Political Icebergs

Your article on county housing points out why the county should not be involved in ventures of this sort. The amalgam of politicians and county functionaries acting as administrators of housing is counterintuitive. We can do much better and must.

What is especially galling is the knowledge that those in the private sector who provide public housing are held to a standard stratospherically higher than those in government. If I had failed, in the least, in any of the legion of requirements set by HUD, I assure you there would have been prompt action by the division. To be sure, HUD regulations are a byzantine task to follow, but they are efficacious and for that very reason require hands-on compliance.

[Former supervisor Joni] Gray paid a $3,000 fine for transgressions that must surely have been the catalyst for a potential $3.5 million loss. But what of her fellow supervisors: Are they competent or fitted to oversee such matters? Politicians are much better suited to christening the Titanic, rather than understanding the mechanics necessary to avoid an ultimate, icy collision.