Commentary and Opinion by Samuel Strait – February 25, 2024 – Cartoon credit to Behance.net You can only tell a child so often that when they play with a sharp stick, sooner or later, it will come back to poke you in the eye. This is something the current Crescent City Council has yet to learn. I don't often attend the local City Council meetings because the contradiction of statements clearly fail to be recognized by this bunch. Say one thing and do another, often to the detriment of both the city's residents and the County's as well. It has become difficult to warn this Council that they've made serious mistakes in judgement when they either haven't been listening, or think they know better. Thus it is hard to invest much time in stupid is as stupid does. The recent City Council meeting, February 20, 2024 is a case in point. This particular City Council for whatever reason, fails to understand the statement, when your local government exceeds the ability of those they serve to pay for that local government it is all down hill from there. Crescent City has long since exceeded the ability for the local population to pay for what this Council aspires to expend. One only has to look at the mounting acceptance by the City of grants totaling in the millions of dollars that are not funded by the local population. As a citizen of the County of Del Norte, my public comment led off the night's adventures, not only addressing this Council's failings, but pointing out that their issues also affect the entire County's population in a negative light. While it does not serve any purpose to wade through much of the City Council's treacherous path while reaching certain very poor decisions over the four hour meeting, a few should be recognized for the absurdities contained in the trail towards what future catastrophes lie in wait for the City and the County as well. Item #7, has created a public employee with an annual salary and benefits to the tune of nearly a quarter million dollars. Granted the City is on the hook for slightly less than half that amount, but I can hear the wheels turning for the next round of talks with various labor groups over what they expect in salary and benefit increases in the coming months. This move coupled already with the State's insanity of raising the minimum wage for some restaurant workers to $20 per hour beginning April 1, 2024 will not only make the City's negotiating position very weak, but will also affect those of the County when they begin negotiations. This Council seems oblivious to a few salient points prior to increasing a previously breath taking salary and benefits a few cents shy of $200,000 per year to near $240,000. Granted most employers would love to give significant raises to valued employees provided the employee added significant value to the company and it was recognized as such. That same employer does not often take into account what similar employees earn out of the area due to the fact that there are greater factors involved. Can that employer afford to pay his other employees more when considering the health of his business, remembering his business is located in the County and not in other nearby County's? Can an extravagant increase in salary of a single employee be justified within the confines of his market area? How will public perception of this increase by viewed by the greater public, remembering that they in this case pay the bill? Finally is this move absolutely essential to those it is meant to serve? I could certainly appreciate the fact that the Council was placed an awkward position by all the cheer leaders of the Chief that this was an essential move in order to retain what the fire department considers an imperative in their world, but the world in Del Norte County exceeds that of all the fire departments in the County. What is a fact, and one does not need to go beyond the borders of the County, is that the Chief's raise likely exceeds more than the entire income per year of more than 50% of the entire County's residents. That alone should have given pause for the Council's action. Nobody is saying that the current Chief is not a valued member of the community, it is just saying that the community really can't afford such extravagance, particularly when the chief has had the City hire three additional fire captains costing the community another substantial amount of coin which for years the previous chiefs did not have. While the decision as to how to proceed regarding Item #12 is somewhat interesting, there is a certain amount of hypocrisy in the Council's obsession with Front Street's completion, item #13, and the issue with Pebble Beach Drive's slippage into the Pacific Ocean. Both seem to occupy that significant dollar amount upon completion, none of which the City seems to have factored in when addressing which is actually the most important project the City is currently wrangling with. It brings to mind the question just how valuable to the City's residents, when many of the City's streets are poorly lit and in the condition that rivals that of a third world nation, are either project? Probably great for the tourists, maybe not so much for the City's residents. Seems like a few years back the City on bended knee promised to address such issues, if they could have a bit more money. By the time the Council addressed Item # 16, the Tri Agency's Joint Powers Agreement, it was clear that the Council barely recognized the conflict of their collective statements and the rational for their decision. In the first place the City has its own Economic Development segment making any involvement with the Tri Agency redundant and unnecessary. The Tri Agency has currently only offered one suggestion for economic development which recent history has rendered null and void of producing any economic benefits whatsoever. There is no money in the future pipe line for off shore wind power, because it has proven to be TOO EXPENSIVE! There are no jobs in the pipe line for off shore wind power no matter how much Prince Hendrick wishes it were so. There is no "science" according to Supervisor Short that needs to be accounted for as the problems with off shore wind are economic not scientific If all five members of the Crescent City Council publicly stated that they were not in favor of pursuing off shore wind power, why would they participate in a redundant agency whose sole reason for existence is to pursue that which they have no interest in pursuing? This is precisely what happened when the City addressed the choices for which version the JPA Agreement was to take. Maybe is was to move the meeting along so that they might take up nearly an hour to discuss that vital City issue of sign regulations within the City? What was most certainly a head scratcher was what justification either the County, the City, and or Harbor have for the need of a Tri Agency for economic development when they all have elements in their regular government hired for just such a purpose. Maybe the children inhabit other governing bodies and not just the City Council. When I say children playing at government, the above is but a few elements of this particular meeting. The City's choice of priorities leave much to be desired and with each meeting of this Council the problems facing the City's residents expands with nearly every decision. If they mean to be somewhat functional as a government it would behoove them to be at least consistent with their public statements and follow through with those statements. Saying one thing and doing another does not build trust with those you are supposed to be representing. The continued expense of Front Street and Beach Front Park, the Community Pool need to be reconciled with the deplorable state of the City's streets, the massive problem the City's sewer system and plant has become, and how can the City incorporate the County in decisions that potentially are negative impacts to the welfare of the County at large. We do all have to acknowledge that we can prosper or sink together. That shouldn't be too hard to figure out.