationship between the City of Grand Terrace and the CJUSD it should be Mr. Ritchie not Mr. Navarro. HOWEVER, in reading the SBCSS web site it is noted that the Board must work as a body and that no individual has singular authority. So, if Mr. Navarro filed a Brown Act complaint he did this as an Individual Citizen not as a SBCSS Board Trustee.
The City of Grand Terrace vs the CJUSD is not part of the concern of the SBCSS Board. Its job is to distribute funds and handle School Related Issues, not the political squabbles between individual with a City Government. I welcome a new maturity to the relation ship between the City and CJUSD, but it is not the business of the County School Board to fix the problem.
When the City of Grand Terrace, has its City Governance Mastered, it then may want to be of better assistance to the CJUSD rather than acting as it has in the past. For now, try keeping the focus on what each of the agencies are supposed to do and keep the functions well defined. When collaboration is appropriate fine, but keep the authorities clear as to who does what when and how. You don't go to a Proctologist for an Eye Exam, or perhaps I should say I hope you don't.
Educator in Grand Terrace
