Reprinted from the Gazette, Letters to the Editor Tuesday April 22
Editor‘s note: The following is a response to Rick Parker’s “Man About Town” op-ed of Sunday, April 20
On Saturday I had the delightful experience of (wo)manning our display table out at the John Muir Earthday/Birthday event. We had a steady stream of beaver curious folks stopping by the table throughout the event which gave us a prime opportunity to correct the record after the deplorable attempt by Rick Parker to discredit the subcommittee’s report.
One such visitor expressing her outrage equated the City of Martinez with a modern day fiefdom. After witnessing the level of influence some seem to have over City Hall I too am left asking the question, whose town is it?
But let me get to my point. I take considerable umbrage with the notion that I need a reality check. I’ve looked over the figures which supposedly make up this phantom $71,000 expenditure and have to call b s. It was already mentioned in the public comments section of Wednesday’s meeting that many of the man hours listed are exempt employees; that means zero additional costs. Rather it becomes a shell game of assigning hours to a specific cost center/project; the annual salary is what it is regardless. Remove them from the $71,000 and that number is whittled down considerably.
The rest of Parker’s letter is hyperbole and scare tactics. Does it really take an airplane pulling a banner behind it listing the numbers of agencies already stepping up to the plate volunteering resources for folks to get the picture that the tax payers of Martinez will not be burdened with items like signage and kiosks?
As for the current outreach efforts to drive business and tourism – yeah I read where we now have a joint effort to attract tourists from Turlock. Sorry did I miss the notification that the Amphitheater would now be hosting rodeos?
However what I didn’t miss was a group out at the dam Sunday evening taking pictures of the beavers. A local videographer caught one of the party on tape stating that she’d read about our beavers in the San Francisco Chronicle and decided to drive up from Carmel to see them for herself. Far be it for me to point out the obvious.
Lastly, whatever additional flood control fixes are implemented they will be because they are in the best interests of the town and not the beavers.
Linda Meza
