Commentary and Opinion By Samuel Strait – June 23, 2023 I apologize for the lengthy delay in reporting on last Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, as, while I was out of town and had to view the proceedings on video, it some how has become a continuous and steady spectacle of gross mismanagement and indifference to the public in order to facilitate the comfort of Del Norte County's over paid and under preforming bureaucracy. It is almost as if everyone except those that work for the County, or those that benefit from their connections with County government are the sole concern of the five current members of the BOS. One would expect some sort of occasional dissent from the two newest members, but they have quickly fallen into a pattern of nearly always agreeing with anything that comes before them. 5-0 continues to be the norm with few signs that growing and irrelevant government is not a standard that is met at every meeting. There appears to be no attempt to determine whether any thing local government does even works or has some value to the people that it is meant to serve. It continues to be round after round of back slapping congratulatory praise heaped on the County's malefactors in its various departments that are void of satisfactory performance. It quite frankly has become a circus of under preforming County departments that constantly squawk about "needing more people and money", yet continue to fail to produce. The Board continues to reward such behavior with raises without merit. Then when the funding balance is precariously nearing zero, there is no sense that reducing salaries or cutting under performing departments and programs is even a consideration. No, the first thought by the BOS is increase sales tax, more money from property owners, and gouging the visitors that come to town. It has become embarrassing to report every two weeks about how worthless our local governments have become. They no longer serve the best interests of our community, but lavish what few resources we have on a bloated bureaucracy that is there to serve themselves and those that feed at the same trough. Public comment, after public comment goes without any semblance of recognizing that the fundamental problems that have plagued this County for decades, continue to be problems. All the "lip stick" on the pig doesn't change what continues to be the problems that the County faces without solution. Quite frankly, our local government has become our biggest challenge to righting the ship. Government has become the problem! Services that are contracted for years without evidence of any worth while service performed, yet are contracts routinely renewed without so much as a question of value to the County's citizens. New employees and regular increases in compensation without regard for value for the community. Problems to be addressed by County departments that never seem to be solved until it is time to ask the over burdened people for more money out of already stretched thin budgets. Fantasies that vast sums are expended which have little value to but a few and those that already have become fat feeding at the "public trough". This is not the kind of Country that we were promised in 1781 where its citizens were meant to have the freedom from a nanny state government that allowed INDIVIDUALS to have the opportunity to be successful. This is precisely why local government has failed consistently for years to allow that to occur. Twice a month the BOS meetings have become our version of what government was NEVER meant to become in this County or any where else in the United States of America. This BOS needs to wake up and find the courage to do something positive about the continual disaster.