Issue of chairman's 'self-promotion' isn't solved by sharing spotlight

Editor:

Dr. Russ Holloman's Oct. 23 response (letter, "Water-bill flyer isn't just self-promotion; it helps keep citizens informed,") to criticism of County Commission Chairman Ron Cross has two flaws aside from his obviously different opinion, to which he is entitled.

Cross does not promote himself through the medium of the county water bills. He promotes himself through the very expensive medium of the publication Endless Opportunities. It is delivered within the water bill envelope.

Holloman stated that in view of the most recent issue where Cross absented a photo of himself for photos of two other gentlemen; grounds for criticism were rendered baseless.

The criticism is not about any particular issue of Endless Opportunities; it is about the hundreds of thousands of issues carrying the photo of Cross which land in our homes in a year.

Holloman surely knows that The Columbia County News-Times is more than capable of disseminating information to the reading public, even inserting a picture of the interviewee in the text when appropriate.

Recently Cross' son-in-law, School Board member Mike Sleeper, answered complaints that the county does not provide foreign language instruction in all of the elementary schools by stating that there is just no place to get the money for such an undertaking.

He could ask his father-in-law to stop using public funds for his endless self-promotion, to let the local news medium dispense the news, and to use the thousands of dollars saved to serve our children (born into a global economy) with foreign language instruction.

Gene L. Rickaby

Martinez