(Editor Jeff Benziger sat down last week with Ceres City Councilman James Casey from District 1 for a get-acquainted Q&A. The interview began after Casey showed his massive 52,000-square-foot Casey Logistics (formerly Casey Moving Systems) warehouse on Fairview Avenue. The business also stores documents for businesses and agencies.)

CC: Tell me about how you got involved in your moving business.

Casey: My father (Jay Casey) was in the business. My father worked for a moving company in Monterey and that person said, hey, why don’t you go over there (to the Central Valley) and open an office? ….My dad’s family was from South Modesto. My mother’s mother and father lived in Turlock so we stayed.

I worked for my father since I was a kid and then I went in the Army and got out. My dad and I came to Ceres in 1973 and had an office. My parents got a divorce. My dad and I were best buddies, my mom and I were … she was my mom but things turned out not so well. I took care of my mom, left my dad and started my own business. It’s kind of a sad story.

We used to be 100 percent moving and we were in Turlock and we did Castle Air Force Base. So when Castle Air Force Base started to close down, we went into the record storage business. Primarily it’s medical people and attorneys. We also have shredding service.

We have an office in Atwater and the employees there, all they did was moving. When Castle Air Force Base was closing we acquired property down there in 1992 and we have a mini-storage there, 118 units.

CC: What percentage of your business is moving?

Casey: Probably 30 percent. Record and commodity storage and shredding make up the rest of it.

(He showed stacks of doors stored for construction project such as the new Stanislaus County Courthouse. Recently materials for the new VA clinic in Stockton were warehoused in Casey’s building. The business also rents out portable Pod containers like smaller cargo shipping containers. Large wooden crates containing household goods were stacked high. His firm employs between 18 and 15 depending on the season).

CC: Where you were born and raised?

Casey: I was born in Pacific Grove in 1949. I was the second of five. The other ones were born in the hospital in Monterey. In the second grade we first moved to Planada outside of Merced and then we moved to several different houses in Turlock. I had a brother born in Merced while we lived in Planada. Then we had six kids. It’s not easy to rent a house with six kids. Finally they settled outside of Turlock.

I went to Washington School, which is on the corner of Washington and West Main, in the third and fourth grade. Now it’s a Moose Hall. And I went to Chatom fifth grade on.

CC: Were you raised as a Catholic?

Casey: No, I was a convert. Before I went in the Army I proposed to my wife, Kathy. She was Catholic. I attended lots of different non-denominational churches as a kid, mostly a church that was called Prairie Flower Community Church on Prairie Flower Road.

We got married. At first I was stationed at Fort Irwin down by Barstow. I had just got back from Vietnam and then I went to Germany and we attended mass all the time. The priest was also a convert. We got tickets to go see Pope Paul VI. It was an audience kind of thing. This priest said I really need to think about this (Catholicism). I took classes and became classes.

CC: Have you always had a Christian faith?

Casey: Yes. 

CC: Where did you go to high school?

Casey: Turlock High School, class of 1967. I was vice president of the freshman class and I played football and track. Academically I was a pretty good student. I was raised in a household where you did things right and the teacher was always right. My dad never finished elementary school and my mom went to the eighth grade. Besides, if you do well as a kid you’re treated pretty well.

I became student body vice president. I applied to go to the University of Arkansas, was accepted and Stanislaus State had just started. And my friend Roger said, ‘hey, I might go to Southern Oregon College in Ashland, maybe we can go up there and play football.’ And I said, yeah, “I’ll go up there” and that’s where I met my wife.

Because of the draft, and the kids in Oregon particularly, even if they’re going to school, the quota needed to be met. So that’s why I joined the Army. Two reasons, one was I didn’t to get drafted. I didn’t care to go to Vietnam but I ended up going anyway. The other reason was before Nixon was elected, the G.I. Bill was one year for every year (in college). So I joined for three years.

CC: Did you finish college?

Casey: I almost did. I came back here when I got out of the Army. Kathy went to college first and we got our AA at MJC. She had two years at Southern Oregon; I only had one and I went to Stanislaus State. I had a house, two kids, a job running a business and there were things happening at school I didn’t like. I was 16 units away, but with the professors and things they were talking about and I didn’t agree. I’d raise my hand and argue with them and I decided I don’t need this.

CC: When did you move to Ceres?

Casey: I moved to Ceres in ’73 and we looked for around and a house that was affordable. I was going to school on the G.I Bill. I got $250 a month so we saved that every month and I was able to get a CalVet loan and was able to get a house on Myrtlewood. In 2003 we moved … around the corner.

The reason I stayed in Ceres was I met Norman Souza early on in my stay in Ceres. Those kind of people and other people are good people. So whatever I thought about Ceres growing up in Turlock, forget it.

We still have a lot of good people but our government is not headed in the right way about doing things.

The other reason I stayed is St. Jude’s Catholic Church. We met a lot of wonderful people and were actively involved in the church. I was honored to be the co-chairman of building that church we have now. 

CC: Tell us about your military service.

Casey: I went to all the services and the Army was the only one to guarantee me I wouldn’t have to go. There was meningitis at Fort Ord so I went to Fort Lewis for basic training. And then I went to Fort Eustis in Virginia for transportation training. You had great big books about how to fly people, how to move things on trains, how to move things on trucks. One of the examples we had in the book was about moving something on the Santa Fe (Railroad) and crossing over to the Southern Pacific in Modesto, California using that Modesto Empire Traction Company.

My job was the ammunition that came from Port Chicago here in the Bay Area over to Saigon. It was loaded off the big ship and put on barges up and came up the Saigon River. We provided ammunition for the U.S. Army, for the Army of Vietnam, for the Navy and for the Air Force. We had to document that it came off the barge, and went on this particular truck and our job was done.

Our unit worked 12 hours, seven days a week. On the perimeter we had guys with rifles up high to protect us. A few time we received small arms fire but we were safe. A couple of times we were mortared

The base that I was stationed at was Bien Hoa where 60,000 people were stationed. It’s right outside of Saigon. My base was where the headquarters were so I was pretty safe. 

When I was in Vietnam I was an E-4. I was there from 1968 to 1969.

When I got out of the Army I joined the American Legion and VFW because I was asked to but I was not actively involved. When I was elected, I met those guys. They’re pretty special, pretty decent folks. They’re very proud of this country and very proud to be able to do the Honor Guard. They’re really nice guys.

CC: And the ones who show up religiously at council meetings are those people you’re talking about. They have a sense of duty.

Casey:  Yeah. I regret that I never really got involved early on.

CC: What prompted you to want to serve on the council?

Casey: I think the confusion they had with 2-2 (tie votes). I’m embarrassed that I didn’t pay much attention before. I am the typical guy, come to work, go home, come to work, go home. But I got very involved paying more attention and I thought …I probably have a little better sense of what can happen, you know, being a business owner. You think a little different. The city is just a business in theory and we’re the board of directors and the city manager is the CEO. That’s probably one of the things I adhere to more than the other councilmembers. The other councilmembers get involved with the troops. They go down and ask them questions – and I’m concerned about them too – but I never talk to anybody (city employees) without letting the city manager know. I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

We’re supposed to be accountable to the citizens and he’s supposed to be accountable to us.

Somebody warned me to be careful what I say about those guys. They were elected. We don’t agree most of the time but they were elected and nothing I can do about that.

The common sense is … it’s all about money. I’m accountable to the citizens about their money and we need to make sure that it’s being spent properly and we need to have accountability of it.

We just approved a budget in a 4-1 vote.

CC: As a businessman, you probably don’t look favorably on dipping into reserves and using federal ARPA funds to make ends meet.

Casey: Absolutely not – because it’s not balanced.

CC: You have to look at what needs to be cut and being that public safety is a major expenditure, that’s kind of a hard thing for a public official to do, cut police. You can’t cut fire.

Casey: Can’t do anything about fire. We’re stuck now (with Modesto) and it’s going to be $800,000 a month pretty soon. I was elected in 2021 and that’s when they approved it and it’s a five-year deal and it just escalates every year.

CC: Next year, you-know-what is going to hit the fan because the city won’t have those ARPA funds.

Casey: No s- - -, excuse me. I don’t want to be a councilmember when we have to go before the Bankruptcy Court to get forgiveness.

CC: What would you have had them do to balance the budget?

Casey: What I would have started with is our portion of the budget, meaning the city council’s. The mayor interfered with my conversation with the city manager before the meeting. All I said to him was, “I’m a council person. All those department heads they didn’t do their budget without talking to their staff. How come I didn’t have any input on this? Who came up with these numbers?”

Then the mayor started interfering and starts talking about Modesto. I said “Modesto’s a charter city and we’re not talking about Modesto. We’re talking about this.”

Our portion of the budget is $200,000. We didn’t have any input on it.

The mayor intervened and said how important it was for travel. All that we should be getting in some sort of stipend, I guess. He was being overly protective of insurance for the council. It’s hard for me to justify. I work eight, nine hours a week on it. Why should I get $3,000 worth of insurance a month free? What doesn’t make sense is that all of the cities around us, they don’t get it. All of the council get it but me.

I had some bullet points I was going to talk about the budget. I don’t know why I started this argument with him but it really p- - - - - d me off and I almost left. I just sat there and boiled like a 12-year-old kid. I had some really valid points, I thought, one of them being addressed at the council meeting on the 24th. We do dispatching for Newman and haven’t increased rates in five years. It’s been $195,000 for all that time for five years.

The $2 million debt that they play around with like it’s not really there but it’s there and the ARPA money, what are we going to replace it with?

I should not have lost my focus but I was just boiling.

CC: Does the council rely too much on staff?

Casey: Yes and that’s okay but we need to question things. I don’t think any of them look at the warrant register. And it’s kind of backwards. It’s already been spent but at least you can ask (about expenditures). Alex (Terrazas) and Doug (Dunford), both, their standard answer is, well, it’s budgeted. But that line item, did we spend all the money or still have money left?

And the other thing that irritates the heck out of me is oftentimes one of the resolutions is to amend the budget to increase it. We already started in a hole.

CC: Any plans to run for mayor?

Casey: Today I’m not planning on it.

CC: In 2021 when you ran for council we asked you to give the council a grade and you stated: “I would give the current city council a C-. It is apparent some members have little knowledge of how a city operates and the laws that govern councilmembers actions.” Three years later do you feel the same way?

Casey: Maybe a “C.” Only because now I can understand some of the things we can do and things we cannot do.

One thing I don’t agree on – and it’s all about retention and being able to recruit – is the four-day week. I think they should be available to the public (on Fridays). The hourly employees can work four 10-hour days. But right now we’re virtually closed on Fridays. It’s the same thing Christmas week; nobody works Christmas week.

CC: So what grade would you give the mayor?

Casey: A “C.” Anybody who would run for office they must have part of their heart and mind to be for the good of the city. After the politician has been there four or five re-election times then it might change but initially you have to believe their intent was to make the city a better place but necessarily about them.

That’s the other thing that sets me apart from the other councilmembers. I’m not a social butterfly. I lead a simple life. If you want to complain, you have my number, come talk to me. They are all involved. Like the dispatch thing when we were having that issue, Daniel A. Martinez reports proudly that he went up there to see how everything’s going. Well, that’s not my job. My job is for them to complain maybe to me and then for me to give it to the city manager. My job is not to go into their workplace and evaluate what they’re doing.

CC: When Troy Arrollo was running for mayor you attended and it indicated maybe you were supporting him over Javier Lopez. Now that Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra is running, are you going to being making an endorsement?

Casey: I think it’s awkward, at best. It’s already awkward enough. Publicly? No. In November maybe I’ll change my mind.

CC: Don’t you feel like the council treats you as a bother sometimes?

Casey: Oh, they treat me like an idiot. Why, because I want to go back to the budget. The very first day I got there I brought it up. They’re oblivious to it. Even Bret Silveira, who is a great guy in his own way, but he’s worked for the county (and it’s like) ‘this is what we do there’ and ‘we get eight percent there and two percent there and vacation there. Well that’s great but where’s the money coming from? How are we spending the money and where is the accountability for the money?

CC: Have you cast any votes that you regret? Yes but I can’t tell you how many. Part of it was I knew my vote against something wasn’t any good and I wanted to unite with them but now it doesn’t matter. I was elected by people who have faith in me and know me and I need to be who I am.

One of the things that drives me crazy … is the (lack) of information (to the public). When we’re going to have a public hearing, don’t post it Wednesday at 5 o’clock in afternoon. Notify people. There’s nobody there! Somehow or another we have to work on that. (He has suggested a city newsletter slipped into utility bills).

CC: When you hear from constituents, what is typically the reason they contact you?

Casey: Code enforcement stuff. What they do is come to work at 5 o’clock in the morning so they can go home at 2 o’clock and go to their other job or whatever.

CC: Your term expires in November 2026. Do you expect to run for re-election in 2026?

Casey: I don’t know. And that’s a true statement. It has a lot to do with Kathy (who has health issues).

CC: At 75, do you have any retirement plans?

Casey: That’s all I’ve ever done (work). I have satisfaction for a job well done.