Opinion by Samuel Strait – April 12, 2022 One would think that local government was on its last financial legs to hear Operations Lieutenant Daniel Schneck outline the "issues" that are plaguing the local Sheriff's Department. This is a department that can't seem to replace staff that has been allocated to them and budgeted for them. When you stop comparing local government salaries to every other department in the State and look at their compensation compared to others that work within the County, it is hard to understand just how deprived they actually are. A clerk in a local grocery store takes home less than a quarter of the lowest paid full time officer at the Sheriff's department and still manages to pay the bills. If working as a deputy in Del Norte County has become such a burden and solely about the size of the paycheck maybe the Sheriff's Deputies shouldn't have become an officer of the law, sworn to protect and serve. If, because the City has opened their wallet, or Humboldt County has done the same, maybe the local Sheriff's Office is better off without those that only see dollar signs. The voters that passed Measure "R" were promised by several people in government at the time that the funding from the measure would not go to hire more staff and pay their wages and benefits. Nor was it to allow the County to start giving raises to everyone that works for the County. It always seems to come down to this age old problem of the benefit to the community only comes with the continued government hand in your pocket. The results are always the same, promise to do one thing while planning on doing what they said they wouldn't. There should be NO sympathy for the local Sheriff's Department, as they must positively be swimming with excess cash due to their inability to fill vacant and budgeted positions. Additionally, something other than money is plaguing that department that needs to be addressed before worrying about salaries and benefits. First and foremost, there should be NO discussion about how to spend Measure"R" money until all the employees are paid out of the County General Fund. The same goes for any other salary given to a County employee with the sales tax revenue from Measure "R". Then, and only then, will the nature of the sales tax revenue funding become clear when it comes to paying for what was promised. Promises kept….. We, at least those of us that are paying attention, have heard the lament from all the usual suspects about the catastrophe that will occur should Measure "R" be repealed in the Fall, and are likely to hear it non-stop until November. Yet, we hear not a single syllable from anyone in local government about reducing costs, and reigning in expenses. Not a word about bringing salaries in local government more in line with prevailing wages that hard working private citizens are forced to exist on. All we hear is the perpetual whine from local government that they can't pay their employees enough. How sad…. Local people are tired of the constant nagging from County Officials that they don't have enough of that which rests in local pockets. They are tired of the huge burden that County Government has become. Inflation has eaten away at what little they make, when government has generously allowed them to make it. Yet government has received thousands of federal and state dollars to make them pandemic whole. Millions of dollars in new grant funding, yet the County's General Fund and its leadership can't pay the bills out of that? We have heard the lament for far too long. The whining and supplication should no longer be heard by local citizens until County Government gets serious about cutting the "fat from the bone". It has become almost an insult to hear local Bureaucrats moaning about improvements to the Veterans Hall all the while "fattening" County employees pay checks. Similarly it is the height of hypocrisy for County Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Neal Lopez to complain about loosing positions created with the use of Measure "R" funding when it never should have happened in the first place…. No one should have any pity for those that get caught saying one thing and doing the opposite. Shame on Del Norte County Government…… Today we will hear a fresh tale of woe when CAO Lopez reports to the Board Of Supervisors the ruination and misfortune to County financial bliss should Measure "R" be repealed in November. I am sure it will live up to the level of "cataclysm of the ages", insurmountable by local government. What can the local population possibly be thinking. Loss of service, lay offs, program budget decreases, horror of horrors for any government. How can the people take our slush fund away? Stay tuned for another lament during the regular Board of Supervisors meeting, today, Tuesday, April 12th.