Mendez should resign
Editorial
Issue date: 3/12/10 Section: Opinion
An apparent verbal altercation with then President-Superintendent Rose Marie Joyce.
According to Joyce, the incident occurred after she accused Mendez of having Rio Hondo staff book him an oceanfront room at a Hawaiian hotel for a conference.
Following the accusation Mendez told former-President Joyce "You are going to kiss my (blank)."
Incidents continued when Lillian Gonzales of the Mark Twain Democratic Club stated she preferred to keep her distance from Mendez in an article for the Whittier Daily News.
Gonzales describes an incident in which Mendez stood up during a meeting for the Democratic Party's Los Angeles County Central
Committee and began yelling.
Now we have this indiscretion with Mendez and his knife. While we can't really assume he always carries it, can we safely assume he doesn't?
And if he is carrying the knife on campus shouldn't this be something to be concerned about?
Nobody is saying Mendez is going pull the knife on anyone, but if a student was found to be carrying a knife on campus you can rest assured that swift and decisive action would be taken without exception.
Mendez may be an elected official, but that doesn't entitle him to any kind of special treatment.
So what's it all boil down to? Simple.
Mendez is an elected official who represents
Rio Hondo College. He is a representative who was making enough of a scene at a bar that the police had to be called only to discover a knife and discover past incidents.
There is only one conclusion anyone should make from this and that is that Mendez must resign from his position as Trustee member for Rio Hondo.
We cannot have a man representing our college that would so easily disregard the law and allow a decade to pass before dealing with the consequences of his traffic violation. Can we really forgive a person who is known to have a haughty personality, and has been officially reprimanded in the past?
The Editors of El Paisano say firmly and resolutely, no. We stand and quite seriously repeat ourselves, Trustee Mendez resign from your position because your actions are inexcusable.
According to Joyce, the incident occurred after she accused Mendez of having Rio Hondo staff book him an oceanfront room at a Hawaiian hotel for a conference.
Following the accusation Mendez told former-President Joyce "You are going to kiss my (blank)."
Incidents continued when Lillian Gonzales of the Mark Twain Democratic Club stated she preferred to keep her distance from Mendez in an article for the Whittier Daily News.
Gonzales describes an incident in which Mendez stood up during a meeting for the Democratic Party's Los Angeles County Central
Committee and began yelling.
Now we have this indiscretion with Mendez and his knife. While we can't really assume he always carries it, can we safely assume he doesn't?
And if he is carrying the knife on campus shouldn't this be something to be concerned about?
Nobody is saying Mendez is going pull the knife on anyone, but if a student was found to be carrying a knife on campus you can rest assured that swift and decisive action would be taken without exception.
Mendez may be an elected official, but that doesn't entitle him to any kind of special treatment.
So what's it all boil down to? Simple.
Mendez is an elected official who represents
Rio Hondo College. He is a representative who was making enough of a scene at a bar that the police had to be called only to discover a knife and discover past incidents.
There is only one conclusion anyone should make from this and that is that Mendez must resign from his position as Trustee member for Rio Hondo.
We cannot have a man representing our college that would so easily disregard the law and allow a decade to pass before dealing with the consequences of his traffic violation. Can we really forgive a person who is known to have a haughty personality, and has been officially reprimanded in the past?
The Editors of El Paisano say firmly and resolutely, no. We stand and quite seriously repeat ourselves, Trustee Mendez resign from your position because your actions are inexcusable.
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