Off Beat: A peek into Y-S mindset

You got a real taste of the Yuba-Sutter mindset in the May 9 edition of this very newspaper.

Story One: Supervisor Hal Stocker suggests that the Yuba County Board of Supervisors put a measure on the ballot to, get this, limit what the supervisors can do when it comes to land use.

Really?

If you're a master politician, you know how to count to three. Three votes are a board majority. Stocker may have been too busy to count. There were three votes, but they were against him.

But this is an election year, and when you can get some of the other supervisors voting against ag preservation — and these are the supervisors you don't agree with much of the time — well, that's political gold.

How can you be against ag preservation in an ag county? How can you be against putting something on the ballot?

There was a time, during the frenzy for the great Yuba County Superduper Speedway, that the supervisors put a measure on the ballot to rezone ag land in the south county to allow for the raceway and other fanciful uses.

"Let the people decide!" cried some of the supervisors who hankered for the motorplex thing.

And the people decided it was good. The land, of course, is still mostly empty.

So Stocker, who always cites mysterious polls he has done (he's the George Gallup of Yuba County) may have people power behind him.

Master stroke, Stocker! Well played!

Story Two: In the same paper, over in cosmopolitan Yuba City, the city manager, who apparently is the only city official who ever comments on anything, was in a tizzy about homeless people.

In Yuba City, they try not to think much about poor people. That's a Yuba County problem.

In response to the Willow Island situation, and the possibility of hordes of poor people invading Yuba City, the city manager stood tall.

"We are not in the social services business," the city manager declared, stating the obvious.

And then, this gem: "I'm not interested in having a shelter that's just a flop house."

And then he praised the private efforts to feed the homeless on the island, but "in some ways it perpetuates the population that's on the island."

So you've got the "not in social services business" explanation, the we don't want a "flop house" reference and blaming the social services provider for creating the problem.

Brilliant!

It almost makes you want to move to Colusa County, where empathy flows like the Sacramento River.

Not really.