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4A Daily News – Saturday, April 14, 2012 Opinion DAILYNEWS 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. 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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 blame Editor: Mr. Wolfe's listing of the maladies of our economy, hous- ing, employment, and poverty are fairly in line with my own. But his assigning blame to Obama is grotesque. Savings. In a time of house- holds going into debt to keep up instead of putting money in the bank, somebody, starting about the '90s, saved a fair amount of money. That is, if you agree that 6 trillion dollars is a fair amount. That is the amount that the FED Z1 publication, avail- able to everybody online, lists as savings in this country. $6 trillion. Does anybody you know act like they are in the crowd that saved $6 trillion? Misplaced That was enough to cure the whole housing problem. It was almost enough to pay off our national debt at the time. How about the fact that some few seers were predicting a cri- sis back in 2005 and the top economists started having meet- ings over it in spring of 2007? Was Obama pulling the strings then? No. Obama was not pulling the strings when the banking system froze in the fall of Bush's last year in office. Obama was just given the situa- tion and continued the bailout that Bush had started. How incompetent and cor- rupt is big government. In order to keep honest people honest, you have to regulate persons who have the responsibility of spending other people's money, taxes. But the Republicans want no regulations. They complain about the waste, then ensure it happens. But the essential error in their explanation and complaint is sim- ple. If lasseiz-faire open market opera- tions were so good for everybody, how could government spend all the money? Nobody would need it. They would all have well paying jobs. Government has to pick up the bag left by business. Having a very few people Your Turn is between those who do subject their beliefs to question and therefore learn, and those who do not think themselves worthy of the endeavor. The lat- ter are the real victims as their ideas come from people they don't even know, like the Koch broth- ers. save massive amounts of money while all the rest go into debt is more an expression of mercantil- ism, where it was accepted that labor be kept at a bare subsis- tence level, than the Adam Smith equal division capitalist system. Republicans are no longer capi- talists. They are mercantilists. It begins to seem that the essential divide between people Some good learning materi- als on economics: "The Price of Civilization" by Jeffrey Sachs, "Debunking Economics" by Keen (identified housing bubble in 2005), "The Birth of Plenty" by William Bernstein, "Crisis Economics" by Nouriel Roubi- ni, "Aftershock" by Robert Reich. Best TV educational, politics and economics, "The Dylan Ratigan Show" 1 p.m. daily, Charter channel 57. James Bryant, Red Bluff Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, 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), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 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; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. A little tension is a good thing Commentary I attended as an observer the Chamber sponsored event April 5th which highlighted the potential changes in relation- ship between the Red Bluff City Council and the Red Bluff/Tehama County Chamber of Commerce. I was surprised by some of the things I heard and saw. Nevertheless there was palpable tension in the room, a result of the limited role the City wanted the Chamber to play and the fiscal implications for the Chamber. Unfortunately not all Chamber members pre- sent understood the nature of the meeting. Although the Chamber and the City had been discussing changes in their agreement for a few months, this meeting had been delayed by mutual consent while the Chamber did its pre- liminary work on the Branding Project. The evening began with a presentation about the Cham- ber, its activities, its budget, and its membership. I was impressed by the open- ness of the presentation, the clear growth of the Chamber in spite of bad economic times, and the energy level of its efforts on behalf of our commu- nity. The revived leadership for the last couple of years has clearly paid off. Handouts of the presentation would have helped this observer who was not familiar with the material pre- sented and couldn't see the numbers from the back of the room; City Council members might also have benefited from handouts. the Pastor at North Valley Bap- tist Church, but has many years' experience working with vari- ous chambers of commerce, pointed out that the growth in the Chamber's membership to about 430, almost a forty per- cent increase in the last two years, is virtually unprecedent- ed in these difficult economic times. We should take our hats off to the Chamber for recruit- ing more members. My hope is Scott Camp, who is currently that their growth is a result of the pent up energy and desire to improve our community and that it will translate into the suc- cessful next steps of our Brand- ing Project. I was somewhat dismayed by the attitude that seemed to per- meate the comments of some members of the Chamber who were present. The purpose of the meeting was clearly information- al and was considered a "next step" toward the eventual cre- ation of a new agreement between the City and the Cham- ber. Nevertheless, some Chamber members saw the meeting as an opportunity to complain about the City's alleged anathema toward local businesses. One Chamber member sitting at my table said, "The City doesn't realize it is the business man who makes the City." There were some other rumblings about how the City didn't support local busi- ness. These statements seemed to loosely veil an animosity, and were not in keeping with the pur- pose of the meeting. Some Chamber members acted as if this were a public bargaining session and stated their opinions on the matter at hand and asked City Council members to respond to pointed questions. For their part the City Council members restated this was a public informational pre- sentation and that negotiations between the Chamber and City would create a new agreement; each Councilmember who spoke stated the City's proposal to the Chamber was an initial position pending negotiations. Both Greg Stevens, the Chamber President, and Dave Gowan, the made it clear several times that this was an informational meet- ing and that the City's request for a change in the contract between it and the Chamber was a starting point for a revised arrangement. Stevens had earli- er briefly flashed an almost leg- ible set of organizational charts depicting how the Chamber Chamber CEO, might be organized under the City's proposals, and mentioned some fiscal implications. Currently the Chamber per- forms the traditional functions of both a chamber of commerce and a convention and visitors bureau. Those two functions are not mutually exclusive, but they are quite different from each other, requir- ing different skill sets. As Scott Camp pointed out during the meeting, the convention and vis- itors bureau functions are basically marketing, while the chamber's focus is support and developing business. When the City Council budget com- mittee and Chamber representatives began discus- sions on the City's proposal in December, the City representa- tives made it very clear they wanted the money the City pro- vides to the Chamber to be used exclusively for promoting visi- tors and tourism. The City had some specific tasks in mind for the Chamber to perform under its new proposal, and it also wanted a voting position on the Chamber Board and the ability to audit Chamber expenditures. Among the things the City wants the Chamber to do would be developing a signage program and the purchase of outside media coverage for our city. The Chamber presentation included an estimated $85,000 to run the visitors bureau and an additional $20,000 to do all the City was asking. The City has currently capped its contribu- tion to the Chamber at $70,000. The City and the Chamber created the current agreement in 2004; it has been modified over the last few years. The source of the City's funding for the Chamber is the Transient Occu- pancy Tax (TOT). The TOT is a significant portion of the City's income; it has ranged from $619,603 in 2007-08 to $555,234 last year. In 2007-08 it was 10.4 percent of the budget. Its share of the budget has declined even with declining revenues. The City's budgetary problems have been in the news, and it is no wonder that the City wants to make sure it gets what it wants for the $70,000 it has set aside for the Cham- ber; the City's requests only make good fiscal sense. The City clearly wants an accountable Cham- ber. Joe Harrop agreement and they were trying to make sure Chamber opera- tions were transparent. I believe that people operat- ing in good faith can overcome differences and develop creative solutions to problems and dis- agreements. Creative tension often results in innovative out- comes. During the Reagan Administration, the President and House Leader Tip O'Neill, despite clear philosophical dif- ferences, were able to face some important issues in creative ways through open cooperation. I am convinced that the Cham- ber and the City can do so as well, in spite of the grumbling in the room the other night. I was impressed by John was that the Chamber leaders were trying to accommodate the City's willingness to negotiate a new My impression Growney's coach-like pep talk at the end of the meeting. John summed up an important point as the meeting drew to a close. In essence he said, "We are all on the same team; we have to work together; we cannot begin to think in terms of 'us against them.'" [My paraphrase.] 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.