Letters

Now that the election is over and tempers have cooled, I would like to explore why election times have to be so vitriolic? Why can not an election dialogue be civil? We should be very thankful for the numerous freedoms that we, as Americans enjoy and often take for granted — such as voting, freedom of speech, and a right to our own personal opinions. America is one of the few countries that can have a complete change in governing regimes without mass upheavals from the people, yet we choose to attack those with whom we disagree with vile words.
The past presidential election discourses seemed to abound with an insatiable desire to belittle those with differing ideas. Political ads, which came in spades, were revolting in the way they attacked the opposing party. Often the attacks were not focused on particular issues, but rather were replete with slanderous verbiage. What happened to the days of spirited debates in the public square? What happened to dissecting ideas rather than people? Why can we not have a “grown-up” discussions with people of different persuasions, rather than all of the childish backbiting attacks?

This past week our newest county councilor Rick Reiss and councilors-elect Kristin Henderson, Pete Sheehey and Steve Girrens attended a County Governance Boot Camp in Albuquerque.
Though no physical training, close order drills or snap inspections were involved, we were indoctrinated to several aspects of county commissioner service including roles and responsibilities, ethics and professionalism, employment law, finance policy, jail management and liability, statutory government structure and legislative process.  
We also heard from veteran commissioners conveying lessons learned and their insights relative to current issues statewide.  
The Boot Camp was hosted by the New Mexico Association of Counties of which Los Alamos County is a member.  More than 100 elected officials and county managers were in attendance.  We were particularly impressed by a few counties who had all standing and new commissioners as well as their county manager attending as a team.   The presentations and experiences delivered were informative, eye-opening and in some cases a little sobering.  
Regardless, we have confidence we will remain enthusiastic to join our three veteran councilors and serve.  Our county administrator encouraged we attend Boot Camp.  Thank you Harry!

The Sunday morning Los Alamos Monitor reminded us of just how close we came to killing some children at the Montessori School on Canyon Road. Why?
Because as County Engineer Kyle Zimmerman tells us, our safety is  held hostage by a few “irrational” drivers.
Not only do we not control them, but it seems difficult to even know  who the people are who are trying to kill us, including another driver who crashed the same week on Main Hill Road while,  driving aggressively and passing another vehicle.
Often, we don’t even know if the motorists were even cited!
Perhaps the first level of dealing with dangerous drivers is not to ask the county to spend more money on traffic studies to change speed  limits, but to arrest and prosecute reckless and careless drivers, put their faces in newspapers, and take away their driver’s licenses. After all, these are often not “accidents” caused by bad weather or poor facilities. They are caused by deliberate risk  taking —because there seems to be no risk to being held accountable by the community.
Driving is not a right. When you abuse your driving privileges and endanger the community, you must lose that privilege. It’s about time we made that stick. Preferably, before there is innocent blood spilled in the road.

Some considerations to help us move through denial and on to acceptance of the sewer rate increases soon to appear on our utility bills.
A typical first response is to send a proposed rate increase back to the utility company because its profits are high enough without a rate increase.
The Los Alamos wastewater utility is municipally-owned, has no stockholders and no profit margin.
 It must collect what it costs to operate the wastewater system.
A second common response is that someone else should pay, perhaps by getting a grant or maybe hoping that the Zia Company will take care of it for us.
With the exception of our new wastewater treatment plant in Pueblo Canyon, someone else did pay for our sewer system, many years ago, and then transferred it to Los Alamos County as a gift.
That gift is now wearing out and it is our turn to pay. A third response is that sewer bills in Los Alamos should match those of Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Unlike Santa Fe and Albuquerque, Los Alamos must convey sewage across mesa and canyon terrain by means of a complex and expensive pipe and pump network.
Once accepting that we have to pay the costs of upgrading our aging sewer system, there are questions about which we rate payers can constructively inform ourselves and express our opinions.