WEEK OF 9/11/12 MEETINGS IN REVIEW

TOM'S TALES FOR THE WEEK

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Tom Davis Mason County Progressive

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

9:00 AM: Regular session of Board of County Commissioners (BOCC)

Commissioner Ring-Erickson called for a moment of silence in memory of the people who died in the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, now simply called 9/11.

My wife Amy and I happened to be in New York at that time, though far from “ground zero". It was days before the public was allowed near the site, and by “near” I mean about a half mile away. The streets were barricaded and you had to show identification just to be in the area. We never did see anything but a patch of blue sky where the buildings once stood, but it was enough to drive the event home.

Now, in the awkward silence of the Commission Chambers, I recalled taking some photographs of the original excavation work, done back in the late 1960’s. A construction crane sat at the bottom of a pit -- a cavern, actually -- so deep that the boom on the crane barely reached up to street grade. I took a shot of a worker as he hitched a ride to the surface on the crane’s construction hook. As he passed by what was obviously a small group of tourists gathered on the sidewalk, the worker bowed, tipped his hardhat and clowned for the appreciative audience. It was a quintessential New York moment.

I hadn’t thought about that scene for some time, nor had I reflected on being there at both the beginning and at the end of the World Trade Center. But I was sure thinking about it now.

So that’s the kind of mood I was in when the happiness buffet went into full swing, with Debbie Riley of Mason County Environmental Health giving up a big wet one to the folks who serve on the Oakland Bay Clean Water Citizens Advisory Committee for helping to improve water quality. Not to be outdone, Lynda joined in the love fest to say how pleased she was to have started the whole thing; Steve thanked the group for allowing him to participate; and Tim said something about a blind squirrel finding a nut. All in all, it was a good example of three very different viewpoints.

The Public Comment period produced a lone speaker, former County Commissioner, Annette McGee, who did a superb job of making an 11th hour appeal to save the County Fairgrounds, ironically to the same "body" that tanked it three years earlier. But this is an election year and with the guillotine poised to drop, Tim & Lynda were all up in the “we’ll try to save it” mode. Lynda suggested the Board write a letter asking the Port to clarify its position; Tim said he asked Senator Patty Murray to intervene on behalf of the County. While these efforts are good and admirable, I couldn’t help thinking, first, why the County and Port don’t simply sit down and talk to each other and, second, given Tim’s betrayal during the state budget process, how receptive to a “favor” will Sen. Murray be?

Getting back to the guillotine, I had prepared my own beheading of commissioner salaries for 2013 but couldn’t bring myself to pull the lever, what with all the good cheer going around and a trip down nostalgia lane. Shame on me.

Commissioner Salaries (Total):
$242,154 ($80,718/ea.)

Personal Benefits (Total):
$78,288

TOTAL:
$320,442

Now the breakdown: $106,814/yr. in wages and benefits for each commissioner, or $8,901/Mo, or $2,054/Wk, or $292.64/day for every day of the year.

Additionally, in 2011 (the last year any commissioner took a travel allowance), Lynda came in "First" @ $1,293.08; Tim "Placed" @ $809.40, and Jerry Lingle and/or Steve Bloomfield "Showed" @ $396.10.

I won’t even mention the $1,260 combined allowance for phone fees -- that would just be cruel.

What’s the damage to taxpayers for having three County Commissioners whose hands seem always to be tied just when you need them most? Well, let me see…carry the two…dues and tools…insurance bond (yeah, like that’s gonna’ help)...new shoes…then there’s the chickens…Okay, the grand total is $330,554, or as I like to think of it: two years of County Fairs.

Why did the County really dump the fairgrounds? The answer, Grasshopper, is hidden in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (ZAMM), by Robert Pirsig, 1974..

The book examines two different views of the world: the “romantic” and the “classical”. The “romantic” motorcycle rider knows nothing of how to maintain or repair his mount; when something goes wrong he complains all the way to the repair shop. The “classical” rider is mechanically intuitive; attuned to his machine, he notes small differences in sound and performance and makes adjustments to compensate for changing conditions. These very different approaches are extended to include a philosophical discussion about the "meaning" (as opposed to the definition) of what is "quality", and "value".

So what does all this fuzzy-headed liberal, commie-pinko propaganda have to do with a County Fair?

Glad you asked:

Unlike racing around a track in pursuit of meaning, a County Fair is quite a different animal. Measured against a cost/benefit analysis it may seem an unworthy venture, but in terms of community pride and area promotion the benefits are boundless. I would argue that if a so-called "leader" cannot appreciate the "value" of spending a few extra dollars of public money on a "quality" community event, perhaps that person is in the wrong line of work.

In closing, you might have caught onto the fact that I long ago ran out of things to say about the BOCC meeting, and now that I have examined my belly-button from every possible angle there is nothing left to report, but you’d be wrong. Our Commissioners are like an artesian well of controversy; bubbling over with bad judgment and self-service they erupt each week a new geyser of wrongs to send citizens screaming naked into the night.

Later…