Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/747615
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, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Therehasbeenalotofdiscussionabout how much our Board of Supervisors should be paid. There have also been some pretty simplistic statements about this issue. Atoneofthemeetings to discuss this issue "Resi- dent June Cooper said part of the prob- lem was that the area was not the State of Jefferson yet and if it were, there would be less govern- ment. She also questioned the amount of time spent in du- ties as a supervisor," from the Daily News. Each of the supervisors has said that being a super- visor is more than the equiv- alent of a full-time job. Su- pervisors Carlson and Cham- blin said it has cut into the time they can devote to their businesses; Supervisor Bundy said the time requirements were one reason why he dropped from the board be- fore returning. I believe these three are being honest and forthright about their time commit- ments, and that they would not exaggerate. I may not al- ways agree with their de- cisions, but I do not doubt their sincerity. The current monthly com- pensation the supervisors re- ceive is $1,045 per month or $12,540 per year. If they do put in 40 hours per week, then this amounts to $6.03 per hour. The minimum wage in California is $10 per hour in as of January 1 this year. If we paid them just the mini- mum wage, they would have a salary of $20,647, which is almost two-thirds more than they receive now. Whether we agree with their decisions or not, we are getting a bargain. This would still leave their compensation less than that for the Glen County super- visors who currently make $27,948. Glen County has less than half the population of Tehama County. Siskiyou has a population of two-thirds that of our county; it cur- rently pays $35,316. Both of those counties have built in adjustments to their super- visors' salaries; our county does not. Tehama Supervi- sors have received no adjust- ment since 1986. The proposal in Mea- sure M is straightforward. It would increase the sal- ary of the supervisors by $600 per month each year for four years and then re- quire a vote of the elector- ate to modify it further. At the end of these four sched- uled increases their salary would be $3,445 per month, or $41,340. At that point the minimum wage in California will be $14 per hour. There has been some saber rattling about the employ- ees of the county government and their need to have in- creased compensation; some say that should happen first, before the supervisors get an increase. The home page for Tehama County claims em- ployees have competitive wages and benefits. I was not able to download any sal- ary schedules, but the issue of employee compensation is not tied to this matter, in any case. I would hope those em- ployees would like some fresh faces on the board of super- visors, faces with vision for them and our county. I do get to vote and I can determine if I want to re-elect the supervisor in my district, but rarely have I had the op- portunity to pick from can- didates who are not retired or retired county employees. Hopefully improved salaries will encourage younger and more imaginative people to run for supervisor. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop Measure M: Common sense put to the test The current monthly compensation the supervisors receive is $1,045 per month or $12,540 per year. If they do put in 40 hours per week, then this amounts to $6.03 per hour. The minimum wage in California is $10 per hour in as of January 1 this year. Signs,signs everywhere a sign Editor: Tuesday's election day is fast approaching, and soon all of the signs around town will be com- ing down. What an election year this is going to be. This measure, that measure. This proposition, that proposition. The election of our new state and federal lead- ers. Every vote will count. For us here in Red Bluff, we have a chance to make a huge difference in our community this election year with the passing of Measure J. As most of us know, Red Bluff High School is more than a cen- tury old. As a grounds mainte- nance worker at the school, I know first hand that we do the best we can each day with the re- sources we have available. But, the reality is that resources are few and therefore what we can do is limited. With three children who proudly attended Red Bluff High and five grandchildren who are future Spartans, I am pas- sionate about preserving and im- proving our school. Measure J would allow us to invest in our young people's fu- ture and our community by mak- ing critical upgrades to the aging campus, including the renova- tion and repair of classrooms, the purchase of equipment and tech- nology, make safety and security upgrades and infrastructure re- pairs and help us better accom- modate our disabled students and visitors with necessary ADA compliance upgrades. All of this, for a minimal tax in- crease of $36.90 per year on aver- age for a median assessed value home, with accountability require- ments built into the measure. Measure J definitely has my vote. I hope you will also con- sider voting yes on election day. Ultimately, it's all about the fu- ture of our kids and our Red Bluff community. Now, there's your sign. — Scott Johnston, Red Bluff Tired of hearing about e-mails Editor: I've gotten so tired of hear- ing about Hillary's e-mail that I decided to do a little inves- tigating on my own. So here's some stuff for you to consider. During Hillary's stint as Secretary of State, a four-year span, their were 63,320 e- mails through her cell. Think of that a moment. This means that there were 694 every day for the four-year period. That is 30 every hour, or one every two minutes. This of course does not leave her very much time to eat, sleep, play or even do any work at the office. I sincerely doubt that any- body that is raising this as an issue has in the last six months managed to read even a small portion of this ava- lanche of correspondence; and certainly not much of the at- tachments thereto. Honestly, I don't think much of e-mail. While at first it looked like a more efficient means of communication as I look around I only see it as a total disassociation of human contact. Where people used to meet at the table or in a bar to associate with friends, now they don't have time to do that because they're on the phone. Hey, people. When you ar- range to meet someone, busi- ness or personal, turn the damn thing off. So much of what transpires over the 'net would a few years ago have been handled in a 15-minute face to face meeting at 8 a.m. before the start of work. — Fred Boest, Red Bluff Grateful for creek cleanup Editor: My wife Pat and I would like to shout out a loud thank you to the Fish and Game, and Sheriff's Department for their great cleanup job at the mouth of Reeds Creek. Cleaning up all the garbage and brush was a monumental job. If not cleaned up, it would have gone into the Sacramento River. Again, thank you for a job well done. — Ted Teman, Red Bluff Thanks to downtown merchants Editor: I would like to just take a minute to compliment the downtown merchants and all those who participated in the Halloween Treat Street. What a great way to show the children in Red Bluff how lucky they are to be living here and to be a part of a com- munity that takes such pride in keeping them safe. For anyone that partici- pated, or was just driving by, yes it was congested and frankly a bit crazy. But it was all in good fun and most of all safe. I was especially proud to see all the local law enforce- ment out mingling with the children. They were hand- ing out candy, smiling for pic- tures and just plain giving out high fives. What a great way to show our kids that they are real people and people to look up to and respect. It was fun to see all the kids getting to see their local law enforcement officials and he- roes up close and personal. In my opinion, it is a little harder to go out and get in trouble when you think the cop that may show up could be the one you just shook hands with a few days prior. Way to go Red Bluff and a sincere thank you from a mother and grandmother who knows that much extra work was done by many to make such a huge event so successful. — Denise Gamboa, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take One of the first things we dis- cover as kids is the difference between scary and SCARY!!!. Commercial frightful versus downright ghoul- ish. The gap be- tween a broken- toothed Hallow- een pumpkin on a porch railing illu- minated by a flick- ering candle and a holographic beheaded ghost peering out of your bathroom mirror dripping blood onto the faucet handle of the sink. Your brother sneaking up and yelling "Boo," or the grisly "scrape, scrape, scrape" of a wind-blown, fir limb outside your bedroom window. Or could it be the scratching of a dismem- bered skeletal hand? The laugh- ing cackle of a cartoon witch compared to the sound of a flashing scythe whistling past your ear in deep dark. Goose- bumps down your arm scary and pants- changing scary. This election season defi- nitely belongs in the second cat- egory and it is only our bad luck that Voting Day is the lat- est possible- on November 8th, the first Tuesday after the first Monday of the month. Prompt- ing folks to ask why not the first Tuesday? The only result of that odd predicate is the election can't be held on November 1st. We may accuse the dead of vot- ing but we can never vote on the Day of the Dead. Why? Probably because our Founding Fathers were focused on the well-being of their fu- ture descendants and worried should Halloween and Election Day be contiguous we might all suffer heart attacks after being scared spitless two days in a row. Even way back then, they were aware that a dead elec- torate is not a consumer goods purchasing electorate. Although the distance be- tween these twin spooky events may be stretched the furthest this year, the eerie connection between the two has been mag- nified with a worldwide epi- demic of creepy clown sightings. And no, we're not talking about the onslaught of election cam- paign commercials but you're getting the idea. Creepy clowns have been re- ported in small towns, on the side of freeways, memed on so- cial media, and even spread across the Atlantic to the UK, where the tradition of bloated red noses has long been em- braced by both the clergy and Members of Parliament. The situation has become so dire that a Mississippi county passed a law making it illegal for anyone to appear in clown make-up until after Halloween. Precipitating drastic unintended side-effects such as forcing the Kardashians to cancel any and all appearances scheduled for Kemper County. Nationally, Ronald McDonald went on enforced hiatus so as not to be confused with his even creepier brethren. Although to many of us, the term "creepy clown" is very redundant. Seri- ously, how much more scary is a clown with a chainsaw than a clown with a balloon animal hat or a hand-puppet Hamburglar? Another connection is the creepiest of all the clowns, that orange malignant one currently running for President as a Re- publican. And speaking of Hal- loween, why is Donald Trump like a pumpkin? Both are orange on the outside, hollow on the inside and destined to be dis- carded in early November. And if you're looking for fu- ture frights: why does the Elec- toral College meet the First Monday after the Second Wednesday of December? No- body knows. And if that doesn't scare the bejesus out of you, you should really see about having your central nervous system re- connected to your brain stem. Will Durst is an award- winning, nationally acclaimed columnist and comedian. Go to willdurst.com for info about his new one-man show "BoomeRaging: From LSD to OMG," and the documentary "3 Still Standing." Will Durst The creepy clown apocalypse during this election season Joe Harrop Will Durst OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, November 5, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A5