I feel it is very unfair, but typical how The Fresno Bee has continued to shove their endorsements down our throats without telling the whole story. Hey Fresno Bee, how about telling the people how Swearengin, Perea, Duncan and Dages are ALL endorsed by the organization who wants to build a dangerous, taxpayer funded, 500 billion dollar NUCLEAR POWER PLANT in our city. How about telling the people about the many other special interests Perea, Swearengin, Duncan, Dages and Boyajian will owe if they are elected. These special interests have run Fresno and lowered the quality of life for Fresnans for years. The people deserve to know how these candidates keep telling us what is wrong without coming up with any solutions to the problems we face. If one of these people is elected on June 3rd, the people will once again be forgotten on June 4th.

I am ashamed of The Fresno Bee for endorsing yet another set of political puppets and for telling the people how great these special interest candidates are. We have candidates in the mayoral race and the council member races who are good, hard working people who have actual solutions to the problems we face and who will work for the people and not the special interests.

The Bee has endorsed Ashley by suppressing key facts regarding her suspect background.

First, during her tenure at RJI she has been ineffective. I have yet to see any evidence that they have created any jobs. No one has ever explored this issue in the media. The Bee continues to suppress this point. One can conclude that she will therefore be ineffective as Mayor.

This is a major flaw in the logic of the argument of the Editorial Board. One of the pillars of this view is that Ashley understands economic development and has experience creating jobs. The Bee's argument crumbles to nothing when it is recognized that RJI has done nothing to create jobs. Thus, we can conclude that the Bee has a personal partisan motivation for their endorsement, which has no basis at all.

Second, she has no political experience. As McEwen pointed out earlier she has not displayed any leadership skills.

Third, she has received more money from developers and businesses than any other candidate, although Perea is right up there.

Fourth, she is part of the elite inner circle of the Peoples Church, which put Autry and other insiders into office. This suggests she represent a small circle of religious and business people, not the common person.

Finally, what experience does Ashley have in dealing with crime and gangs? The fact is she has never confronted these issues in her experience at RJI. Instead she had her high paid consultants poll people who determined that gangs and crime are important concerns.Her position on this is merely a way of telling people what they want to hear.

The Bee has done the people of Fresno a disservice by writing more opinion pieces than investigative articles. Opinion pieces get confused with factual stories giving a distorted picture about the Mayoral candidates.

People need to think for themselves and be aware of the bias of the Bee.

My points above shows that Ashley is not the best candidate to be Mayor of Fresno.

Even more reason to support those who are for nuclear power.

Sounds like they are informed to lead the City.

Sue:

I know that in these forums folks can say pretty much whatever they want, but, c'mon, please stop bad-mouthing candidates when it seems you really don't have a clue about what is going on.

I will be up-front and say that I am supporting Ashley Swearengin (you conveniently chose not to mention who you were supporting) and she is surely no puppet of anyone. The Bee's endorsement is right on target in talking about the many strengths she brings to the table. She is not tied to either major party right now, her list of supporters is unbelievably broad-based and page after page of solutions to our city's problems can be found on her website ashley4mayor.com.

Your most aggregious statement, that she and many others are 'all endorsed by the organization' supporting a power plant is just plain wrong. There have been no such endorsements this year and there is a cross-section of Fresno businesses and individulas who have given to a number of candidates and have also expressed personal support for researching the options relative to nuclear power. And even that association is kind of a stretch, so please get your facts straight before blasting them out on the web. Your wild ideas demanded a quick response.....

Ronald:

Your post had not been put up when I wrote the above note to Sue, but you also raise some suspect points that need correcting right away.

Please see the most recent RJI report for a full, honest breakdown of job creation in the Valley. It can be found here in detail:

http://www.fresnorji.org/news/#story12

Ashley and Paul belong to University Vineyard Church on Shaw and Woodrow. They are not members at People's Church.

Ashley is indeed the best candidate and I hope you will consider supporting her in the long run. At least, please stop just trying to scare people or make associations about any candidates that are unfounded.

Schecter,

Stop spinning things...Ashley has not been elected yet and you guys are already acting like the Autry administration.

If you want real facts look at Fresno County's current unemployment rate here at the link: http://www.fresnobee.com/business/v-printerfriendly/story/607715.html

Ashley did not produce a lower unemployment rate before the subprime fiasco. So you can forget about that line of thinking. She has not produced results before the economy tanked or after. She reminds me of Scott Johnson at Fresno State. He is responsible for damaging the athletics department. And what does the City of Fresno do? They hire him as head of the economic development department. Anybody else in Ashley's position would have been fired, but because she is part of the elite inner circle she gets endorsed by the Bee and stands a shot of becoming the next mayor.

I find it interesting that the posts from the previous blogs about these issues have been buried.I guess the Bee wants to create a perception that no one has anything critical to say about a very questionable person they have endorsed.

For those who want to see the debate what was discussed before and buried by the Bee here is the link:
http://www.fresnobeehive.com/opinion/2008/05/the_bees_recommendations_for_f.html#comments

Valley jobless rates stay high
Seasonal employment gains not enough to offset losses in housing.
By Jeff St. John / The Fresno Bee
05/16/08 23:34:46
Unemployment rates continued in the double digits across the central San Joaquin Valley in April, as growing farm and seasonal employment failed to counterbalance job losses in construction and real estate.

Fresno County's unemployment rate was 10% in April, down from 11.1% in March but up from 8.8% in April last year, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.

Tulare County's unemployment rate of 10.3% in April also rose from the 9.5% recorded in the same month last year, and Kings, Madera and Merced counties saw similar increases, though all four counties saw unemployment drop from March as seasonal farm work picked up.

While Fresno County added 12,400 jobs between April 2007 and last month, up 2.9%, that growth was outweighed by the addition of 6,200 people to the county's unemployment rolls, a 16.5% increase over the 12-month period.

The weakening housing market continued to take its toll on the construction sector, which lost 2,000 jobs, a 9.2% drop, between April 2007 and last month.

Financial activities -- a category that includes the hard-hit real estate and mortgage industries -- also lost 500 jobs, a 3.2% drop, over the same period.

The county's biggest job gains came in retail trade, up 1,300 jobs or 3.7% from April 2007. Transportation and warehousing also added 400 jobs, up 4.7%, and utilities posted a 200-job increase, up 11.8%, over the 12-month period.

The other big gains came in health services, which grew by 1,100 jobs, or 3.6%, and in local, state and federal government employment, up 1,100 jobs, or 1.5%, over the 12-month period.

"Health care is a strong sector, and you're showing some retail trade growth in the short term," said Jeffrey Michael, director of the Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific's Eberhardt School of Business.

But the region's housing market slump and subsequent economic downturn mean central San Joaquin Valley job growth isn't likely to recover until next year, he said.

Steve Geil, president of the Economic Development Corp. serving Fresno County, said employers are very cautious about hiring new employees in the face of the faltering regional and national economy.

"Let's face it, they're preparing for a possible downturn, and they're not hiring, or they may lose people and not replace them," he said. "They're waiting to see how this shakes out."

That's leading some unemployed professionals to return to school or leave the Valley in search of jobs, said Lucy Bumanglag, coordinator of the Central Valley Professionals, a networking group at the state Employment Development Department.

Membership in her group stood at 53 this month, up from 18 in December 2006 but down from 77 in January, she said. But that decrease has less to do with her clients finding new jobs, she said.

Rather, most of the professionals who've left the group since January have gone back to school and taken themselves out of the job market, she said.
The reporter can be reached at jeffstjohn@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6637.

Ronald:

Your first post has nothing to do with your second.

In the first you questioned the RJI and its role in job creation....so I attached the latest RJI report -- which pretty fairly shows areas of success and areas that still need improvement. Seems to me you didn't bother to even look at it before you fired off a rebuttal.

Your second post says that because unemployment is up that the RJI and/or Ashley are to blame? Huh? As far as I know, and I'm not an economist, many variables must be considered in untangling unemployment numbers...with many state and national trends needing consideration. No single individual, elected or not, is fully responsible.

Also, your idea about some giant Fresno Bee conspiracy to cover information is just laughable.....but good try at trying to run a few people's names thru the mud to get some personal satisfaction. Hope you feel better.....

David,

I believe you are a Super Delegate supporting Clinton?

Can you nominate someone else other then Clinton if you changed your mind for some reason at the Democratic Convention?

I vote by mail, already have.

The race for Mayor will not be decided on June 3rd, it will just get the field down to 2. Not sure if the best 2 are going to be the choice in November, but that is the way of it.

What concerns MOI the most is what the City of Fresno is going to do about drug dealers selling 'poison' and gangs. The cost to the City of Fresno due to these two problems is enormous and will get even higher in the coming months.

I have been in contact with Councilman Perea's office, and they tell MOI that if Councilman Perea has time in his schedule, he might take part in the March in Alley betweeen Calaveras and Glenn, planned for June 3rd.

I have also, in the past, tried to get Ms.Swearengin interested in the plight of Calaveras. Have never heard back from her people.

MOI is called shrill due to banging on about drug dealers and gangs. In the hard economic times coming, the cost of dealing with the problems caused by 'poison' being sold and gangs running amuck in the City is going to be huge drain on the 'public purse'.

MOI is not going to throw mud at anyone. Truth be told, it is right hard for MOI to understand how one person running for high office could not see that these two issues are most important.

Makes it right silly to read about nuclear power. Forget about being made to 'glow' from nuclear power, drug dealers selling 'poison' and gangs are going to 'fry' the City.

A few points about the report David Schecter mentions above.

First, the annual report was developed by RJI--so one must understand that the information provided is not an impartial or objective view of the effectiveness of RJI.

Secondly, if one reads the report, one will find that according to RJI's own accounting, the organization has created less than 60% of the 30,000 jobs (a 5-year goal) it set as its goal or roughly 17,000 jobs.

This information begs several questions. First, why in the organization's 4 years has it only created little more than half of its proposed goal? The second question is how does RJI hope to make up 40% of its goal in the following year? Unfortunately, the report offers no explanations.

Thirdly, if one looks for an actual analysis of the jobs created in this report, there isn't any. The report is mostly concerned with recommendations and initiatives. Very little time and ink are spent on a thorough analysis of the actual jobs created.

For example, there is no information about what kinds of jobs were created (other than they were in specific clusters), their pay levels, whether they were short-term or long-term and whether they were sustainable.

Lastly, it is my understanding from the following website http://www.fresnoedc.com/businessservices/rji.php
that RJI received $5 million dollars in funding. If this is correct, this leads me to a fundamental point: Did the cost of creating these jobs outweigh what these jobs actually put back into the economy? I think we need a cost benefit analysis here, and unfortunately, we don't have that information.

There are just too many unanswered questions, only some of which I have mentioned, to conclude that RJI has been effective.

Rich:

I am not a delegate this year to a national convention....'super' or otherwise. Although it would have been fun and historical to participate, for sure...

Ashley is going to lose.

Respectfully,
K.R.

p.s. xoxo