Commentary and Opinion by Samuel Strait – January 12, 2024
Aside from the normal opening, there is a new chair in town. The Board
of Supervisor’s held their annual “musical chairs ” rotation, not that
it changed much. Supervisor Wilson is now the “chair” and Supervisor
Borges is his wing man. While the transition was without much
controversy, it did give a bit of illumination from Sir Wilson’s
monologue about what is to come. Not much. More new employees for the
County that already has a few too many. More titles to accompany those
that were introduced. Quite the unending parade. With a substantial
vacancy rate, one wonders if the missing employees are all that
important to the County’s population? Yes, mandates of course. Seems
like an interesting question to the Board would be, “How much does each
program cost”? and “How many of the local population does each one serve”.
Moving on with the usual cant by Supervisor Starkey, mountain bike
trails, Climate Change after all, health care to jail inmates, the
Sister City festival, and the Tri Agency circus. What a lovely
collection of insignificant issues that provide little or no benefit to
most of the community. Supervisor Howard was next with an equally
vapid account of his adventures in shoring up his desperate need to be
seen as important. Finally, well you get the picture,
Fortunately we will be able to wrap up this meeting’s homage to the
County’s Bureaucracy with a nod to the twenty item Consent Agenda filled
with questionable items that appear so uninteresting to the Board that
no items were pulled for discussion, and little interest by the Board
but to pass the laundry list 5-0. What started out as a relatively
‘plain jane meeting” spun wildly out of control when Logan Halliwell
(he and his wife owned Sally’s By The Sea)
appeared before the Board claiming malfeasance by Supervisors Starkey,
Short and Wilson over the developments surrounding the December 12th’s
BOS where supervisors voted 4-1 to award Mission Possible $10.8
million for the Emergency Homeless shelter, the pallet house village for
the homeless somewhere on Williams Drive, and related services and
staff. Seems that there is a bit of an odor surrounding the events
leading up to the vote, then a demand for an investigation into said event.
Other than a report by a representative from CSAC that was about grant
funding, a letter of appreciation and a dip into Planning, the Board
concluded this event with a $420,000 budget transfer to Emergency
services. Woops! not quite. An emergency item in the form of another
letter in support of yet more funding to construct “fire breaks” in the
County. All action items passed 5-0. Literally, nothing that the Board
accomplished had any meaningful effect on the welfare of the majority of
the Community and everything to do with the comfort of those employees
that work for the County. So much for “strategic planning”.
Our supervisors have an agenda that meets their policies, not the people they represent. You got to remember Sup. Dean Wilson is leaning towards the city because the city is where his businesses are located. And all the others they are for his government. And they like spending money that others have put into the system as in taxes and not being representatives of the people in their District and their needs. Giving raises to the county representative, it is not the way to go. They need the streamlined government. And start fixing roads in the county this is what taxpayers need most. The roads are terrible in the county, but they want to put money into the Harbor and also the City of Crescent City Tri-Agency and everything else that doesn’t represent the people in their district. The other agencies like the Harbor and Crescent City get their own tax money. They can’t keep their budget straight. We should not keep bailing them out. The Harbor should live within their means and also Crescent City. Just like the rest of us. Also in my opinion, the tribes should start paying a little more money into the county or the districts they do business in, not the City of Crescent City. They use a lot of the County Assets.
But they keep giving money to the City of Crescent City which doesn’t help the people that pay taxes in districts that they do business in which they should be improving all the time. Same with the supervisors. They need to start representing the districts. They represent not the agencies that really don’t mean much to the people that need help in their districts. A lot of the districts are really being run down but but what I see the supervisors seem to be putting money into the City of Crescent Cty. Don’t these representatives realize that the districts need a lot more help than the Harbor or the City of Crescent City. Districts pay taxes and a lot more money should be going into these districts. Not just the Harbor and Crescent City and the pet projects. That doesn’t mean anything to the people in the county districts.
Actually, my current representative is one that sort of gets it, but finds that the system of government is the biggest part of the problem. People who run for office this day and age who might actually make a difference find the way blocked by a bewildering array of bureaucratic impediments that would frustrate anybody who actually cared about the community they chose to represent. Most who get elected do not care about the whole of their respective constituencies as a representative republic is supposed to function, but fixate on tiny minorities costing enormous amounts of money at little benefits to the whole. Cosequently most government becomes moribund and inefficient very rarely worth the cost. On my part, being asked to participate in such a wildly inefficient system would drive me crazy. I’d much rather be some where in the world as a perpetual tourist.
Thank you for your reporting on these meetings. You should consider running for a seat in your district the next time there is an opening.