Explain unnecessary expenditure
The Jan. 11 Columbian story reported “Council reverses course, will pay for insurance.” Councilman Jack Burkman’s observation “lead by example” certainly expresses the feeling of most voters.
Savings, even in pennies, turns into dollars, which is not an old-fashioned thought.
It seems that most politicians — state, local and federal — feel they should not take a step back monetarily in the same way they ask the people to do.
As the years pass and through unwise spending, the politicians are turning our dollars into pennies.
In this severe downturn in our economy, the politicians are searching for every dollar they can get, so how does the city council justify the hiring of a communications expert at $100,000 per year?
The mayor and city management and council members are responsible for their actions and should speak for themselves directly to the people of Clark County. We have seen that our politicians — local, state, and federal — are very adept at being spin doctors, which makes the $100,000 expenditure for a communications expert unnecessary.
Wilfred J. Hudson
Vancouver
No community in this college
The Clark College Board of Trustees in its public meetings some time ago made the decision not to record any public comments.
This year, the board issued a disclaimer that states not only will public comments made at board meetings not be recorded, but the board will not respond to those comments from community members.
In August, the board then decided to exclude from their monthly report the activity reports of the student union, the faculty union of which I am president, classified union and Clark College Foundation.
Reports are submitted only to the five board members, presumably to be round-filed later.
At this time, the public is not privy to any of the activities of these groups on behalf of the institution, nor is there a permanent record of these reports. There is no recording of any public comments at board meeting nor does the board feel obliged to respond to public inquiry.
At a time in which our public institutions should be responsive and accountable to the community, the Clark College Board of Trustees appears to forget they represent a community college.
Marcia Roi
Vancouver
BPA must avoid populated areas
Regarding the Bonneville Power Administration’s proposed 500-kilovolt transmission line, the existing right-of-way won’t work.
We can’t afford to risk losing all our electrical power in the event of a terrorist attack or natural disaster on a single transmission line.
We can’t afford the health risks associated with close proximity to 500 kilovolts.
We can’t afford the loss in property values from having 150-foot metal monsters in our neighborhoods.
The people of Clark County have made their case, and clearly BPA must do the right thing and go away from the populated areas and build a separate new electrical transmission line.
Bill Nelson
Vancouver
Why oppose a job-creating project?
Wouldn’t it be nice to find people to run for elected office who would actually help business grow and expand?
We are in the worst economic situation I have seen in my lifetime. Clark County has 13 percent unemployment and our county commissioners are filing an appeal to stop the Cowlitz Tribe from moving ahead on its casino, one of the largest job-creating developments Clark County has seen in a long time. This is a perfect example of how city, county, state and federal governments suppress private enterprise.
The Jan. 15 Columbian front-page story reported “PeaceHealth: 700 jobs in 10 years.” The Cowlitz casino is estimated to bring 4,000 jobs during construction and 3,150 jobs at completion.
This project would bring added revenue to help with Clark County’s budget problems.
Tom Effinger
Ridgefield
Consider the gains under Obama
In his Jan. 7 letter in The Columbian, “Tough task recovering from Obama,” Frank Krbec hoped that in 2011, conservatives will try to show those with “poor educations” (liberals? Democrats? moderates?) what happened in the past two years” as the deficit increased under President Obama.
I’d like to ask Krbec: Can he remember what happened under a conservative George W. Bush-Dick Cheney administration that had a cooperative, conservative-controlled Republican Congress for the first six years of their administration?
During those halcyon conservative days of tax cuts for the wealthy and less regulation of our largest financial institutions, the deficit tripled and our economy nearly collapsed.
President Obama got to inherit all of this mess, which was the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression.
Remember how at the end of the conservative Bush administration you were afraid to check the value of your 401(k)? From September to December in 2008, mine lost half its value.
Since Obama has been president, my 401(k) is back to where it was before the economic collapse.
That’s a 100 percent recovery/gain in the two years that Obama has been president.
Krbec might want to go back to having conservatives run the country. I can’t afford it.
I’ll keep Obama.
Alan Rossi
Vancouver
Elected officials can solve problems
I personally want to thank state Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, and his office staff as well as U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wa., and her office staff for a job well done in helping me acquire much needed life- saving medication through the Medicaid program that was going to be crushed.
A response like this should let people know that we do have legislators who sincerely care and realize that they need to do the humane thing in this area, even if it means going against the governor’s recent proposed cuts.
It only goes to show that if people would write to their elected officials about issues that are important to them, they often can and will get as quick a response as possible. I urge all of you to do that.
