Disappointment sometimes comes in large doses, as was the case for me June 13, 2008. An article in the local paper about the supervisors approving user fee increases to several County Departments caught my eye. Those departments included Building, Environmental Health and Planning. These increases are significantly large and inappropriate at this time. My disappointment stems from the fact that I worked to elect each one of these supervisors. Most everyone, rightly or wrongly, believes the county is in an economic slow down. Construction is way down. The contractors I talk with are scratching their heads. One I spoke with over coffee asked if I had ever seen it like this. And it is not just construction, with gasoline at $4.69/gallon and rising, most other businesses are slumping.
If my memory serves me, during the last presidential election cycle, when there was a small but significant downturn here locally, the Board of Sups gave themselves a significant raise. Then several months ago they unwisely spent our money to rent a very expensive building to house the District Attorney. This was followed by a hefty wage increase for all the County Department heads and the County CEO. And now they top it off by significantly increasing the cost of county services. Here is what it’ll cost you to use county government after August 4th: Building Department--$125.78/hr, Environmental Health--$143.22/hr, Planning--$119.62/hr, Agriculture--$86.44/hr and County Surveyor fees will be $128.00/hr. Bear in mind that you actually pay twice each time you use a service from the county. The first time you pay is through your taxes. Taxes support the county budget and within that budget every department is funded to perform its function. A department budget includes wages for all in that dept. and office equipment and supplies. If a department’s services are not needed, operation continues at a slower pace and at the end of the year, that Dept may have a surplus. The second time you pay is when you actually use a service and those costs just went up. I’ve been told that user fees are an attempt by the county to recoup the money used by each department for the expense of running that department. Does that sound like double talk to you? Does that sound like a Board of Supervisors’ who cares about you as a constituent?
What this appears to be is a board that is trying to keep the county coffers full in a time of supposed economic tribulation. Construction is down and as a result so is user fees. Bureaucratic logic dictates that in order to maintain their departments financial status quo fees must be raised. Hence, the less you use county departments the more it costs you when you do. I remember in the 1970’s when we had a drought in the southern part of the state and water rationing was common. Homeowners were asked to reduce their usage by 10 –15%. Since we all knew that the drought was in fact real, we complied. As a result, Department of Water and Power revenues went down with the reduction of personal water use. Guess what? The DWP increased their rates to compensate for the loss of revenue.
This is exactly what this Board of Supervisors is doing right now. I strongly urge every member of this organization to send an email to their supervisor and demand that they rescind this fee increase until the economy justifies it. Remind them that they are all elected by the people of this county, that they work for us and that they can be recalled by us. If there is not enough money coming in to completely fund each department, then three choices exist; reduce unnecessary spending elsewhere, reduce the size and function of that Department, or ask for a tax increase from the people and justify the request. The BOS and the government bureaucracy is side stepping asking for a tax increase that they know they would not get because it requires a 2/3 majority vote of the people. Raising user fees only requires a majority of their vote. It is time to rein in this board. Let them know we are not happy and that their political future hangs in the balance.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Nevada County Fire Plan
Is the Fire Plan about our safety, control of property rights or grant money? There is plenty of evidence to support your choice. The current draft is a 118-page document covering all of the above. Most of us here are aware of the fire danger we face each year. We live out in the “Wildland-Urban Interface” (woods) because we want to. Generally, we do the necessary maintenance to keep our property fire safe. We understand the fuel ladder concept and the term defensible space. All of us should do our best to keep our weeds down, our trees trimmed up, remove dangerous brush and interrupt the fuel ladder. Further, we need planned escape routes, acceptable shelters and numerous, available water sources. If the Fire Plan dealt with these issues alone, there would be far less concern on the part of the citizens and the Plan would not be 118 pages of bureaucratic shell games.
We are protected by 9 different Fire Districts, two City Fire Departments, Cal-Fire, United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (Sec.1-3 Fire Plan). In addition, we have a County Fire Marshal who has specific duties that include: enforce, inspect and review projects based on fire safety codes and regulations under county jurisdiction, ultimately reporting to the Board of Supervisors. Five other local fire districts also assume Fire Marshal duties and responsibilities based on their jurisdiction. Finally, the County Fire Chiefs association also reviews local, county and state Fire Safety Codes. To sum up, we have in place (LRA’s) Local Responsibility Areas, (SRA’s) State Responsibility Areas, and (FRA’s) Federal Responsibility Areas. All of these organizations have their own jurisdictions and many overlap, particularly in the areas of the Fire Marshal, Planning and Building Standards (Sec. 1-1).
The Fire Plan places responsibility for fuels issues with private property owners in the unincorporated area of the county. “All private and public land owners need to accept stewardship responsibilities, whether by regulatory process or not, to fully address the complex wildfire problem” (Summary-2). “Citizens are responsible for ensuring their family, personal needs and domestic animals are adequately prepared to evacuate or shelter safely and efficiently during an emergency” (Sec 1-9). “ The County of Nevada is not required by State or Federal regulations to provide fire protection services for the public and assumes no authority for providing this service” (Sec.1-3). All of this would appear to indicate that, should a fire start on your property and the county or local government blame it on you, they will. And yet the County bureaucracy wants to maintain control by asserting, “local and county governments assume responsibility to protect and assure safe development of private property in wildland areas”(Sec. 1-10), “local government has the responsibility and authority to ensure public safety and to provide the ordinances and policies to meet this requirement”(Sec.2-1). There is a management adage that says, “You cannot give someone the responsibility without the commensurate authority”. But the Fire Plan does just that. Appendix A of the plan defines the four vegetative type zones that we live in. Further, it gives us instructions of what to do in each type to make it fire safe. Appendices B and C require that none of this can be done with mechanical equipment and must be done by hand within 100 feet of a water course or riparian area. By hand currently means weed eaters, chainsaws and lawn mowers. It is clear that the terms mechanical equipment and by hand need to be more defined. There are also prohibitions based on soils, endangered species, archeology, nesting birds and aesthetics, etc. The problem is that, you, who are responsible for the steward ship of your land, can only do it in a manner that is almost impossible and always under the watchful eye of county government. So, is it for our safety? Partially yes, but mostly no. It is about the preservation of special interest areas at the expense of all else.
Is the Fire Plan about money? Definitely yes. Section 1-10, and 1-11 speak to Public Resources code 4290 that establishes minimum development standards in the unincorporated areas. PRC 4291 discusses defensible space. Section 4-1 directs our attention to the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 and many other plans. The DMA “stipulates that local governments must develop plans to address disasters…. in order to maintain Federal grant eligibility”, “Local governments must have a mitigation plan as a condition of disaster assistance.”(Sec. 4-2). “The importance of developing a Community Wildfire Protection Plan is to identify potential projects to minimize a potential wildfire disaster and show that communities are identifying federal hazardous areas in order to receive federal funding for these projects.” (Sec. 4-3).
It is clear to anyone who reads the current draft of the Fire Plan that County bureaucracy is directing its focus on establishing environmental controls on property owners of a type that were defeated several years ago. Secondly it is clear that this Plan’s main purpose is to establish the necessary credentials to secure the County’s place at the government feeding trough. Finally, the Fire Marshal’s office is building a fiefdom never intended, with control over building, development, house structure, planning, grading, landscaping and property stewardship. It concerns this writer that the County boldly states that it is not responsible for your fire protection and that you most definitely are. Yet, it also proclaims that it is responsible for public safety and is using this premise to force an additional plan upon us solely for the purpose of establishing eligibility for grant money. I would prefer that the county get into the fire business with a County Fire Department whose sole responsibility would be to extinguish fires.
The written comment period on the Plan ends February 5th and the presentation with a public comment period is February 12th. I urge everyone to get a copy of this plan and read it thoroughly so as to understand its positives and negatives. Furthermore, put Feb.12th on your calendar and plan to speak on the plan at the BOS meeting. You have 3 minutes. This Plan affects us all and needs our closest attention.
We are protected by 9 different Fire Districts, two City Fire Departments, Cal-Fire, United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (Sec.1-3 Fire Plan). In addition, we have a County Fire Marshal who has specific duties that include: enforce, inspect and review projects based on fire safety codes and regulations under county jurisdiction, ultimately reporting to the Board of Supervisors. Five other local fire districts also assume Fire Marshal duties and responsibilities based on their jurisdiction. Finally, the County Fire Chiefs association also reviews local, county and state Fire Safety Codes. To sum up, we have in place (LRA’s) Local Responsibility Areas, (SRA’s) State Responsibility Areas, and (FRA’s) Federal Responsibility Areas. All of these organizations have their own jurisdictions and many overlap, particularly in the areas of the Fire Marshal, Planning and Building Standards (Sec. 1-1).
The Fire Plan places responsibility for fuels issues with private property owners in the unincorporated area of the county. “All private and public land owners need to accept stewardship responsibilities, whether by regulatory process or not, to fully address the complex wildfire problem” (Summary-2). “Citizens are responsible for ensuring their family, personal needs and domestic animals are adequately prepared to evacuate or shelter safely and efficiently during an emergency” (Sec 1-9). “ The County of Nevada is not required by State or Federal regulations to provide fire protection services for the public and assumes no authority for providing this service” (Sec.1-3). All of this would appear to indicate that, should a fire start on your property and the county or local government blame it on you, they will. And yet the County bureaucracy wants to maintain control by asserting, “local and county governments assume responsibility to protect and assure safe development of private property in wildland areas”(Sec. 1-10), “local government has the responsibility and authority to ensure public safety and to provide the ordinances and policies to meet this requirement”(Sec.2-1). There is a management adage that says, “You cannot give someone the responsibility without the commensurate authority”. But the Fire Plan does just that. Appendix A of the plan defines the four vegetative type zones that we live in. Further, it gives us instructions of what to do in each type to make it fire safe. Appendices B and C require that none of this can be done with mechanical equipment and must be done by hand within 100 feet of a water course or riparian area. By hand currently means weed eaters, chainsaws and lawn mowers. It is clear that the terms mechanical equipment and by hand need to be more defined. There are also prohibitions based on soils, endangered species, archeology, nesting birds and aesthetics, etc. The problem is that, you, who are responsible for the steward ship of your land, can only do it in a manner that is almost impossible and always under the watchful eye of county government. So, is it for our safety? Partially yes, but mostly no. It is about the preservation of special interest areas at the expense of all else.
Is the Fire Plan about money? Definitely yes. Section 1-10, and 1-11 speak to Public Resources code 4290 that establishes minimum development standards in the unincorporated areas. PRC 4291 discusses defensible space. Section 4-1 directs our attention to the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 and many other plans. The DMA “stipulates that local governments must develop plans to address disasters…. in order to maintain Federal grant eligibility”, “Local governments must have a mitigation plan as a condition of disaster assistance.”(Sec. 4-2). “The importance of developing a Community Wildfire Protection Plan is to identify potential projects to minimize a potential wildfire disaster and show that communities are identifying federal hazardous areas in order to receive federal funding for these projects.” (Sec. 4-3).
It is clear to anyone who reads the current draft of the Fire Plan that County bureaucracy is directing its focus on establishing environmental controls on property owners of a type that were defeated several years ago. Secondly it is clear that this Plan’s main purpose is to establish the necessary credentials to secure the County’s place at the government feeding trough. Finally, the Fire Marshal’s office is building a fiefdom never intended, with control over building, development, house structure, planning, grading, landscaping and property stewardship. It concerns this writer that the County boldly states that it is not responsible for your fire protection and that you most definitely are. Yet, it also proclaims that it is responsible for public safety and is using this premise to force an additional plan upon us solely for the purpose of establishing eligibility for grant money. I would prefer that the county get into the fire business with a County Fire Department whose sole responsibility would be to extinguish fires.
The written comment period on the Plan ends February 5th and the presentation with a public comment period is February 12th. I urge everyone to get a copy of this plan and read it thoroughly so as to understand its positives and negatives. Furthermore, put Feb.12th on your calendar and plan to speak on the plan at the BOS meeting. You have 3 minutes. This Plan affects us all and needs our closest attention.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Running Scared and the War in Iraq
Do you ever ask yourself why we never hear in the local News media or any news media for that matter, what is going right in Iraq? You should. It is certainly not because things are going badly, they are not and have not. Our American troops have done a magnificent job of liberating that country as well as its neighbor Afghanistan. They have repaired and rebuilt almost the entire infrastructure and but for those who keep blowing it up, and others here in the United States who blatantly gives aid and comfort to the enemy, the job would be done. This has been done with a minimum loss of life on both sides. I understand of course that if you are a family who has lost a loved one in that conflict your loss is great and one too many. My heart goes out to those families, but anyone who has done any research on the subject knows that what I have said above is true. Furthermore, America is the most giving nation in the world and we have sacrificed more for world peace than any other nation, undisputedly.
Why then is it that the media in general give us nothing but doom and gloom? Is it because that is what we want? No, it is because that is what they, the media, want. There can be no logical reason to constantly give out exaggerated misinformation and refuse to print the truth other than pure determination to support an agenda that is contrary to the welfare of these United States. The truth is there for anyone to see, just not in the major media. But an even deeper truth exists that eventually we all will have to face and that is what did we do to overcome this media blitz designed to damage our country. Each and every one of us must find that piece of ground that we stand on and defend. There is a line in a country song that said, “you’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything”. In this case, probably a very big reality and a very important statement.
The facts about the war are real whether you like them or not. The necessity of our presence in the Middle East, long term, is a reality, whether you like it or not. If unchecked, the Islamic radicals, upon having their way, will give your children’s children three choices: convert, subjugate or die. No others will be offered, like it or not. The only safety valve for our future generations, the only check on the radical movement in Islam, the only way to assure that your grandchildren will not be ruled by Islamic law is you and me, right now, today. The only way for us to do that is to stand on a piece of ground and defend it. Let’s start with truth in the media. Let’s insist on both sides of the story. If the media is going to constantly publish stories about problems then let’s insist that they balance it with stories of success. Certainly the number of soldiers killed in action is newsworthy, but so are the schools opened, the water plants built and the businesses opened. Every soldier I talk to is proud to be a part of the effort and I might add often wonders if the media are reporting on the same war in which he or she is involved. Furthermore, they talk of winning, success and the positive attitude of the Iraqi people toward our troops and their mission. Meanwhile the news media reports that we are losing, the people don’t want us their and how things are going badly. Then they trot out some has-been General to verify their story, demean the troops he supposedly once led and vilify the character of his Commander in Chief. The bad news is that you and I are responsible. The government is us, you and me. We own it. The politicians work for you and me. If we choose to relinquish our authority, our elected representatives will run further amuck than they currently are. We also own the media, indirectly. We buy it, we read it, we advertise in it. Why do we do it?
I believe that regardless of which side of the political spectrum you are on, our issues are generally the same. Recent surveys [American Solutions.com] indicate that on a variety of issues 80+ percent of us agree. These surveys questioned Republicans, Democrats and independents on issues of the war, national security, privacy, education, environment, immigration and many others. The results verified the 80+ percent not only on identifying the issue, but also on the method of solution. Why then do Americans not get what they want? I believe that a few extremists on both sides have got us running scared for fear of being singled out by the thought police, the land use police, the cell phone police, the fast food police, the feel good police, the “don’t spank your kids” police and the "can’t we all just get along” police. Isn’t it time that we said no to the extremists and send them packing. This is our country and the majority of us agree on how we want it administrated. It is time to stand up, stop running and be counted
Why then is it that the media in general give us nothing but doom and gloom? Is it because that is what we want? No, it is because that is what they, the media, want. There can be no logical reason to constantly give out exaggerated misinformation and refuse to print the truth other than pure determination to support an agenda that is contrary to the welfare of these United States. The truth is there for anyone to see, just not in the major media. But an even deeper truth exists that eventually we all will have to face and that is what did we do to overcome this media blitz designed to damage our country. Each and every one of us must find that piece of ground that we stand on and defend. There is a line in a country song that said, “you’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything”. In this case, probably a very big reality and a very important statement.
The facts about the war are real whether you like them or not. The necessity of our presence in the Middle East, long term, is a reality, whether you like it or not. If unchecked, the Islamic radicals, upon having their way, will give your children’s children three choices: convert, subjugate or die. No others will be offered, like it or not. The only safety valve for our future generations, the only check on the radical movement in Islam, the only way to assure that your grandchildren will not be ruled by Islamic law is you and me, right now, today. The only way for us to do that is to stand on a piece of ground and defend it. Let’s start with truth in the media. Let’s insist on both sides of the story. If the media is going to constantly publish stories about problems then let’s insist that they balance it with stories of success. Certainly the number of soldiers killed in action is newsworthy, but so are the schools opened, the water plants built and the businesses opened. Every soldier I talk to is proud to be a part of the effort and I might add often wonders if the media are reporting on the same war in which he or she is involved. Furthermore, they talk of winning, success and the positive attitude of the Iraqi people toward our troops and their mission. Meanwhile the news media reports that we are losing, the people don’t want us their and how things are going badly. Then they trot out some has-been General to verify their story, demean the troops he supposedly once led and vilify the character of his Commander in Chief. The bad news is that you and I are responsible. The government is us, you and me. We own it. The politicians work for you and me. If we choose to relinquish our authority, our elected representatives will run further amuck than they currently are. We also own the media, indirectly. We buy it, we read it, we advertise in it. Why do we do it?
I believe that regardless of which side of the political spectrum you are on, our issues are generally the same. Recent surveys [American Solutions.com] indicate that on a variety of issues 80+ percent of us agree. These surveys questioned Republicans, Democrats and independents on issues of the war, national security, privacy, education, environment, immigration and many others. The results verified the 80+ percent not only on identifying the issue, but also on the method of solution. Why then do Americans not get what they want? I believe that a few extremists on both sides have got us running scared for fear of being singled out by the thought police, the land use police, the cell phone police, the fast food police, the feel good police, the “don’t spank your kids” police and the "can’t we all just get along” police. Isn’t it time that we said no to the extremists and send them packing. This is our country and the majority of us agree on how we want it administrated. It is time to stand up, stop running and be counted
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