Letters to the Editor

“Citizens Should be in charge of Bonney Lake.” This was the headline on Ms. Dahlstrom’s latest Letter to the Editor included in Dec. 3 edition of the Courier Herald. It’s not my intent here to deal with the entirety of the letter because much of it is accusations without basis. However there are a few items that need rebuttal.

Ms. Dahlstrom castigates the mayor and council for having a city administrator doing much of the work of the city. Unless the citizens of this city wish to pay a full-time competitive wage in order to have a full-time mayor and council, I believe we are getting quite a bargain. With the responsibility of administering a city of more than 16,000 persons, we are fortunate that we have a mayor and council that volunteer countless hours on our behalf. With the mayor’s position only receiving $800 and the council $400 per month, it is obvious that on an hourly basis, these elected officials are making less than the lowest paid employee on the city payroll.

Ms. Dahlstrom also talks about how busy the city clerk is, her comment was “the city clerk is too busy taking care of HR (human resources) as well as IT (information technology) to get public disclosures out to the people that have requested them.” Ms. Dahlstrom, perhaps you should read the job description for Mr. Edvalson, he’s the director of Administrative Services and City Clerk. As such he’s responsible for the HR and IT functions along with all of the other city clerk work that he does. She further states “the mayor has authorized a $7,400 machine (aka the QED machine)”. Did you ever think that it might be due to the inordinate number of requests for public disclosure being received from one Quinn E. Dahlstrom. I think it’s great that we all have the right to request public documents from our governmental agencies, but I also resent mindless harassment via PD (public disclosure) requests, since I as a taxpayer must foot the bill for those requests.

Ms. Dahlstrom, Ms. Dabson, Mr. Decker, and others are trying to change Bonney Lake from the code city that it is today, with a council/mayor form of government, to a charter-code city. As yet, they haven’t suggested why this change is necessary, nor what benefits might occur for the city as a result of this change. Ms. Dahlstrom states in her letter that she wants the citizen to have rights that they don’t have today and impugned my statement that every citizen has the right to vote and to become active in the city if they’re truly interested in making changes. Yet how do they propose to change it, by voting. First to approve moving forward and for a slate of fifteen freeholders that will have 180 days to write the charter for the city of Bonney Lake. What they write will then come back to the voters for a second election to approve the charter and to elect whatever, whomever the charter decides will be needed to run the city. Be aware that each of these elections cost money plus if a charter committee is approved on Feb. 3rd they will be operating out of, and depleting funds from, that very tight budget that Ms. Dahlstrom and Ms. Dabson said is already in jeopardy.

I still contend that the citizens of Bonney Lake have the right to vote, get involved and bring about change in the city today without having to change our form of government. As stated earlier, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”

Fred Jacobsen

Bonney Lake

Bailout can prompt U.S. to

Those who ardently favored the massive bailout, tried in vain to have it reported as a “rescue.” But even that term would have drawn angry Americans to the conclusion that it isn’t they who were being rescued; it was the fat cats on Wall Street and elsewhere who would benefit.

Bailout proponents would be hard pressed to find any member of Congress who could claim that his constituents favored the measure. One New Jersey House member of Congress stated that messages he received were running about 50-50. He clarified: “50 said ‘no,’ and 50 said, ‘hell no!’”

The genesis of the financial meltdown can be traced to federal legislation over recent decades. A flurry of laws approved by Democrat and Republican presidents required banks to grant mortgages to people who couldn’t afford to make the payments. The process got to the point where people living on unemployment and welfare checks became eligible for a mortgage. Not to comply with these asinine laws would mean trouble for bankers who tried to refuse. Of course, most didn’t refuse because the federal government promised to bail them out.

The House barely defeated the initial three-page, $700 billion measure. But, only a few days later, after a round of arm-twisting and outright bribery, 58 members changed their vote in favor of an even worse measure filling 400 pages. Pork barrel sweetners, mostly in the form of tax breaks, got added and the final bill for U.S. taxpayers will total $812 billion. Who got these breaks? Wool producers, TV production companies, NASCAR racetrack owners, rum producers, wooden arrow makers.

Consider this: The House of Representatives voted “no” on a measure that would cost $700 billion. Then, 58 “no” members changed to “yes” and approved a new measure that will cost at least $812 billion. Obviously, some of those who switched did so because the original measure wasn’t enough.

In the midst of this ongoing travesty, the National Debt Clock in New York’s Time Square actually broke down. Only able to report 13 digits (up to $9.9 trillion), this privately-owned display has to be reconfigured so it can report that the U.S. government is now more than $10 trillion in debt. It will be up and running soon again. But even if it reports only the admitted indebtedness. If unfunded obligations for Social Security, Medicare, etc. are added (as they should be), the true indebtedness totals more than $50 trillion.

The burden of the indebtedness will be shouldered by hard-working and worried Americans who didn’t cause the problem. It amounts to what should be called, “Reverse Robin Hood.” Recall that Robin stole from the rich to give to the poor. Congress and President Bush – with Fed Chairman Bernanke at their side – have arranged to steal from the poor and middle class to give to the rich Wall Streeters and others. Now you know why Wall Street moguls send so much money to candidates for office.

This absolutely horrible bailout should have many Americans searching hard for something to do about the terrible leadership our country is enduring. So let’s convert this huge lemon into a large glass of sweet lemonade by steering properly incensed Americans into the John Birch Society. Onward and upward all you patriots! The time is ripe for JBS to grow into the force America desperately needs.

Edwin “Stormy” Storm

Enumclaw