Nevada County’s Failed Expert-Driven Ideology
After reading Heidi Hall’s supporter’s responses to our article about Hall disparaging a local resident, Michael Taylor pointed out to me that, as he sees things, Hall and Nevada County lack respect for local courts and the public when Hall and the County ignore court recommendations and grand jury recommendations:
Heidi is basically saying she doesn’t respect or agree with the decisions of the Nevada County Superior Court judge. Heidi and the board of supervisors also disregarded the Nevada County Superior Court judge who highly recommended not to appoint Gina Will to audit-controller. Heidi has demonstrated a lack of respect for the judicial system as well as the electoral process.
That may be so. Such thinking is certainly consistent with the general feeling of the public that our supervisors and the County lack respect for our residents, local businesses, and for taxpayer dollars. I would posit to you that such lack of respect for the people is a natural consequence of their ideology which is based upon the idea that the supervisors and the County are the “experts.”
Local Government Out of Control
The only thing that the supervisors and the County are experts at is spending other people’s money for their benefit. Last year, and instead of providing public election records to a member of our community as required by the California Constitution, the County with the support of the supervisors fought a losing battle for over a year to keep the public records hidden and had to pay attorney fees to the requester. Now during her campaign, Hall and the County are disparaging the same local resident for political gain. The theme here is that one should not question the local government, because they are the so-called “experts.”
Also, last year, the supervisors and the County used the Paradise Fire to scare the public and then to mislead the voters with Measure V in order to raise $12 million to protect the public. Prior to the failure of Measure V, the Court ended up removing some of the misleading and argumentative language from the ballot label. Apparently, the County “experts” can effectively run neither the County’s affairs with $380 million and needed yet another $12 million for the taxpayers nor an election for a ballot measure.
The County’s budget is over $380 million, and the CEO, Alison Lehman, who apparently is more of an “expert” than any CEO in any like sized county in California, made over $450,000 in salary and benefits in 2021. In fact, these self-styled “experts” are paying themselves quite handsomely. Folks in the community are beginning to question whether these exorbitant salaries are justified and whether expansive local government is even needed at all.
Number One Problem in Nevada County is the Local Government Itself
These examples are the consequences of a much larger problem. The number one problem in Nevada County, and the entire State of California, is not homelessness, crime, public corruption, public records, fire safety, or housing. It is this “expert-driven” government ideology, and the County itself which believes that, given enough taxpayer dollars, they can make everyone safe from everything. The problem is that there are unlimited wants and desires and a finite amount of taxpayer dollars. By definition, the County will eventually run out of taxpayer dollars, and that is exactly where we headed today. In addition, we have a state and county that spends gobs and gobs of money with no real benefit to the community. Don’t agree? Imagine 30 years ago, someone telling you, “I want to move to Idaho, because I do not like living in Nevada County, California.” Now such sentiment is not only shared every day among us, but our friends are also regularly leaving for Idaho and other destinations. In short, exploding the County budget from $120 million to over $380 million has not translated into any qualitative change for our small community, and in fact, the situation in Nevada County has only gotten worse.
There is a Better Way
Thankfully, there is a better way which will make us happier in the end. While we have a Constitution which provides for stability and continuity of government necessary for a society to be predictable for commerce purposes, we are not married to past generations’ worldviews. Indeed, as our American society has grown over time, our modern generations have shed the ancient worldview of the acceptability of slavery. Our present-day worldview shared by the supervisors and the County is dominated by another failed worldview which holds that “experts,” given sufficient taxpayer dollars, are in a position to make your life safer and better. All one needs to do is open one’s eyes and take a good, honest look at Nevada County, the State of California, and the federal government to see the truth in the failure of this “expert-driven” ideology. The time has come for us to shed this failed ideology in favor of a worldview founded upon the principle that we can take care of our own community without the shackles of an out-of-control government that cannot and will not listen to the will of those citizens whom it serves.
Residents in California and Nevada County have been begging government officials for years to eliminate much of the state and local government while other residents simply left their homes for greener pastures outside of California. Similar to the disrespect about which Taylor spoke and the disrespect Hall and the County display towards our local residents, Nevada County is not listening and is literally doubling down. Our first interface with county government is the board of supervisors, and if we cannot get our county government under control, we can never hope to contain the federal government. Indeed, if we continue to vote for supervisors whose only experience in the real world is government and who are ardent believers in this failed “expert-driven” ideology, we will continue to fail as a state and a county.
