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6A – Daily News – Saturday, July 10, 2010 Opinion Enjoyed D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer’s home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 column Editor: Regarding Tina Dupuy’s column “Exploit this tragedy.” How refreshing to see a reasonable commentary in the Daily News, it almost makes me want to continue my sub- scription. Mary Lou Develter Corning Disliked column Editor: Some of Mr. Gleason’s patriotic 4th of July column was not only insulting but infuriating besides being down right wrong. He wrote, “there are too many folks out there who say we should share the wealth. They say that the lazy should be rewarded and those who prefer to work hard and be successful be punished.” This implies that anyone without a job is a lazy bum totally lacking any semblance of ambition and therefore does not deserve to be given the necessities of life. Is it so terribly wrong for our gov- ernment to have welfare or unemployment programs? I don’t think so. The simple fact is there isn’t all that many decent let alone desirable jobs to be had for the asking these days. If there were, we wouldn’t have an unemployment rate of around 10 percent. And what about the mil- lions of handicapped individ- uals? Should we stop requir- ing the rich and successful to contribute funds through tax- ation for individuals who aren’t? I for one don’t think so. And, No, Mr. Gleason your success does not depend totally on you. Who your parents were, where you were born, who your friends are, what church you belong to, all had a factor in whether your living in a nice house, the big house or an out house. Yes, you should strive to better yourself but you can’t be a successful employee unless someone employs you, you can’t be a successful business man unless someone buys your product, and you can’t be a successful politi- cian unless others vote for you. As John Donne said, “No man is an island.” Sharing or dividing the wealth has always been the main function of govern- ments. One more thing, even though we give our forefa- thers all the credit for win- ning our independence from Great Britain on their own, other countries contributed to that cause as well. Those countries included Holland and Spain as well as France. Oh yes, the anti-war protesters in England had a major role to play as well. Orval Strong, Gerber Mideast wars Editor: Who declared war in the mideast? Answer, there is no legal war in that region, nor any place on this earth. One man hired 19 thugs to attack the Twin Towers. It was not perpetrated by any nation. So why are we occupying two sovereign nations? Bob Hogan, Red Bluff End the war Editor: We know the war in Afghanistan is all about pro- tecting an oil pipeline and has nothing to do with peace, al Qaida, the Taliban, etc. This war is a relic from the Neo-Con days where on Sept. 9, 2001 Bush said “Protect our pipeline and we will cover you in a carpet of gold, refuse us and we will cover you in a carpet of bombs.” I think you know the rest of the story. Please stop the endless wars and violence and put the military, industrial, corpo- rate, ET, complex to work solving the problems of our planet and our people, not creating more of them. Bill Handel, Red Bluff Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 4164 P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento 94249; (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319- 2102 STATE SENATOR — Sam Aanestad (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 2054, Sacramen- to, CA 95814. (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224- 0454. The million dollar question Commentary Red Bluff has tolerated some fools and charlatans from time to time. It was not long ago that some- one promoted “Celebrity City,” a can’t miss entertainment center. The promoter made all sorts of promises, but eventually had to leave town under the cloud of legal problems. We tolerated him because he only hurt those who trusted him and were foolish enough to invest in his pipe dream. What we can’t tolerate is ineffec- tive or incompetent local govern- ment. I have often said, “There are no secrets in Red Bluff.” You would think that living in a relatively small town everyone would know just about everything. You would also think that the City Council would be in touch with the fiscal condition of the city; however, last week we learned that the anticipated gap between income and expenditures for next year is $1,300,000, not “only” $300,000 as assumed by the City Council. I wondered a little about the missing million dollars, but then I read the July 5 edition of the Daily News, and wondered what is going on between the City Council and the city administration. Something is not quite right. There appears something is dysfunctional. There are some questions we need answered. In a healthy situation, each councilmember should be able to answer: “When or if ever were you aware that the projected city finan- cial deficit was more than the $300,000 you were allegedly told about in March? When were you aware that the deficit was one mil- lion dollars greater? Does city staff routinely keep you informed of the budget, budgetary projections, and income receipts? How thoroughly do you examine that information?” Councilman Jim Byrne should explain what he meant about being treated like a “mushroom” when he complained about lack of bud- getary information, and he should explain what he has done to make sure this doesn’t happen again. His statement could lead people to think that city officials are keeping the City Council in the dark. City officials should be able to answer these questions: “How is it in your professional capacity that you did not become aware of the million dollar discrepancy until late June? How and when did you make the City Council aware of that fact? What is your normal method of obtaining income information and projections? How do you assure that the City Council has the latest and most accurate information? Do you update them between meet- ings? Have you used the trends from the last year to refine your estimations for the current year?” Council members should be able to let us know if they saved and reviewed the income figures from last March and then from the last fiscal year’s final quarter in order to make realistic estimations of cur- rent expectations. City officials should be able to explain whether or not they take into consideration the prior year’s receipts to help forecast this year’s final quarter income. In the late ‘50s and early ‘60s whenever someone asked a ques- tion about the mysterious state of things, commentators would say, “that’s the million dollar question”, referring to a popular quiz show at the time. Inflation has deflated the value of a million dollars, but the million dollar question appears to be alive and well, right here in Red Bluff. This June, city officials blamed late income reports for the lack of important information available to the City Council. Some citizens blamed the fact that the City Manager did not live in Red Bluff as a contributing factor to the million dollar communica- tion problem. The assump- tion in that accusation is that residence is a factor promoting professional- ism and competence, an assumption that would be hard to prove correct. One council member said he had spoken with council- men from another city, and they knew of their particu- lar shortfall in February. No one is quite sure how that knowledge became available to the unnamed city council or if their administration had a crystal ball. Some things are clear, however. A look at the 2009-2010 city bud- get, as posted online, indicates unrealistic budgeting on the part of the council and city officials. It shows that last fiscal year (2008- 09) sales taxes were short of bud- geted projections by approximately $900,000; nevertheless the council budgeted sales tax income for more than last year’s receipts. The adopt- ed budget for 2009-2010 also shows that budgeted property tax receipts were approximately $147,000 more than actual receipts in 2008-2009; this fifteen percent increase ($193,000) was clearly contrary to the trend over the last few years during which property taxes have steadily decreased from year to year. In total, these two items unrealistically counted on an excess of one million dollars over the previous year’s actual receipts. Attentive council members had access to all this information, with or without communi- cations between March and June from city offi- cials. It seems that either they were mis- lead, or were unrealisti- cally optimistic, or were acting like mush- rooms, or were asleep at the wheel. Joe Harrop The Daily News reported on July 5 that City Council may have to reconsider a deci- sion to lay off a parks maintenance worker. The reason stated for that possible rescission is that the union contract, which had been approved by the council in the course of negotiations, con- tained a provision that vastly com- plicated the proposed layoff. Maybe it is too much for the coun- cil to be aware of every nook and cranny in the labor agreement, but there should be enough profession- als at City Hall to have known about the potential problem and to have informed the council before the original decision was made. Something does not seem quite right. The residents of Red Bluff deserve better. 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.