Sister City benefits

Dear Editor:The sister cities program was established by President Eisenhower in 1959. My question is: why has Downey's sister city program been extremely active (in our city) only since Mario Guerra was elected to City Council? I can see through the false pretense of Mr. Guerra, who I feel is using the sister cities program as his "paid for by the city personal vacation program." I, for one, think the recent visit to Ireland was a ridiculous waste of our hard-earned, taxpayer money. What is the purpose of establishing a list of sister cities that we (as a city) and community are not benefitting from? Does anyone remember the photo of Mayor Guerra and the president of Mexico brandishing machine guns splashed across the Downey Patriot? In my opinion (again), it was a blatant display of gross negligence on Guerra's part. I sincerely hope the citizens of Downey are taking notes and establishing a long list of poor spending habits on Guerra's part. I, for one, would like to see an itemized list of all his expenses the city has paid for over the years Guerra has been in office. City officials must be held accountable for their spending. Please make Mr. Guerra explain to the citizens how these expense-paid trips benefit our city. Sister Cities International was established to stimulate economic development within the two cities. The question that must be answered is: Do any of our sister cities do that? Stacey Rodgers Downey

********** Published: June 6, 2013 - Volume 12 - Issue 08