The Tulare County Board of Supervisors (BOS) voted 5-0 at their August 26 meeting to file an Unfair Labor Practices Charge against SEIU. The decision came after an impassioned presentation by County Counsel Kathleen Bales-Lange that described SEIU’s inappropriate conduct during this year’s negotiations. SEIU and the county were in negotiations from March to the […]
The Water Bond hasn’t even passed yet and additional water storage is already in the works for Tulare County. A 4,000-acre-foot reservoir is being planned south of Woodlake and next to Lemon Cove where the St. Johns River and the Kaweah River split at a location known as McKay’s Point. An Indian village used to […]
Can This Marriage be Saved? The debate rages between Tulare County and SEIU. The county is filing an Unfair Labor Practices charge against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) for bad faith bargaining. Kathleen Bales-Lange, county counsel for the Tulare County Board of Supervisors (BOS), explained that there […]
This is part three of an ongoing series about CEMEX, water and wells going dry in Lemon Cove. The next article in the series will feature the arguments surrounding the construction of the McKay’s Point Reservoir. The following is a letter to the Tulare County Planning Commission dated February 8, 1970 concerning Kaweah River Rock […]
Virginia Gurrola Starts Off Running The official campaign season doesn’t start until after Labor Day, but Virginia Gurrola, candidate for Tulare County Supervisor in the 5th District, has already assembled her team and fixed up her campaign office. Her headquarters are at 238 Main St. in Porterville, and the official ribbon cutting is today at […]
Not all Tulare County rank-and-file employees got a signed contract at the end of negotiations July 21. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Bargaining Unit 2, comprised of more than 200 county maintenance, construction and custodial staff, is still working without a contract. SEIU bargaining units 1, 3, 6 and 7 just finished five months […]
This is part two of an ongoing series about CEMEX, water and wells going dry in Lemon Cove. Read part one here. At the end of 2013, a row of Lemon Cove homes along the Stillwell Mining Project, owned and operated by CEMEX, started to see the underground water levels drop. By January, several of […]
At the July 21st Visalia City Council Meeting, the council voted to levy a fine of $29,556 on Abigail Trevino’s residence in southwest Visalia for code and law enforcement violations. According to Tracy Robertshaw, neighborhood preservation manager, Trevino’s case is the exception. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, home owners comply when they get their first […]
On July 21st, the county’s negotiating team and the Tulare County employee’s union signed a tentative agreement for a one-year contract with a 3% raise. The agreement had to be approved by the union members and the Tulare County Board of Supervisors (TCBOS) before the new worker’s contract became official. About 350 county employees voted, […]
Visalia Neighborhood Preservation Manager Tracy Robertshaw and the Visalia Parks and Recreation Commission have been busy making Visalia a better place to live. Last year, Robertshaw presented an ordinance to ban shopping carts that has been a huge success. During the last city council meeting, she put forth an ordinance banning repeat criminals from using […]