Opinion Piece By Donna Westfall – January 26, 2022
Del Norte County spent $40,000 to “educate” the public to vote YES to Measure R, the 1% sales tax.
The tax passed by less than 1%.
Yesterday, the County Board of Supervisors (BOS) voted to give pay raises up to 7% to government employees.
How did they do this?
By putting it in the Consent Agenda and then rubber stamping all items.
People of the public asked them to pull that from the Consent Agenda and table the discussion. The people of the public were ignored.
Where is the money coming from? Far as I can tell it’s from the 1% Sales Tax.
Funny, the County never mentioned using sales tax money to fund pay raises. If they had, do you think that measure would have passed?
At the January 25th meeting, four members of the BOS voted “YES” to pay raises. Bob Berkowitz was out sick from District 5.
I’m wondering why they are not giving themselves pay cuts? After all, if you or I can’t buy enough food due to inflation increasing the cost of everything, we actually have less money to spend. Certainly the BOS could have opted for cutting their $100,000 salaries and doing an across the board cut in pay for the rest of staff until our economy turns around. But NO. They found a way to increase their salaries and benefits.
At this point, I think they should all resign. That includes:
District 1 – Darrin Short
District 2 – Valerie Starkey
District 3 – Chris Howard
District 4 – Gerry Hemmingsen
District 5 – Bob Berkowitz was absent and could not vote.
If you haven’t signed the petition yet to repeal the sales taxes, we have people around town getting your signatures.
On Thursday, January 27th between 9 and noon, Greg Bianchi will be out in front of the Del Norte County building on “H Street.”
We only need 416 signatures from registered voters in the county and the city. We have until February 13th to collect signatures and turn them in. Currently we have 600+ in hand. Once the petitions have been turned in, the County has 30 days to verify signatures.
Now, I’ve witnessed the people doing the count tossing out signatures for a variety of reasons…. but with 1,000 or more signatures, there’s less chance they can screw up the count. As soon as 416 are verified, County Clerk Alissia Northrup will schedule the REPEAL to be on the JUNE 2022 ballot.
If you think the BOS should resign, we’ll have signs and posters ready to picket the County building. Meanwhile, we’re researching ways to turn off the money flow to this county until we have elected officials that look out for the public and not just themselves.
You need to correct your vote count. It was less than 1%. Not 1 vote.
Military Retirees got a 5.9% COLA; Social Security … 5.9% COLA this year. This is the biggest in YEARS. Usually it’s around 2% if any. Too bad we can’t vote for BOS and local government employees pay raises. If anything they should take a pay cut. Reading this made me sick to my stomach. Most of us are struggling and they can give themselves raises. What a waste of our tax money. Get off their butts and hire people for the Animal Shelter. They could use some more funds also. Every year they have to beg the public for food and supplies. Sometimes I wonder if they go out in the county. We are starting to look like a Third World Country with all the garbage, carts, potholes, etc. And what’s with tearing up the sidewalks in town AGAIN?