By Samuel Strait – Reporter at Large – March 12, 2022 Most in the County will have heard that a Measure"R" repeal is to appear on the ballot for the voter's to have a chance to assess whether the County's government has wisely used the additional funding provided by the Measure. If you are employed by the County it is very possible you have been inundated with information by your supervisor, your union rep, and the County's bureaucracy of the complete disaster to your world should the County loose the Measure "R" money. You have been likely regaled with job loss, reduced salary, and days of increased work load. It certainly appears to be a quandary that between now and the actual vote those employees will have to wrestle with before making a decision. Many likely believing the County government's story will have already made up their minds to vote in the negative choosing to retain Measure "R" without ever bothering to address the negative impact that Measure "R" has already had on your lives and will continue to do so until it goes away. Negative impact you say? How could job loss and reduction in pay be any worse if the measure is repealed? Because you work for the County does not exempt you from having to pay the additional 1% sales tax you will face in your daily life. Inflation is here to stay for the foreseeable future and with rising prices mean higher sales tax collections. All out of your pockets. No way to avoid this without repealing the increased sales tax. That increase in salary recently approved by the Board of Supervisors gone to that 1% tax alone. The only way to save that salary increase is to repeal Measure "R". So how exactly does that happen? "I may loose my job, or have to take a pay cut". "I may have more responsibility heaped on my shoulders due to staff shortage". All not true, pure fiction by your union, the Board of Supervisors, and your senior bureaucrats. As to pay cuts, not possible!!! You have already gotten them in an MOU. No way for the County to back away from that agreement. Loose my job. Again not possible!!! Many County departments have budgeted positions that they cannot fill. The cost saving alone will maintain current funding for existing payroll. Many of the new positions that have been advertised using Measure "R" will be very difficult to fill, both from the stand point that the County Supervisors and the Union president have said even with the increases in salary the County "still is not competitive, just closer to being competitive". Filling the Measure "R" positions in lieu of filling current vacancies in the Sheriff's Department is just plain wrong. The County will continue to have a significant number of vacancies with or without the Measure "R" funding. The money was never meant to become a slush fund for the Board of Supervisors to expand the definition of what was permissible to spend the money on and what not to spend the money on. Something that they have already become quite polished at doing. Additional hires at Animal Control, a code enforcement officer, an addition to emergency services, and a grant writer are all questionable additions to be paid for by Measure "R". Measure "R" was passed with the promise that "NO MONEY WOULD BE SPENT ON SALARIES AND BENEFITS". Something the Board of Supervisors promised and is spending nearly $750,000, or half of the revenue on NEW SALARIES AND BENEFITS. It is not that the proponents of the repeal wish to harm the County's ability to preform services to County residents, it is just that this IS NOT THE WAY TO GO ABOUT IT. There are more deeply rooted problems with County Government that this will not fix. Your employer the County of Del Norte is saying you as employees are not up to the task at hand and require more employees to measure up…. The bottom line is that the County's employees will not face job loss or pay cuts should the Measure "R" money be repealed. There will likely be no loss of service that has not already taken place. Most County residents don't need more government employees to trip over, all they want is quality service, something our overlords are saying you, the current employees, do not provide. That is simply not true… If the County would fill vacant positions there is no reason to hire additional faces to occupy spaces in the departments of the County. And finally, the best part for last. County employees by voting to repeal the 1% sales tax increase will actually benefit by having more of their hard won pay raise in their pockets to spend on what they want to spend it on…….