From a Bee reader: More questions about the Nelson Esparza-Doug Sloan controversy

Esparza-Sloan questions remain

Despite all the coverage of the Esparza/Sloan controversy, I still am clueless as to what happened. Mr. Esparza says he told Mr. Sloan he would vote to terminate him "if he did not abide by a city resolution passed by the council majority." What was the resolution at issue? Why did Esparza think Sloan might not abide by the resolution? Had Sloan advised against the resolution or otherwise indicated he wouldn't abide by it? If so, why? Had Sloan in the past refused to "abide by" other resolutions? If so, why?

I think the public deserves answers. Then I hope everyone will move and enjoy their new increases in salary.

Future of solar power at stake

California’s rooftop solar industry is in deep trouble. That is because on Dec. 15 the California Public Utility Commission is scheduled to decide whether to reduce net-metering rebates to new (not existing) rooftop solar producers by 75 percent in order to boost the profit-making opportunities of the big utilities such as PG&E.

Given our voracious appetite for energy, we cannot get away from the need for remote solar arrays. However, when there is a readily available and more reliable means to produce energy close to home and reduce that need, Californians should be able to take the opportunity without facing unaffordable payback periods on their solar investments.

If you believe rooftop solar is needed and should grow, call or write to Gov. Newsom and ask him to use his clout and bully pulpit to turn back this awful plan.

Help farmers buy EV tractors

I think it’s necessary to clean the air pollution in the (San Joaquin) Valley, but there are many problems that cause this pollution. In my opinion farming is not the main problem. Pollution is not good for health. We know that cleaning the pollution and advising the people about how they can participate in order to clean the pollution is a bigger problem. There are a lot of health problems that are caused by pollution. It causes more problems to elderly people.

Farming alone is not the cause of pollution; there are many other sources, like automobiles, wildfires, factories and many others. I think we should focus on bringing new technology, instead of replacing older tractors, because most small farmers depend on these for their earnings. This is going to damage a lot of farmers. In upcoming years the county can make deals with electric tractors and give subsidies to farmers. If they sell their old tractors they can buy new one cheaply.

How to better feed Fresno students

For more than a decade, Fresno Unified has provided pre-packaged food from a central source kitchen. Criticized and documented as substandard for quality, safety and, most significantly, taste, at school board meetings and most recently in The Bee.

Equally tragic is that this wasted food is accompanied with packaging material that is contributing to the impacts at waste facilities, compounding environmentally dangerous trends.

According to FUSD published LCAP overview, the district is proposing to spend $6.4 million to upgrade and improve cafeteria services. Might I suggest the ESSR or COVID funding at $650 million (and it must be encumbered before 2026) to rebuild and outfit the idle cafeterias in our schools to provide fresh, “homemade” hot meals. Hungry children do not flourish and cannot study or focus on academics and behavior when their bodies starve.

Environmentally, food waste can be separated and composted, serving trays and utensils are reused and landfill impact becomes an immediate win.

FUSD claims to serve 98,000 meals a day. That’s over 88 million food containers that enter landfill sites. That’s environment responsibility and leadership.

Finally, we live in the food basket of the world. We fail to properly feed 70,000 students daily.

This story was originally published December 11, 2022 at 5:30 AM with the headline "From a Bee reader: More questions about the Nelson Esparza-Doug Sloan controversy."