California forum letters: Bee readers take on PG&E, Kaiser, Sacramento jail
PG&E responds
“PG&E has destroyed enough California communities. It’s time for a public takeover,” (sacbee.com, Nov. 5)
Your recent editorial suggested that PG&E needs to change. I’m here to tell you: Change is happening. When I came to PG&E, I was hired by an entirely new Board of Directors and assembled a new leadership team bringing experience and a fresh perspective. This is a new company, one committed to ending catastrophic wildfires in California. Our 40,000 coworkers and contract partners have dedicated their professional careers to making it right and making it safe, every day. Our efforts are working. Since July, we’ve used new powerline safety settings to reduce ignitions on enabled circuits by 80%. I recognize that we have more work to do.
Patti Poppe
CEO, PG&E Co.
Disband PG&E
“PG&E has destroyed enough California communities. It’s time for a public takeover,” (sacbee.com, Nov. 5)
I lived in San Bruno for 31 years and was two miles away from the gas line explosion. I watched in horror as part of my community burned. I had friends affected by it, and anger still remains that PG&E’s negligence caused it. Their people could not even figure out what was going on to get the gas line shut down. I now live in Orangevale, where SMUD is the electric supplier. We have lower rates, and they are proactive about trimming trees and keeping the public informed. Disbanding for-profit PG&E and reforming it into a similar community-owned utility needs to be done. It’s obvious that lawsuits, fines and judgements don’t prompt PG&E to change.
Carol White
Orangevale
Affordable for all
“California created a fund to cover utilities’ wildfire costs. PG&E may be first to use it,” (sacbee.com, Nov. 3)
Anyone who lives in the foothills or forests braces for the next fire season, no matter how much we prepare. This makes me an advocate for rooftop solar. PG&E and other utilities throughout California are lobbying the California Public Utilities Commission to include monthly penalties and slash the net metering program. Those living in fire-prone areas have their lives at stake five months out of the year. I urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to stand up to PG&E to keep rooftop solar affordable and accessible to all working-class citizens.
Caroline Batch
Copperopolis
Save next gen
“Inside and outside climate talks, youths urge faster action,” (sacbee.com, Nov. 6)
Climatologists have long predicted droughts, wildfires and flooding. They agree that these threats to mankind and the ecosystem, if not checked, will worsen. It’s a scientific fact: The more carbon we emit into the atmosphere, the hotter it will get. Officials in positions of power must work together to support all local, national and international efforts to avert this predicted catastrophe. The effect on the economy now will be as a mosquito at a picnic compared, decades later, to a mad elephant trashing everything if the warming is not abated this decade. As a 92-year-old, I will not suffer the major adversities that will plague the younger age group. You will be hated by your descendants if you have an opportunity to save them and fail to do so.
Harvey Jones
Folsom
Deception
“The racists next door: Inside a California church that preaches a whites-only gospel,” (sacbee.com, Nov. 7)
In 1998 I was reviewing requests for campus access from off-campus groups at Sacramento State. Stephen McNallen applied for access, calling his group “Asatru Folk Foundation,” and described their purpose as “the study of folk traditions and crafts of the California foothills.” This was a lie. As soon as his request was approved, he and his small entourage headed to the quad to protest against Winnie Mandela, who was speaking on campus that day. Their efforts were quickly stopped, but I never forgot the deception they used to gain access to our university. Thank you for your thorough reporting on the group.
Don Tucker
Folsom
Support workers
“Kaiser would hurt California workers and patients by creating second-class employees,” (sacbee.com, Nov. 9)
As a Kaiser patient, I am extremely concerned at the approach being taken by Kaiser management to squeeze the salaries of new healthcare employees. Human resources executive Arlene Peasnall laments that Kaiser salaries in California are 27% above market rate, but the cost of living in California is also much higher. These health care workers are priceless and deserve every dollar they earn. How can Kaiser’s leadership be so out of touch as to act in a way that makes it harder to hire the best health care staff and create even more difficult conditions for these valuable workers?
Patty A. Gray
Citrus Heights
Relocate jail
“‘It’s a nightmare.’ The downtown jail incubates dangerous inmates and unleashes them on us,” (sacbee.com, Nov. 10)
The city visionaries brought a downtown arena to the area and gleefully supported pricey boutique hotels and food joints moving into the area. They’d already booted out most of the residents of the modest, grimy residential hotels (single-room occupancy) since “those people” didn’t mesh with the vision of a new, gleaming (and expensive) urban core. Of course, having a jail in the prime real estate area doesn’t make sense. Did that location even make sense years ago when the thing was built? Ahh, but all the “right folks” working in courts and law enforcement wanted this stuff downtown for their convenience. Times have changed. Relocate the place and the various services clinging to it. How many other vibrant cities around the country have this type of complex in their now-thriving downtown areas?
Robert D. Rystad
Citrus Heights