Allow me to talk about the budget issue first. In January, in the midst of the pandemic and unprecedented economic issues, the County Council voted to increase the county budget by $1.1 million. With more than $1 million of your tax dollars, we did not increase the budget to support vaccination efforts. We did not spend that money to support first responders in this health emergency. We were making this big expenditure to increase the number of general county government positions including 2 deputy directors, a procurement analyst, a chief equity officer, Human Resource training, and others.

This is an example of government that is out of touch. Private businesses are doing more with less. Many people and businesses in the private sector are struggling. People are working fewer hours, businesses are struggling to make rent. Given all that, the government continues to grow unabated. Even a pandemic cannot stop the continuing growth of government.

On the issue of the immigration advisory committee, the Council has been debating and hearing from the public on the potential creation of an immigration commission. There has been much debate over the scope of this potential commission. There is concern that this commission will wade into controversial immigration policy issues that should be left to the federal government. There has frankly been concern that the commission will delve into the highly successful 287(g) program to hold criminal illegal immigrants on behalf of the federal government. As of the writing of this article, there has not been a final vote on this commission. We will have more public comment on this before a decision is made. Please feel free to make your voice heard on this issue and any others within the county.

Thank you and stay well.