Letter to the Editor: Character matters
Telling the Truth
If telling the truth is important to you when voting for Sheriff, the following may be of interest. If you’re one of those voters who just doesn’t care about character, ethics, and honesty, don’t bother reading beyond this point.
Liars come in all shapes and sizes, compulsive, pathological, sociopathic, habitual, narcissistic, pathetic, little white liars. The list goes on. I’ll leave it up to you to determine what category the following lies fall into.
For some reason, the following question was asked to all candidates running for office: “When was the last time you voted in a General Election?” Dwight Cline stood proudly and answered, “I’ve voted in every election since I was old enough to vote.” The same type of question was asked at a subsequent forum where Cline referenced that he voted for his wife for the school board. According to Plumas County voting history data, Cline hasn’t voted in Plumas County since November of 2010. How could he have voted for his wife for school board when she ran long after 2010?
There’s been some back-and-forth discussion about Cline’s Nevada residency. He stumbled around those questions for a while. Once his patriotic duty of voting was called into question, he began to get to the bottom of it and ordered his voting history while in Nevada. If he has a voting history in Nevada, he lied about voting for his wife, which we’ve already determined anyway. If he has a Nevada voting history, we should ask ourselves why, especially since he has a homeowner’s exemption in Plumas County, taking advantage of the $7000 reduction in value for property tax purposes – something you can get only if it’s your primary residence. You can’t register to vote, using an address that’s not your primary residence. I know, it gets confusing.
Does he hate California so much he wants to be a Nevada voter? Does he claim Nevada his primary residence, so he doesn’t have to pay California State income tax? Does he have a Nevada residency so he can purchase guns and ammo? Whatever reason, this is not ethical behavior some of us want from any elected official, especially the one who’s tasked with enforcing laws.
Character and Integrity
Recently, voters received a letter from Supervisor Hagwood endorsing Cline. According to Hagwood, during a May 17 Board of Supervisor’s meeting, he admitted to writing the letter, but did not give permission for Cline to use it as a campaign mailer. Let’s assume Hagwood is telling the truth, and Cline went rogue and sent the letter anyway. Is this the kind of person you want as an elected official, especially the Sheriff? Is Hagwood telling a little fib? If so, what value is his endorsement?
Why lie when you don’t have to? Why not tell the truth, especially when the truth about voting is perfectly OK with most voters? If you haven’t determined what kind of liar Cline is, keep studying, he may fit into a couple of categories. If he lies when he doesn’t need to, what’s stopping him from lying when the consequences of the truth are far greater?
Paul Bianco
Graeagle
