Selling Newspapers

This is a response to recent newspaper accounts critical of the new Community Services District Board and Management, who are acting in the best interest of the Community:

Seems that every family has a crazy uncle, however, ours happens to own a newspaper. And ever since the publisher of the Mt Echo took it upon himself to pick and choose his own facts instead of asking for clarity from those he has targeted to malign, one must wonder if his tinfoil hat is experiencing some interference.

Sensationalizing a headline is one thing. But willful ignorance and fabrication in a story is quite another. I have attended several Community Service District (CSD) meetings and my one observation is that he asks far more questions in his articles and editorials than he does at the meetings. In fact, at the last required ‘public input meeting’ for the Municipal Service Review (MSR) the Echo publisher asked NO questions at all. Perhaps honest, direct answers stifles his creative juices.

And while he asks no questions, he does spend considerable effort phoning government officials, sticking his nose into their fiefdoms, requesting comments on documents generated for the benefit of the CSD and the citizens of this valley. Nevermind that the controversial document (the MSR) was intentionally developed to go far beyond the scope of the ‘offended’ agencies, due to its many other purposes, as detailed by Valarie Lakey the week before. I make no apologies for fees paid to a private consultant, when they are less than government lackeys with an agenda.

The MSR wasn’t added into law until 2000 under Govt. code 56000 and is, in part, “designed to capture and analyze information about governance, structures and efficiencies of service providers and identify opportunities for greater co-ordination and cooperation between providers”, (Contra Costa LAFCO). YES, EIGHT YEARS ‘BEFORE’ OUR RESCUE BEGAN.

So, for those little bitty minds at the Echo and Shasta LAFCO, the Fall River CSD in general and John Van den Berg in particular was acting, not just within their jurisdiction, but under the laws governing Special Districts when they reached out to other districts for ‘co-ordination and co-operation‘, as untimely as it may seem.

Therefore, I apologize for the Mt. Echo NOT discovering the incompetence, fraud, embezzlement and irresponsibility of previous CSD administrations sooner. Terry Briggs