Commentary and Opinion by Samuel Strait – January 12, 2024
Aside from the normal opening, there is a new chair in town. The Board
of Supervisor’s held their annual “musical chairs ” rotation, not that
it changed much. Supervisor Wilson is now the “chair” and Supervisor
Borges is his wing man. While the transition was without much
controversy, it did give a bit of illumination from Sir Wilson’s
monologue about what is to come. Not much. More new employees for the
County that already has a few too many. More titles to accompany those
that were introduced. Quite the unending parade. With a substantial
vacancy rate, one wonders if the missing employees are all that
important to the County’s population? Yes, mandates of course. Seems
like an interesting question to the Board would be, “How much does each
program cost”? and “How many of the local population does each one serve”.
Moving on with the usual cant by Supervisor Starkey, mountain bike
trails, Climate Change after all, health care to jail inmates, the
Sister City festival, and the Tri Agency circus. What a lovely
collection of insignificant issues that provide little or no benefit to
most of the community. Supervisor Howard was next with an equally
vapid account of his adventures in shoring up his desperate need to be
seen as important. Finally, well you get the picture,
Fortunately we will be able to wrap up this meeting’s homage to the
County’s Bureaucracy with a nod to the twenty item Consent Agenda filled
with questionable items that appear so uninteresting to the Board that
no items were pulled for discussion, and little interest by the Board
but to pass the laundry list 5-0. What started out as a relatively
‘plain jane meeting” spun wildly out of control when Logan Halliwell
(he and his wife owned Sally’s By The Sea)
appeared before the Board claiming malfeasance by Supervisors Starkey,
Short and Wilson over the developments surrounding the December 12th’s
BOS where supervisors voted 4-1 to award Mission Possible $10.8
million for the Emergency Homeless shelter, the pallet house village for
the homeless somewhere on Williams Drive, and related services and
staff. Seems that there is a bit of an odor surrounding the events
leading up to the vote, then a demand for an investigation into said event.
Other than a report by a representative from CSAC that was about grant
funding, a letter of appreciation and a dip into Planning, the Board
concluded this event with a $420,000 budget transfer to Emergency
services. Woops! not quite. An emergency item in the form of another
letter in support of yet more funding to construct “fire breaks” in the
County. All action items passed 5-0. Literally, nothing that the Board
accomplished had any meaningful effect on the welfare of the majority of
the Community and everything to do with the comfort of those employees
that work for the County. So much for “strategic planning”.
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