By Samuel Strait – July 9, 2017 – Rebuttal to comment by WTF to article Triplicate Editor Whines Again published on July 6, 2017.
WTF, I am sorry that you are confused. Perhaps if you read the editorial in the Triplicate mentioned at the beginning of my piece things will be clearer (“My View: $38,000 Bill for petty grievances and political vendettas” published on Saturday, July 1, 2017 by Robin Fornoff, Editor)
The intent of this story is to show that the editor of the Triplicate uses the paper for his own personal vendettas and to air his petty grievances. The fact that Lori Cowan’s recall is at all important to him is but to use it as a foil for him to create this narrative of “How unfair it is for a small group of citizens (whom he despises) to cost the tax payers $38,000 for what in his view is a largely unreasonable political vendetta”. It is simply an effort by Robin Fornoff, to play to those who occupy his personal echo chamber, bad mouthing Donna Westfall, Bob Berkowitz, and Roger Gitlin. Nothing more. If it would have been Roger Gitlin being recalled, his “view” would have been an editorial stating that it was money well spent.
If you attend the Board of Supervisor’s meetings on a regular basis and watch Supervisor Cowan while others are speaking, you will get some kind of an idea why her current actions as a supervisor are worthy of recall. Since I know of Cowan from several other situations prior to her gaining this seat on the Board, I did not feel that she would be any better than former Supervisor McClure. That should say a lot to those that could not stand Martha McClure. She is not a suitable person to be casting votes that could mean millions of dollars in wasted spending that this County can not afford. I am less than worried about $38,000 on a recall election if it happens.
I fully understand your confusion about why Lori Cowan and not Chris Howard or Gerry Hemmingsen. Any one of the three or all of them would have been my preference, but I will take what I can get. I and many others in this County have lived with representatives elected to the Board for decades without any forward movement in our situation.
Granted, I too did not believe that Last Chance Grade would be expedited. Forces at the Federal level had to be on board for any movement. Going through the current process voted for by Lori Cowan, Chris Howard, and Gerry Hemmingsen is precisely why nothing has been accomplished in nearly fifty years. Some new tactics are essential to get the ball rolling if anything is ever going to be accomplished. If the environmental forces that will obstruct any, and I mean any, movement in the direction of a bypass are not set aside there will be NO PROGRESS! The current path for Last Chance Grade is blind to that fact. Local environmentalists would rather the roadway fall off the mountain killing no telling how many people before they would let a single redwood tree be cut down for a bypass!!!!!
You have given very good reasons that both Chris Howard and Gerry Hemmingsen should resign from office. The staffers that they met with in Washington DC see this countless times from all over the Country. The mere fact that neither men and Crescent City’s Mayor did not understand this should give future voters plenty to question their intelligence.
Why single Lori out you say, well, you have three choices for recall before this current situation gets out of hand. Lori ran against a former Supervisor and made campaign promises that are fresh in most supporters minds. If those promises are not fresh then they can easily be resurrected. In addition, Lori has a quite a few skeletons in her closet that portray the picture of a person ill suited to that of the office of Supervisor. In the feeding frenzy to rid the County of Supervisor McClure’s antics, many of those flaws were over looked.
If you are willing to wait for another couple of years, I suppose nothing will be enough. At the same time, getting back to the intent of my article, Robin Fornoff is a big problem and will continue to be as long as he is editor of the local print paper. He is a petty little man who thinks that he can get up on his soap box and trumpet to the world all of his petty little grievances. There are enough left in this community, such as Diane Blackberry, Virginia Bostwick and a handful of others, that feel the need to repeat and reinforce his lunacy. This kind of parroting simply feeds the man’s gigantic ego and will no doubt lead to the demise of the Triplicate. Sad to say.
