Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/497821
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS "While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government..." Abra- ham Lincoln. When asked "what is apa- thy," the man on the street re- plied, "I don't know and I don't care." "There are no secrets in Red Bluff," anony- mous resident We spent Easter in Wis- consin, had lots of rain, heard about tornadoes to our south, and spent three nights listening to thunder and watching lightening. The grandsons were not too sure about sleeping during the nighttime light shows, and so the adults were a lit- tle short on sleep too. We saw a river flooding, with picnic benches under- water at the Waukesha River Park, reminiscent of the "good old days" in Red Bluff when you could count on the river overflowing its banks every so often during the winter and early spring. It is nice to see blossoms on flowers and leaves on trees, something that has not happened in Wisconsin yet. We also enjoy walking outside without heavy coats. I always try to keep up with the Daily News while I am gone, and with the on line edition available wher- ever there is Internet, it is an easy task. I was not sur- prised to see that the Chief of Police has chosen to re- sign before his current con- tract expired; he will remain on paid leave until the May date of departure. On Monday I attended the first input session that Mayor Clay Parker held; I was happy with the meeting, but disappointed that only five of us showed up to ex- press our interests and con- cerns about our city. There was a lot of discus- sion about the safety in our parks and certain segments of our homeless population. We also discussed water is- sues and the possibility of new regulations for all of us to follow. A goodly amount of our discussion centered on the recent resignation of the Chief of Police and the ap- parent ignorance of City Management and the City Council about alleged man- agement style issues in the Police Department. Apparently no one was willing to come forward with complaints until that December meeting of City Council when the Police As- sociation lawyer read a let- ter of no confidence in the Chief. When asked about the three month leave of the Chief to attend an FBI train- ing in Virginia, Parker indi- cated: 1.) The City Manager had approved the Chief's leave to attend the FBI academy in Virginia for three months; 2.) That the Chief was on the City payroll while there; 3. That his expenses were paid by the City; and 4.) The academy normally only admitted candidates that had at least five more years before retirement so that those admitted could implement their training and make improvements in their departments. As a concerned city resi- dent, I wondered about this. It appeared to me that if the City Manager felt the Police Department would benefit from the Chief's training, he must have felt things were going well; he must have also have felt the City had another five years of service from the Chief. I was able to talk to the City Manager on Wednesday, and he stated he was un- aware of the "normally five years to go" requirement of the academy, and, like most everyone else, apparently unaware of the discontent in the Police Department. He indicated that the Chief had planned to ask for a three year extension of his con- tract when he got back, and so the City Manager felt the academy was a good invest- ment. I did not ask about the cost to the City of the three month trip, but I am sure that if the City Council asks for that information it will be made public. I hope they will do so. Based on what I have been told, the December 2 presen- tation by the representative of the police officers was a surprise to all. Democracy depends on the participation of all; un- fortunately the members of the police department chose to keep quiet about their dis- content until the Chief was out of town and when their message would have a big impact instead of utilizing available channels to deal with the issues. Parker indicated it is dif- ficult to deal with issues if people are not willing to come forward and let ei- ther city management or City Council members know about them. He urged each of us to encourage more people to come to his scheduled in- put meetings to generate more input for him and the Council. He also indicated he thought the subcommit- tee of the Council working with the Police Department should seek regular input from the Peace Officers As- sociation. I believe the City Council can be more assertive in ob- taining information that we, the public, need. In the meantime, I en- courage you to attend Mayor Parker's meetings on the sec- ond Monday of the month 10-11:30 a.m.; I also encour- age you to report suspicious events, concerns and crim- inal acts to the proper city officials, and make a note to yourself about what you reported, whom you spoke with, and then following up with that person to see what might have been done. If you are not satisfied with that response, let someone know, either City Management or the City Council. Joe Harrop is a retired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop The necessity of speaking out Cartoonist's take Editor: No one at the federal, state or local level wants to talk about the real problems af- fecting our water. Clear cut- ting, pollution and new or- chards, we don't need. If you look at Google Earth around Lassen Volca- nic National Park and Mount Shasta, you will see that more than half of the Sier- ra's is bald from clear cut- ting. With no trees to protect our snow pack, it evaporates right back into the atmo- sphere. With less trees there is nothing to pull what little snow we have into our water- shed. Between the clear cut hot mountains and the pol- lution bubble over Northern California, all of the storms are going around us. Crain Orchards, the fifth largest and wealthiest wal- nut producer, just put in a 700 acre orchard across the street from our home and wells have been going dry in Red Bluff as a result. During the last rainstorm, they and other orchards were irrigat- ing, while residents have to wait 48 hours after a storm to water our lawns. Citizens have to live by le- gal limitations, but farm- ers can keep putting in wa- ter sucking orchards with no restrictions. On 99W, some farmer not only tore out es- sential wetlands, which was illegal, but put in another monstrous orchard, which is now running wells dry over in that area by Walmart dis- tribution. They were fined a pittance and allowed to keep their orchard, when they should have been fined mil- lions and made to pull the orchard out. Farmers take 80 percent of the water and only con- tribute 2 percent to the Cal- ifornia economy. We are the bread basket of the world, but if California runs dry, the bread basket is gone, even for the farmers. This is happen- ing all up and down Califor- nia. Everyone in California should be making sacrifices, including farmers. As I see it, farmers putting in these new unnecessary orchards don't care about the farms of the future or California's future, all they care about is making as much money as they can now and the rest of Califor- nia can just suck it up. Homes keep being built, when there is not enough wa- ter for our current popula- tion. Stop over-farming, over cutting our forest and over- building California and just maybe we can save Califor- nia. Thinking we can con- tinue doing this without de- stroying California is just an- other pipe dream cooked up by the government and rich corporate farms, who care nothing about the future of California. The other thing we need to look at is building pipe- lines from over saturated North Eastern America to our mountain ranges and let nature take its course. Think of all the jobs that would cre- ate. If we can build pipelines for oil, why can't we build pipelines for water? When it comes to Califor- nia water, there is no red or blue, both political sides only see green, including Gov- ernor Brown. All this talk about building more reser- voirs and tunnels to fix our water problems is absolutely idiotic and a waste of money, as we can't fill our lakes and reservoirs up as it is. We need to address prob- lems at the source, pollu- tion and over-abuse of our water first, before we spend any money on storage and we need to do it now or Califor- nia will die, including all of the farms. Our creeks are already running dry and dying in Northern California and we are at the top of the water- shed. Some real solutions are needed to save California ec- onomically, environmentally and recreationally. — Pat Johnston, Red Bluff Somethingrotteninthe road department Editor: Something is, well let's say smells in the County Trans- portation department. As of this month, April, I heard the county reported that up to 60% of the lower working man power in the road department would be laid off for the duration of four years, all the while they were at the same time inter- viewing for the same. Also at this time I heard they just hired on an upper class employee at $75,000 a year, with no experience or very little over more experi- enced local men? And here we are building a multi-million dollar county court house, because it will be convenient to the people who have office there. Just because they can take transportation money and put it here or there at will, this should not be done. God only knows the con- dition of all the second class roads in this county, plus grass abatement to control wild fires along these road ways. No repairs of levees if they break, no help when a choked up creek overflows. If a tree washes down a creek and hits a bridge, so what. There will be no one to go out to fix it. So they will do no road work for four years, how does this hit you in the out reaches of the county. You don't have a chance to see any repairs of the pot holes that could give you a flat tire or worse yet, break something else. Last by not least is all the road department work- ing men will have to find new employment, not in this county, so we will lose more young family's as they relo- cate to new areas. I say it stinks to high heaven. — Carmen Walker, Red Bluff So Christie, you want entitlement reform? Editor: Not so fast. You stated that the entitlements are 71 per- cent of federal spending. The money like from the So- cial Security Trust Fund are from payrolls taxes; that is money hard working people and their employers have paid into the system to redistrib- ute during their later years in life. Is it pass through money? So when it comes to the en- titlement of Social Security; I thought the program was independent of the federal government but it seems as though whenever the federal government needed money it would take it from SSA Trust fund to pay whatever over- spending item it needed. — Paul Blank, Red Bluff Pay state fire fee under protest Editor: The $152 per year Fire Pre- vention fee for each rural habitable structure, passed by your irresponsible liberal Democrat legislative majority, and not by taxpayers, is an il- legal tax and not a fee. As residents of the highest tax state in the nation, next to New York, we are man- dated by laws and executive decrees to support the half of residents and voters who will never pay sufficient lifetime taxes to pay for their welfare subsidies. Since representation in the White House and the State Legislative body has long ended, the only option avail- able is to pay the Fire Preven- tion fee under protest, know- ing it is an unfair tax. If it is indeed a fee, then ev- ery rural, city and town resi- dent should pay the same fee. It is unlikely that a responsi- ble conservative majority will ever occupy California's State, public union controlled, lib- eral Assembly and Senate, peaceful protests are the only avenue available. — Joseph Neff, Corning Your opinions Reality of and real solutions to California's drought The academy normally only admitted candidates that had at least five more years before retirement so that those admitted could implement their training and make improvements in their departments. Joe Harrop OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, April 18, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6