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I was in the process of writing the following letter honoring our Mayor until Rob Schroder announced that he will seek reelection in 2018:
Mayor Schroder should be complemented for his announcement last year that he will not run again for Mayor. It is in line with the policy he has set in place with his Mayoral appointees on commissions.
In a council meeting, last year (June 15) he made it clear that there is a time for people to move on and to bring in fresh ideas. He stated that he was not reappointing several commissioners because some had served for “…many, many years and some over a decade.” He continued…, “but I also think it’s time to open up some of these expired terms for opportunities for new people who want to give back to their community and give them a chance to serve.”
My then thinking, “bravo, he is a fair and wise man,” has changed because of his bravado and leads me now to recognize this was merely more of his decades of drivel.
He has set one policy for the people and then sets a new one for his personal advantage. He has served “many, many years…over a decade,” and more, over two decades.
How can any person set that standard and then take this action? That is a person who cannot be trusted, a person with no integrity.
He, by his own guideline, has served too long. That is one major reason for him to leave office upon expiration of this term. The second one, and of far more significance, is the mistrust that he has created by this dishonorable self-serving manner.
Let that not become the image of the position of Martinez Mayor.
– C. Gonzalez
No doubt Schroder is frightened of a time when he cannot manipulate the police after his political opponents. So many hate him, he probably will not be able to stay in this town when he has to change his personalized Mercedes license plates from their current “MayorRob” and “MrsMayor” or whatever they say. He will get DUIs like everyone else and no one to give him special protection when he walks these streets. No one to act on his lies. No one to let his drug addicted children out of criminal penalties. He never meant he thinks folks are in offices too long. What he meant is “how about I get more of my friends in these positions so me and the big property owner, whom I give half our general fund to, can sit back and laugh at the people struggle.
Schroder is a little coward who has no sense of meaning, he only knows how to use and manipulate.
It is a leader’s prerogative, is it not, to change their mind? If I were in his shoes, watching the seeds I had planted years ago bud and flower; downtown seeing a rebirth of economic vitality and regional interest, the successful passage of Measure D, the pending master planning of the marina (despite staff scoffing) and more, I’d be equally tempted to hang out and see those fruits come to harvest.
And why not? Why step down now and suffer the insult of an upstart who had no hand in, no role in, the planting, nurturing, weeding, etc. of these significant accomplishments assume credit where none was earned or due?
Its easy to be popular when the ground work is already done. But that involves getting one’s hands dirty in more than just politics.