Commentary by Samuel Strait – July 27, 2022 On July 26th our local 4-0 club met for the second time in July. 5-0 you say, what's up with that? It seems that for what ever reason, as I missed the opening ceremonies, Supervisor Masten was not occupying her usual spot on the dais. Not to be dismayed: however, as her non attendance did not change much in terms of the over all value to the community as the Board stumbled and bumbled through yet another meeting with little of any value to the community. At the conclusion of the opening ceremonies there was the inevitable continuance of "new hires". At least the Sheriff was the star of that show with a couple of new victims to bolster his relatively depleted staff, not that this will make any earth shaking difference in service to the community, but at least it shows intent, a marvelous thing if it actually produces something positive. The reports by individual Supervisors came next, with its listing of all "events" and meetings attended by those present over the past two weeks. Again lots of words of admiration for the contents of those interchanges, yet a continued absence of any reference to content or what was so meritorious or beneficial to be found in the dozen or so meetings each of the four had attended. I suppose it is something like that old and familiar article of clothing with which one cloaks themselves to insure that feeling of "doing something" positive, or not, just to have something to say when your turn comes around. Perhaps a word of what exactly had been accomplished that is so utterly praise worthy just might creep into the description? I belabor the point. Moving on to the least discussed portion of the meeting, the "consent agenda", the product of the machinations of County staff over the past couple of weeks that generally should merit some discussion as to why each item is to be "rubber stamped" at the near commencement of each BOS meeting. Nothing to see here folks, as the "experts" have flexed their collective muscle to insure pesky little details like value and benefit are obscured in the smoke and mirrors of good "governance". As per usual there are a number of questionable items offered by Health and Human Services regarding services that are contracted out and agreements for services of unknown merit, closely followed by similar requests from Administration and Community Development. One often wonders if these departments are capable of handling anything in house any more. Public comments and scheduled items were up next, public comments were brief followed by a lengthy discussion of Del Norte Ambulance's effort to become exclusive provider of services to Del Norte County. This involved a complex set of circumstances and reactions that most certainly will involve the production of a separate article to follow shortly in the CCTimes. Stay tuned. Suffice it to say that when the dust settled our illustrious four failed to be decisive and went to the old standby of needing "more time" to clarify the issues to make them much more cumbersome, spend more time and money, request additional "statistics" to further cloud the issue, disregard recommendations, and generally confirm their inability to make governance anything but the epitomy of inefficiency. Following two reports about the Del Norte Ambulance, Measure "R" certification for the November Ballot was the remaining scheduled item which elicited a single comment from the County's employee Union in the form of the theatrics inevitably provided by Norma Williams, President of the Del Norte Employees Association. An article addressing President William's performance to follow in the pages of the CCTimes. Ms. Williams sermonizing was preceded by the aforementioned report by a Supervisor driven "Ad Hoc Committee" of Supervisors Starkey and Short. The final two items addressed were the tabling of a "road" improvement item. Like where did that come from? Opportunity missed for the Board to "honor" their stated purpose of the need for Measure "R" money. But hey, somehow we have almost gotten to expect that of the local governing Boards, say one thing and do another. Perhaps the Board members shouldn't be quite so surprised to be called out on their continued duplicity. Say what, Supervisor Howard? That's right adjournment, until next time for the 5-0 Club.