Commentary by Samuel Strait – October 17, 2022
With a bit more than three weeks before the November 8th mid term
election, candidates and various measures on the ballot are making their
final pitch to the public in order to garner the necessary votes to be
successful. Mailboxes stuffed with flyers, candidate forums, debates,
and all the typical political fluff will be in your face for the next
twenty three days and counting. Of course that has hardly become
significant if by now most that intend to vote haven’t already zeroed in
on the candidates that seem to be able to check all their boxes and the
propositions and measures which appear to satisfy even the most jaded
political junky. There is; however, a tiny fraction of the electorate,
who will cast a ballot that for some reason needs to be assured that
their vote is the “right one”.
Far be it for me to delve into the minds of the hesitant, but this
Country as a whole is going through some pretty rough times, divisive
narratives, and dysfunction activities without end. As much as it would
be interesting to sort through all the chaos, one thing that appears
foremost on most thinking minds is the state of rising costs in order to
live a successful life. Granted there are those that seem to be doing
especially well in this scenario where inflation doesn’t appear on their
radar as a serious issue and save their angst for the more esoteric of
issues that are hardly a blip on the radar of most Americans.
Suffice it to say that I was not all that surprised when I learned that
not all the prospective candidates were present at True North’s
candidate forum for District’s Four and Five. Being a progressive
organization above all others in Del Norte County, the issues that
appeared before the three candidates to discuss were not all that
urgent, nor likely to be compelling issues for most voters.
Homelessness, the Sheriff’s department (the jail in particular), and
Climate Change were the topics placed before the candidates. No mention
of inflation, high taxes, or the lack of a sustainable economy, which
just might be upper most on most voter’s minds. But hey, a growing
local government will make it all better.
Homelessness is a crisis in California and has been for years. The
efforts in California and locally of “housing first” have been
ineffective and address an almost insignificant part of that population
as the problem worsens. There are so many different aspects of
homelessness that a one size fits all central government will never be
able to solve all of its components. To ask a candidate what are his or
her intentions on addressing this particular problem for this area are
so utterly useless no mater what form the response that comes from their
lips is, there hasn’t been a successful solution to homelessness since
humans first walked the planet. This is a clear disservice to the
public because there is no right answer, only “popular” ones, which give
no insight as to whether or not a candidate is a suitable elected
official. We merely get to hear “word salad” about how they are aware
of the problem, give canned answers, and virtue signal about how they
intend to “do something”. No disrespect to the candidates, but this is
truly a stupid topic for a forum when other issues are of far greater
importance to the individual needs of the voters.
The Sheriff’s department was up next, and the deplorable state of the
local jail. This as stated, following remarks of Mike Tompkins, another
of True North’s brilliant progressive minds, is an issue that most in
the community, being generally not on the “wrong side of the law”, have
only the working relationship with the sheriff in the form of when a
crime is committed against them. They generally have no knowledge of
the condition of the jail as they haven’t been a resident of a jail
cell. Sure, we all should be supporting the sheriff, and wish for the
best for his department, but again it hardly rises to the level of a day
to day problem for most that live in the County. So, to use a phrase,
“Where’s the beef?” Never fear, True North has the penultimate issue on
tap.
Climate Change, really? Of all the topics discussed, this was likely
the most useless for voters to gauge the worth of a particular
candidate. Local supervisors can only do what they can do. Affecting
the Climate in any substantive way at the local level is like tilting at
proverbial windmills. Oh, I forgot, Chris Howard, Darrin Short, Blake
Inscore, Brian Stone, and Wes White wish to resurrect the Tri Agency in
order to bring off shore wind power to this County. Maybe there is an
opportunity there. Seems the Climate Change Religion has taken a front
row seat for those at least that can afford to live comfortably.
All in all, the candidate forum by True North was a complete and utter
waste of time. No surprise there. No issues of a substantive nature
were placed before the candidates that came. Lots of word salad and
virtue signaling. Only Candidate Wilson mentioned the primary issue
that will be on most voter’s minds, that of what is the County going to
do about inflation, lowering taxes, and making Del Norte County
affordable for the many that are less fortunate. Keep former Sheriff
Dean Wilson in mind for those in District five. He at least understands
that inflation is a problem and a government wishing to do something
“real” about it wouldn’t be keeping an increase of local taxes at this
time.
Vote YES on Measure T and U to give voters some tax relief. Vote Yes on
T and U to lower taxes.
Just read in Wild Rivers Outpost t schools are planning a Marketing Strategy to get us to vote on another bond in 2024 for “much needed repairs” to all the schools. It was a long article but one was electrical work they knew about in 2020. I recall recently they used their Surplus to buy a building, owned by a doctor, for something not really school related. The building will need maintenance and staff in the future of course. My Property Tax shows I’m paying on 5 school bonds now. Lot of good it did to pay off my property; I feel I’m being punished for trying to own something. Speaking of taxes, I recently had to replace a tv and was charged a recycling fee, bought some paint and was charged a fee, and a couple boards and another fee added on for what I have no idea. Anyway get ready for 2 years of sob stories about the schools. I thought they got money from the state, lottery, etc.
Our City and County Governments have so much confidence that Measures T & U tax repeals will be defeated in November that they are seeking $288,000 for Tri-Agency funding BEFORE the election! These scalawags, scoundrels and shysters will stop at nothing to get their hands on more money! Our Government “Leaders” believe that the public are a bunch of stupid chumps; and they just might be right. Twice, anti-tax votes have won during the election, and then been reversed days afterward because the Government Team canvassed for voters to change their votes. Will it happen again?
Or are we looking at the same scenario that the City used just PRIOR to the Sewer Plant breaking ground? Over a decade ago, the sewer project proposal was advertised to contractors in only one obscure niche publication, and we subsequently got only one bid. The City then had over a couple million dollars worth of demolition done to the old plant right before the vote to accept THE ONLY CONSTRUCTION BID! When the public demanded the government should wait and solicit more than ONE BID, the City Attorney claimed the City would go Bankrupt if the planned contract was not accepted because of all the demolition money that had been spent. Coincidentally, the Crescent City Harbor’s Sewage Plant was also demolished at the same time. Coincidentally, it was the same out of town contractor that later contracted for the Tolowa Tribe’s sewer project.
Hopefully voters will wise-up to these flim-flam artists and vote wisely. Voters need to attend the Tri-Agency meeting on the 25th of October and demand accountability. At the very least the County and City must wait til after the election to commit $288,000 to Tri-Agency. Voters also need to follow-up and demand accountability if the Measure T & U tax repeals are successful. There is no doubt that our governments will immediately make cuts to emergency services and road maintenance through vindictiveness; while continuing to spend more on wage increases, foreign travel, and pet crony contractor projects. “Cut the Muscle to Feed the Fat” needs to end now.