Letter: County, city leaders failing constituents

Sutter County supervisors plan to redraw  districts ahead of census, voting to spend $53,000 of taxpayers money while acknowledging we are in a budget crisis. What they are telling the public — that being in a budget crisis will not stop them from Sutter County redistricting?

Spending $53,000 now alerts the public that the supervisors’ number one priority is not the public’s safety, it is politics.

It appears that the county law enforcement (sheriff) funds will be reduced by hundreds of thousands of dollars for 2010. The record is clear when we are in a recession; the supervisors agree to spend our taxes on just about anything except the public’s safety. Supervisors had 10 years to pass a levee fee on developers to protect us from floods and they failed to do so. It is now time for the public to get involved and elect new supervisors. If you don’t get out and vote, don’t complain.

One could conclude that Yuba City City Council also has failed to make public safety a priority. Any time you take hundreds of thousands of dollars from fire departments and law enforcement, you put the public in real danger and the ones who benefit are arsonists and drug dealers whom associate with local gangs.

I remember the promises of Mayor Leslie McBride prior to her election that she would work to make sure city services are state of the art and police and firefighters have the resources to do the job right. I personally think resources means “assets.”

Ray Janssen
Yuba City