Letters to the Editor

Channeling John McEnroe

Dear Town Council:

Are you serious? We went through this once before. It was already determined that our little town does not need two Town Managers. We are very concerned and would like for you to explain to us and all of your constituents why you would approve an Asst. Town Manager at a cost of over $200,000 per year. Especially when you’re trying to close  a budget gap of nearly $3 million.

This is not personal, it’s business. Now we get into budget reductions proposed by staff. Why would you have a white paper prepared by staff for reduction in expenses? Do you really think that they would recommend eliminating their jobs or those of their co-workers? Reducing the expense of commission meetings and administration is ridiculously small relative to overall staff expense.

While their reports and analysis state that the town is running on bare bones, we beg to differ. There are cities/towns that are much larger that operate with smaller staff. The police department for example costs us nearly $5 million. Dana Point (population 36,000) contracts with the Orange County Sheriff’s Dept. for law enforcement in the amount of $10 million. Two times our budget for over five times the population. Cut our police budget down to $2.5 million and there’s your gap.

The Community Development Department can be greatly reduced or even eliminated in this downturn with no activity in development. When staff is needed, they can be contracted as many other cities do. The town does not need a full-time CEQA expert on staff. This is an example of a service that can be contracted as needed.

These are not frivolous thoughts or careless suggestions. We love the community and are passionate about Mammoth Lakes. We want to see it prosper into the future. This will take BOLD steps and innovative ideas. We cannot afford to keep doing things they way we have always done them.

Take the BOLD steps, make the big cuts, move forward. It is about ALL our tax dollars. We don’t want to see people lose their jobs, but people already have and there will be more. We understand that it will be our neighbors, our friends, or both. This is very unfortunate that we are here at this time, but we are here. Council needs to do the fiscally right thing.

The Harrells
Mammoth Lakes homeowners 

Booth retires, endorses Kendall

The following letter was addressed to the Mono County Board of Supervisors. 

To the Honorable Byng Hunt, Duane “Hap” Hazard, Vikki Bauer, Larry Johnston and Tim Hansen:

I will retire on Friday, June 29, 2012. On that date I will have served the good folks of Mono County as a Deputy District Attorney, Assistant District Attorney and District Attorney for 27 years. This is my 39th year in the criminal courts. It is my desire to devote more time to my young son, Alex, and be actively involved in both my place of worship and Rotary International. It has truly been both a pleasure and an honor to represent the County of Mono as the Public Prosecutor.

I believe it is one of the most meaningful and rewarding jobs a lawyer could have. I have always tried to be objective, impartial and uphold justice, honesty and truth. Thank you for all of your support over the years and God bless the people of Mono County.

Due to my retirement prior to the expiration of my term (2014), I am requesting that the board appoint Assistant District Attorney Tim Kendall, District Attorney to be effective Sunday, July 1, 2012. It should be noted that Judge Denton, Judge Eller and I were appointed by the Board and then stood for election. This is authorized by the Government Code. The county is extremely fortunate to have Tim as the Assistant District Attorney. Tim has been in the office 18 years, and is a stellar lawyer, consummate professional, natural leader, superb manager and loving husband and father.

He is smart, objective, reasonable and fair. In short, he will be a District Attorney that makes the people of Mono County proud. I encourage the board to do what previous boards have seen fit to do and that is appoint Tim as District Attorney to fill the anticipated vacancy.

George Booth
Mono Cty. District Attorney