On the agenda for this Tuesday’s, August 7, 2018 City Council meeting is whether to put making the City of Carson a charter city on the November 6, 2018 ballot. Albert Robles, Jawane Hilton, and Elito Santarina voted to initiate this action and are expected to be the ones responsible for putting it on our election ballot.

Link to Proposed Charter 08/02/2018

Cities in some instances take up to 5 years to build a charter Albert Robles has given a handpicked committee 90 days to come up with what the charter should look like. Ana Meni the Chair of the Charter Committee stated the charter presented to the people does not reflect the work of committee.

The city attorney suggested Ana Meni and anyone else  that makes this suggestion, is not correct. She went on and on saying she dares anyone to come up with any way the presented charter differs with the work of the committee. As she kept droning on, she stated many things that were not a representation of the committee’s work. They think if they talk long enough, we will just give in.

 Link to former Mayor and Founding Father Gil Smith’s comments

“I am asking that you defer action and to refer the matter back to the advisory committee”

Every report given on the charter committee and the city council meetings the majority of the residents do not want the charter on the November 2018 ballot. So why put it on the ballot? If Carson becomes a Charter City, they can completely disregard the general plan set forth by our founding fathers. This would allow them to rezone the city allowing the industries in that our general plan as written will not.

Our history on the city’s website is being told as if we began our journey in 1760 beginning with a Spanish soldier named Juan Jose Dominguez. The history of The City of Carson actually began in the 1960s when thousands of people came together to stop the contamination and dumping on our communities. It began when we stood up against our oppressors and the contaminators (one in the same).

The city put out the attached flyer with the subliminal message TAKE YOUR CITY BACK, directed to our Hispanic community. After a heated discussion on social media, city staff acknowledged the flyer seemed to target one community and revised the flyer also attached. No one took credit for the subliminal message TAKE YOUR CITY BACK but as you can see, it too was removed.

The City of Carson was created by our multi cultural communities not just one ethnicity. It is time for the residents to take their city back but not based on race based on why Carson was created. I’m not sure just whom the city wants the Hispanic residents to take the city back from but I do know it is the Corporations like Watson Land that the residents in our entirety need to take our city back from.

It seems that the people most supporting the rush to put the charter on the November ballot are the same people supporting the dividing of our city along geographic, district, and racial lines. In light of what’s happening in our country, it’s not the time to divide our city; it’s time to unite our city. Appreciating the great heritage and diversity that each ethnic group brings to our city this is what makes us the great city we are.

Vera Robles-DeWitt

by Lori Noflin