Mayor's candidacy

Dear Editor:I am writing this because I see we have a mayor who thinks his city council and mayor experience qualifies him to be a state senator. Please keep me informed as to the date and time Mario Guerra will be walking on water. You see, I was not around 2,000 years ago when Jesus did this so I do not want to miss this event. I first knew of Deacon Mario Guerra when he campaigned for City Council. I have campaigned for 43 years and thought to myself, "Who carries a deacon title?" But I later found out he loves titles. I think his campaigning was like to many others running for office who get involved in community activities and join service clubs and disappear after elected. My wife and I bought our first house in Downey in 1962. I recall that we had schools, roads and even a Downey Theatre that put on fantastic professional musicals. You could eat at several nice restaurants and even go to Sambi's for a great dinner. Downey was a nice city to raise our children and shop in. Today I am embarrassed to say we have a restaurant called Bastards on Downey Avenue. I realize this is owned by a Marine veteran but couldn't they have named it Semper Fi or Marine Re Con or another name that does not refer to Bastards? Am I a prude or what was the City Council thinking? The first thing that Councilman Mario did that wasted our taxpayer dollars was let us know that when we, the Downey citizens, years ago voted for term limits, we did not realize we would have such an important legend being elected, so for our own good he supported a special election to specifically end term limits. This waste of money took funds away from other needed services; think of this when you're bouncing around on Firestone Boulevard. Next was really a big surprise. For years we had council members rotate into the position of mayor but out of nowhere Mario had some of his fellow council members vote Anne Bayer out of line and install himself as the mayor pro tem. It is hard to believe anyone can be that selfish. Mario has no negotiating skills - he was played by Tesla Motors up to the day Mario said they were signing a contract to come into Downey Studios, when actually they moved to Northern California. While some have written in about how hard Mario works when he visits one of our six sister cities, I and many friends see it as a taxpayer-paid vacation. Who came up with the idea for Ireland as a sister city? How excited were those people in Ireland to have a Downey mayor visit? Great news, Downey, All-America City. Tell those visitors to be prepared for a big letdown when they get here. Bring your Hummers because our roads are terrible, restaurants are named with words of profanity and who cares about All America City status anyway, just another paid trip for our city officials to attend. Mario's announcement that he is running for state senate to get a high-paid salary for doing nothing comes with several endorsements from important-like persons including mayors from Cudahy, South Gate and several other tiny insignificant cities plus L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe. Don does a lot for Downey so I am not holding this against him. I know Mario attended the Republican Convention. I saw him on TV in the audience. Maurie Thomas Downey

********** Published: Aug. 1, 2013 - Volume 12 - Issue 16