Editorial

The specifics of the effort to re-draft the JPA governing the County Library System came to my attention very late in the process. I was pleased to read the paragraph in the draft revision which proposed allowing communities to provide supplemental funds for local branches. When the county library system budget does not meet locally perceived needs a community could support their local branch. The Monday closure of the branches, in place for the last three years, could be reversed by allowing communities to fund Monday library services. It would be a valuable mechanism for communities to have library services responsive to local needs.

The City of Healdsburg is updating its granny unit ordinance and needs your input to build a more effective and robust granny unit program. Would it serve your family to have a rentable granny unit?

July 1 is the start of a new fiscal year for local governments. This is when the county, cities and schools start spending new tax money based on recently approved 2016-2017 budgets. All these budgets tend to launch with the same conclusions: there is never enough tax revenue; there are too many unmet needs; employee and pension costs keep going up; and everything could be solved if we only agreed to raise new taxes and vote for more long term debt bonds.

I’m not a slogan kind of thinker. In fact, slogans really bug me. Whenever I hear one of those pithy little phrases that are supposed to sum up what needs to be said and put me firmly on one side of an issue, I immediately go into question mode.

We are a group of Healdsburg residents who represent a variety of political affiliations and opinions. But we are united in our belief that Healdsburg residents, City Council, City staff, and employee unions need to work together NOW to solve the financial/pension crisis that Healdsburg, like so many other communities, is facing.

Summer means time away from school, homework assignments and