Secret-ary Webber
Last week, California Secretary of State Shirley Webber made an almost secret visit to the Imperial Valley. As far as I understand, the official, who incidentally has not been elected by California voters but was appointed to replace Sen. Alejandro Padilla, visited Calexico High School in order to promote voting.
The most peculiar thing was how disinterested organizers appeared in publicity. While the secretary’s visit wasn’t devoid of coverage, it appears notice to media was very selective or even accidental. Apparently the decision was made that public interest wouldn’t be served with a more proactive approach to communicating a top state official’s visit to the Valley. Or perhaps none of the officials involved really wanted to answer any questions.
In any case, most media outlets and the public in general were shut out of Webber’s visit, which also involved state and county officials. Somehow this clandestine operation was supposed to promote voting in one of the counties with the poorest turnouts in the state. It’s hard to see how.
Naturally, after the event, local elected and appointed officials who had the opportunity to participate marked the occasion by sharing celebratory photos on social media without conveying any practical information whatsoever.
On Tuesday, during the Imperial County Board of Supervisors meeting, the county Public Information Officer Gilbert Rebollar showed a photo of District 2 Supervisor Luis Plancarte, County Registrar of Voters Linsey Dale, Assistant Executive Officer Esperanza Colio-Warren and Board Chairman Jesús Eduardo Escobar with Secretary of State Webber.
In his report to the Board of Supervisors, Rebollar failed to present details about the meeting between the local authorities and the state official.
As to why the visit was handled with this level of opacity, there may be many hypotheses, but any of these turns out to be extremely negative for whoever organized the event, be it the Secretary of State, the County of Imperial or the Calexico Unified School District. For example, if the county did not organize the event, but was asked to remain silent about the event, local officials have become complicit by omission.
Not long ago, Imperial County officials tore their hair and sent letters expressing their dissatisfaction after California legislators carried out a visit with state officials at the Salton Sea area to study the future development of the so-called Lithium Valley. After that event, county officials demanded consideration in state-level discussions regarding everything that has to do with this matter.
Something very different happened with Congressman Raúl Ruiz, who invited many media representatives and community members, including county officials, to meet with the U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm when she visited the region to address the needs of residents living in and around the Lithium Valley. Those concerns were then communicated at the federal level.
All of this reminds me that only criminals or the corrupt hide from the public eye to avoid being discovered for their outrages.
Thus, it is clear that Imperial County uses a double standard, since while on the one hand its officials demand transparency and openness from the state when it suits their own purposes, but won’t necessarily do the same for the public’s interests.
As the Mexican saying goes, they are the lamp of the street and dark of the house. Plainly and simply put – hypocrisy.