By Samuel Strait – Reporter at Large – August 10, 2022 The 4-0 Club seems to have become a regular "thing" for our Board of Supervisors, as Supervisor Short was basking in the glow of a "new" grandchild in Wyoming. Congratulations to him and his family, a truly worthy absence as the August 9th meeting of our august BOS was nothing to write home about. Not so much as a single dissent was to be had. The 4-0 Club was intact, that is when they could actually make a decision. Serve to say that this BOS meeting was a carbon copy of what passes for local government where dithering about inconsequential things was the norm. More new hires at the Department of Health and Human Services, four to be exact, and an expanding list of new contracts for DHHS on the consent agenda. One wonders what ever are the new hires to do if the local DHHS contracts out more often than the entire "federal bureaucracy"? Of course we were meant to notice that every time Supervisor Chris Howard spoke it was to include the phrase "short staffed". How in the world could County government ever have survived prior to all the "new" hires since the voters graced the County with a couple of million dollars from the SALES TAX INCREASE. It must have been a "true nightmare" for County Departments, but wait a minute, they seemed to be pretty good at "contracting it out". What ever it takes. Aside from a few budget transfers, one of truly a breathe taking amount, the County Treasurer's Quarterly Report was a real attention grabber. It seems that in 2020 Del Norte County had squirreled away nearly $50,000,000.00 in an investment account. Poor County indeed. It did not end there; however, as it now seems that that investment account has grown to nearly $100,000,000.00 as of June 30th of this year.. Not too shabby when our faithless leadership was spinning us with "tales of poverty". To think, this is a Board of Supervisor's that continue to cry "poor me" over the potential loss of $1,800,000.00 from Measure "T" in November. What was even more astonishing is the on going effort by this BOS to peddle the crushing need to continue with this public robbery of local citizens. Of course nothing like rubbing "salt in the public's wounds", when a "discussion of the "possibility" of money for road repairs was tabled. A scintillating discussion ensued regarding the munificent sum of $50,000.00 to be spent on road maintenance. How generous. Most folks remember that Measure "R" money was to be used for road maintenance and repair, instead of the surge in hiring for new employees and their wages and benefits. Something we were told by the County's former CEO and Supervisor Chris Howard that wages and benefits would not be among the expenditures from Measure"R". How soon Supervisor Howard forgets. It got better, as Supervisor Howard and Chair Hemmingen clearly were in opposition to expending money on "road repairs" without a "Formal Plan". Something County Roads may have difficulty formulating due to being, yes, you guess it, "short staffed". Course, there is always the old Chris Howard standby, "it would be too expensive!" Granted $50,000.00 isn't much, but $100,000,000.00, or a small part of that, would certainly make a far greater impression on road repair and maintenance than anything the has come out of Measure "R" funding. It was made crystal clear in that topic alone that those on the BOS, who plead extreme poverty, were not hearing the public. It has been eighteen months since Measure "R" income has begun trickling into the Del Norte County Treasury and no one seems to be able to point to ANY improvement in service for the Sheriff, County Fire Departments, or Emergency Services. There has been no significant County inspired movement on road repair or maintenance. In fact, there seems to be a certain level of resistance to even the smallest token of funding towards the roads in the County. There is ample evidence of what we were told would not happen. Measure "R" funding for wages and benefits. There is also ample evidence that the County's need for the paltry $1.8 million in sales tax revenue is at best questionable, and more inline with a County government that is growing far beyond the needs of its population and their abilities to pay for it Vote "YES" to repeal the sales tax increase in this County in November. Vote "YES" on Measures "U" and "T"!