June 1944 was significant both in Europe and the Pacific

After dinner June 7 at the American Legion Post 119, I was chatting with Mac, whose full name I keep forgetting even though he is commander of the VFW Post by the fairgrounds. He is also a retired sergeant major in the Army. I know that Mac stands for MacAdams.

He is usually organizing the flag bearers and arranging for veterans to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

He was not going to be there for the Memorial Day ceremony at the Veterans Memorial by the county government center. So, he designated me to do that.

When I turned my four names in to lead the Pledge of Allegiance, Capt. Jack Babbit remarked that my writing was a bad as his. I didn’t tell him that took years as a reporter to perfect that bad script.

Mac was explaining to me the reason he missed the Memorial Day ceremony was that he was on the QE II sailing across the Atlantic to England with his wife. The most interesting part of the voyage was the World War II veterans who were going on to Normandy for the 79th anniversary of the D-Day June 6 storming of the Normandy beaches. Each night they held the passengers spellbound with their stories.

It wasn’t until July 25, 1944, that the Allied forces broke out of the Normandy beachhead and headed for Paris.

By Aug. 15 they had reached Nice in Southern France and advanced toward the Rhine River. Not until Aug. 20 did Allied troops reach Paris.

An earlier June battle took place June 4-7, 1942, in the Pacific. The Battle of Midway eventually resulted in sinking four Japanese carriers, losing 228 Japanese aircraft and 3,000 Japanese sailors.

June 15, 1944, began the battle for Saipan. By June 18 the Marines had captured the airfield and Seabees made it ready for American aircraft. The Marines took the highest point on the island on June 27. On the night of July 6-7, 3,000-4,000 Japanese troop staged a Bonzai attack but were wiped out.

The next month Guam was retaken and Tinian Island, allowing B-29s to reach Japan and start a bombing campaign.

Michael Ra ety is retired editor of the Mountain Democrat and a resident of the Placerville area.

PLACERVILLE CITY COUNCIL City Hall

Mayor Michael Saragosa msaragosa@cityofplacerville.org

Vice Mayor Jackie Neau jneau@cityofplacerville.org

John Clerici jclerici@cityofplacerville.org

Nicole Gotberg ngotberg@cityofplacerville.org

David Yarbrough dyarbrough@cityofplacerville.org

ElL we really address it, how are we going to make up for these funding stream deficits?”

While the county has done well in increasing reserves and designations, in a CAO press release Schmid notes funds are not sufficient to meet all demands related to deferred maintenance and replacement costs of county buildings, road maintenance, CalPERS liabilities and employee compensation to hire and keep employees.

Based on current inflation trends, Schmid noted the board should anticipate most estimated costs for capital replacement, deferred maintenance and road maintenance will continue to see substantial increases.

By the numbers

The total recommended budget is set at $1.2 billion, a 2% increase ($25.4 million) from the previous year’s adopted budget. The sum of the budget includes $1 billion in government funds, which excludes special fund revenues of $420.2 million for the General Fund and $193.4 million in net county costs.

The breakdown includes $283.3 million in salaries and benefits, $292 million in services, supplies and other expenses, $77 million in fixed assets, $195.2 million in transfers, $161.2 million in contingencies and $3.8 million in reserves and designations. Owens noted the low estimate for reserves is not unusual as designations as more designations are seen during the adoption of the official budget.

Priorities for the budget include allocating $55.5 million to the accumulative capital outlay work plan for facility improvements.

Various budget allocations include $3.2 million for the Sheriff’s helicopter operation, which includes $800,000 in operational costs. Funding for the chopper will come from Transient Occupancy Tax revenue and the General Fund.

The TOT program, or hotel and lodging tax, is charged to travelers when renting hotels or other lodging. Those funds are used to help offset tourism impacts.

Some $7 million will go to various park projects, including the Diamond Springs Community Park and Chili Bar Park, $1 million of TOT monies will be designated to local fire districts and $4.25 million will be set aside to address future and unknown cost increases related to inflation and economic uncertainty as well as disaster response costs.

The budget also allocates $28.42 million in federal revenue to continue the construction of the Mosquito Bridge and $20 million in state and federal revenue to be used to help address and prevent homelessness in El Dorado County.

According to Interim CAO Tiffany Schmid, the budget will fully fund the General Fund Contingency ($11.5 million) and general reserves ($11.5 million). Other board action County staff was asked to determine and present recommended funding sources and expansion plans for community hubs no later than an April 2024 budget direction presentation. Staff will also look into funding the Coloma/Lotus Business Council’s request for $25,000 in the adopted budget.

Still in consideration following an April budget presentation is hiring two new code enforcement officers for night and weekend response to vacation home rental violations, one for Tahoe and one for the West Slope, to be paid for by Transient Occupancy Tax funds. There is also a request to fund the Shingle Springs-Cameron Park Chamber of Commerce for $37,500.

City of Placerville officials have asked for more than $110,000 to help with maintenance costs for the Placerville Aquatic Center. County staff will also consider using $29,000 from the adopted budget in TOT funds for the Clean Tahoe Program that aims to mitigate tourism impacts in the Tahoe area. The board will officially adopt the budget in September.

Announcements

AL-ANON is here for you if you are bothered by someone else’s drinking. Call for meeting times. (916) 334-2970. https://sacal-anon.blogspot. comt

AmericAN AssOc. Of UNiversity WOmeN Foothills of EDC Branch. Our mission is to advance gender equity for women & girls. Science and Math Camp Scholarships, programs & interest groups. Leave voicemail for Laurel (530) 417-7737 or Sara (530) 417-7138 eldorado-ca.aauw.net el DOrADO cOUNty AmAteUr rADiO cLUB Dedicated to all aspects of ham radio. Meetings held on the third Tuesday of each month at the El Dorado Sheriff’s office, 200 Industrial Drive, Placerville, 6:30 pm. Visitors and non-hams welcome. Info at www.edcarc.net

LeArN & PLAy criBBAGe Cribbage is a fun, fast paced game that will surely keep you on your toes! **All skill levels **Learn to play by ACC Rules (American Cribbage Congress) **Beginner instruction available **Compete in weekly Cribbage tournaments. Call 916-768-4452 for more information. Gold Country Cribbers play Wednesday afternoon 4:30 pm at Steve’s Pizza, 3941 Park Dr., El Dorado Hills, CA. 95762 ceLeBrAte recOvery meets Wednesday nights at 6:30 pm at Bayside Church of Placerville, 4602 Missouri Flat Road, Placerville. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. We are a Christ centered recovery program to find healing and recovery from our hurts, habits, and hangups. Email elebratercovery@ baysideplacerville. com. Facebook: https:// www.facebook.com/ CRBaysidePlacerville.

Ready for real change?

Struggling with life? ceLeBrAte recOvery is for any Hurt, Habit or Hang-up. We are a faith-based recovery program for life’s issues and struggles. Join us Thursday nights at 6:30pm at Green Valley Church, 3500 Green Valley Rd, Placerville. Doors open at

6:15pm. Children’s programs are available for ages 3 months to 18 years old. Email: celebrate@ greenvalley.church. Find us on Facebook: https://m.facebook. com/crgvcc/

DemOcrAts – Come meet with the United Democrats of El Dorado County at Round Table Pizza–Missouri Flat Rd. in Placerville at noon on the 3rd Thursday of the month. Call (530)391-6414 or see edcdems. org for more information.

GOLD rUsH cHOrUs now welcomes both men and women to share the joy of singing fourpart harmony in the barbershop style. To learn more or to book a performance, call Howard at (530) 647-6513 or Kent (530) 651-3575 mArsHALL HOsPitAL seNiOr Peer cOUNseLiNG tAxPAyers AssOciAtiON Of eL DOrADO cOUNty

Hangtown Women’s teNNis club. Join fun-loving women Wednesdays 8am-10am at El Dorado High School. Lessons, social events, only $50/year. Call Cindy 805-540-8654.

AUxiLiAry is looking for volunteers. It is a rewarding opportunity to do something for the community. We will be holding interviews on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. Please contact Linda Grimoldi at 530-6202240 or call the Auxiliary Office at 530-626-2643.

Seniors 55 and over who are grieving, depressed or having issues related to aging can meet one-on-one with a caring senior, professionally supervised and trained to listen and encourage. Call (530)6216304 to leave a message and get started.

Our mission is to educate the public on tax issues that affect them. Our meetings are held every Monday morning from 7:30 to 8:30 at Denny’s Restaurant, Fair Lane Drive, Placerville. Meetings are open to the public except the first Monday of each month. For more information call Louis (530) 622-6763. We are a nonpartisan organization

Coupal Continued from A4

California’s historic bungling of EDD.

California’s own Congressman Kevin Kiley pressed Su on whether she accepted any responsibility for the unemployment fraud, but Su deflected and offered nothing more than a word salad of non-responses.

Although Su pointed to a state audit report that recognized both the unanticipated volume of claims and the lack of usual controls associated with the federal relief program, the same report was more damning to Su in assigning responsibility: “Despite repeated warnings, EDD did not bolster its fraud detection efforts until months into the pandemic.”

The report also said EDD’s response to the fraud was “massive missteps and inaction.”

Citizens of both California and the nation at large are entitled to accountability and less “buck passing” from politicians. But we also shouldn’t forget that, ultimately, the buck stops with us, the voters. Californians won’t get the accountability we want until we start electing people who aren’t afraid to accept the responsibility — good or bad — for their actions.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

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Community center Continued from A1 since they lost everything,” said District 2 Supervisor George Turnboo. “This center would give them hope because it would unite the community as they rebuild.”

Caldor blazed through Grizzly Flat overnight Aug. 16-17, 2021. Hundreds of structures including many homes, a post office from the 1850s, a fire station, the Grizzly Flat Community Church and Walt Tyler Elementary School were all destroyed and many residents became displaced as a result.

Turnboo, along with District 4 Supervisor Lori Parlin, representatives from the Forest Service, the South County Alliance and field representatives from Congressman Kevin Kiley and Assemblywoman Megan Dahle’s offices all gathered Thursday on the proposed 5 acres of Forest Service land to discuss logistics and possibilities. While no official agreement has come just yet, Turnboo is hopeful the community will get the acreage needed to build the facility.

“We had a meeting with the Forest Service that Parlin and I attended, along with county staff, to work through all the details. They want to bring something back to the community and were sincere in willing to do this,” Turnboo said.

A meeting with state’s Secretary of

COMiCS

Agriculture Karen Ross’ staff also has made the idea more of a possibility, according to Turnboo.

The property in question sits adjacent to where Walt Tyler Elementary School used to be near Tyler Drive. John Taylor, who chairs the South County Alliance dedicated to rebuilding Grizzly Flat in conjunction with the El Dorado Community Alliance, said the community center could be used for a variety of functions including having meetings, child daycare, senior meals or hosting a Boys and Girls Club.

“We saw this as the first big step to bring the community back together, for them to have a meeting place where they can host functions and come together,” Taylor explained.

El Dorado National Forest Supervisor Joe Stout said the Forest Service is considering leasing the property, starting a conveyance for the land or having the county use the land through a special use permit.

“We are going to try to do what we can to make something happen. That is our commitment,” Stout told the Mountain Democrat. He, along with Eldorado National Forest Engineer Rocio Espionza, agreed to go to the property last week to get a better sense of the layout and what the county is looking for.

Insurance Continued from A1 then it has changed the assumptions on which the approval was based.

“They granted themselves a de facto rate increase by reducing the risk” in a state where that’s illegal, said Rosenfield. The department could issue a notice to State Farm, he said, and tell the company it needs to keep selling new home insurance policies until it submits new rates and those rates are approved.

The insurance department disputes that it has the power to do this. “Their claims are not supported by law,” said Soller, the deputy commissioner. “There’s a reason why it hasn’t been done by any insurance commissioner before.”

Let insurance companies use forward-looking catastrophe models

The kinds of data and statistical models insurance companies can use to set prices may sound like a nighttime sleep aid, but it’s a matter of lively discussion in insurance circles.

When a company tries to justify rate changes, it is required to rely on past losses to project future losses. It can’t use factors like the locations of new homes it is covering — whether they’re in downtown San Francisco or rural wine country — or the increased risk of wildfires due to climate change.

“We do it in a very old-fashioned way, and it needs to be updated,” said Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, an insurance industry group that counts State Farm as a member. He supports the use of forward-looking models, which are generally provided by other private companies. California already permits insurers to use models for earthquake insurance.

If a company is trying to figure out how much it should charge for earthquake coverage, it would look at proximity to fault lines, Frazier said, but for wildfire insurance, California doesn’t do that.

“For wildfire it just says ‘Well, looking backward, what have you paid over the last 20 years for wildfire clients?’” he said.

Consumer groups generally oppose letting insurance companies use models, fearing that companies will use them to justify extreme price hikes, and that complex math will make scrutiny a challenge.

“They’re just very sophisticated crystal balls,” said Amy Bach, executive director for United Policyholders, a consumer group. Modeling companies generally see their models as intellectual property, which can pose a challenge for transparency. “Our fear is that they overstate risk,” said Bach.

About a week and a half after State Farm’s announcement, the insurance department said it would host a public workshop on use of models in insurance pricing, ahead of considering regulations. The workshop will take place July 13.

Last week the Assembly’s insurance committee held a hearing on models. When asked by a legislator whether the department was moving toward incorporating catastrophe models, a department representative confirmed that it was.

“Historic losses do not fully account for growing wildfire risks, or risk mitigation measures taken by communities,” said Michael Peterson, a deputy commissioner at the insurance department, during the hearing.

Address the increasing cost of insurance — for insurance companies

Insurance companies buy insurance and when they do it’s called “reinsurance.”

The cost of reinsurance has risen dramatically, and State Farm cited “a challenging reinsurance market” as one of the reasons it decided to stop selling new home insurance policies in California.

When insurance companies explain their costs to the insurance department as part of the process for justifying their prices, they aren’t allowed to include the cost of reinsurance. The department hasn’t historically permitted it, Soller said, because it doesn’t regulate reinsurance.

“What are insurers supposed to do when, on the one hand, the Department of Insurance is telling them ‘maintain your solvency’ and then, on the other hand, when their costs go up, you can’t charge for it,” said Frazier.

Insurance industry groups say it would help if they could incorporate the cost of reinsurance into their prices. But consumer groups say that the move would cause premiums to spike.

“Californians would see immediate massive rate hikes — both as soon as that went into effect and ongoing,” said Carmen Balber executive director of Consumer Watchdog. A reinsurance provider regulated by California would address problems she sees with the reinsurance market, Balber said, but that doesn’t exist currently.

Reduce the risk of disasters

The underlying problem is that disasters happen in California. They’re in the middle of the woods or surrounded by flammable grasslands or on the edge of bluffs that are expected to erode. Making homes less likely to burn, flood or collapse would be good for homeowners and would also make California feel less risky to insurers.

There’s no shortage of ideas for how to reduce risk, and there’s been action on this front in recent years. The insurance department, for example, has required insurance companies to consider whether homeowners take certain steps to protect their homes — like installing fire-resistant vents and clearing out vegetation under decks — in their prices.

California has set aside $2.7 billion for wildfire resilience over the past three years, according to the insurance department. The department convened a group of environmental advocates, researchers and public policy and insurance experts to make recommendations on how to reduce risks. Among their long list of recommendations:

• Create statewide hazard maps so future risks are more clear to the public

• Increase funding to retrofit homes n SPEED BUMP by Dave Coverly

• Apply fire-resistant building codes in areas with moderate to higher fire risk.

Alice Hill, chair of the group convened by the department and a senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the world will get warmer even if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced so focusing on where and how homes are built remains important.

“That could mean not building in areas that are just becoming too risky,” Hill said.

Solutions

ARIES (March 21-April 19). You’ve known for a while what needs to be done, and now it’s time to just do it. There’s something to drop, rearrange, label differently or reassign. Get it done, then open your arms.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Solidarity between people is among your favorite things to bear witness to. Your strong egalitarianism will have you doing what you can to ensure everyone is respected and treated equally.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Some enjoy a good argument and regard it as intellectual sparring. These types may even argue against points they agree with just to make it interesting. The mood will be light, your wits sharp, and communication will go well.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). Though social norms and conventions shape everyone, it’s hard to see exactly how until you get away from what you’re used to. Today offers a break from the usual interactions, and the chance to glimpse your scene from a distance.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Since people perceive you through the lens of their individual experiences, there’s no way to totally know or control their view of you. But your knowledge of human nature gets you as close as possible to making a desired impact.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You have a skill that many others have, but you put it all together in a way that’s totally unique.

You’ll embody the following definition of entertainment: “the spectacle of someone doing something the beholder could not do.” — Quentin Crisp

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). There will be puzzles hiding in plain sight and invitations to muse, laugh and discover. Most people will miss the opportunity because it’s not in their phone. You have to be looking up with curiosity to catch it.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You may find yourself investing a lot of energy into looking like the good stuff comes to you easily, naturally and for free. It’s a counterintuitive risk that feels foolish — and a smart ruse that pays off.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Everyone likes the wild card -- a versatile treat you’re happy to get dealt because it plugs into any hand you want to play. You’re the wild card now, and people will be happy to see you walk in the door.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You’ll think forward and prepare for many possible outcomes, but there will still be uncontrollable, unpredictable aspects to the plan. Living with uncertainty is a kind of art form, and you’re the artist that makes it beautiful.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Life is messy. People react differently to the muddle. They become upset or ignore it, complain or accept it, and more. You see the mess and go for your broom. If you can’t fix it, you can at least improve it.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Savor what life has to offer. Creativity, reflection and simple pleasure all take time. If forced to happen within strict time limits, they might not. Today, the muses want to stretch. Can you throw out the clock?