I had to laugh at your “impression”. Great job!!

How can it be called “Restitution” if you still need a $250k insurance settlement — more than the value you are calling “Restitution” — to bring the County “even”?

Not to mention the cost of investigation, prosecution, and incarceration.

Please explain this to me.

I take issue with Pollitt’s memory of the budget hearing. It wasn’t “cut spending except for what I like.” Instead, there were a group of people there to advocate for the West Side Community Center. They wanted their favorite thing preserved. That was clearly an organized group. The other speakers, however, said that cuts should be made. I don’t recall anyone talking about areas that should be exempt from cuts, except maybe police.

Looking at myself (since I was one of the speakers), I don’t use a lot of county services, but I do utilize the library. If it has to cut back hours or eliminate days of service, that will affect my “favorite thing,” but I think it should be done. Our club uses Schumaker Park and will have to pay a higher fee for its use next year, but that’s fair.

I think many of us who were advocating cuts feel the same as I do. Pollitt likes to smear those of us who want restraint in government spending as being motivated by selfishness. Fiscal prudence isn’t the same as selfishness, though. If I were being as ungenerous as he, then I’d say maybe this is because Pollitt has no idea what fiscal prudence is, so he is searching for an explanation that makes sense to him. However, I won’t cast aspersions on his character as he casts aspersions on ours. I’ll just say that he’s simply wrong and needs to listen better to what the citizens are saying instead of dismissing their reasonable suggestions.