How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
Letters
- Details
- Written by: Denise Rushing
(1) Members of the Board of Supervisors are not decision makers in state or federal redistricting, the redistricting commission is the sole decision-making body (as per the voters' wishes).
(2) No one on the redistricting commission is from Lake County and it may be possible that no one on that commission has even been to Lake County.
(3) I testified as both a citizen and as a county official. I was the only citizen from Lake County to testify at the first two hearings on this topic. In subsequent hearings, I was joined by our county administrator and two other citizens from Lake County.
(4) My total allowed “testimony” time was three minutes at the first hearing, two minutes at the second and 90 seconds at the third and subsequent hearings. Others provided an additional 90 seconds and 60 seconds at the last two hearings.
(5) We testified on congressional districts, not those at the state level.
(6) The commission's initial proposed congressional maps had us affiliated with counties to the east and most federal issues do not have us affiliated with those counties
(7) I brought this item to the Board of Supervisors and asked for their opinion prior to my testimony. The board asked me to represent their views in addition to my own.
(8) my initial testimony was simple: We are an isolated county with great distances to reach neighboring areas. At minimum, please keep lake county intact and affiliate us with those with whom we have common issues at the federal level (namely Napa, Sonoma and Yolo and – my personal view – Mendocino).
(9) After my initial testimony, the commission produced a draft federal congressional district map that grouped Lake County with Colusa, Glenn, Yuba, Sutter, and parts of Sacramento and Yolo.
(10) The committee asked Lake County officials for information to help with their decision, specifically – if they needed to “split” our county, what factors should be considered.
(11) When we were asked about a split district my testimony was this: Our board expressed the view that we prefer to remain intact. We also prefer to remain affiliated with the county with whom our workforce investment area is now aligned after many years of effort in doing so (Napa). It is painful to have to choose between these, but If you must split us to accomplish a better affiliation, please do so in a demographically fair manner.
As for my my personal view, I offer this:
While it may be convenient to believe that I have great influence over the citizen redistricting process, all evidence would suggest otherwise. My opinion probably has equal weight to anyone else who testified.
Further, I, like any citizen of Lake County, am free to testify at the commission and weigh in on their decision and I was glad that the Board of Supervisors asked me to also represent their views on this important topic.
Initially, no one else from Lake County showed up at these hearings and expressed any views at all. I doubt if others from Lake County would have been paying attention to this had I not brought it to the attention of the Board of Supervisors and my hope is that, in learning of this issue, other citizens of Lake County have taken the time to express their own views.
As in all things, the earlier in the process an opinion is expressed, the more weight it is likely to have.
The bottom line: This commission will be making their own decision very soon. Hopefully it will be one that serves the best interests of all of the citizens of Lake County.
That's my two cents
Denise Rushing represents District 3 – which includes the Northshore communities of Upper Lake, Nice, Lucerne, Glenhaven, Clearlake Oaks and Spring Valley – on the Lake County Board of Supervisors. She lives in Upper Lake, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Jim Steele
The Dreissenid mussels’ quagga and zebra now contaminate Southern California waters and bordering states.
These invasive species multiply at tremendous rates, clog water supply lines, change lake ecology and increase occurrence of blue-green algae affecting taste and health. So far, there is no known eradication method so treatment costs are ongoing.
There are probably few if any cavalry left bringing grants and no new taxes is a common mantra, but this problem is still here to meet.
These mussels are primarily passengers on pleasure boats and once infected, the host waters will contaminate downstream users throughout the system.
Part of the problem in controlling boater use of our lake is that any discouragement to Lake County visitors could also dramatically affect the local economy.
In order to provide protection from invasive species and maintain a welcome mat for visitors the county has developed an inspection program consistent with state law.
The present inspection program is partly funded by boater fees paid at boat screening locations in local businesses. Additional boater fees are paid to qualified inspectors for high risk boats.
Volunteer monitors at docks and launch ramps look for inspection stickers indicating compliance with the program.
Decontamination of problem boats is volunteer or catch-can by county staff. It is generally accepted that the program should be upgraded consistent with the high stakes and high risk.
Funding to improve the program is not available as all county budgets are in a reduced resource position and out of county funds are about as non-existent as it can get.
The beneficial uses of the lake are enjoyed by both visitors and residents. But the potential losses to resident users are permanent and extreme while visitors can avoid the trip. The introduction of mussels can dramatically change property values, resort business and water consumption costs.
It is important to review how we distribute the cost of protecting the lake while protecting the visitor base. Because one boat is all it takes and what we have is not working as well as it should.
Maybe it’s time for water districts, property owners, and resorts to take ownership and share in the protection costs with the county and visiting boaters.
Just a thought to consider before it’s too late and we get that one boat.
Jim Steele lives in Clearlake Oaks, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Lake County News Reports
According to the arrangement now being proposed, not only would Mike Thompson cease to represent us, we would be completely detached from our true geographic, economic and social "community of interest," (North Coast/wine country/northern Coastal Range) and tacked onto the southern Sacramento Valley as a glaringly discongruent appendage.
We are anything but a natural fit in the region to which the commission proposes to include us.
True, Lake County and the Central Valley are both farming communities, but we produce specialty crops, not mass-market agribusiness commodities. The future prosperity of agriculture here depends on diversification, expansion of markets and innovative value-added production: entirely different from the operative constraints in Colusa, Glenn and the rest of the rural Sacramento Valley.
Our growing identity as a premium wine-growing region is particularly important, making a connection to Napa County appropriate at the very least, and also favoring association with Mendocino and Sonoma Counties to the extent that population numbers make that possible.
The future of Lake County also requires the creative embellishment of our attraction for visitors. Preservation of the natural beauty of the area, and maintenance of the health of our air and waters is essential to our economic as well as our physical well-being and prosperity. The economic components of these considerations are of comparatively minor importance in the region to the east.
Furthermore the redistricting separates Lake County from both of the urban centers (Santa Rosa and Ukiah) where most of our residents seek out goods and services that are not locally available.
Redistricting along these lines would be particularly calamitous because as a small rural community Lake County's voice will always be comparatively feeble in any larger legislative district.
Up to now we have been fortunate in this respect, not only by the happy accident of having elected leaders who are responsive to our needs, but – much more important in the long run – because those needs have substantially coincided to a high degree with those of the larger legislative district.
Drawing the lines according to the arrangement now proposed would completely abolish the congruence that is such a necessary component of true representation for our community.
The defects of the proposed Congressional redistricting also apply, to a diminished degree, to the proposed state senatorial district, which does at least have the virtue of keeping us connected to Napa County. Our proposed Assembly district is far less objectionable.
Lake County has to speak up before it's too late. The commission is still accepting comments and they need to hear from us. Their original recommendations were far preferable to the current revisions, and we should strenuously recommend that they return to them. Comments are accepted by mail, email and telephone: the easiest way to find out about the various submission methods is to visit http://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/contact.html.
Victoria Brandon lives in Lower Lake, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Nelson Strasser
People usually give a lot of love to their children and grandchildren. They often make great sacrifices. But, the one love that trumps parental love is the love of the internal combustion engine.
We won’t even sacrifice power and size and drive small cars. In fact, we won’t even find a new way to get thrills: I read a while ago that there was going to be tractor races at the local track!
People, who love their progeny, are willing to put them at risk. How can that be?
I believe there are at least three reasons that people ignore global warming: lack of leadership, corporate power and the psychological defense mechanism called “denial.”
Congress, in the late 1970s, set the standard to 27 miles per gallon. In the early 1981 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) advanced standards of 48 miles per gallon. The auto industry claimed it could get at least 30 miles per gallon by 1985.
We could have been reducing fuel consumption while searching for a viable alternative.
However, when President Reagan took power, he withdrew the NHTSA “notice” and set the standard at 26 miles per gallon. Sometimes we need help and direction from leadership but, it was not, and has not, come to be.
Secondly, corporate money finances advertising campaigns to plant confusion about global climate change when in reality there is scientific consensus. As one advertising executive put it: “Our product is ‘doubt’.”
These campaigns have had an effect. In fact, there was a letter in the Record-Bee alluding to snowfall and satirizing global warming and Al Gore. However, global warming can actually cause an increase in snowfall! (This is due to a complicated phenomenon that is related to the oceans warming.)
The third explanation of why we, like Nero, “fiddle while Rome burns,” is the issue of denial.
Remember the old quip, “denial is not a river in Egypt”? We hug our kids “goodbye” and hop into our SUVs and go to work, managing to avoid the unpleasant thought that we are living a lie. (And, by the way, if not for oil, would we be at war, trading blood for oil?)
So, let us face reality and do what we can to save our planet: drive high mileage cars, ride bicycles or walk whenever possible, and demand that our government invest in alternative energy instead of weaponry.
Nelson Strasser lives in Kelseyville, Calif.