Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/153129
4A Daily News – Friday, August 16, 2013 Opinion DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Supervisor salaries Editor: It is a common practice for cities and towns to compare themselves to other overpaid public employees and demand increased pay, benefits and pensions. State and local politicians ignore the fact that 88 percent of workers and retirees, who now employ the public employees, are nonunion without benefits, lifetime health insurance, or early retirement pensions. Most non degreed Tehema County private sector jobs pay little more than minimum wage. For most public employees, the wages are above those of their nonunion peers, and their vacation days, sick days, holidays, and pensions are significantly above the nonunion private sector. For the one-third of workers who are fortunate to have pensions, they are rarely available until age 65 and they are not inflation adjusted. Private sector employees must use vacations and holidays in the year earned or loose them. County supervising is not and should not be a full time job. If a supervisor claims he must serve on 20 committees payers health insurance, it is apparent management retirement and deferred comskills are weak in not simpli- pensation plan packages fying the structure. Too often offered to other county electcounty or city officials are ed officials. These are benefits seldom available elected not because to equally educated of competitive priYour civilian non union vate sector financial employees. There and people manageare many newly ment skills but retired moving to because they have Tehema County lived there forever. Current Tehema County with a wealth of private secsupervisors are well paid tor management experience with the $12,540 yearly who are capable and willing salary, a $6,000 yearly car to take on the challenge with allowance, $1,200 yearly the existing supervisor pay telephone and computer and benefits. Elect their allowance, and are eligible to skills. Joseph Neff, Corning participate in costly to tax- Turn 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. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Dan Logue, 1550 Humboldt Road, Ste. 4, Chico, CA 95928, 530-895-4217 STATE SENATOR — Jim Nielsen, 2635 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico, CA 95928, (530) 879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 5583160; E-mail: governor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Doug LaMalfa 506 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, 202-2253076. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 3930710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes letters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All 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 cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submitted will be considered for publication. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong community 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 vehicles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its communities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the residents 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 Commentary Love thy neighbor TIME featured an article on Pope Francis and his seemingly break-through remark concerning gays. His immediate predecessors called homosexuality "intrinsic moral evil," and branded practitioners as "intrinsically disordered." However the new Pope offered kindness and compassion, and then, in an act of genuine humility, asked, "Who am I to judge?" That's the spirit, P. Francis! Forget the infallibility thing and rely on your gut feeling. However, this does not wipe the slate clean regarding the teachings of the Catholic church, for while it may be all right to be gay, it is not all right to act on it, which forces gay Catholics to adopt an involuntary vow of celibacy in order to be in good standing. The article concludes with a thoughtful rhetorical question: "Would a loving God create a certain portion of humankind to be affectionately drawn to people of the same gender yet to deprive them of ever expressing that love?" *** The City Council erred in not appointing Dr. J. Harrop to a vacant seat on same. He was the most qualified person to apply for the position. A retired educator, able to analyze budgets and deal with people of all ages, he was well equipped to deal with those who look to the city to cure all of their woes and solve all their problems. And viewing the decisions of councils in the past, a person of his abilities would have been most welcome in the future. But, it is a thankless job and the council's loss will be Joe's gain by his being spared abuse from critics like yours truly. *** Bravo to the DN for including the George Will column in our local paper. I've always considered him to be the most moderate and intelligent voice of the conservatives...and the fact that he is a baseball filbert only adds to his persona. Now if he could just devote a little time to curing the current S.F. Giants' swoon, it would be much appreciated. *** A recent Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue — there's a name for your first born kid to drive his teachers nuts over the spelling — suggests one can have, for $699.95, a state of the art "Hands Free Hair Rejuvenator." It is a helmet-like affair with earphones hanging down the side which look, in the photo, like training wheels, but that can't be right...however, I digress. The device employs low level laser therapy designed to encourage hair follicles to repair themselves. It also plays recorded music while wearing. This is a great improvement over what my father used back in the late 1940s. He was a handsome but balding fellow and thought a full head of hair would improve his appearance. He bought a machine that looked like a hair drier except that it fitted snugly over the scalp and made a suction movement, up and down. Needless to say it did not work…and that is when he employed his good friend Carl Coleman, a music teacher at the high school, to use Carl's "secret formula" hair restorer on father's head along with an ice cube rub which was apparently painful to endure. Unfortunately it did not work either, so father, discouraged, bought an expensive hair piece that he wore for about a year before abandoning the whole thing in favor of maintaining a winning smile and making lots of money. *** There are mandates, federal and state, to reduce prison pop- ulations. Somebody has decid- alive. It is also the biggest bird ed that those incarcerated are dead. *** subjected to inhumane treatLast week's quiz was tough ment via overcrowding. If one and no one is on the outside got all queslooking in, and t i o n s a recent victim answered corof assault or rectly except otherwise, this a personage may seem just from the DN desserts. If the who chooses toughs want to a n o n y m i t y. act in violent The state that ways, then they begins with a should suffer union and the conseRobert ends with a quence and be separation is locked up. But Connecticut, what about nonthe two states violent crime? that contain 3 Those convictsyllables but ed of breaking the law regarding theft, scams, only one consonant are Iowa tax evasion, marijuana distrib- and Ohio...and the only state ution and the like? One method that can be keyed with all 8 of as advocated by an attorney the typewriter fingers is, Pennfriend is changing the 85% to sylvania. This week's quiz: What is 65% rule regarding sentencing versus time off for good behav- the only state that shares no ior. If the prisoner is behaving letters with its own capital, and and trying to lead a better life, name the four President's surhow about reducing his sen- names containing but four lettence, based on good behavior, ters. *** from 85% of time served to A minister told his congre65%? Discuss and submit your gation, "Next week I plan to conclusion by the end of class. preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my *** If you are a smoker, or know sermon, I want you all to read of someone who is, please be Mark 17". The following Sunaware that there are 94 million day, as he prepared to deliver current and former smokers in his sermon, the minister asks the U.S, and every year for a show of hands wanting to 160,000 die of lung cancer. know how many read Mark 17. However, if that clarion call Every hand went up. The minfalls on deaf ears, then please ister smiled and said, "Mark consider that 14% of such has only 16 chapters. I will deaths (22,000 lives) could be now proceed with my sermon prevented if patients would on lying." undergo CT screening. The lesions on their lungs, once Robert Minch is a lifelong detected, would be small enough to treat. And yet, an resident of Red Bluff, former ounce of prevention is worth a columnist for the Corning pound of cure even in today's Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author market. of the "The Knocking Pen." He *** be reached at Aviary notes from all over: can The ostrich is the biggest bird rminchandmurray@hotmail.com. Minch I Say