Government Gone Wild!

Over the past couple of years of writing this column I have talked a lot about broken government, especially locally. The headlines over the past couple of weeks show that government as a whole has gone wild. It all seems to ask the very simple question: does anyone have any common sense?

Let’s start with the whole sequester issue. Since when is a decrease in the rate of an increase a cut? Even under the sequester budget the rate of government spending will still increase just at a rate of 2% less than before. I understand that with entitlement programs not included in these “cuts” the rest of government will take on a larger percentage, but really, what private sector manager cannot cut 2-4% out of an already bloated budget and not affect service levels?

So the FAA decides to turn a 4% cut into a 10% cut in tower personnel to maximize end user disruptions while not touching unspent budget monies. Of course, the majority of furloughs were to non-union sub-contractors and major market facilities. Fortunately, Congress (of all people) stepped in and mandated the FAA re-work their budget to minimize disruptions and spend other unspent funds. Why was that even necessary?

On a local level, all I have to say is MPUSD. Once again we enter the theatre of the absurd as we watch the MPUSD Board shoot itself in the foot, again. Let me remind them. You hired a PR firm to clean up your image then you go and try to hire a new Superintendent with an open sexual harassment claim against him. You had a search firm give you a list of 27 or 28 “qualified” names and this is who you picked and you were surprised at the community’s reaction?

It is not very often that I agree with the Monterey Herald’s editorials but they were right on this week. It’s time to restart the hiring process and include members of the community on the hiring committee. Once that is done the community will have an opportunity to get a broader group of Trustees on the Board in November (sooner in Marina as the Board needs replace a Trustee).

I think we all need to remember that you get the quality of government that you vote for, especially during school board elections. Only 20% or less of the community even bothers to pay attention and vote during most “off year” school elections. I urge you to really pay attention this coming election cycle and vote. Our children and our community deserve so much more.

More later