George Rebane
Barry Pruett, candidate for Nevada County Clerk-Recorder, responded to an article in today’s Union regarding the contest between him and the serving Clerk-Recorder, Greg Diaz. There are two clear and independent issues involved here – the election campaign between Pruett and Diaz for the job, and the lawsuit filed by AtPac against Diaz. If AtPac prevails in its suit that alleges Diaz violated an intellectual property confidentiality agreement with the company, then it will call into question Diaz’s character and decision-making abilities directly related to the Clerk-Recorder position. In the meantime, as a local company formerly served by Pruett, AtPac has contributed to Pruett’s campaign. This fact is being used to muddy the water in this campaign since it wrongly implies that Pruett was somehow involved in the suit against Diaz. (Full Disclosure – The Rebanes support Barry Pruett’s election to the Clerk-Recorder position and have made a financial contribution to this end.)
The upcoming Board of Supervisors vote on the disposition of the Nevada County Library has drawn a lot of ink. Despite deep cuts by County Librarian Mary Ann Trygg, the service is still an open vein in the county’s fisc. The Supes will now have to vote on whether to let a private company staff the facilities or … something else. Union publisher/editor Jeff Ackerman has mounted a spirited and laudable campaign to keep the library in the hands of county staff. To date his efforts have netted over $43,000 of local contributions which he intends to turn over to the library for maintaining operations.
Readers who recall my Union columns and RR posts (here and here) know that I would like to see the government pull out of supplying most of the non-constitutional services they now perform. In the case of our library, the simple choice seems to be whether we want to have a temporary solution of continuing to fund expensive (salary & benefits) union represented staff to perform essentially the same services for fewer hours, or have the county turn over staffing to a much more economical alternative provided by a private company. Hour for hour, the savings would be from the 35-40% of added benefits which also accrue to the county’s unfunded liabilities.
Representation by the SEIU is, of course, another downside for the taxpayers which I and others have covered. To put a point on it, the county library staff are now working under a five-year contract which also calls for them to get raises this year and the next. I don’t know where they are going with this contract, but the starting point of negotiations always seems to be that government employees are entitled to their contracted jobs and total compensation, regardless. Maybe Nevada County employees will be different.
But the bottom line is still, why would the county’s taxpayers want to go on paying a premium for staffing the library, especially in the coming years when all libraries will go through huge transformations to shapes, sizes, and services provided about which none of us are really certain. Attempting to configure our library’s future, while dragging along expensive union represented staff, seems to promise an added ball and chain from which we would want to be free.
Finally, a correspondent from New Zealand writes that there has been a new wrinkle added to the political rhetoric that, no doubt, will soon arrive on these shores. There a prominent politician “pledged” to not raise taxes when elected. After being elected, the man promptly voted to raise taxes. When reminded that his promise not to raise taxes had something to do with his being elected, the man explained some of the finer points of electioneering down under. He told one and all that, yes, he had made a “pledge” not to raise taxes, but that was not to be confused with a “promise” not to do the same. Is ‘pledge’ related to ‘promise’ in the same way as ‘possibility’ is related to ‘probability’? Anyway, you have been alerted to look for onshore sleazebags picking up on this little bit of lexicographic legerdemain in this election year.
rebanesruminations.com 
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