Snow berms are a seasonal problem on certain Baker City streets, but potholes and cracks bother us year round.

Which is why we urge the City Council to be cautious as it considers a proposal to spend more money to remove berms.

We don’t oppose the concept in general. We don’t like the berms, either. Most worrisome, they can block drivers’ views of oncoming traffic.

But the city should deal with berms on a case-by-case basis rather than revamp the current policy and require public works crews to haul away snow berms as soon as possible after every storm.

City officials estimate that doing so would cost the city an extra $20,000 to $25,000 during an average winter.

That’s a significant increase over the approximately $70,000 the city sets aside for snow and ice control each year.

The bigger problem, though, is that if the city spends more money moving snow, then it’s likely to have less money to maintain its paved streets — and those have been deteriorating for more than a decade.

I went snowshoeing Sunday in the ponderosa pine woods near Phillips Reservoir and managed a brief bout of melancholy despite being surrounded all the while by beauty.

This is one of my skills.

And it is one I would happily trade for any of a whole roster of abilities, among them a decent vertical leap and a mastery of basic carpentry techniques.

It was as I mentioned a fine winter day.

A heavy snow was falling. The flakes were fat and slushy, more like snow in the Cascades than the powdery sort that frequents our mountains. I never got more than a mile and a half from the highway but the snow muffled sounds and the hum of traffic was distant and unimportant.

There was little wind and the temperature was mild for the season, perhaps a degree or two above freezing.

I parked beside the Powder River and climbed a thousand feet to a plateau that plunges off its east flank to California Gulch.

I saw a white-tail deer running across a draw, wending its way between the red-barked pines, its graceful gait so different from the bounds of the mule deer.

We understand all too well that propaganda, rather than irrefutable facts, fuels political campaigns.

In the case of Measures 66/67, which Oregon voters must decide on by Jan. 26, both sides are predicting dire consequences should voters fail to heed their advice.

But nobody knows — or can know — for certain what will happen in either case.

It’s true that if voters defeat the measures, then the Legislature will have to decide next month how to balance the state budget.

It’s also true that if Measure 67 passes, some businesses will have to deal with being taxed based on their gross sales rather than their net profit.

What concerns us is that both campaigns have in some cases treated “could” and “will” as synonymous terms.

For instance, a press release from Vote Yes for Oregon states that if the measures fail, “Vulnerable children, seniors, people with disabilities and the unemployed will also be hit hard.”

The press release also contends that “every resident in Baker County will be affected” by cuts in state services if the measures go down.

That’s blatant, irresponsible fear-mongering.

We’d like to know why three of the seven Baker City Council members didn’t want to hire Tim Johnson as city manager.

We know part of the answer: The Idaho firm the city hired to investigate Johnson’s background recommended the City Council not offer him the job.

But city residents are entitled to the whole answer.

To that end, we’ve petitioned District Attorney Matt Shirtcliff  to order city officials to give us the complete background report compiled by Freeman and Associates of Middleton.

Even though the public’s money — about $1,500 — paid for that information, city officials contend that the public shouldn’t see everything their money bought.

Specifically, interim City Manager Tim Collins, in a letter responding to the Herald’s request for the complete report, wrote that the city will not release information that “consists generally of statements from previous co-workers, supervisors, and neighbors regarding Mr. Johnson’s work history and personal character.”

Nor did the city supply the Herald with the part of the report in which Freeman and Associates recommended the City Council not hire Johnson.

Or better yet, the new Baker City manager ought to buy a pair of those metal-studded rubber webs that you stretch tight over your footwear.

There’s still ice around despite the recent thaw, and it makes for treacherous going.

Of course that’s not the only sort of traction Johnson needs to worry about.

He is, after all, starting a job where he has seven bosses.

Which is six more than most of us have to try to please.

Besides which, three of those bosses — which is just one short of a ruling majority — didn’t even want to hire Johnson to run City Hall.

None of his several relatively recent predecessors, dating back 25 years or so, was picked by a City Council as divided as this current version seems to be.

The Council’s motion to offer Johnson the job on Dec. 18 played out almost precisely as did the motion, made on June 9, to fire Steve Brocato.

Councilors Dennis Dorrah, Beverly Calder, Aletha Bonebrake and Clair Button voted to hire Johnson — and to fire Brocato.

Few foibles embarrass politicians as much as the revelation that they failed to vote.

We understand why this is so.

The hypocrisy is so rich that it’s practically irresistible for media pundits.

Sure, candidate A. You want me to vote for you. Do as I say, not as I don’t, right?

A few weeks ago Chris Dudley, the former Portland Trail Blazer who’s running for Oregon governor as a Republican, publicly apologized after The Oregonian reported that he had failed to vote in seven of the past 13 elections for which he was eligible.

In a nod to fairness, the Portland newspaper followed that report by publishing the voting records of the other gubernatorial candidates.

Of the six major candidates, only one — Democrat Bill Bradbury — had voted in every possible election since 1994.

Although we think candidates’ voting records should be reported, we caution voters against making too much of the matter.