Estes asks for resignation of assessor

I am addressing this letter to Miguel Martinez, the Lake County assessor who was just elected by the citizens of Lake County for a second term. Miguel, please resign. If your actions have caused you to no longer be allowed in the courthouse, you have turned in your county laptop and you also have a possible restraining order against you from a co-worker, you should resign. The residents of Lake County should not have to go through the expense of a recall election to get you out of office. If you care about this county, do what is right. From what has been reported in the newspaper, you cannot treat your superiors, your subordinates or your co-workers with the proper amount of respect, and this should not be allowed from someone who was elected. I have also heard on the local grapevine that you were petty enough to say something derogatory towards your opponent about how you won with barely trying. Shame on you if that actually happened.

On another note: Lake County, just because you know someone’s name doesn’t mean you should necessarily vote for them. Name recognition shouldn’t mean that much in a small town like ours. We need to really think about whether or not our elected officials are doing what they are being paid for. We may even want to think about whether some positions like these should be elected positions or professionals hired by the county to do these types of jobs. This includes assessor, county clerk and treasurer. I’m not saying that the same folks wouldn’t still be hired, but I’m not sure that popularity or name recognition should be the main reason to elect someone. I believe it would also hold Lake County employees to a higher standard of conduct if they were hired rather than elected.