If you want to understand politics in Riverbank, go see it in person

By Judy Sly
jsly@modbee.com

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There are pros and cons to witnessing a baseball game or other sporting event live vs. seeing it on TV vs. reading or hearing about it later. TV provides replays, but you don't get to see what the camera didn't see. An after-the-fact report is usually limited to runs, hits and errors. To really get the feel, sometimes you just have to be there.

Wanting a better feel for politics in Riverbank, I attended last week's City Council meeting. We all know the drama going on there -- the turnover in mayors, with two resignations within several months, the recall campaign against grandfather and grandson Councilmen Dave White and Jesse James White, and the countercampaign from White supporters. Most recently, the civil grand jury recommended that the council invalidate last November's election because Jesse wasn't a registered voter at the time he took out his papers.

I expected some of this conflict to surface at Monday's council meeting, and it did. But what was more interesting were the asides by Dave White, who as vice mayor is running the meetings these days. White has taken out papers to run for mayor in November.

On Monday, several residents called for both Whites to resign. Others were justifiably angry about a new flier that claimed Jesse and Dave are being unfairly targeted. This bright yellow flier carried no identifying remarks as to who was behind it, as required by state election laws.

But what really frosted some people was the fact that it was labeled "Neighborhood Watch," as if this poorly written political diatribe had anything to do with the volunteer neighborhood efforts to fight crime. Their anger was justified; this was a total misrepresentation.

Monday's agenda included mostly routine items, such as a presentation to Boy Scouts who on holidays have placed flags along Highway 108. White came down from the dais, handed out city pins without even shaking the boys' hands and then threw a pin -- or at least appeared to throw a pin -- to one of his pals in the audience.

Later, during a presentation by the Friends of the Library, Dave White elbowed his grandson, sitting to his left, then announced that Jesse wanted to join the Friends as a lifetime member. Jesse took a couple of seconds to catch on and then said oh yeah, he did.

At an earlier meeting, some of Dave White's comments were not just odd, but offensive. A statue is being made for a downtown plaza that will depict a ferryman, as in a ferry operator. (Riverbank's history dates to the mid-1800s, when the area was called Burneyville and a ferry crossed the Stanislaus River.) White commented on the statue, referring to it as a "fairy." He didn't spell it, but that's the interpretation that most people heard. Later in the same meeting, White said he preferred the "concentration camp" fencing that separated the alcohol area at the Wine and Cheese festival.

Recall proponents called White on these comments, saying they demonstrate that he's bigoted. I don't know about that, but as someone who attends a lot of public meetings, I will say that his performance is far from professional.

At Monday's meeting, White seemed amused by the two or three videocameras at the meeting, at one point suggesting that the residents who came to comment on the proposed sewer rate hikes came only because of the TV cameras. I would guess few of them had any idea that the media would attend.

Riverbank residents have significant choices to make in the next few months -- whether to sign the petitions for the recall, for example, or to ask to remove their signatures from those petitions. They are being bombarded with accusations; I would hope that they don't give much credence to those that are anonymous.

Most important is that in November, Riverbank residents will elect a mayor. Before they go to the polls, I would urge them to attend a council meeting in person for a real-feel sense of what is going on. Presumably they'll want a mayor who can run a meeting with focus and some decorum.

Sly is the editor of The Bee's opinions pages. Contact her at 578-2317 or jsly@modbee.com.