Editor, Ceres Courier,

Residents, neighbors and friends, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude for your support over the past several months during our campaign for mayor of Ceres. Seeking this office has filled me with hope and optimism about the potential for positive change at City Hall.

Throughout this journey, I pledged to prioritize fiscal responsibility, strengthen public safety, and improve our community’s quality of life. Together, we challenged the status quo leadership, although we ultimately came up short by a small margin, our campaign highlighted many key issues the public was not aware of due to the city’s lack of transparency. The residents of Ceres deserve a safe and clean community yet this will only become a reality when local leaders prioritize the needs of the community over their self-interests.

We must continue to hold our elected officials accountable. In recent years, decisions by our mayor and council have included:

• Voting to spend $540,000 to reconstruct the Whitmore Park gazebo

• Voting to spend $400,000 of taxpayer dollars on free health benefits for part-time elected officials (over the past four years)

• Voting to increase tax fees on households in special landscape and lighting districts

• Voting to freeze five police officer positions,

• Voting to cut police training by 43%, police investigative services by 46%, ammunition by 7%, wearing and safety apparel by 18%

• Spending thousands of taxpayer dollars on out-of-state travel to Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.

It’s important to reflect on the values that drove us to pursue this office. My motivation was never personal gain, employment, or free health benefits; it was the sincere desire to govern responsibly and to be a steward of our city’s resources. We ran a campaign focused on the issues while others spent thousands of dollars on attacks, lies and misinformation. Seeking this role was an honor, and it remains my hope to address areas where our city can improve.

I will remain committed to Ceres as a planning commissioner and community advocate and will seek ways to bring positive change to City Hall. This community has shaped who I am today; it’s where I met my wife and where we chose to start our family. Ceres is more than just a city to us – it’s our home and always will be.

Gary Condit

LETTERS POLICY: Letters will be considered for publication but must be signed and include an address and phone number. Letters should be 250 words or less and be void of libel. Send to The Ceres Courier, 138 S. Center Street, Turlock CA 95380 or emailed to jeffb@cerescourier.com.