Sacramento City Manager Howard Chan is punishing kids to pay for fat city raises | Opinion

Children wrongly punished

“Sacramento has a plan to address $66 million deficit. Here’s where you could pay more,” (sacbee.com, April 30)

Sacramento City Manager Howard Chan’s proposal regarding service cuts to address a $66 million dollar city deficit is short-sighted and punishing to our most vulnerable citizens: children.

Discontinuing a free regional bus service for students from Kindergarten through high school prevents those who do not have transportation from attending school regularly (the biggest issue that results in truancy) as well as a loss of education for students already lagging behind, affecting dropout rates and resulting in a loss of income for schools based on school attendance.

Shame on Darrell Steinberg for being a partner to a plan that sounds so simple, yet has an enormous and life-long effect on the very young. Maybe the exorbitant salary of our city manager could be reduced rather than placing extra burdens on the backs of children.

Melinda Lauten

Sacramento

Proposal for the UC

“Sacramento State students create encampment for Palestine,” (sacbee.com, May 2)

Regarding current student protests: Establishing a UC Student Council on Human Rights, which would provide advice to the UC Regents, could be a positive step forward. This council could help address the concerns of students and faculty while ensuring the university’s academic mission is not disrupted. The council could also provide a platform for students to engage in peaceful and respectful dialogue, rather than resorting to violent or disruptive tactics.

Gov. Gavin Newsom could potentially benefit from being associated with the establishment of such a council, as it would demonstrate his leadership and commitment to human rights and social justice.

Jim Frazier

Camarillo

Failed response

“31 arrested after students occupied Cal Poly Humboldt buildings, grounds for week over Gaza war,” (sacbee.com, April 30)

Cal Poly Humboldt President Tom Jackson Jr., crying crocodile tears, claims he’s brokenhearted over events that his administration exacerbated. While College of the Redwoods President Keith Flamer reportedly called for a ceasefire, Jackson chose not to take this simple action that likely would have defused things, instead calling in police who reportedly initiated last week’s violence and arrested non-resisting protesters, faculty and reporters.

Police are charging people with “failure to disperse from a riot” when there was no riot (as seen on livestream recordings of the protest). Meanwhile, other students who merely attended a protest in exercise of their First Amendment rights are trying to figure out how to fight an academic suspension due to a long list of violations they did not commit.

Dawn Wolfson

Cameron Park

Opinion

Water abuse

“Californians have a right to safe water, yet many don’t have it. Is help on the way?” (sacbee.com, May 1)

Opinion columnist Tom Philp is absolutely right that California has a moral imperative to ensure that all of our residents have access to safe, clean water despite our state’s water system failing many of us. We need our leaders to take on the extractive industries that are putting our water at risk in the first place: fossil fuels and industrial agriculture.

It takes 142 million gallons of water a day to maintain dairy cows on California’s mega-dairies. From January 2018 to March 2021, the oil and gas industry used more than 3 billion gallons of freshwater for drilling operations — the equivalent of more than 120 million showers.

If we consider water to be a human right, Gov. Gavin Newsom must continue to rein in the abuse of water by corporate agriculture and the fossil fuel industry.

Chirag Bhakta

California director, Food & Water Watch

San Francisco

Critique of Mai Vang

“This Sacramento City councilwoman could be the rare politician who keeps her promises,” (sacbee.com, April 20)

Councilmember Mai Vang is rare, that’s for sure. She’s rarely seen in Valley Hi and rarely attends neighborhood association and watch meetings. Unless there’s an opportunity for a social media post, Vang doesn’t appear interested.

We deserve a council member more focused on keeping our kids safe and making sure that people want to open businesses here and get the services that we are paying for from city hall. Instead of wasting $12 million of taxpayer dollars to overpay for 102-acres, where nearly half is wetlands, Vang should focus on why our parks are only being mowed once a month, our utility bills have gone up 30% since she’s been in office and our streets are covered in potholes.

Vang is no Bonnie Pannell or Darrell Fong, both of whom represented our community and spent time out of the spotlight, doing the hard work.

Steve Ramos

Sacramento

Cowardly Dems

“CA Democrats killed Vince Fong’s AB 2654 to keep NDAs safe,” (sacbee.com, April 26)

Thank you for publishing the opinion piece concerning our legislators’ voting down a proposed bill on non-disclosure agreements. Our governor is anti-democracy and petrified of public transparency, and our state legislators are cowards who turned their backs on the citizens who gave them power in the first place.

If California Democrats truly oppose dictatorial, secret governance, they need to strongly push back on their elected representatives and join the wave to stop Gov. Gavin Newsom’s growing dictatorship.

I am glad to see The Bee hold up the mirror to this frightening situation.

Kevin Shaffer

Davis

Placer air quality

“Sacramento got an F in air quality on American Lung Association report card. Here’s why,” (sacbee.com, April 27)

The American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air Report once again inappropriately gives Placer County an “F” grade for ozone and short-term particle pollution using data from 2020 to 2022. The region currently meets federal health-based air quality standards for short-term particle pollution and is on track to meet similar standards for summertime ozone within the next several years.

Placer County’s population grew over 17% from 2010-2022, and the number of vehicle registrations increased significantly. This growth is predicted to continue. Because cars, trucks and trains are the largest source of emissions in the county, creative strategies are required to ensure the region can accommodate increased air pollution.

Extensive strides continue to be made in reducing air pollution and improving air quality in Placer County. The number of smoggy summer days that exceeded the current 2015 ozone standard has declined from 85 days in 1990 to 15 days in 2022. So long as the region continues to grow and remains vulnerable to episodic poor air quality events from major wildfires, we will ensure that we continue to take every opportunity to improve air quality.

Erik White

Placer County Air Pollution Control Officer