Commentary by Samuel Strait – March 2, 2023 Another Board of Supervisor's meeting in Del Norte County and nothing really changes. Board Chair Darren Short must have not ingested his "stupid pills" prior to this meeting and managed to successfully navigate the two hour session with only a few minor insertions of foot in mouth. Otherwise aside from his inability to speak into his microphone, the "opening ceremonies" went off without a hitch. Only five new employees this time around, three being introduced, a further two not so lucky. Aside from one at maintenance, the remainder were of course being employed in the bloated Health and Human Services Department. One other notable change, no Board Member Reports, with the exception of Supervisor Valerie Starkey's desperate need to tell us about her week long trip to Washington DC to enter into rather pointless discussions about government efforts to combat drug abuse. Note to Supervisor Starkey, drug use is an age old problem that isn't going to change, just "because we must be seen doing something about it", otherwise the problem would have been solved centuries ago. Yes, that long. The "Consent Agenda" laughably discussed three items, not really, but it was nice to see some effort by some members of the Board to be taking the bureaucratic sponsorship of the County's government a bit more seriously. Still 5-0 on all items. Nothing really changes. Two of the items discussed were of taxpayers programs few people in the County will either ever need, or were programs that primarily foster endless dependency, something government is quite good at, inspite its detrimental effects. But hey, according to the County's Union President, Norma Williams, the personnel at Public Health did an "excellent job" during the three year course of the pandemic mandating the State's failed policies of masking, social distancing, lockdowns, and vaccinations. Didn't seem to trouble her much when passing out the local kudos, that the policies handed down by the CDC and California's Public Health have since been deemed completely ineffective. Nor does she appear to be aware of the fact that lack of local "spine" by Public Health staff did more to set back education, business, and the over all economy that any natural disaster ever could. Congratulations to Norma William's for spinning the debacle that is represented by the local Public Health Department. All this to learn that the local health emergency initiated March 2020 was now at an end. So much for a 60 day mandated limit. Moving on to scheduled items with public comment, such as it was. Mr. Branden Bieber initiated the session with what has become a regular feature of Board meetings, pointing out the Board's largely ineffectiveness as a governing body and various specific examples of their failures. This was followed by the "Great Vacation Rental Crisis on South Bank Road". Looks like the 120 some odd vacation rentals are only managing to raise the ire of a couple of home owners in the entire County, so the obvious solution is an Ad Hoc Committee to "study" the problem and no doubt come up with a Valerie Starkey "government solution". Of course one would hesitate to suggest that those who have issues with vacation rentals on South Bank Road might have issues with any sort of neighbor that did not strictly adhere to their specific definition of what a "good neighbor" was determined to be. Seems like there is some kind of ancient lore that says, " you can't always pick your neighbors, you just have to try to get along with them, otherwise it will most certainly be a long winter." Enough said, and moving on to the next victim of the County government's ability to try to fund non-profits which pay no taxes, over assisting businesses most affected by our recent three year venture into authoritarianism. Goodness gracious, can't risk not having plenty of money for non-profits to spend after three years of lavish funding by Federal and State governments. Whatever would we do not properly funding the useless meddling of True North and a few other non-profits in the County. Next up, a rather useless presentation by the Director, Ryan Cooley, of the Border Coast Regional Airport Authority (BCRAA) of the dire condition of the local airport's runways. Of course it did not address the most obvious problem with the whole disaster that is the current airport. Save that for its own article to follow shortly in the pages of the CCTimes. Aside from a couple of General Government items, largely indecipherable for most, and likely for those on the Board as well, governing appears to be in short supply. A sure fired opportunity for another unenforceable smoking ordinance, to cover the County's proverbial tush. Just who will be enforcing this, Animal Control anyone? Couple of Budget transfers, another $41,100 for services likely few will find essential to their well being, but hey, its only money. And following up to the rear, Legislative and Budget issues, a full slate. Three letters of support for various actions at the State level. Must stand up and be counted, that is unless it really matters. Some State level hocus pocus about the GANN limit and the approval of the much bally hoed legislative platform. Done in under two hours, whew. On to the BCRAA follies.