Managers’ Salary Cuts Would Raise Savings

Re “County’s $100,000 Salary Circle,” Dec. 22:

The county hospitals are on the verge of collapse. Nurses, respiratory and radiology services are being closed down while the patient population keeps growing and is sicker than ever. What to do?

The solution seems clear: County Chief Administrative Officer Sally Reed could have a surge of creative inspiration. She could take a cut in salary and rescind the pay raises she gave her staff. She could then reduce her staff, rehire some laid off medical staff and reopen some county health clinics. This move would save several clinic patients from hypertensive crises and strokes, thereby saving the county literally millions of dollars in intensive care unit costs with a little inexpensive preventive care. What a stroke of genius!

With sudden across-the-board inspiration, the rest of the county officers and managers would see the error of their ways. They would voluntarily roll back their wages to pre-inflated levels, Gov. Wilson would suddenly realize that the most equitable solution for the extra money found in the budget would be to return the money he took from the county for the past three years, and the voters wouldn’t have to vote the current officers out of their jobs.

Is this possible, or is it merely a figment of “the Christmas that might have been?”

MARCY BREGMAN

Valencia