Letters to the Editor for Aug. 21, 2009

Councilor stands by recall effort

To the editor:

On June 9, City Manager Steve Brocato enjoyed the respect and commitment of his co-workers in city government. The city was running well. He was highly regarded by his peers elsewhere in Oregon. 

Some three weeks earlier, after an “evaluation,” six of seven councilors indicated that he should be retained. At the council meeting on the evening of June 9, “Councilor Comments,” traditionally the last item on the agenda, was placed ahead of other business and within minutes Mr. Brocato was fired by a 4 to 3 vote.

Councilors Bass and Bryan and Pope were not consulted. Their method aside, the majority cannot demonstrate good cause. At the council meeting many city employees appeared and requested an opportunity to speak in protest. They were not permitted to speak until after the deed was done.

You chide Councilors Bryan, Bass and me for lending ourselves to the recall effort. What rule of conduct do you invoke?  What remedy do you suggest? You seem content to merely scold the council majority for their method of firing Mr. Brocato and leave the deed unchallenged. I am not content to merely shrug and go on.

Moreover, my support of the recall effort does not prevent me from doing my job as a member of the council. Which, by the way, is not to run the city. What you should do is examine the majority’s reasons for firing the city manager. They will not withstand scrutiny. We have had a number of city managers recently. Steve Brocato was the best. The majority made a profound mistake. I am not required to just let it go. I intend to continue and you may find me on your doorstep with petitions in hand. Without apology.

Milo Pope

City Councilor

Baker City

Economy requires access to land

To the editor:

Comments on Wallowa-Whitman National Forest Travel Management Plan:

The “no change” plan is the only “legal” action you can make.

In 1976 Congress specifically re-affirmed RS 2477 law stating “The federal land management agencies have no independent power or authority over 2477 roads.” Period.

To ignore this law will bring on legal action against you and your department, which would be a waste of time and money that we all can ill afford.

Another reason to reconsider these plans is the fact that our country is facing economic breakdown. The regulations that restrict the access of the land have so damaged our basic industries that many have shut down or move overseas.

We must understand that all new wealth comes from the ground. This wealth is expanded when the produce and resources we recover are processed and manufactured into life’s necessities. Thus all jobs, all business, is dependent on access and use of the land so that we can harvest its produce and resources. We cannot continue to put our country in debt to buy things we will not let ourselves produce. China already holds a mortgage on California and the Hawaiian islands as collateral on our huge debt to her. Will we let Oregon be next?

Most of the plans you propose restrict access and use of the land and put another squeeze on our economy. For our country and its people, don’t do it.

Kenneth Anderson

Baker City

Slandering the Farmers Market

To the editor:

Ms. Iva Mace of Baker City says she is sad because the Baker City Farmers Market isn’t what it used to be. That may be true; this is only my second year here, and I don’t know how it used to be.

But Ms. Mace unleashes all sorts of accusations based on assumptions that simply have no basis in fact. She accuses the market of excluding the small growers from participation and favoring only the larger producers. This is simply not true.  If someone wants to sell plants they’ve grown in their kitchen windowbox they will be welcome at the Farmers Market. 

Ms. Mace dislikes what she imagines to be policies of the current market and blames the market manager in a vicious personal attack. Fact: the manager does not make policy. The board of directors makes policy. It is part of the manager’s job to implement these policies, and she has received near unanimous, enthusiastic approval for her performance.

Ms. Mace regrets that the market isn’t being managed by volunteers. In fact, while people do volunteer their time, there simply aren’t enough volunteers to get the jobs done. Instead of whining about her erroneously perceived “wrongs,” perhaps Ms. Mace would be generous enough to volunteer her own services and take on some of the enormous tasks regularly performed by the people of the Baker City Farmers Market. If she is unwilling to learn some facts before venting her spleen, she might make herself more useful to the community than she does by publicly slandering good, hard-working people about whom she knows absolutely nothing.

David Jason

Baker City

City workers: drop recall support

To the editor:

The June 10 issue of Baker City Herald has an article titled “City employees defend Brocato, chastise Council.”

There were at least 11 city employees quoted in that article defending Brocato. I wondered what could get that kind of loyalty to a city manager. I requested, under the Oregon Public Records Act, the wages each of those 11 employees were earning before Brocato got hired, and also what those same employees were earning when he was fired.

It turns out that those 11 city employees combined have received $10,877 per month worth of raises during the period that Brocato was listed as city manager.  $10,877 x 12 months = over $130,000 per year in raises that these 11 city employees are able to share —although not necessarily evenly. Since wages/salaries rarely go down, that $130,000 per year will be an expense each year.

If those city employees believe that Brocato caused their raises, well, I guess that they ought to have some loyalty to him.

Too bad it had to be paid for with taxpayer funds.

I would ask all city employees to please withdraw support for the recall of  city councilors. This is still your city and we need to get back to business. Life goes on.

Richard Harris

Baker City

Government’s the real problem

To the editor:

The Obama administration is proposing to cut Medicare and Medicaid in order to pay for part of the Democrat socialized healthcare program.

Ask yourselves this question: What class of citizens has the elite benefits at the expense of all the rest of American society? Guess what: It’s the government employees and Congress. How can we achieve equality in the healthcare of the country? We cannot as long as these people are not considered as part of the equation.

Let’s have real redistribution, not fake redistribution. The American people are being presented with a false premise. Government is 90 percent of the problem. First they tax us out of our money and then they want to tax us some more to provide us with those things we cannot afford because they took our money.

Obama has greatly increased the size of government. This does nothing but exacerbate the problem. Wise up, people.

If this suggestion makes all you government employees mad, now you know how we feel. In the class warfare game, the government class is excluded.

Jerry Huddleston

Baker City