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Volume XXXVI No. 22 • 17 November, 2016
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Griswold Looks Forward to Serving on the VUSD Board
ington, Mountain View, Conyer and Royal Oaks. Some may have found the result surWith the change of administration prising, others may have found it expect- on a national level, there has been talk of ed, but in a more than 50% margin over greatly diminishing the federal Departeither of her opponents, Patricia Gris- ment of Education, if not eliminating it wold won the District Area 5 seat for the altogether. This could have an effect on Visalia Unified School District. local budgeting, so Griswold said, she “I was, like, shocked” Griswold said. finds it difficult to discuss “You don’t ever know. I did some of the things she’d like a lot of canvassing and I to see done within the dishad people out canvassing trict in that manner. for me, but so did the other However, somewhat candidates.” irrelevant to budgets, she Her opponents were would like to see more even Michael Washam, Tulare more community involveCounty’s Resource Manment in the schools with the agement Agency’s planning police and fire departments, director, and Niessen Foster, Patricia Griswold as well as the Chamber of a retired US post office emCommerce and local busiployee who served on the school board in nesses. She wants students to learn more 2000, but resigned before his term end- respect for law enforcement. ed, mid-year in 2002. “When I hear, ‘cops, run!’ this really Griswold, herself, is a special edu- means to me that we need more commucation teacher, who works for the Tulare nity outreach,” she said. County Office of Education. She was enCurrently, there is one police offidorsed by Donna Martin, the outgoing cer assigned to each high school, and board member for Area 5. one officer assigned to rotate around the Griswold said, she was the most middle schools. The elementary schools qualified, as she has experience with within the district are being served on an schools as a teacher. as-needed basis, she added. She feels, she She said that during her canvassing, said, that there needs to be more comshe visited the mix of neighborhoods that munication between the police and elemake up her district area. mentary-grade students. “That was the best part of the cam“There are serious gang problems in paign,” she said, “meeting the people.” town,” she said. “I don’t think you can While she will serve with regard rescue [a student with gang ties] in midto all Visalia Unified School District dle school – by then it is too late.” schools, there are four schools that actually fall within her territory – Wash- GRISWOLD continued on 9 »
Nancy Vigran
Outgoing TLHCD Board Chairman Sherrie Bell, Board Vice-Chairman Dr. Parmod Kumar, and Board Treasurer Richard Torrez at an October board meeting. Tony Maldonado/Valley Voice
Tulare Hospital Board Member Facing Recall Effort Dr. Parmod Kumar’s days on the Tulare hospital board may be numbered. During the November 8 election, Tulare Local Health Care District (TLHCD) board incumbents—Chairwoman Sherrie Bell and Linda Gadke, who have been central to several controversies there— were rejected harshly at the polls, losing their seats by a two-to-one margin. Now, a recall of Kumar has been certified by the Elections Office. No date has been set for the recall vote. The petitions calling for Kumar’s ouster were circulated by Citizens for Hospital Accountability, and the grassroots group’s statement of intent to recall was delivered to Kumar by Alberto Aguilar, a former member of TLHCD’s Bond Oversight Committee (BOC), at a meeting of the TLHCD just prior to the election. Kumar did not respond to a request to discuss the recall. ‘Not an Honest Person’ “He is a very unethical person,” Agu-
Dave Adalian ilar said of Kumar. “He’s just not an honest person.” As a member of the BOC, Aguilar was tasked in 2008 with monitoring the spending of $85 million in bond funding approved by voters three years earlier for the construction of the Tulare Regional Medical Center (TRMC) expansion project. He soon found discrepancies in the accounting and evidence bond funds were being spent on projects not involved with building the hospital’s new wing. Kumar and other board members, Aguilar said, were aware of irregularities and refused to provide the BOC with full documentation of how the bond money had thus far been spent. Ironically, it was Kumar’s influence that put Aguilar on the BOC. Aguilar was appointed to the BOC by former board member Rosalinda Avitia, who resigned
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Election Night: Surprise, Confusion, and Delays Staff Reports Election night started out on shaky ground for Tulare County as some polling places ran out of ballots and voters were forced to vote electronically. Other sites around the county were copying ballots for the unexpected huge numbers that showed up. At around 10:15pm voters in parts of Visalia and Lindsay were still waiting to cast their ballots and the Tulare County Registrar of Voters had to delay posting preliminary results until 10:35pm. The Tulare County Registrar of Voters released a statement outlining the challenges they faced election night. Tulare County Auditor/Controller Rita Woodard said, “Voter enthusiasm was high on Election Day with a record number of voters coming to our polling
sites to vote…There was a record number of last minute voter registrations leading to a record number of 154,003 registered voters in the county. A large last minute turn out to the polls, a longer than usual ballot, and changes in the election law all lead to the extra-long lines at the polling sites.” She also cited as reasons for the delay as the increase in provisional ballots, the newly instituted district elections in Visalia, and an unusually large number of voters registering after her office had ordered the ballots. Woodard explained that the election night results were later than usual because they cannot be posted until the last voter has finished. “Additionally, any voter in line at 8pm must be given sufficient time to enable them to vote before the poll closes. That was around
10:30pm at Grace Community Church in Visalia.” As of November 14, Tulare County had approximately 15,000 votes yet to count. The next update on Tulare County election results is scheduled to come out Friday November 18. An election earthquake on a national scale happened when Republican Donald Trump was declared president-elect. It was described by Fox News as a political miracle. Trump gave his victory speech at 11:50pm after Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called Mr. Trump to congratulate him. National news pundits reported that anger and dissatisfaction with the government was stronger than previously acknowledged. Trump’s campaign message resonated with the American people and his demographic showed up
in force, bringing him a victory. The atmosphere was festive at the victory parties for Congressmen Devin Nunes and David Valadao. Rep. Valadao gave his victory speech around 9:30pm, saying that it was an expensive and ugly race against his challenger, Emilio Huerta. He expressed gratitude that it was over. He said he was glad to be able to continue working hard for his district and his constituents. Rep. Valadao, who did not officially endorse Trump, said that he did not expect this result. “But when you have an FBI investigation against you and allegations of corruption it can’t help,” he said. He also said that Trump may have spoken to the working class better than Clinton. Even though Trump is a
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