The following is my personal opinion .

I try to keep myself away from the politics that go with endorsement of individual politicians as much as I can. I tend to write articles and make known my opinions on ISSUES rather than people and personalities. Choosing individual political sides is usually a losing proposition for someone that runs a website for a diverse community. What sometimes happens is that by selecting one candidate over another you will get negative repercussions from the other camp. That is why I tend to base my writing on issues only as opposed to people.

In this case I am going to make an exception to my own self-imposed rules. The nice thing about disclosing my feelings about this particular City Council election is that there is more than one seat open and I am only going to endorse ONE candidate for ONE of those seats.

I will say making that second choice this election season is going to be TOUGH. There are a lot of good people running. Some with needed experience, some with needed ideas, some with obvious character and a personal presence that is important to the seat. It will not be easy to make a second selection because there are at least 2 others that really should be on our city council - but alas there is only one other open seat.

Having said that there is one person who I truly believe MUST be elected to one of the city council seats this year - and that is Tom Faria.

I have carefully watched the city council candidate night programs multiple times and I have listened intently to all of the political rhetoric and issue-based discussion that each person on the ballot brought to the table. I also made a point of seeking out each candidate during the street fair, dog day in the park, and other public get togethers. During those discussions I asked each candidate that I came across about issues that mattered to me and watched their demeanor and listened to their responses.

While Mr. Faria has some imperfections to be sure, I believe that his vision for Los Banos is in keeping with the goals and objectives that we preach on OurLosBanos.com. Not only do many of our objectives match, but the path that Mr. Faria suggests as a means to obtain those objectives is very closely aligned with what we believe is the most promising path towards executing those goals.

To us the most telling anecdotal example of this was when during at least three portions of the candidate night broadcast Mr. Faria suggested goals that mirrored our "What This Town Needs" ideas so closely that I told my wife that he must have been to our website and printed out my articles before the debate! I do not believe that Mr. Faria even knew about the site at that point in time and I am sure if he did that he did not in fact do what we were joking about, but the bottom line is that his ideas so closely mirror mine that I can not help but want to see Mr. Faria in one of those big leather chairs at city hall.

Since the debate I have also spoken with Mr. Faria during at least two community events. Each time I was impressed with his ideas and positions on issues ranging from social to political to the mundane.

Mr. Faria spoke of things that were to my mind critical to keeping Los Banos healthy and indeed making our town the gem of the valley. Specifically Mr. Faria tracked very closely with my opinions about High Tech and bringing it to Los Banos. His idea of bringing in the 'brain trusts' as he calls them and getting CLEAN industry here is absolutely on the mark. Mr. Faria's ideas about high tech tracked very closely to the ones that I expressed in this article.

Mr. Faria also spoke about the need to attract family style recreational businesses to Los Banos This too closely tracked with many of the ideas that I wrote about in this article on the fact that we need more suburban recreational activities. On Candidates Night he even specifically mentioned that a water park would be a great addition to Los Banos and that again tracked with yet ANOTHER article I had written on THAT subject.

I am also very pleased with how Mr. Faria comports himself personally and how he makes himself available to the public. In my personal opinion it is absolutely CRITICAL for local politicians to be available to their constituents. From his participation and comportment on the OurLosBanos.com forums, to his constant appearance at all sorts of public functions both before and during the campaign, it is my feeling that he will continue to have this sort of open door or open keyboard policy and I believe that is an absolute must. Many of the other office seekers have not shown the Los Banos community quite so open a door in my experience and I think this is to their detriment.

Mr. Faria and I also spoke about social issues and certain political themes that were more nationwide in scope. Again, many of his views (but not all) matched mine fairly closely. There is also another very specific issue that is an absolute political litmus test for me that Mr. Faria also passed.

Finally Mr. Faria has a sense of where this town has come from. He shows an obvious interest in local history both political as well as social and I think that it is critical to keep an eye toward your past as you advance into the future. There is a lot to be said for understanding ourselves through our heritage and I think that Mr. Faria will make sure that he does this while in office. I am always impressed when politicians make a point of tipping their hats to our forefathers. I believe that many mistakes can be avoided by learning from where we went wrong previously and not repeating it. In addition this love for a community's heritage can lend itself toward making decision's that keep that hometown feel that we all so dearly hold precious.

I hope that everyone who reads this will go out and vote this year. This is a time of transition for Los Banos and I think that putting good people in office will be a make or break deal for us. We need to elect people of good character that have the true best interests of this town at heart. We need people who are go-to guys that can get the job done and who can at the same time be trusted with insuring our progress is above board and honest.

We need people that are down to earth, sensible, and at the same time not tinged with issues of character problems, a tendency toward being misleading or dishonesty. Keep this in mind also when voting for mayor.

In Tom Faria I think we have found a very fine individual for this job and a person with the heart and character it is going to take to get the job done, done honestly, and done with consideration not for the next election or contribution, but for the future of all of the people of Los Banos

Mr. Faria, you have my personal support and I very much hope that you are elected to office this year.

Charles Guest

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