Valley Voice
Volume XXXVIII No. 11 7 June, 2018 ourvalleyvoice.com
Tulare citizens erupt in protest at council meeting
Former District Director sues Assemblyman Devon Mathis
NANCY VIGRAN
CATHERINE DOE
In the first Tulare City Council meeting following Tulare Mayor Carlton Jones igniting the Ag community on social media, and subsequent attempt to hose down the flames by hosting a private town hall meeting last week, hundreds of Tulare citizens and members of the Ag community showed up to make their voices heard Tuesday night. The council chambers overflowed with the 104 audience seats taken, an additional 40 temporary seats filled in the lobby and 80 in the Olympic Room. Beyond seating, numerous interested parties stood alongside the walls and in the halls. Sound was piped into the lobby and overflow room. And, for those unable to attend, the meeting was live streamed to the Valley Voice’s Facebook page with 766 concurrent viewers at one time and more than 2,400 comments made during the meeting. The original comments made by the mayor on a private Facebook page, and reproduced on My Job Depends on Ag’s page on May 18, claimed such things as agriculture “strips the natural resources and contaminates our
Janie Sustaita, a former Visalia staffer for Assemblyman Devon Mathis, filed suit May 21 in the Sacramento County Superior Court against the State Assembly, the Assembly Rules Committee, Chief of Staff Justin Turner, Assemblyman Mathis, and Tosha Cherry, who works for the Rules Committee. She is suing for wrongful termination, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Sustaita was hired by former Chief of Staff Sean Doherty and worked in Mathis’ Visalia district office as a field representative starting in October 2017. Doherty promoted Sustaita to interim district director in January or February of 2017.
nancy@ourvalleyvoice.com
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catherine@ourvalleyvoice.com
Andrew Janz speaks at his primary night party. Manny Oldenbourg/Valley Voice
Election night brings surprises for candidates STAFF REPORTS While Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward won a convincing race as the incumbent, Assembly Member Devon Mathis is in a fight too close to call. But the most surprising result of the evening was School Board President Eddie Valero’s victory for Tulare County Supervisor District 4 over the well-funded Dinuba Vice Mayor Kuldip Thusu. The final results came in at 56% of the vote for Valero, which means there will be no run off in November. Valero becomes the first Hispanic elected to the Tulare County Board of
Tulare mayor hosts townhall forum after controversy TONY MALDONADO
tony@ourvalleyvoice.com
Tulare Mayor Carlton Jones had a chance to explain his controversial social media comments on Thursday night -- and hoped to ignite a wider conversation in the community through a privately-held town hall forum. He hopes to hold more, and encouraged the audience to host their own and invite him. Jones told the public that his Facebook comments were taken out of the context of a larger conversation -- described as a chess match -- but said he was “totally wrong” in the way that he expressed his views. “There’s three things: there’s what was said, who was saying it, and the way it was said,” Jones said. “I was totally wrong in the way I was saying it. I was totally wrong in having a chess match with another dude -- I don’t even think we were focusing on the information, we were just taking shots at each other. And the goal was: oh, you took a shot at me, I took a shot at you. “Now, what was said is what I would love to get an understanding of here today. If I said something that anyone disagrees with, that’s what we can talk about, and explain these concerns. Now -- who was saying it, some people have an issue with me saying
those things. And that I’ll never apologize for.” He had invited Tulare residents and farmers to come to the forum to ask him questions and debate and discuss agriculture in the Central Valley. Approximately eighty to one hundred people attended the forum. “You’re having a conversation with someone in your head. Ag depends on the people. Ag strips the natural resources and contaminates our ground water and air. Ag causes asthma and valley fever, cancer and kills bees. You can’t educate me,” the mayor wrote one of the controversial Facebook comments. “You can share with me what you’ve been trained to think. We can debate the difference between what you think and what I think.” Jones’ comments were then reposted on the My Job Depends on Ag Facebook group by Erik Wilson, whom he was having the conversation with. Wilson is a co-founder of the My Job Depends on Ag group, and his post sparked intense interest in the agricultural community. More than 500 concurrent viewers watched the Voice’s live stream of the forum, and his comments were a focus of the group’s posts since they were originally revealed. Jones spoke at the Tulare Senior Center to a gathering of farmers, farm-
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Supervisors.
22nd Congressional District
It is the California primaries and the party for Andrew Janz’ foray into getting a congressional seat is lively. The atmosphere here is understandably boisterous, the feeling here is not if Janz will win but by how much. And that is the crux of the matter tonight, the percentage Janz will gain. The magic number being thrown around here is 35%. With that confident margin Janz can look confidently to the
During Sustaita’s time working at the district office in Visalia she claims that Mathis and current Chief of Staff Justin Turner sexually harassed and bullied her. Her suit also claims that she was paid less than her male counterparts because she was a female and “had a rich boyfriend.”
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Claims of Sexual Harassment and Bullying
Pot business brings changes — for the better — to Woodlake DAVE ADALIAN
dave@ourvalleyvoice.com
It’s been a scant handful of weeks since Valley Pure--the first licensed recreational cannabis shop doing business in the Central Valley--opened on Valencia Boulevard in downtown Woodlake. Already, the boutique storefront and delivery service is altering the nature of that small foothill community. By all accounts, the new direction is positive for everyone.
So Far, So Good
Things seem to be going well in downtown Woodlake. Businesses--Valley Pure, as well as Munchies, the new coffee shop next door, the pair of taco restaurants, and the walk-up doughnut shop--stay open late. Even on a weeknight customers come and go in number. But how much new revenue Valley Pure will generate remains to be seen, says Woodlake’s Community Development Director, Jason Waters, who was instrumental in setting a mood designed to attract cannabis businesses to that town of about 7,300 people. Since Valley Pure opened so recently, it has yet to make a payment to City Hall. Waters has no idea how much to expect when the first check arrives after July 1.
“Honestly, I don’t have a clue,” he said. “Every quarter, they’ll report to us what their gross receipts were, how much they made, and we get 5%. A little bit after July 1st I’ll be able to give you an exact number.”
Like Hotcakes
Over at Valley Pure, the parade of customers is steady and business is better than brisk. “The market is great,” said Wes Hardin, manager of Valley Pure. “Obviously, we live in Woodlake, where it might be a small city that lies in the middle of a bigger metropolitan area where there’s a lot of cities and towns around that we can pull from.” “I think it’s going to draw quite a few more people to main street,” said Woodlake resident Dana Garcia. Garcia was waiting in the coffee shop next door, minding her grandson as her son-in-law visited Valley Pure. She’s very comfortable having the Valley’s first recreational cannabis store in her town, she said. She likes the look from outside, but hasn’t be in yet. “I didn’t see anything wrong with it,” Garcia said. “They’re very controlled on who goes in.” Valley Pure co-manager Tony Caudle agrees with Garcia’s assessment. “It’s a regular business,” he said. “It’s
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