Common Sense Thinking
I was very happy to see Carolyn Ruttan volunteering her knowledge at the Lake County Library. I have been researching regarding the lake scientist that Supervisor Steele was thinking about hiring. Originally I thought it would cost $100,000 plus; now after doing some research I found out it would cost a minimum of $130-140,000 per year for that employee, plus benefits, plus retirement, which would automatically be a taxpayer killer.
I personally know Mrs. Ruttan and her husband, as I met both of them when then moved to Lake County and bought a ranch out of Lower Lake. Very knowledgeable people with a lot of smarts and a lot of heart. I had no idea Mrs. Ruttan was still working for the county. But after my research, I found out that she was part of our county employees involved with Scott DeLeon, our public works director and lake management and or water resources.
The way we should do it instead of hiring a new employee for lots of dollars when we already have this woman running around the county donating her knowledge, we should make her our lake scientist and give her a substantial raise that would make her more than happy. We could save our taxpayers lots and lots of money. She is already on our payroll, health and retirement system. That would be a smart and fair thing to do.
We have to consider our employees that are working hard for our County and taxpayers before bringing in someone new and pay them a substantially a larger amount of money per month.
Ron Rose, Lakeport
Names we know
I recently read the letter from Mr. Charles Nicoll. He did something that I have wanted to do for a long time, he counted number of letters published in the Record-Bee by the same people. It has long been obvious that most of the letters published are written by the same people. According to Mr. Nicoll 65 percent of the letters published are written by ten people.
I was surprised that Mr. Jim Hall contributed the most letters. I usually find his letters interesting. I thought Mr. Guff Worth would be the most frequent contributor.
I would like to say that these gentlemen write their letter in the hopes that they will be published, but in the end it is an editor at the Record-Bee who decides what will be published and what won’t be published. The big question is why does this editor chose letters from these ten gentlemen so often? Why aren’t other letters chosen? Don’t other people write letters to the editor or are they so poorly written they can’t be published?
Perhaps the Record-Bee can become more selective about the letters they publish. Maybe the Record-Bee can start to follow their own rules. Letters are not supposed to be over 400 words and many are very lengthy. The Record-Bee could ask letter writers to play nice and be kinder to each other in print. The Record-Bee could also limit the number of letters they publish by the same person in a three month period. Over ten letters in that three month period by the same person is excessive.
I respect everyone’s right to free speech, but please gentlemen, quit writing in so frequently. Please get together for coffee and discuss your differences, write e-mails to each other, telephone each other.
Carolyn Gotelli, Clearlake Park
[Editor’s note: The opinion page provides a forum for members of this community. Because it is an open forum, we believe it wrong to censor or limit the voices of those writing suitable letters. As a rule, we welcome and publish all letters received that do not cross a boundary set by libel, hearsay or community standards. It is a goal to publish letters in the order received, but there are caveats to this created by available space and staff. But if we have space for a letter that extends beyond 400 words, we see no reason to ask the writer to shorten his or her thoughts.]
An outraged citizen
Why don’t politicians listen? We the people are trying to let our voice be heard. But the politicians, news media who are supposed to be impartial and aren’t, don’t listen.
We are supporting Trump because there needs to be change. The people’s voice is being lost. What is being done to Trump is wrong. Even the authorities are jumping on the band wagon against Trump.
It’s wrong! Where have our freedom of speech gone?
D.R. Schmidt, Lucerne
Ralph Nader says
Hillary Clinton attacks Wall Street while taking millions from Wall Street.
Brent Pomeroy, Lakeport
