Fifth District Candidate Tom Lynch “Confronts the Real Issues”

In a recent Press Democrat editorial piece former Press Democrat editorial editor Pete Golis wrote an oped piece titled “Will county candidates confront the real issues?” Mr. Golis invited the different Supervisorial candidates to share their ideas about the future of Sonoma County...below is part of the heart and soul of our campaign.

In response to last Sunday’s column by Pete Golis titled, “Will county candidates confront the real issues?” Yes! For almost a year we have been advocating a reallocation of our resources toward the greatest needs in Sonoma County. We look forward to the Press Democrat covering the detailed positions of all the Fifth District candidates for Supervisor. The following is the heart and soul of our campaign.

A long difficult recession lies ahead with declining revenues and increasing expenditures. Our local governments have taken a windfall of increased property and sales taxes and given it to themselves with increased salaries and benefits with little increase in programs and services, nor additional funds expended on roads and infrastructure. For each of the last four years Sonoma County has reduced our essential services over each of the previous years.

A recent Sonoma County Housing report notes that since 2000 the median household income in the County has declined by 2%, while the County Strategic Plan notes that salaries and benefits for County staff have increased by 65%. Recent data received from County Administration shows that of the 4000 full time workers at the County, the top 1000 salary plus benefit average, is $165,378 per year! It doesn’t get any more real than that does it? This trend continues.

At the County we need to avoid the problems administrators of the City of Santa Rosa have recently created. In March the City entered into a contract giving workers a 13% raise over the next three years. If one were to add “step raises”, increased retirement set aside and increased health care costs…there are many workers who will receive over 20% more in salaries and benefits during this period. Two weeks later City administrators expressed concern at declining revenue and said there may be massive lay-offs and furloughs without “revenue adjustments”.

Our current Board of Supervisors are in the midst of very difficult negotiations trying to reform unfunded promises made by previous Boards. They are also dealing with large unexpected increases in retirement set asides and health care costs. The County is negotiating in good faith one year contracts with labor because we don’t know what the future portends. Promised benefits that County workers have depended upon and planned their retirement around for years may change; the alternative is layoffs and an eventual collapse of the whole system. I do not envy them their task.

There are deep fiscal problems ahead and we must try to avoid the bankruptcy fate of Vallejo. Unfunded obligations made by government can be thrown out by a bankruptcy judge; and in order to avoid a societal meltdown don’t think the Federal Government wouldn’t pass emergency laws to allow government to renegotiate unfunded pension and benefit promises just like United Airlines and General Motors have done. We all need to work together using our heads and our hearts to solve problems; divided we fail.

I have met and spoken with many County workers as well as the Deputy Sheriffs Association, Service Employee International Union (SEIU), and the North Bay Labor Council. All have asked what should we do to remedy the Counties budget problems. I have said to all, we are in a recession and in order to avoid the layoff of hundreds of County workers and further cuts in essential services we need a temporary freeze on salaries and benefits. We cannot expect the County to solve all of our problems; we need to enlist the support and involvement of everyone in our community to be part of the solution…we need to leverage our tax dollars to greatest effect by restoring cuts to our struggling non-profit and volunteer organizations.

More resource needs to be applied to prevention not reaction; more gains from contributors, less the liability of our failures. We have criminalized poverty, and ignorance and mental illness. With 5% of the World’s population we now have 25% of the global prison population in the United States. In a recent interview retiring Supervisor Mike Reilly noted that in the last few years our criminal justice costs have gone from 40% of the general fund to 60%. We cannot arrest ourselves out of our problems. It is not right to burden law enforcement with the care of our mentally ill…we must restore cuts to Human Services and Mental Health programs.

The measure of all our challenges with respect to the environment, the economy and government services is sustainability. We are in the midst of the largest transference of wealth from younger generations to older generations in the history of the world. We have to have courage and vision to face these issues together and solve them. “Together Toward A Sustainable Future” is our slogan. Join us!