By Linda Sutter – February 28, 2017 – Tuesday, February 28th, Board of Supervisors meeting leadership skills were clearly lacking. Agenda Item 23 was to discuss sending a letter of opposition to the Governor regarding Senate Bill – SB 54. Obviously every Liberal in Del Norte County was able to attend this highly charged conversation because all the Republicans were at work. People actually got up and told stories of how children are having nightmares because they overhear their parents or the kids at school talking about how the police are going to come and raid their homes and get deported. Are you kidding me? Who tells children such hogwash. And then of course now the Social Services will need more money to send all those poor children to the psychologist, let's hope Dr. Tod Roy doesn't return. Then Sheriff Apperson and former Sherriff, Dean Wilson made it perfectly clear that if this opposition is not successful our county safety will be at stake. “The people voted on nonviolent crimes which I consider egregious,” said Apperson. Human Trafficking would be considered a nonviolent crime. In fact here are a list of nonviolent crimes: Assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer Battery with serious bodily injury Solicitation to commit murder Inflicting Corporal injury on a child First degree Burglary Raping an unconscious person Human trafficking involving a minor Participation in a street gang Exploding a destructive device with the intent to cause injury (bombs) Sheriff Apperson stated that no one has been turned into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from Del Norte County in several years. In fact, the only way a person would be reported to ICE is if that person was arrested for a crime and the County would notice ICE before releasing this person back into the public. ICE ultimately makes the determination on whether or not they decide to pick up the individual and deport them. Supervisor Gitlin during the board’s discussion made a very good point. We took oaths to uphold the United States Constitution which involves the Federal Government laws. Federal laws supersedes state laws and based on that we need to send our letter of opposition. However, when it was taken to a vote. Chris Howard demonstrated his lack of leadership quality as did Lori Cowan and Gerry Hemmingson . Chris Howard voted NO, Lori Cowan voted NO and Gerry Hemmingson abstained from voting. Our county is in crisis. Lori Cowan asked County Counsel, Elizabeth Cable, what her thoughts of SB54 were to which Elizabeth Cable stated, “ I didn’t conduct an analysis.” By indecision of our county leaders, Federal funding for our local law enforcement to effectively do their job would be affected. Hence, big trouble here in little China. So, now fine people of Del Norte County, if the Republicans want their voice to be heard, they will need to take a day off from work to show support to our law enforcement and encourage a NO vote on SB 54.