This past week started off in good shape. I got a lot of stuff done that I have had on my to-do list. Still working on my truck, but now I just need some more parts. Then, the bottom of the week dropped out.
We all found out that our city manager was leaving us for another job. Sort of like that special person you knew once that broke your heart. Seventeen years ago I was on the city council when our beloved City Manager René Mendez was hired. I’m proud that I was one of the council members that made the decision to rescue his family and bring them out of the desert. He had a good recommendation from his last job, but now he is just short of walking on water.
Because of him and his hard work, our little town has made the national news. Not just once, but many times. It makes me proud to live here. After he went to work for us, he did something that most city managers seldom do — he moved his entire family here. He bought a home and his children grew up right before our eyes.
Now that the last child has made his decision to attend a school away from the town he grew up in, I think Rene wants to see what he can do with a bigger responsibility; most great men do this. So, in the near future, he will be leaving our little part of Heaven to straighten out a much larger town.
Why else leave a town that loves you for a town where the city manager has to carry a gun? THAT’S A JOKE. He will make that town understand just how fortunate they are to get his services for the foreseeable future. When you think back about how many things he instituted here, I’m sure he will shine over there. I am very happy for him, if that is what he wants.
I was fortunate enough to learn what it is like to be a real council member and then mayor under his tutelage. I personally learned a lot about city government from him, and my lovely bride as a council member has also gained a much greater understanding of city government.
I don’t know if you realize how lucky we were to have his services for the past 17 years; 17 years is a lifetime for a city manager. Most get maybe a few years before they head for greener pastures. However, Rene found that the prior city manager had left us in an uneasy state, and first he had to fix all the holes that were left to us.
He has done a great job. You know this wasn’t an easy decision. However, his decision will not destroy his family. He has told me he will be living here and his wife will continue to shine in her own way. So we won’t lose track of him, and who knows what the future will bring.
Martha is also a wonderful gift to our town, and she too hit the ground running. I am very sad that he is leaving, but I’m sure he will be coming to enjoy our car shows and many of the programs that he helped flourish. I could go on and say nothing but good things about the Mendez family and I wouldn’t have to repeat anything, but suffice to say we will miss him very much.
On a happier note! Did you have a wonderful Easter? It’s kind of difficult to write about losing a key player of the City of Gonzales unless you have something good to say, and being as how this past weekend was when most of us celebrate the Risen Lord, I can’t think of anything more wonderful. I hope you didn’t eat or drink too much.
I took my family up to Gilroy to celebrate Easter with my younger son’s girlfriend’s family and a few other guests. What a peaceful and fun day it was. This is not the first time I have done that, and it is always fun. Reed went with us, of course, as did my mother-in-law.
I am not in agreement with the philosophy of most of his guests, as with a lot of folks who still believe in our President. I think we are being treated like cattle and that this Prez is a little shy of the duties of the office. In case you are wondering, the very first responsibility of government is to protect the people that you serve. I don’t think that is being done.
Our gas is sky high and food costs are also getting out of hand. I realize that Biden is being led by a few more progressive members of Congress, but in doing so he is really bringing us down. I cannot help but feel that we will be sending our boys and girls of the Armed Services to Ukraine to help out in reclaiming the land that is being taken from them.
I am old enough to remember the terrible “Rooskies” and how we were all afraid that the screwball running that country was going to drop a bomb upon our schools and homes. Did you ever have to jump up and get under your desk in case you saw this “bright flash of light?” Of course we practiced it when I was attending Bonita school. Little did we know that if a bomb had been dropped upon us, we wouldn’t have much of a chance if we “saw the light.” Yet we practiced it because we were good citizens.
Now it seems if we are good citizens we will get the shots the government tells us to get, even if the effects are not known.
I am personally pretty happy that Our Lord rose up and walked out of that tomb. I hope you are too.
God bless.
