Latest letters include controversy over how many hours Citrus Heights Planning Commission members actually spend on their job, as well as an accusation of political bias in The Sentinel’s election map.
No, planning commissioners don’t spend 20 hours per week on the job
[RE: Candidate wins legal fight with City of Citrus Heights over election dispute; Aug. 30] Interesting article on Porsche Middleton’s legal win and she is now allowed to use “Planning Commissioner” as her occupation. The Citrus Heights Planning Commission is scheduled the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. Very often the meetings are cancelled due to the lack of Planning Commission business. She stated under penalty of perjury that she spends 20 hours per week on Citrus Heights Planning Commission business. Wow, 20 hours a week? I am also a planning commissioner on the same Commission. We don’t even meet twice a month as scheduled. I can’t remember when Porsche has offered any substantive reflection or public commentary on the material presented at the planning commission meetings. The minutes are public record. I would testify that on average I spend two or three hours a week (8-12 hours per month) on Planning Commission business. “Under Penalty of Perjury,” I guess that means different things to different people.
-Tim Schaefer, Citrus Heights Planning Commissioner
‘Lies, damned lies, and statistics’
[RE: Citrus Heights: see how your neighborhood voted in the June election; Aug. 30] Dear Sentinel: I think that you should file this article under the heading “Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Your very RED map (what readers “see”) would be purple or much more blue if you were to tally the total Republican votes (Cox and Allen) versus the total Democratic votes (Newsom, Chiang and Villaraigosa), rather than basing your map strictly on Cox vs. Newsom. One might venture to guess that you have a political agenda to push here, rather than merely reporting the news. Good Day.
-Sentinel reader
*Publisher’s Note: In response, The Sentinel has published an alternate map for comparison which shows precincts colored red or blue based on the total Republican votes versus total Democratic votes, rather than only based on the party affiliation of the top vote-getter. Using this method, one previously red precinct turned blue, while all the other precincts remained the same color as the original map. Click here to see the alternate map.
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