Commentary and Opinion by Samuel Strait – June 28, 2024
During the recent Del Norte County Board of Supervisor’s Meeting, the four members present couldn’t have made a larger mess for themselves and the County’s residents if they tried. Congratulations Supervisors Starkey and Short, maybe a lesson in employee compensation negotiations is in order. Never mind, you two have already made things infinitely worse for the current year and years to follow. For my fellow citizens, it is what you get when officials that are elected are in way over their heads, by a small fraction of those entrusted to vote for competent leadership. More on that later.
Missing once again vacationing Supervisor Howard, the Board meeting got off to a blistering pace, three new employees for Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and another for IT. Can’t seem to hire them fast enough. Board reports with Supervisor “the government is the only solution”, Starkey, blah, blah, blah, followed by Supervisor “what day was that again?” Short, then silent one Supervisor Borges, and Supervisor “Strategic Plan” Wilson, a true philosopher, to wrap things up.
The Consent Agenda, an orgasmic extravaganza of twenty six items, only eight from DHHS, is the County’s current wish list of items to be approved in under ten minutes by 4-0 vote. Plenty of room for discussion to determine whether or not many of the items were controversy free. Not the case for the Board of little curiosity or any evidence that the public should be so bold as to question any of the items on the list. While it would be interesting to pick through the debris of the Consent Agenda, the current Board is unlikely to do much more than what they did, approve it 4-0.
Scheduled Items consisted of Public Comment, a plea for Justice for Tamara Sanders, and an explanation of the economic unfeasible use of a Biomass generator to produce electricity at a commercially viable rate (off shore wind power boondoggle #2) promoted by Supervisor Howard, an appeal from Nick Rail for a letter of support for the proposed Performing Arts Center, and a presentation of the newest mandated “nanny state” inspired Mobile Medical Crisis Unit. Wondering how long it will be before the State will eliminate all possible crisis in a person’s life. Fire truck in everybody’s yard, parked alongside a police car, an ambulance, a mental health van, maybe personal public transport, what could possibly go wrong?
General Government, one item, how did that escape from the Consent Agenda? Oh yes, Chair Wilson’s favorite, economic development. Probably the only thing useful that government could possibly do is reduce regulation and taxes. More money in everyone’s pocket to spend in a growing economy? Money for enterprise expansion? Oops, we are not talking about the brightest here, so we are led on a merry ride through Supervisor’s Starkey’s fantasy land of safer streets, clean up the town, and fix the roads. Also known as the things Measure “R” was supposed to take care of. So where did the money from Measure “R” go? We have it on good authority (the Chair of the Measure “R” Oversight Committee) that wages and salaries have consumed 80% of that funding for as long as Measure “R” lasts. Say goodbye to fixing roads, cleaning up the County, and making things safer, Supervisor Starkey. Sure no salaries and benefits to be paid by Measure “R”!
On to the real barn burner of the meeting. No, not an opposition letter to SB 2729, silly, the Recommended Budget for 2024-2025. Whew, the heat. While this rendition of the proposed Budget remains tentative, in other words not to be considered in its final form until September, locked in by the 1st of October, the Board led by geniuses Starkey and Short managed to force catastrophe on the future of negotiations by the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and the labor union by insisting one small portion of the County’s work force should be given special treatment.
While CAO Lopez explained what a bad idea it was to Supervisor Starkey to act in this fashion, there ensued a spirited back and forth between the two. Starkey calling the CAO out over a signature. When a member of the public attempted to educate Supervisors Starkey and Short about the fallout of their position, the comment fell on deaf ears. Neither Short or Starkey appeared to understand the consequences of what it was that eventually came to pass by a vote of 4-0.
The Board minus Supervisor Howard, after dismissing their CAO’s advice, that of a public commenter, and the consequences of their action spelled out in detail by the Union’s president, now have to deal with the fallout similar to that of the State’s irrational decision to favor a segment of the private sector by raising their minimum wage to $20 per hour. The State’s economy has yet to experience the train wreck that it’s decision will foster. The similar decision by the Board at its recent meeting will almost certainly have far reaching consequences that put the decision made at the top of the list of the worst possible decisions made by a Board in decades. Thank you very much Supervisor Starkey. I sincerely hope the good citizens you purport to represent will either recall you or vote for your replacement at the next election. That is how bad this decision was. It is not as though the State’s action will make negotiating compensation with the Union difficult enough, the Board’s current action will make it far more difficult and have far reaching unintended consequences County wide throughout the County’s workforce. And I am not talking about just the Public Sector, but the Private sector as well. This simple 4-0 will do more to damage any sort of economic development than anything on the local level that has been done to date. District’s one and two, you all should be proud, another first!
A bit over four hours and we are adjourned.
