Monterey County Now
Letters to the Editor
Kent Glazer | Monterey
May 8, 2025
Watching Robert Rivas wax poetic about “relationship building” while Sacramento crumbles under his watch would be laughable if it weren’t so costly (“Can a field trip to Sacramento help local leaders get more done?” April 17-23).
As someone who ran against Rivas in 2018 I’m not surprised he now presides over the Assembly as the living embodiment of government waste. Just look at the Capitol Annex project: Under his so-called leadership, taxpayers are being forced to foot a $1.1 billion (and rising) bill for a legislative palace complete with private escape corridors shielding lawmakers from the very public they supposedly serve.
This annex is a monument – not to California’s future, but to its political decay: a shiny mausoleum of arrogance, secrecy and fiscal abuse.
Rivas wants you to believe he’s “bridging gaps,” but the only bridges he’s building are for insiders trying to dodge accountability – at your expense. — Bill Lipe | Salinas
How brilliant is the comment from Soledad City Councilmember Fernando Cabrera: “How does nature produce a diamond? Compression – we are in a compression time. Right now we are under a lot of pressure, but how many diamonds can we bring out of that?”
Every important social change takes years and years; we are annealed in that process and learn to be activists for the long term. It is hard yet, it is the only way. Thank you for this column, and thank you Councilmember Cabrera.
