BY KATHY BALLARD
Los Banos Resident
Back in 2021, Brett Jones wanted his buddy Josh Pinheiro to be hired as Los Banos city manager.
It didn’t matter that he had no experience in government. Or that he had little experience managing people. It didn’t matter that he was so unqualified for the job that professional executive recruiters refused to include his name on a list of 10 candidates given to the city.
So, it wasn’t surprising that just eight months after his original hiring, three members of the city council decided they had seen enough and fired him.
What was surprising, though, was the action of a new city council – Jones, Mayor Paul Llanez, Kenneth Lambert and Doug Begonia Jr. – to rehire someone so clearly unqualified. But most shocking of all was the council’s decision to hand over $1.8 million of our tax dollars to their buddy and then make it virtually impossible to fire him by requiring a 5-0 vote to get rid of him.
Since then, the hits just keep coming:
- A “No-Confidence” vote in Pinheiro from all five of the city’s employee groups.
- The threat of a strike — the first in our city’s history – from police officers and public works employees.
- The departure of half of the city’s employees since Josh was first hired – including nearly two-thirds of the city’s executive team.
- The Merced County Civil Grand Jury felt compelled to castigate the incompetence of how Los Banos handed out small business grants under a federal program.
- City budgets created in secrecy then passed with little discussion.
- A sitting city councilwoman being threatened for daring to inform the public about city hall’s problems.
The list goes on and on and on. We know about it because of stories published in The Westside Express.
Jones, Llanez, Lambert and Begonia tell us that it’s all just hearsay and hurt feelings. But the California Newspaper Publishers Association honored the Westside Express with an award for investigative journalism this year.
This is why the people of Los Banos must vote YES on the recall of Jones and Begonia and vote Llanez and Lambert out of office. It’s the only way to rescue our city.
The city council tries to distract residents with new paint and trimmed trees. Don’t be fooled. If not for COVID-19, we would see just how sick our city is.
The federal government sent every city in America money under the American Rescue Plan Act. Los Banos got $9 million, originally earmarked to help small businesses. But only a small portion was used for that. And one of the businesses that did get the help is owned by councilman Lambert. Other deserving businesses had to fight city hall to get a fair share; some never did.
Instead, the city trimmed the trees, painted buildings and padded bank accounts.
What happens when no more millions are flowing into Los Banos? Who pays for the paint then?
I attend a lot of council meetings mostly because I strongly believe someone has to keep an eye on this bunch. Councilmember Deborah Lewis can’t do it alone, especially with Pinheiro and this council doing all in their power to keep her in the dark.
Deborah has been barred from speaking to staff and staff has been ordered not to speak to her. The city manager won’t take her calls or answer her emails.
When she brought up the departure of yet another top manager – finance director Vanessa Portillo – the mayor threatened her with legal action. For what? Telling us what he didn’t want us to know?
When Deborah brought up concerns about cars speeding up and down I street, her request for speed bumps was denied.
Would it have been denied if the request had come from Ken Lambert or from Josh’s dad?
City employees already blew the whistle on Josh for ordering them to go out on overtime to clean up property adjacent to Lambert’s business and to the church where Josh’s dad is pastor.
But when I wanted to talk to Josh, he ignored me. I tracked him down at a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and he literally ran away.
Those who praise Pinheiro get access, those who don’t can’t find him.
Meanwhile, he takes credit he doesn’t deserve. Do you really believe he had anything to do with the city budget passed after he was first hired? That budget was assembled by Sonya Williams. But Josh took the credit, then made life so miserable for Sonya that she left.
Others have done the same – fire chief Mason Hurley, police chief Gary Brizzee, public works director Nirorn Than and most recently Portillo after only eight months on the job.
Pinheiro couldn’t get away with any of this without facilitators named Jones, Llanez, Lambert and Begonia. Until they’re gone, we’ll be stuck with Pinheiro and a city mired in incompetence, bitterness and too many ugly secrets.
