In 2010 Nick Ibarra was involved in a hit and run. He called the police and no charges were filed. He came clean about the circumstances and all was resolved. The only thing that set him apart from anyone else is that he was on the Springfield City Council.
Springfield City Council has been plagued by problems in the last few years. Citizens resent many decisions and behaviors they demonstrate. My personal pet peeve is that they have forced our city to suffer under Mediacom cable company, thanks to an exclusive deal they signed we have no competition in our area. Several other people were angered when the city was trying to decide how to fund the firemen and policemen pension funds. In the middle of a discussion, the city won a huge settlement, money that was meant for the people of Springfield. Ibarra was one of the people who took the entire settlement and gave it to the pension fund. The citizens of Springfield were not only not involved, they were intentionally bypassed.
But now Ibarra has created more legal troubles, and the local paper is calling for him to step down. The News-Leader has no balls when it comes to their opinions but they
respectfully ask Ibarra to walk away until his legal battles are over. What legal battles? Well, it doesn't look good.
First, on Thanksgiving afternoon, he was involved in a "road rage" incident that resulted in injuries. The details were fuzzy then, they are no clearer now. In fact, when the story was first released it wasn't even clear which end of the incident Ibarra was on. Now we know he was on the "rage" side of the ordeal. But now he has an actual felony to worry about. It seems in a domestic disturbance he has been accused of unlawful use of a weapon. No matter how you slice it, that's bad news.
What we have is a chance to clean out our City Council. Will it happen? Well, at least one of them is on the way out. There's a lot more to do, but it's a start.