Unsurprisingly, public faith in government is at a low point according to various polls and studies. “Government provides security, not only by protecting against physical danger, but also by providing reassurance that it is competent and confident about our collective ability to master the challenges we confront,” writes Bill Galston, Senior Fellow of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institute. “By that standard, today’s elected officials have failed miserably.” Galston’s comments may have been directed at the federal representatives but the same can be said for elected officials right here in Coos County.
Case in point. Commissioner Melissa Cribbins authored an anti-charter editorial for The World that included patently false statements. Bemoaning a provision in the proposed home rule charter requiring voter approval of capital purchases or asset disposal that exceed $165,000 Cribbins claims, “…timber sale contracts are nearly always more than the arbitrary limit set by the proposed charter. Timber sale contracts bring money into the county budget. These sale contracts will be lost if they have to wait months for
voter approval, or they will come in at pennies on the dollar, as buyers are forced to subtract the costs of the uncertainty of the contract from their bid.” Think what you will about the charter but Cribbins’ statement made in a very public forum is simply untrue. Section 14.2 (f) of the proposed charter reads as follows: “Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Charter, a public vote is not required to allow the harvesting or disposition of crops, timber, or other products growing upon county land. ”
Whether Cribbins, a lawyer, is simply too arrogant and immature to actually read a document before she denigrates it on social media, or doesn’t understand what she reads, or worse, is just downright dishonest, it all bodes ill for the citizens of Coos County. How often is she this careless?
Cribbins along with John Sweet who has also been caught making factually incorrect statements make for a dangerous combination and certainly do nothing to invite the public trust.
