Bad Timing

I was shocked when I recently read that on Tuesday, October 6, the County Board of Supervisors voted themselves a 3 percent salary increase.

At this troubled time for both our nation and our county, when businesses have closed or laid off employees, and when employees cannot pay rent or their bills, and worry about their future, the only acceptable actions for the board to have considered on the subject of their salaries, was either to defer the matter to next year or, better still, to have willingly agreed to a voluntary reduction in their pay and benefits.

The supervisors who voted to increase their salaries are the same individuals who, when running for the office, emphatically and repeatedly told the voters how they truly understood their concerns and how they would devote their time and energies in office to address those concerns and serve the public.

Yet, when given the opportunity on October 6 to show their understanding of, and heartfelt concern for, the economic plight of their constituents, they chose their own financial self-interest.

Shame on them.