West County Gazette Oped Pieces

By Tom "Manure Man" Lynch

A couple of Oped pieces in Vesta Copestakes' West County Gazette regarding the need to freeze salaries and benefits to avoid lay-off of less senior County workers.

The Registrar of Voters allowed us to use my nickname on the June ballot. In January of 1986, in protest of Santa Rosa's illegal discharges of wastewater in the Russian River, I drove a tractor and a broadcast manure spreader through downtown Santa Rosa and covered four city blocks with cow manure. Since then I have been honored with the nickname "Manure Man". The Registrar staff laughed and said this is going to be an interesting election.

Our campaign flyer says, "We must freeze County salaries and benefits and restore funds to our nonprofit and volunteer organizations. To avoid the loss of hundreds of County jobs from Human Services, Public Safety, and Mental Health along with more cuts in essential services, we must reallocate our resources to serve the greatest needs in Sonoma County." This is the heart and soul of our campaign.

We continue ...Since 2000 the "median household income" in Sonoma County has declined by 2%. Salaries and benefits for County workers has increased by 63.5%...Of 4000 County staff the average compensation for the top 1000 is over $160,000 a year!

A long difficult recession lies ahead with declining revenues and increasing costs. The County has taken a windfall of increased property taxes and given it to themselves, with no increase in services nor additional tax dollars spent on roads and infrastructure. For each of the last four years the County has reduced programs and services. Especially hard hit have been our Human Services and Mental Health programs including closure of Oakcrest (Norton), the Fulton Road facility and now cutbacks to the alcohol and drug treatment programs at the Orenda Center.

The last two weeks have been very interesting with union meetings for many candidates. I have met with a committee of the Deputy Sheriff's Association (DSA 500+), spoke to an auditorium full of Service Employee International Union members (SEIU 3000+), and answered questions from representatives of most of the labor unions in Northern California at a forum hosted by the North Bay Labor Council. I will be forever grateful to all the unions for their gracious hospitality. As Supervisor my door would always be open as I represent the unions interests balanced with the interests of all my constituents.

I shared with unions the same message I've been saying to the rank and file members of all our public employee unions for months now. I've talked with members of Sonoma's finest...Sheriff's deputies walking the streets of Guerneville, I've met Permit and Resource Management Department staff tasked with protecting our land and resources, Human Service and Mental Health professionals. I am offering honest and realistic solutions to our problems.

What I have said at debates and to individuals alike when asked how do we address our budget problems. We need a temporary freeze on salaries and benefits in order to avoid further cuts in essential services and lay-offs of County workers. Going into a recession we need more County workers helping people, not less. Also we can't expect our County workers to provide all our essential services by themselves, we all have to step up to the plate and participate in improving our communities...one way is by leveraging our tax dollars to greatest effect by restoring the cuts to our struggling non-profit and volunteer organizations. Further, we all need to work toward more prevention and less reaction, more the gains from our contributors, less the liability of our failures.

I grew up in Iowa as an "economically disadvantaged" child. Our public servants helped my family, and three out of four "at risk" children became contributors, one became a liability and the Orenda Center helped him on his road to recovery. As Supervisor I look forward to working with our County staff, non-profits and volunteers. "Together Toward A Sustainable Future."

One more column before the June 3 election (thank you Vesta!). To those who support what we have to say, go to our website http://www.tomlynch4supervisor.com/ and join us. Spread the word to all that you support our pragmatic progressive agenda. Thank you for your support!

Posted by Tom Lynch at 8:01 PM 0 comments Tuesday, March 25, 2008 Thank You SEIU and the Deputy Sheriff's Association!! Tonight was a very difficult one for me. I felt more stress than when I covered four city blocks of downtown Santa Rosa with cow manure from a broadcast manure spreader 22 years ago. I was invited to address within an hour of each other the Sonoma County Deputy Sheriff's Association and the Service Employee International Union.

Both unions represent a total of 3600 +/- County workers and my mission was to meet them both and try to get their support for my supervisorial campaign. The deputy sheriff's association was a small cordial election committee with good questions...SEIU was a raucus caucus with over 150 members, again with lots of good questions. Why did I feel so stressed? Part of my solution to the budget problems of Sonoma County is calling for an across the board freeze on salaries and benefits in order to protect the jobs of less senior County workers.

I have spent countless hours trying to fathom the County budget and craft a realistic solution to save jobs, programs and services. I believe as a candidate for public office it is incumbent upon me to offer honest solutions. To me the inescapable conclusion going into a recession with declining revenues and increased costs is three fold...

1). We need to freeze salaries and benefits to avoid more cuts in social services and mental health programs. 2). We need to reorient our resources to more proactive and preventive measures rather than reactive solutions. 3). We need to restore cuts to non-profits and volunteer organisations to work with us toward solving problems.

Thank You SEIU and the Deputy Sheriff's Association for being such gracious hosts and letting me explain my positions. There are tough days ahead and I sincerely believe we need to build up our reserves and hold the line to avoid more lay-offs. We desperately need more of the essential services our public servants provide.

You welcomed me and made me feel at home...I like the term "Bedouin hospitality" whereby if one invites someone into their tent they are to be treated as family so as to not dishonor their house. Both groups excelled with warm collegial hospitality and I will be forever grateful to them for that.

There are hard times ahead. We all need the courage to discuss the issues openly and honestly without fear nor recriminations. Tonight was a break through for me where many dark imaginings I've had of proposing realistic solutions proved to be unwarranted. Thank you again to our County workers for allowing me an opportunity to share my thoughts on creating a sustainable future.