Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE COUNTY BUDGET

Hasson and Harris do it again

Let’s see now. The county commissioners cut the sheriff’s 1995 overtime budget by $500,000. Subsequently, law enforcement calls increased by 12 percent. The sheriff’s overtime budget comes in $605,665 over budget. This means the sheriff isn’t managing his budget properly?

I guess in the thinking of Hasson, Harris and the rest of the “New Right’s” fiscal brain trust, this is clearly Bill Clinton’s fault, but since their usual scapegoat doesn’t hang around our courthouse, these responsible leaders of ours need another patsy.

Reality check, fellas. It’s not John Goldman who needs to learn how to handle a budget. Jim Wavada Spokane

Budget requests out of line

There’s a very simple solution to the county and city’s budget crisis. What is it? Just give 100 percent of the budget to law and justice.

Who needs those unimportant jobs like treasurer, assessor, road maintenance, etc.? After all, you just can’t expect law and justice to get by on a mere 80 percent of the budget. Seriously, we can’t handcuff the other county departments by giving more to law and justice. Our county would really be in bad shape if we cut the treasurer, assessor and other departments.

With the budget crunch the county is in this year, why are the commissioners even contemplating giving anyone a wage increase for the next year? Why not offer a 10 percent cut? If, at the end of the year, there is money left (after rebuilding the reserve fund), give everyone a bonus. It can be a percentage of their base salary.

Whoever is doing the salary negotiating for the county is going to have to take lessons from the DARE program. That is, “Just say no!” Edwin Weilep Spokane

Don’t play hocus-pocus with money

While I’m very concerned that the sheriff’s office has enough money to function on, I don’t agree with the “hocus-pocus” method the county is planning on using to accomplish this.

If the real estate excise tax fund has an excess in it, why am I reading all these articles about how much homeowner costs are going to increase next year (and following years) for hooking houses up to sewer projects?

Since money is, by law, earmarked for sewer projects, then I want it used for that. Let’s use this money to keep the costs at current levels for as long as possible. Jeff Danner Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Hasson needs to make apology

In response to your Nov. 17 story “New human resources director lacks required education,” I was one of the 50 applicants for the position of human resources director.

I have a masters degree in business administration, more than 22 years of public sector human resources management experience. I provided evidence of experience in each of the five major areas requested and I’ve recently been a finalist for other similar positions.

Among other achievements, I’m a qualified safety and health technician and a board certified telecommunications system engineer. I’ve taught total quality management. I’m a published author and a subject-matter expert in planning. I’ve received two dozen awards for leadership, management, retention and organizational excellence. I have nothing to apologize for resulting from my 20 plus years of government service.

I applied for the position with the first batch of candidates and received a letter saying I didn’t meet the minimum qualifications. I was asked about a month later, by Tim Hansen, to reapply for the position which I did with the same result.

If I wasn’t qualified, why was I asked to reapply? Offering a higher salary didn’t make me any more or less qualified than the first time I applied. I don’t know what the county commissioners were looking for, but I suspect it had absolutely nothing to do with qualifications and everything to do with what they wanted to do.

I take extreme offense to Steve Hasson’s remark “We kind of had to hold our nose.” This is an extremely distasteful insult to my self and to the other candidates. I demand a public apology. William D. Kelley Colbert

Democrats originated safeguards

Democrat bashers always ignore the reality that Social Security, the minimum wage, Medicare, the 40-hour work week and such minimum safeguards as we have for the environment, all began on the Democratic side of the aisle.

Republican legislation centers mostly on the hands-off attitude toward big business, which has resulted in a concentration of our nation’s wealth in relatively few hands, and a lowering of the living standard in real wages for most Americans. It’s also made it tougher for small businesses, the backbone of the United States, to start up or compete.

Let’s not forget that the deficit, now such a target of the right, more than doubled during the eight years of the Reagan administration, while Social Security spending was cut to the bone.

Witness just one provision of the tax code overhaul proposed by the Republican majority, increasing the deduction for business entertainment at night from 50 to 100 percent. This includes night clubs, restaurants and sporting events. This tax maneuver will add $500 million to the tax burden the rest of us have to shoulder.

Meanwhile, taxes on the working poor are going up, while the tobacco and sugar subsidies remain untouched.

When all the rhetoric and smoke has cleared, I believe it’s obvious that the Democratic party’s politics are better by far for the vast majority of us. The genius of the Republican PR campaign is that it’s made most of us vote consistently against our best interest. Fred Glienna Coeur d’Alene

We need Sommers, Sonneland

In the pursuit of quality politics, I wish to compliment those who appointed Duane Sommers as a state representative. I served with Duane’s congressional campaign. I couldn’t help but be impressed with his honesty and integrity.

After Duane lost, I served on John Sonneland’s congressional campaign. He’s the same type of outstanding man as Duane Sommers. John Sonneland received a medical scholarship from Harvard. Obviously, he’s a very intelligent man. It’s just a shame that he hasn’t been able to represent us in the political system.

Both of these men are the type we need to guide us. Robert Mauzy Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Use local talent for renovation

I find it ironic that the people in charge of the “downtown renovation” project who are asking the citizens of Spokane for support (including financial) are the same individuals who would be refusing to support professionals from Spokane for the design of the project.

The Spokesman-Review has indicated that the architect for the project would be Callison Partnership from the Seattle area. This invariably means that the supporting design professionals (civil, structural, mechanical, electrical engineers, interior designers) would be chosen from the Seattle area. It also suggests that the construction team may originate outside of the Spokane area.

Why not start out this project showing the kind of two-sided support that existed in the days preceding Expo ‘74? If the downtown area is to survive, it just may need all of the help it can get. Ellen M. Wanless Spokane

Police department deserves better

The letter to the editor on Nov. 21, written by Kenneth D. Swanner made me very angry. Zeroing in on the headline makers in the Spokane Police Department totally ignores the day-to-day operations that run smoothly in Spokane.

He totally ignores the budget constraints. It seems that shelling out to everyone but the police is the do-good philosophy of today. He totally ignores the kind of people that make up the whole of the police force. It’s much more than a few, Mr. Swanner.

Recently, my husband and I lost our son in a tragic car accident. When I called the traffic unit to find out information about the cars involved, not knowing for sure if my son was involved, the officer handled my call in a professional, but kind manner. He and two other officers were at my door an hour later with the news. He didn’t have to come. The two officers at the scene could have handled it. His genuine concern and that of the accompanying officers exemplified the kind of officers that make up the police department. Their counsel and their willingness to do anything they could to help was deeply appreciated at the time, when there are no words that seem appropriate.

Unfortunately, this kind of incident doesn’t make the headlines. It isn’t “news.” The police department, whether in the county or the city, is the life-line of the law abiding citizen. Bashing all for the transgressions of a few is totally uncalled for. Lynn Schindler Otis Orchards

OTHER TOPICS

Get DARE out of schools

How dare our law enforcement officers inflame the minds of our innocent children by teaching them the evils of alcohol and drugs through the DARE program. Who gave them this authority?

This program promotes alcoholism and drug addiction in our youth. It promotes the increase of youth-committed crimes, from the use of these substances. It promotes the need for more law enforcement officers, courts, judges, jails prisons, etc. It promotes the need for an increase in taxes, which eats out our substance. Above all, it promotes the destruction of the lives of our children and our society. No child should ever be edified to the perils of alcohol and drugs. We don’t need these substances.

The position of our judicial system is to protect society from these substances, which are the major source of crime. This protection is provided by appealing to our federal and state legislators to pass laws prohibiting the importation, manufacturing, sale and use of these destructive substances, which will dramatically reduce the need and cost of expanding our criminal judicial system, which is a leech on society.

The bottom line is, get the DARE program out of our schools and stop producing the substances which contribute most to crime in our society. J.J. Jarvis Newman Lake

Don’t blame problems on God

In James 1:22 & 23 we are told to be doers of the word and not hearers only. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man (woman or child) who looks at his (or her) natural face in a mirror.

The bottom line is this, “Your actions speak louder that your words.”

Jack DeBaun (Nov. 20) needs to read the Genesis account of God’s creation. It was and is not God who stands at fault. Man and woman were, by God, created in his perfect image. It was man and woman who chose to sin and change the perfect image in which they were created.

Quit blaming God for your unrighteousness. He has given us a way of facing the things you and others blame on God. Herein is love; not that we loved God; but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation (or payment) for our sins. 1 John 4:10. His name is Jesus. John Fuller Coeur d’Alene