I would like to express my disappointment in the opinion piece written about the issues happening at Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley (“Big trouble all around us, Jan. 13).
I know some of the staff who currently work at that organization, as well as a couple who used to work there, and am appalled at how their complaint is being handled. Teresa Menchaca has proven herself to be a bully who leads by being intimidating, and for this group to have found the courage to come forward shows that things need to change. For the Board of Directors who represent Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley to allow Alice Patino to run the investigation is a travesty in itself since she and Teresa have a close friendship and Teresa has required some members of the staff at Fighting Back to work on Alice’s campaign for supervisor and for city council. Something like that just reeks of a conflict of interest. Will the rest of this board step up and accept responsibility for allowing this behavior and do something to fix it? For the sake of our kids, our community, and the staff who give of themselves daily, I certainly hope so!
I’ve heard that people in our community have been “expressing their support” for this group of brave people, but that they can’t go public because no one knows the outcome of the Board of Directors’ so-called investigation and they don’t want to “burn bridges.” In my opinion, that is simply sad. If people who have had negative interactions with her were willing to speak up, maybe things could change. But that takes courage, and I hope that for the sake of these employees, there are people who will dig deep and find that necessary courage.
This article appears in Jan 20-27, 2011.