The following article was published in the October issue of The Dala Monthly, a not-for-profit monthly community newspaper written for the City of Kingsburg by the citizens of Kingsburg.
By Lance Jackson
Last month The Dala Monthly created a timeline showing what statements our key officials told the public and when they made these statements. We did this so that we may get a clearer picture of exactly how our officials informed us about what happened in Reedley. During the time since our last article, there have been a few new developments of interest, and there remain many unanswered questions.
Perhaps one of the most significant new developments is the U.S. House China Select Committee in coordination with the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee served a subpoena on the City of Reedley for all documents and records relative to the entire lab incident. The subpoena was served during the week of September 5th and lead to thousands of pages of documents, hundreds of photographs, and hours of video being sent to Congress for review. It is important to note that the review is being conducted by the United States Congress, and specifically not a government agency such as the FBI or DOJ. Also, upon further investigation, it was found that the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus subpoenaed both the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in its own investigation after saying the two agencies had been uncooperative with requests for information.
Another ongoing development initiated since out last edition, has been the pursuit of water, air, and sewage test results the Reedley City Manager repeatedly publicly touted. Reedley citizens have made formal inquiries for test results with little meaningful response. The City provided links to water supply test results, but did nothing when it came to producing the Air and Sewage test results that were allegedly taken on a "daily, weekly, and monthly" basis throughout the cri-sis. Considering Reedley City Manager, Nicole Zieba, stated, "I am just so relieved that Congress is taking this seriously since we have not had that sense thus far from some of our State and Federal partners.., it certainly appears the City of Reedley is following the State and Federal agency modus operandi when working with their own citizenry.
What can the citizens of Reedley, and Fresno County, do to create some accountability within our city and county governments? It is crucial to understand that bureaucrats (city managers, irrigation district managers, governmental agency managers) serve at the pleasure of the elected board or council which hires them.
All too often, those boards and councils forget the bureaucrats work for them, and the board is supposed to be working for US, their constituents. We, as citizens of our cities, the County, the State, and the United States, can and must demand accountability from those we elected to represent us in our constitutional republic. Our representatives, regardless of position in Local, County, State, or Federal government are bound and obligated to serve their constituency. Should they fail in that endeavor, we the people, have the right and the obligation to remove them from office and replace them with someone else.
Fortunately, we will have the opportunity to do just that beginning in 2024. Following are some offices that will be coming up for re-election next year:
Fresno County Board of Supervisors District 2 (currently Steve Brandau)
Fresno County Board of Supervisors District 3 (currently Sal Quintero)
Fresno County Board of Supervisors District 5 (currently Nathan Magsig)
Reedley City Council District 1 (currently Matthew Tuttle)
Reedley City Council District 3 (currently Suzanne Byers)
Reedley Citv Council District 5 (currentlv Anita Betancourt)
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