Pacific County to sacrifice for the higher good?

 

Note: I write this as a tax-paying citizen with the right of freedom of speech to express my opinions. My opinions are my own and do not reflect in any way any kind of official policy or position of the Department of Social and Health Services.

Locally we’ve been advised by the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) of an intent to close down the local office in South Bend as soon as possible.

Apparently DSHS managers believe that the higher budgetary good will be served by tossing the residents of North Pacific County under the bus.

The savings?

Well, rent on the office space will decrease a little bit which might take a huge $10,000 bite out of a statewide 6 billion dollar budget deficit.

Utility bills at the space might create a savings of ... oh … say another $4-5000

I wonder that perhaps the objective is not real budget savings, but more a PR attempt on the part of DSHS to make it appear they are seriously trying to help a spending problem by eliminating “eliminatable” expenses that won’t generate much backlash.

Backlash?

Like hell this one won’t.

We who work at DSHS are not at risk of losing our jobs … as I understand it we would be allowed to commute to Aberdeen or Long Beach and work there. There will be no savings by reducing wages for the affected workers.

Also, I am about to retire and I don’t like the idea of the limited access to state resources for me and my neighbors.

This is not about saving anybody’s state job. For me it’s all about the state deliberately stranding an entire community in a circumstance of undeserved lack of the same convenient access to necessary public services that exists statewide.

I’ll paint this picture for you as to what happens when bureaucrats crunch numbers and decide that small and rural communities are more expendable and with apparently less negative public outcry than what might happen in urban areas where more voters reside.

In Pacific County with seriously declined timber and fishing industries, unemployment remains among the highest in the state.

In Pacific County, living expenses are lower which is sort of nice but which also invites with consistent regularity low-income families and retiree’s – particularly those on fixed incomes – to move here ... because they can afford to live here.

A perennially poor economy coupled with a large number of low-to- moderate level fixed income households has always meant a much greater percentage of customers in need of medical, food and cash assistance coming through the doors.

The DSHS office is within walking distance from South Bend and for those younger and more vigorous types able to walk further, Raymond is not too far away for a hike to see us. Regardless, that office is essentially within 15 highway miles of more than 80% of our community.

Although DSHS has attempted a mighty transition to a telephone and online interactive relationship with citizens (agency managers praise the new “Service Delivery” program with its technology-driven touch screens in the lobbies and a telephone call center presence for the convenience of calling from home), the truth is that statewide and especially in rural areas, only the younger set is able to consistently succeed with 21^st century communication techniques.

All the CSO’s are getting walk-in clients: the elderly, the handicapped, those deemed eligible for the remaining cash assistance and who cannot afford telephones, private transportation and who are not easily persuaded to dive into intimidating internet waters.

In Pacific County, those walk-in clients will be the principal casualties of a highly questionable decision to save money on a small scale while what appears to be a bureaucratic desire to appease of a politically reactionary legislature and urban public audience of whom the agency seems to have greater fear.

In Pacific County, the buses do not run half-hourly, or hourly. If locals will be required to travel to Aberdeen or Long Beach to access DSHS services, public transportation won’t work well.

You can ride a bus to Aberdeen in the morning and successfully return in the evening because buses in Aberdeen returning to Pacific County won’t be available - even if your DSHS business only requires an hour. You cannot get the door-to-door service of urban bus systems that function every 30-60 minutes throughout the day.

If you are wheel-chair bound or fixed-income limited and even drive a 40-mile-per-gallon efficiency vehicle, you will need to spend the dollars out of that budget to finance a round-trip to Aberdeen or Long Beach at the current fuel price of close to $4 per gallon …

Try that on severely limited fixed income.

The truth of the matter is that the decision to throw Pacific County under the bus is the least viable alternative.

With just a single example – the 70-mile round trip effort to access DSHS services in a nearby city – consider this:

Tacoma is not 35 miles across. There are 3 offices in Tacoma, all on the city bus lines and to which most citizens can easily access transportation every 30-60 minutes.

Puyallup is not 35 miles from Tacoma, again within a more reasonable travel distance than that between North Pacific County and Aberdeen or Long Beach.

That same circumstance describes the multiple office locations in King and Spokane counties.

Would it not have made more sense to close an urban office where sister offices can more easily take up the slack than ask the poor and elderly in our county to “take one for the team?”

If ever an electorate needed to shake up the politicians and get the attention of those who have the ability to resolve this silliness before it’s too late …

Now is the time …

Citizens, put down your clickers, let go of your keyboards, get off the couch and close up the munchies bag, pick up your phone or write out a letter …

… ask your leadership what they are doing about things … and why.