Letters to the Editor: April 28

Chuck Huckelberry resigned as county administrator on July 4, 2021, to the surprise of the Pima County Board of Supervisors recently. He earned his salary of $292,000 in 2021 despite his resignation. He then started earning his pension set at $100,000 a year. Although his contract with the county was legal it is certainly a dubious one because no one was allowed to apply for the position of administrator. The real story here is that this was kept quiet and were it not for his unfortunate bike accident, Huckelberry would not have resigned. His resignation was not the story but it was the cover up from the fact that he worked part time for such a large salary. Let that sink in residents of Pima County.

Roberto Martinez

South side

Huckelberry actions almost criminal

Where is the uproar on Chuck Huckelberry’s special, no-one-knows contract? Is this to get every dime from the taxpayers he possibly can? Terrible, almost criminal.

Michael Huerta

Northeast side

Invasion of Ukraine

Re: the April 13 letter “Invasion of Ukraine.”

The letter implying Vladimir Putin waited to invade Ukraine until Joe Biden was president was far off base. I think the reason Putin didn’t invade while Donald Trump was president was because he was waiting for Trump to pull out of NATO as he requested him to do. The invasion would have been much easier without NATO to worry about. Under Biden and the accompanying sanctions, NATO has made this invasion less successful than Putin anticipated.

Duane Harpet

Northwest side

TEP’s pass-on costs to customers

Re: the April 14 article “TEP bills to increase average of $4 a month.”

TEP wants to recoup $108 million in unanticipated fuel and purchased power costs through a $12/month surcharge on top of customers’ normal electricity bills. Every year, TEP passes the cost of poor planning, inefficient operations and volatile gas prices right onto its customers.

Arizona can do better. In 10 states that permit Community Choice Energy, cities and counties aggregate customers’ loads, purchase electricity at a bulk discount, and pass savings of 2%-10% on to customers. Importantly, 30 million CCE customers now sign fixed-rate contracts, so there are no surprise surcharges. They can choose among plans that maximize savings, maximize clean energy or are a mix of both. Consumer demand causes a rapid shift to renewable energy. So, rate spikes for volatile gas are minimized — because sun and wind are free.

Judith Anderson

Midtown

COVID-19 ongoing

Re: the April 6 letter “Immigration/Title 42.”

The letter writer asserted that the use of Title 42 was a “trumped-up political policy intended to arouse the tribal, anti-migrant urges so prevalent in America nowadays. And since we now possess the tools to control COVID-19, Title 42’s public-health claims have become irrelevant.” The policy was put into place to prevent people coming into the country illegally who may have COVID. Thousands have entered the country over the last two years and tested positive for COVID. The Biden administration chose to selectively apply Title 42 removals mostly to single adults, but allow hundreds of thousands of family and unaccompanied minors entry. We have the medical tools to minimize the health effects of COVID, but not control it. The Star reported that for the week ending March 30, there were thousands of new cases of COVID and about 400 deaths statewide in Arizona. Minimized from previous highs, but not controlled. Biden just extended deferring student loan payments until August. Justification? Ongoing COVID.

Paula Martin

Vail

Team kneeling

Re: the April 23 article “Praying coach asks Supreme Court for job back.”

A newscaster recently observed that one of the problems with the high school coach’s midfield prayers was that other players, including nonbelievers, will feel that pressure to kneel. That pressure is never more real than in high school, and it can present real problems. One guy taking a humble knee at the 50-yard line to trumpet his piety, that’s not much of a problem. But when the team starts huddling for Christ, as a team, that’s religion, and it carries the same divisive potential shared by all Western religions.

Hal Hill

Benson

Water for developments

Re: the April 24 article “Big rental community planned near Tucson.”

I ask “Where is the water coming from?” I do not understand how these projects gain approval. All new housing should require new standards including: composting toilets, low-flow water faucets (especially shower heads), front-load washing machines, water-saving dishwashers, gray water systems hooked up for mandatory use, rainwater catchment systems and landscape plants must be irrigated with rain water (no tap water).

The composting toilets on the Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon are totally satisfactory. If that is too “disgusting” for some people, at a minimum, the toilets must be lowest flow available and the yellow mellow system must be followed.

The Colorado River is in dire straits, groundwater pumping causes neighboring wells to go dry and eventually creates serious sinkholes. Willcox is an excellent example of these consequences. Desalinization is truly out of the question. Again, refer to Gary Nabhan’s commentary on this issue. There simply is no endless supply of water to meet our needs.

Mary Wellington

Northwest side

Starve the teachers

I am having a hard time understanding why the Arizona Legislature treats the public school teachers the way it does. They have billions in surplus, yet Arizona teachers are some of the lowest paid in the country.

Are they holding a stick over their heads and saying “we are in charge and you better do as told”? Or do they want an uneducated bunch of citizens that can’t think for themselves and will do whatever the television tells them to do?

Teachers should be fairly paid, supported and respected. If Arizona was a great place to teach, the best teachers would want to be here and hopefully the students would want to learn and participate in building a better future for all.

Robert McNeil

Midtown

Stopping an “objectionable” lesson

Lots of people are saying anybody should have the right to stop any classroom lesson they find offensive or damaging to children.

Let’s do a little thought experiment.

Think about the dumbest person you know of. Doesn’t matter if they are liberal or conservative, just that you consider them stupid. That one person that is fooled by everything. The most gullible, easiest to manipulate, lie-spewing moron to walk the

Earth.

Got a picture of them in your mind? See them clearly, all the way down to that little bit of drool dribbling down their chin? Good.

That is now the standard to which your child will be educated. All classroom decisions will now be made to keep that person happy.

If you still think letting anybody object to a class lesson or book is a good idea after doing this exercise, you are the person that everyone else pictured.

David Reynolds

East side