Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/604884
Wehavebeenanxiouslywatchingtheevents in Paris, and each day brings more intrigue and concern. It certainly seems like the amount of uncertainty in our world has in- creased as well as the level of anxiety, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of the horrendous acts perpetrated on innocent people. Iamremindedofthetime when we were first married and living in Park Merced in early 1966. The area was an apartment/gar- den apartment complex in south west San Fran- cisco. A security officer had been shot and killed while checking on suspicious activity in one of the parking structures; the complex was full of rumors; no one knew what was happen- ing, and most of us stood in front of our apartments anx- iously awaiting some closure to the event. That event brought us closer to our new neighbors and that shared anxiety made the wait- ing for closure easier. When we learned the suspect had been caught, we breathed a collec- tive sigh of relief and went on about our lives. This took place in a matter of hours. Resolution to the issues in Paris will not be so quick in coming, and life may never be the same for many people. Meanwhile, closer to home, some of us have been wait- ing to find out the fate of Te- hama County Superintendent Charles Allen, who doesn't miss a photo opportunity and may be in the real news soon. In early December he will be confronting two important hearings. The first hearing is a court appointment in Redding based on his alleged false claim that he had a "real" master's de- gree from Chico State awarded on either of the two dates he put on various resumes. Dur- ing the period of time of the al- leged false claims, he received stipends of from $750 to $836 per year over a six year period from the Tehama County De- partment of Education and the Red Bluff Union Elemen- tary District. I have written previously about the "masters equivalent" explanation of this matter. Allen's alleged false claims will also be subject to a hear- ing by the California Commis- sion on Teacher Credentialing in Sacramento. The allegations there include unprofessional conduct and a falsely claimed master's degree, thereby fraud- ulently accepting public funds for that degree over a period of six years. The criminal charge was re- duced from a felony to a mis- demeanor. Although filed in Tehama, the complaint was sent to Redding because our very own District Attorney felt a conflict of interest; per- haps both parties belong to the same service club. Whatever the criminal pen- alty will be, if any, it will be potentially much less severe than the possible impact on Al- len's retirement account if he was falsely overpaid a master's stipend or if he loses his cre- dential to serve as an admin- istrator because of what might be ruled unprofessional ac- tions. The local press has been fairly absent as this issue has unfolded, but the status of our once highly regarded County Office of Education which was capably led by for- mer Superintendents Bosetti, Locke and Douglas, has taken a huge blow over the last few years. There are even ques- tions of whether or not the prior County Superintendent did due diligence in approving Allen's stipend for the alleged master's degree. Whatever the outcome of the two hearings above, it will be incumbent for all of us to stress the importance of a revi- talized and vibrant County Of- fice of Education and good co- ordination of resources be- tween that office and our local school districts, particularly those which have not demon- strated good academic prog- ress. Recent state scores under- score the need for coordinated efforts between all public edu- cation entities. Going on to a more enter- taining matter, let's look at Congressman Doug LaMalfa and his latest gaff. A recent letter to the editor from Pete Stiglich of Cotton- wood highlighted some things we may already have suspected about our local Congressman. Based on his letter to the edi- tor, our Congressional Repre- sentative, Doug LaMalfa, is re- fusing to let us know much about his calendar, perhaps for national security reasons, if not sloppy recordkeeping. When Stiglich asked for a record of the number of open houses LaMalfa had personally conducted in Shasta County, he was told "It…is a request of Capitol Police, for Members of Congress to keep scheduling confidential for security rea- sons." Apparently this security con- cern also applies ex post facto; some might think it amounts to covering up. Or perhaps La- Malfa is under deep cover, that is acting covertly… or perhaps he is trying to erase any public record of his attendance where he might have embarrassed himself with a poor perfor- mance. Maybe his recordkeep- ing is deficient. On the other hand, his re- cordkeeping system might not be so bad after all, he or his staff did remember to send me an almost meaningful form letter about the importance of Veterans Day earlier this month. Of course if he not up to very much, we don't need to know what he has done or plans to do. I am sure if he decides to run for reelection, he will make some parts of his schedule pub- lic in spite of apparently seri- ous security concerns. This kind of comic relief is much appreciated given other current events. We need a good snicker now and them. Thanks Doug. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop Watching and waiting Cartoonist's take Stupidplanning in Red Bluff Editor: In several acts of stupidity, Tehama County Board of Super- visors and Red Bluff City Coun- cil, current and past, decided to destroy Red Bluff. They work from foolishness, with no vision or plan. They took money offered by the state and spent it as fast as they could, not caring one bit about esthetics, business, safety, residents or traffic. If they did, we wouldn't live the crazy chaos of their bad planning. Envision someone actually planning to put our Sheriff's Department on the west side of town at 36E; three AB109 cen- ters, that mostly sit unused, surround a motel and is next door to our floundering fair- grounds. In between both, is Antelope school. Then, you have Social Services stuffed into the old Montgomery Ward build- ing, in a struggling Riverside shopping area, with not enough parking for everyone. The jail should have never expanded downtown the first time. It doesn't surprise me that Supervisor Dennis Garton told KRCR the stupid good ole' boy excuse of "We always had a jail downtown." So? Just because other board members did some- thing stupid shouldn't mean we should continue the tradition of stupidity. Then they put the new court- house at the end of Walnut on the east side of Red Bluff, past Bidwell school, right by the Brickyard Creek, near Red Bluff High, where Mariysa Nichols was murdered. The courthouse looks like a prison, is located right next to Juvenile Hall, which is next to the decrepit animal shelter with animals and staff stuffed into it, next to it the gorgeous new building for Air and AG, which is huge and one has to wonder why these two small agencies need so much room and why they are not located downtown, where similar agencies are? Let's not forget the super- visors' building, hiding away from other county agencies, lit- erally on the wrong-side of the tracks, next to the Veterans Hall. Now, let's talk about how much gas it will cost the county and pollution will be created, with officers driving from the west side to pick up prisoners in downtown and then, take them to court on the East side. Let's talk about how private citizens have to run all around town wasting gas and time in terri- ble traffic to get county busi- ness done. Expanding the jail downtown or closing a badly needed Madi- son Street is their brilliant idea. I hope the merchants down- town understand this is what you get when you elect peo- ple who only care about them- selves and their friends, no mat- ter what the cost to the com- munity. — Pat Johnston, Red Bluff Listen to cops on jail expansion Editor: I'm asking the public to please stand behind our law enforce- ment on the new jail project. They are the ones who are re- sponsible in keeping the jail up to code while making sure the inmates' rights are protected — whether we agree on that one or not we have no choice — while keeping everyone safe. Being in their position they have to know the safest way to house them, transport them, and have an area for their rehabili- tation programs. I don't want a "book and release" order just because we don't have adequate room for them. Who else knows more about what is needed and how it should be done than our law enforce- ment department heads? I be- lieve they know the safest and most practical way to get the in- mates across the street. Please, let's let them make the decisions that will work best for them. Even though it will be an in- convenience for us until we get used to it, my bet is we will sur- vive. We need to do our part in helping our law enforcement deal with their part. Then we all can thank Jerry Brown for his intelligent solution in fixing our prison problems. — Kathy Nelson, Red Bluff County flocks to bogus candidates Editor: Next year around this time this county will no doubt vote for a psychopathic liar like Ben Carson or a big mouth blow- hard like Donald Trump whose slogan really should be, I never saw a successful enterprise I couldn't throw into bankruptcy. Yes this county's majority will follow the dictates of their idol Rush Limbaugh who has never seen a fact he couldn't twist. He avoids truth like any- one else would a plague. I for one will be casting my vote for Bernie Sanders who chooses to believe the 97% of scientists who say global warm- ing is a fact and we human- oids have caused it. He is for strengthening Social Secu- rity, not privatizing or destroy- ing it. Nor is Bernie anxious to start another unnecessary war, which takes away our most pre- cious resources, like his Re- publican rivals are. He knows the trickle down theory doesn't work. And after 30 years it's about time to try something that does. People ask where will the money come from for all his utopian ideas like free college tuition and universal health care. Well the funds are there, they're just going in the wrong direction today. If Great Brit- ain could find a way to provide health care to all of its citizens after being devastated by war surely we should be able to fig- ure something out. — Orval Strong, Gerber Discipline drives classroom performance Editor: It is interesting to learn that the top charter schools achieve 90 plus percent math, science and communications perfor- mance through a mandate for classroom discipline. This is as opposed to typical urban pub- lic schools where only a minor- ity pass similar tests, and there is no classroom discipline. In my wife's and my 1941 to 1953 K to 12 parochial schools, our school teachers were only ho hum equal to today's typi- cal public school teacher, but we graduated as outstanding students due to mandated class discipline. Our high school teachers were outstanding with masters degrees in their field of study, but additionally classroom dis- cipline was mandatory. As a result we had 100% gradua- tion rates, and more than half completed college, many with STEM degrees, even though most were from poor families, as my family of 13. . It is evident that our nation has moved backwards in re- quiring classroom discipline. Without discipline, there can- not be knowledge transfer from the average teachers to the stu- dents. It is not essential to have outstanding teachers if there is classroom discipline. We hope Common Core edu- cation is not just another of the decade after decade academic program of the year. We hope classroom discipline is recog- nized as the primary means to achieve outstanding classroom academic performance. — Joseph Neff, Corning Letters to the editor Meanwhile, closer to home, some of us have been waiting to find out the fate of Tehama County Superintendent Charles Allen, who doesn't miss a photo opportunity and may be in the real news soon. GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD 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 State and National Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558- 3160, governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507 Cannon House Of- fice Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Fran- cisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Rich- ard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, John Brewer, 824-7033 Your officials Joe Harrop OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, November 21, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A5