County is wasting money, should end self-promotion with mailings

Editor:

In response to my recent letter regarding my opinion that Columbia County Commission Chairman Ron Cross is engaging in "tacky politics" in sending his photo along with every water/sewer/rain tax statement, I received several phone calls.

While each caller agreed with me, they expressed real concern over the actual dollar cost of his self-promoting flyer. One caller noted that aside from the cost of the materials, someone must be receiving a salary (taxpayers' dollars) to put the "Endless Opportunities" flyer together each month. It was also pointed out that many of the flyers' photos were previously seen in The Columbia County News-Times.

Checking with a couple of local printing firms, I came up with some interesting figures. To print 1,000 similar flyers (color and both sides) would cost $980 plus tax. As the county sends out about 60,000 of these flyers each month, we are talking real money even considering the discount goes up as the amount goes down. We are talking nearly three-fourths of a million flyers each year.

Both of the private firms advised me that their prices did not involve the use of the very slick paper on which Cross' photo dominates. Duplicating the paper quality would raise the price considerably.

Why not end these "endless opportunities" for self-promotion of our chairman, and use the money for police and fire protection? This paper has more than adequate writing talent to provide the public with any information helpful to the county citizenry. This, of course, assumes that Cross discusses public matters publicly.

Gene Rickaby

Martinez