Attention Local Pols - Are You Making the Already Bad Worse?

George Rebane

When was the last time you heard something like ‘The park will now stay open until one hour after sunset instead of closing when the sun goes down.’ or ‘From now on you again get to put any kind of lights you want into your kitchen when you remodel.’?  Don’t hold your breath.

Our personal and commercial freedoms have been ratcheting down for over a century now, and the pace seems to be picking up as we get dumber and demand to be ever more secure from our own and other people’s bad decisions.  The government’s answer is always to pile on more restrictive laws, regulations, and ordnances.  Everybody knows that the last thing we want is a “do nothing” Congress or Assembly or Board of Supervisors or City Council.  From age immemorial, the instinct of all governments has been to control more, and then tax more to pay for making sure that the people comply – all for their own good, of course.

Today we send most of our tribute to the federal and state governments.  Some of that money actually comes back, doled out for purposes that our leaders want to see fulfilled.  Therefore every dollar that comes back has attached an instruction book for how to spend it – the do’s and don’ts – after which we sometimes hire more government workers to make sure that the instructions are properly followed.  Unfortunately the problem doesn’t end there.

At home, our local governments are filled with people who want to be seen doing their own part in providing for the public good.  So when a new mandate arrives from on high telling us that from now on we must do this and that, our local leaders along with their hard-working staffs examine the ‘local impact’ of the new state/fed legislation or regulation.  And to no one’s surprise, they almost always find it wanting.  So, on top of what the high priests manning the domed temples of our capitols prescribe, our local supervisors, councils, commissions, boards, … add on their own pound of requirements.  I guess the idea being that this is the only kind of self-determination left to us – if the feds come along and pound our toe with their hammer, we instantly raise the ante, grab our own hammer and pound our other toe.  This shows both them and us that we are indeed still masters of our fate. 

I can now hear some of you say, ‘Rebane, you’re blowing this all out of proportion.  It isn’t half as bad as that.’  Well, OK.  Then I propose the following.  When the next ordnance, regulation, or ‘plan’ comes up for discussion and implementation, let’s have our local pols give it to us without any cover-up or obfuscation.  For public input, let’s have them draft the new rules in easy-to-read parts – the first part contains the words that spell out the will of our distant lords, and the second part contains any modification mandated by our local ministers.  Make it real clear, like use boldface or italics or different font or …  so that all of us can see the added wisdom, locally grown.

For example, in the new county Fire Safe Plan the draft can be formatted so if what the state says is “… clear to brown dirt to a distance of 500 ft around every man-made structure …”, and, if this is locally modified, then the next  paragraph says “… clear to brown dirt to a distance of 1,000 ft around every man-made structure …”.  This way everyone will know what, if any, the local content of our rules for rightful living are.  We can then holler bloody murder or shout hosannas during the work groups and information sessions many of us attend. 

Right now, half the time in most such meetings is wasted in explaining to some confused worthy in the audience that ‘this sentence actually came down from the feds or state or somewhere on high’.  The other half is wasted by the frustrated staffer not knowing where in hell a particular number or requirement originated, and people leave more confused than when they arrived.  It’s almost as if our elected officials don’t want us to know, and possibly use that knowledge to throw them out come the next election.

Comments

[Scott Obermuller]

There are so many thoughts swirling in my head as I read this commentary that I can only touch on a few brief points without spinning out into a thousand rabbit trails. We Americans still possess the power to choose our leaders. We still possess the power of the purse. (If we don't like GM products, they go under)
The problem is that a goodly amount (most?) of Americans have become a spoiled and pampered creature that have become divorced from the reality of (in no particular order) physical exertion, production of usable goods, continued accumulation of knowledge, logical thought, ability to take reasonable risks, acknowledgment of responsibility, and the concept of gratefulness. If this should offend any of you reading this, then I would respond by saying that you either cannot read and comprehend English, or that you - as Billy Shakespeare would say, "Doth protest too much".
We expect guv'ment to issue edicts, wave their hand and lo! GOOD has been accomplished. The devilments spoken of in this blog are very real, yet I see no way out unless we citizens change our personal attitudes about the purpose of govt. Trying to encourage a general awareness of, and call to action for the prevention of wildfires in our county is an admirable goal. But it is so loaded with personal agendas, mis-information, conflicting rules, and petty tyrants that I'm afraid it will become just another morass of strictures that will cost us all a load of after-tax dollars, please no one, and be of little use in it's original intended goal. Please! Just go out and clear what ever brush and vegetation you can bear to part with. Ask for guidance from the Sierra Club, the fire marshal, the Dept of Forestry, or your neighbors. The county govt. is useless or worse in this matter. The road I live on is a county maintained death-trap. Our family and some neighbors tried to engage the county in a project to widen and pave the road to at least the standards they require for a new private driveway. We would pay out of our pockets the actual cost of the asphalt. They refused, as they claimed they had no legal right to cut down trees on their own right-of-way. Now, this same govt. is claiming they don't know where they will find the funds for providing safe roads for evacuation routes.
We must do what we can, and at some point accept that we live in an area that is prone to devastating fires that are part and parcel with the forest that attracted us here in the first place.

[Mike McD]

Scott (and George), I agree wholeheartedly. I would also add the following thoughts: How many lives were lost in 49'er fire? The easiest path for more regulation (less personal liberty) is behind the guise of "public safety." Give me a break. We live in the trees, get some homeowners insurance, not more gov regulation.

[Douglas Keachie]

Get a chain saw, a hedger, and a DR Mower, and as much water storage as you can possibly buy. Add in a pump from Honda at $700 and 2" mains. Take down every tree that isn't absolutely necessary for shade or aesthetics. For large areas, use a tractor ith a brush hog. Did i mention RoundUp?

[Therefore every dollar that comes back has attached an instruction book for how to spend it – the do’s and don’ts – after which we sometimes hire more government workers to make sure that the instructions are properly followed.]

Actually, on my first job with Richmond Unified was in part filling out government forms. I literally typed the desired results from their guidebook, and then pasted them into the forms, giving the answers desired. It bore almost no relation to the results of the on-going studies, but Dr Conway thought I was so smart. He was paid three times as much as I, and fired me and the other two, three months later. Good way to cover tracks, I later concluded.