When I first heard about NACO last spring, my first thought was, “what was the County thinking, wasn’t NACO some kind of camping association?” Not so, it was another way for one of the current County Supervisors to go on a tax payer funded luxury vacation in sunny Tampa, Florida. At the time, our free spending Del Norte County Board of Supervisors rationalized the expense as, wait for it, “another seat at the table” for our “poor benighted county” at the national level. How wonderful! Our county lobbyist isn’t enough?In any event, Supervisor “the Consolation Prize” Valerie Starkey was selected to attend the 2024 summer festivities with the almost expected results Returning from the four-day revelry to report to the board, the Consolation Prize embarked on a delightful word salad which quickly was filed in the ash can labeled “irrelevant,” never to be seen or heard from again. What an absolutely vital expenditure of tax dollars in a county which cannot pay its sheriff’s deputies a living wage.I seem to remember a situation several decades ago when I was tasked with attending a similar pointless conference in San Diego for the Del Norte Unified School District. The purpose at the time was to bring back information from a series of seminars to improve the reading skills of our local youth. A laudable, yet questionable task to be accomplished in a four-day conference. Reading skills, by the way, weren’t much better than what we are experiencing nearly thirty years later.#placement_573654_0_i{width:100%;max-width:550px;margin:0 auto;}var rnd = window.rnd || Math.floor(Math.random()*10e6);var pid573654 = window.pid573654 || rnd;var plc573654 = window.plc573654 || 0;var abkw = window.abkw || '';var absrc = 'https://ads.empowerlocal.co/adserve/;ID=181918;size=0x0;setID=573654;type=js;sw='+screen.width+';sh='+screen.height+';spr='+window.devicePixelRatio+';kw='+abkw+';pid='+pid573654+';place='+(plc573654++)+';rnd='+rnd+';click=CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER';var _absrc = absrc.split("type=js"); absrc = _absrc[0] + 'type=js;referrer=' + encodeURIComponent(document.location.href) + _absrc[1];document.write('');The conference turned out to be less than informative, but the other parent and I dutifully attended all the seminars possible during the four-day event. The two teachers and administrator in our group, veterans of previously attended conferences, elected to amuse themselves with the sunny delights of San Diego. One shopped, the other went to Mexico, and the administrator visited friends and relatives. What a surprise! Everyone was present and accounted for at the conference’s banquet on the final day. I understand if the amenities in the city of brotherly love do not suit the odd couple, Supervisors Einstein Howard and the Consolation Prize Valerie Starkey, who we are sending to this year’s 2025 conference, New York City is but a short distance away.Seriously, it takes two supervisors from our board to spend thousands of local tax dollars to accomplish nothing a video viewing can accomplish at significant savings? Yes, I know, it removes the “direct contact” aspect of an in person visit, so important to be recognized as an insignificant county in the backwoods of California amidst 3,005 other Counties all vying for the same moment in the spot light. Essential to shmooze with the heavy weights who won’t remember who you are the moment they turn their backs.What remains a mystery, is the complete and universal support for what will be a complete waste of tax payer dollars from the other members of the board of supervisors. Clearly Supervisors Wilson, Short, And Chair Borges are expecting to attend next year’s luxury event, Hawaii maybe? At this year’s extravaganza, the Consolation Prize is to cover “emergency services” and the social aspects of governance, while Einstein covers “land use” and reimbursement by the Federal government for lands within Del Norte County removed from our tax base. How wonderful! And what do the local citizens get? A tax bill! The tone deafness of our local board is exceptional, spending money on TWO seats at a table with 3,005 other tone-deaf attendees. Clearly, the giddiness of attending something national has our local board blind to the irrelevance of NACo to the local population in the first place and ignorant to the possibility the board’s decision for any members to attend is not the best of decisions. But what can we expect from our board of supervisors when the board can’t even address urgent matters within the county which directly impact the quality of life for its citizens?“Einstein and the Consolation Prize go to Philly” may sound like the title of a movie, but it is the reality of local governance! It is another clear example of our local Board of Supervisors which refuses to take care of the local population before the SUPERVISORS TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1515727'); });